FDA authorizes new tobacco products

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will allow sales of new smokeless tobacco products.

The Swedish-based General brand will be allowed to market eight new snus smokeless tobacco products in the U.S., the FDA announced Tuesday.

{mosads}This is the first time the FDA has authorized new tobacco products since it was given the authority to regulate the industry as part of the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act of 2009.

“The law is clear,” Mitch Zeller, director of the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products, said in a statement. “Companies must apply to the FDA first, and then the FDA uses a rigorous scientific review to determine if new tobacco products should come to market under this pathway. Today’s action demonstrates that the premarket tobacco application process is a viable pathway under which products can be marketed as long as the public health can be protected.”

The FDA reviewed the ingredients and additives of the smokeless tobacco products, as well as how they are packaged and labeled, and determined they are unlikely to attract new smokers.

“The FDA’s review also determined that these products would likely provide less toxic options if current adult smokeless tobacco users used them exclusively,” the agency wrote.