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Tag: PMTA

  • VTA ‘Disappointed’ by Lack of Progress from FDA Roundtable

    VTA ‘Disappointed’ by Lack of Progress from FDA Roundtable

    The Vapor Technology Association said it welcomed the chance to participate in a recent roundtable hosted by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration focused on premarket tobacco product application (PMTA) submissions for electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS), calling the meeting an opportunity for small businesses to engage directly with regulators. In a statement, VTA Executive Director Tony Abboud said industry representatives advocated for a more transparent, standards-based regulatory framework that would allow companies to invest in vapor technology and navigate product reviews with clearer scientific expectations.

    Abboud said VTA was encouraged by comments from FDA Commissioner Marty Makary acknowledging the need for predictability in regulatory standards but expressed frustration that some agency officials supported maintaining flexible or undefined scientific benchmarks.

    “Small businesses made it completely clear that they wanted and needed transparent and objective scientific standards governing how vape products should be made and how they should perform,” Abboud said. “Unfortunately, we were disappointed by so many FDA representatives throughout the meeting who either argued for continued scientific ambiguity or completely rejected standards. Their comments signaled a lack of alignment among FDA leadership on providing clear and predictable scientific standards or guidance for our industry – or even benchmarks that would ensure product and consumer safety. We received no guarantee of additional clarity on the broken and opaque PMTA rule and process, which has been used to prevent access to the products that Americans who smoke want and need to quit smoking deadly cigarettes.” 

    The association argued that clearer regulatory guidance would align with broader free-market principles supported by Donald Trump’s policy agenda.

  • Manufacturers Tell FDA They Need Benchmarks, Communication

    Manufacturers Tell FDA They Need Benchmarks, Communication

    During yesterday’s (Feb. 10) afternoon session of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s “Roundtable on Premarket Tobacco Application Submissions for Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems Products,” Dr. Lynn Hull, acting senior science advisor in the Office of Science at FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products (CTP), moderated the Pharmacological Panel along with the FDA’s supervisory pharmacologist in CTP’s Division of Individual Health Science, Dr. Carolina Ramôa.

    Manufacturers warned that conducting studies has been prohibitively expensive and unpredictable without clear performance benchmarks. They also urged the FDA to allow greater use of modeling and data-bridging approaches, though regulators signaled that such alternatives would face strict validation requirements and may not replace product-specific clinical testing.

    “How can we simplify and have more communication and lean more toward product characteristics to model and understand abuse liability?” Dr. Willie McKinney, founder and CEO of Mckinney Regulatory Sciences asked. “How do we have more meetings regardless of where our application is in the process to understand what you are currently thinking?”

    The agency maintained that measuring nicotine delivery and addiction potential is essential when determining whether products meet public health standards, highlighting clinical pharmacokinetic (PK) data as the most reliable evidence.

    “I absolutely understand where you’re coming from,” said Dr. Ramôa, “where you want to make it as efficient as possible, but understand where I’m coming from, where I have a duty to the American public to make sure I make the correct decision that does not impact them negatively.”

  • FDA PMTA Roundtable Being Held

    FDA PMTA Roundtable Being Held

    Today (February 10), the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is hosting its much-anticipated “Roundtable on Premarket Tobacco Application Submissions for Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems Products.”  Center for Tobacco Products (CTP) director Dr. Matthew Farrelly offered his opening remarks, which led into the “product characterization” panel moderated by deputy director Dr.  Todd Cecil.

    Dr.  Matthew Walters, Dr. Karen Coyne, Dr. Lynn Hull, and Dr. Carolina Ramôa rounded out the early sessions for FDA. Industry representatives said that unclear product characterization standards are limiting the long-term viability for smaller ENDS manufacturers, argued that the absence of objective, measurable benchmarks create uncertainty around PMTA compliance, and raised questions about defining testing ranges for open-system products and the ability to update long-pending PMTAs. FDA said it wants to create a dialogue with manufacturers, but statutory requirements constrain its regulatory flexibility.

    The afternoon panels were led by Cecil, Dr. Benjamin Apelberg, Dr. Mollie Miller, Dr. Amy Gross, Dr. Mary Irwin, and Dr.  Hans Rosenfeldt, and were still being held at the writing of this article. Tobacco Reporter will update the proceedings as the information becomes available.

  • FDA to Host Discussion on PMTAs Feb. 10

    FDA to Host Discussion on PMTAs Feb. 10

    FDA issued a reminder today regarding the Federal Register notice (FRN) roundtable discussion it is hosting tomorrow (February 10) for small tobacco product manufacturers (fewer than 350 employees). The discussion aims to solicit input on premarket tobacco product application (PMTA) submissions for electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) products and will be held from 9 a.m.–5 p.m. ET.

    The topics to be discussed will include certain components of ENDS PMTAs, such as product characterization, manufacturing controls, pharmacological profile (e.g., pharmacokinetic studies), studies of adult benefit (e.g., longitudinal cohort/randomized controlled trial (RCT) studies), and toxicological profile (e.g., estimated lifetime cancer risk).

    FDA has also established a docket for public comment on this roundtable discussion. All electronic comments must be submitted on or before March 12. The regulations.gov electronic filing system will accept comments until 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time at the end of March 12.

  • IKE Tech Invited to FDA Roundtable on PMTA Submissions

    IKE Tech Invited to FDA Roundtable on PMTA Submissions

    IKE Tech LLC has been invited by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to participate in an invitation-only roundtable discussion with small electronic nicotine delivery system (ENDS) manufacturers focused on Premarket Tobacco Product Application (PMTA) submissions. The news was announced by Ispire Technology, a founding partner of IKE Tech.

    The February 10 forum, limited to 30 companies nationwide, is designed to gather direct industry feedback on the PMTA process, with IKE Tech selected to participate in the Manufacturing Controls panel examining operational challenges and compliance practices. The company is developing a blockchain-enabled, Bluetooth-based age-gating system intended to verify legal-age access at the point of use, which has been submitted as a component PMTA for an interoperable age-verification technology. The FDA session is expected to inform future regulatory guidance and potential refinements to the PMTA review framework.

  • PMI Positive After FDA’s Zyn Hearing

    PMI Positive After FDA’s Zyn Hearing

    Philip Morris International (PMI) believes it moved a step closer to securing permission to market its Zyn nicotine pouches as a reduced-risk alternative to cigarettes in the United States, following a full-day public hearing convened by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) yesterday (January 22). At the meeting, PMI scientists presented evidence to the FDA’s Tobacco Products Scientific Advisory Committee (TPSAC) in support of a Modified Risk Tobacco Product (MRTP) application that would allow the company to tell adult smokers that switching completely to Zyn lowers the risk of major smoking-related diseases. FDA briefing materials and staff presentations suggested regulators are leaning toward approving the proposed claim, with the agency stating that “the evidence suggests the proposed modified risk claim is scientifically accurate.”

    “The FDA’s Center for Tobacco Product’s mission is to make smoking-related disease and death a part of America’s past,” said Keagan Lenihan, Chief External Affairs Officer for PMI U.S. “Smoke-free products, like Zyn, play a critical role in helping CTP achieve this mission and provide adults who smoke with important information to guide their choices and a real opportunity to change.”

    The proposed language would allow PMI to say that using Zyn instead of cigarettes reduces the risk of mouth cancer, heart disease, lung cancer, stroke, emphysema, and chronic bronchitis. FDA scientists said the “totality of the evidence” shows Zyn contains substantially lower levels of harmful chemicals than cigarettes, and that consumer research suggests the claim increases awareness of reduced risks without misleading users into believing the product is risk-free. The agency also noted that youth nicotine pouch use remains relatively low, at 2.4% of U.S. high school students in 2024, and that exposure to the proposed claim did not increase young adults’ intentions to use Zyn. PMI executives argued that clearer communication of relative risk could help smokers move away from combustible products, drawing comparisons to Swedish snus, which received an MRTP designation in 2019 and has been linked to Sweden’s low smoking rates.

    However, members of the independent TPSAC panel raised concerns about gaps in long-term data and whether reduced-risk marketing would meaningfully accelerate smoking cessation in the U.S. Public health advocates also warned about the potential appeal of flavored pouches, discreet use, and social-media promotion to underage users. While panelists generally agreed that Zyn is far less harmful than cigarettes, they questioned whether the evidence shows that marketing claims will drive widespread switching. The FDA is not bound by the panel’s non-binding recommendations and has not set a deadline for its final decision, which will determine whether PMI can formally promote Zyn as a reduced-risk product to adult smokers.

    “While the relatively expedited timeline for this MRTP review is encouraging, the fact that the TPSAC did not vote on a recommendation makes me question the reason for these meetings moving forward,” said Laura Leigh Oyler, VP of Regulatory Affairs for Haypp Group, whose subsidiaries sell nicotine pouches online. “The science, and the many public speakers who supported the authorization were clear: Americans deserve honest messaging around these products and their impacts on harm reduction.”

  • FDA Extending Info Collection for Smokeless Products

    FDA Extending Info Collection for Smokeless Products

    The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has submitted a proposed extension of an existing information collection to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review under the Paperwork Reduction Act, covering warning plans for certain smokeless tobacco products. The collection, assigned OMB Control Number 0910-0671, relates to statutory requirements that smokeless tobacco packaging and advertising carry one of four mandated health warnings, randomly displayed and rotated quarterly in accordance with FDA-approved warning plans. FDA said manufacturers, importers, distributors, and retailers must submit these plans for review, either electronically via the Center for Tobacco Products (CTP) Portal or in paper form.

    Public comments on the proposal must be submitted through reginfo.gov within 30 days of Federal Register publication, and FDA noted that two comments received during an earlier 60-day notice period were not related to paperwork burden issues.

  • Doseology Partners with McKinney to Bring Pouches to Market

    Doseology Partners with McKinney to Bring Pouches to Market

    Doseology Sciences entered a strategic partnership with McKinney Regulatory Science Advisors to guide its U.S. regulatory strategy as it advances oral pouch products toward commercial readiness. Under the agreement, McKinney will advise on formulation strategy, data generation, PMTA preparation, and post-market compliance, positioning Doseology to navigate FDA requirements while strengthening product design and intellectual property protection.

    The company said the collaboration marks a shift from development to regulatory execution, with a focus on dose consistency, consumer safety, and compliance in regulated markets. McKinney’s regulatory roadmap will be integrated into Doseology’s R&D and manufacturing validation plans, supporting structured PMTA readiness for both nicotine and nicotine-analogue products as the company seeks to establish a defensible, science-led position in the oral pouch category.

  • FDA Pushed on ‘De Facto’ Vape Ban by 5th Circ.

    FDA Pushed on ‘De Facto’ Vape Ban by 5th Circ.

    A panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit signaled skepticism yesterday (January 6) toward the Food and Drug Administration’s claim that it has not effectively banned flavored refillable e-cigarette products, suggesting the agency’s near-total rejection of applications amounts to a de facto prohibition. During oral arguments, Judge Cory T. Wilson noted that the FDA has approved only six applications out of hundreds of thousands of premarket tobacco product applications (PMTAs), remarking that “if you’re effectively at 100% denial on a certain class of products, then it is a de facto ban.”

    The case was brought by VDX Distro Inc., which is challenging the FDA’s refusal to authorize its menthol-flavored refillable vaping products. Government attorney Ben Lewis argued that no ban exists because some products have been approved, but judges pressed the agency on whether it has ever approved a flavored e-cigarette without evidence showing it provides greater smoking cessation benefits than tobacco-flavored products. Counsel for VDX argued the FDA violated the Tobacco Control Act by imposing new, unwritten standards without notice-and-comment rulemaking, effectively blocking all open-system refillable devices.

    Industry amici echoed those concerns, with an attorney for R.J. Reynolds Vapor Co. arguing the FDA applies stricter standards to flavored vaping products than to other nicotine products, such as pouches. The panel did not rule from the bench, but the pointed questioning underscores growing judicial scrutiny of FDA tobacco regulation, with potential implications for future authorization pathways for flavored vaping products closely watched by the tobacco and nicotine industries.

  • 22nd Century Files PMTA Renewal

    22nd Century Files PMTA Renewal

    22nd Century Group, Inc. announced it has filed a renewal application with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for its Modified Risk Tobacco Product authorization covering VLN reduced nicotine content cigarettes. The original authorization, granted in December 2021, expires in December 2026.

    22nd Century says VLN remains the first and only combustible cigarette authorized by the FDA to reduce the health harms of smoking, with approved claims including “95% less nicotine” and statements that it helps reduce nicotine consumption and smoking frequency. The company cited decades of independent clinical research supporting VLN products, including evidence that lowering nicotine content reduces smoking rates and increases quit attempts. Company CEO Larry Firestone said the renewal builds on FDA recognition that reducing nicotine directly can alter smoking behavior and improve public health outcomes, adding that VLN products align with the FDA’s proposed low-nicotine standard issued in January 2025.