‘FDA Downplays PMTA Acceptance Numbers’

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is understating the number of nontobacco nicotine (NTN)-related premarket tobacco product applications (PMTAs) it has accepted for review in order to avoid criticism from tobacco control groups that seek prohibition of all vaping products, reports Vaping360, citing American Vapor Manufacturers Association (AVM) President Amanda Wheeler.

On Sept. 8, the FDA announced it has accepted over 350 PMTAs (out of nearly 1 million applications) for NTN products. Wheeler insists that AVM member companies alone have received acceptance letters for 4,700 PMTA submissions.

“Once again, the FDA and its Center for Tobacco Products are misleading the public and press on crucial data and methods in its approval process for vaping products,” Wheeler said in a statement. “The figures stated in its press release today on synthetic nicotine applications are demonstrably inconsistent with FDA letters to our own members indicating many thousands more applications successfully filed than FDA now claims.”

An acceptance letter indicates that the application has met the basic requirements to move forward in the review process. It does not authorize the applicant to market the product.

The AVM also says the FDA altered required PMTA forms close to the submission deadline to disqualify already-submitted applications. According to Wheeler, the application forms were “abruptly altered” without public notice, “apparently as a means to disqualify wide swaths of already-filed applications.”

In March, U.S. President Joe Biden signed legislation authorizing the FDA to regulate synthetic nicotine products. Manufacturers had until May 14 to submit PMTAs and were given two additional months to continue selling products with pending PMTAs. When the grace period ended July 13, all synthetic nicotine-based products became subject to FDA enforcement.