FDA wants to regulate nicotine in cigarettes

The Food and Drug Administration plans to explore regulating the level of nicotine in conventional cigarettes, a radical step that would reshape the $130 billion American tobacco industry and, potentially, encourage millions of people to quit smoking.

The move, announced Friday, would represent one of the most sweeping federal efforts to reduce smoking since Congress required cigarette packages to carry health warnings in 1965. It follows other moves by President Donald Trump’s FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb to try and deal with the high cost of prescription drugs and opioid addiction, two issues not directly within the agency’s traditional mandate.

Tobaccco stocks plunged after the announcement, which came just hours after the failure of Republicans’ effort in Congress to repeal and replace much of the Affordable Care Act. The FDA’s move is likely to set off a lobbying fight in Washington over the proposal, even as it pushes the industry to move faster in the development of new products that rely less on burning tobacco and more on potentially lower-risk technologies like vaping.

“The overwhelming amount of death and disease attributable to tobacco is caused by addiction to cigarettes — the only legal consumer product that, when used as intended, will kill half of all long-term users,” Gottlieb said. “Unless we change course, 5.6 million young people alive today will die prematurely.”

Gottlieb also said regulators will look at banning menthol and flavored-products because of their potential for attracting young people.

In a briefing Friday, he called nicotine both the “problem” and “ultimately, the solution.” Along with nicotine reduction, the FDA plans to ease the path of entry for less-harmful nicotine delivery systems. The FDA “must also recognize potential for innovation to lead to less harmful products,” Gottlieb said in the briefing.