New FDA tobacco sheriff in town
There’s been no honeymoon period for Brian King, the Food and Drug Administration’s new tobacco chief.
The problems facing FDA’s tobacco division have only multiplied since his arrival in July. The FDA missed a summer deadline to review nearly a million applications for electronic cigarettes and other new products using laboratory-made nicotine. Meanwhile, the agency is a year overdue clearing a backlog of older e-cigarettes using traditional tobacco-based nicotine.
The FDA tried to ban the leading e-cigarette maker Juul earlier this summer, but it’s been forced to put that on hold following a court challenge from the company.
The AP spoke to King about his approach to regulating cigarettes and vaping, including the potential for e-cigarettes to serve as a less harmful alternative for adult smokers.
The FDA is working on a number of proposals, including banning menthol cigarettes and flavored cigars. When will they be ready?
I don’t have a crystal ball in terms of how long things will take, but I think that we’re well on the way in terms of setting a foundation for substantial reductions in combustible tobacco smoking with the product standards that are in the queue.
We also have a rapidly diversifying tobacco product landscape. Particularly among youth, I continue to remain very concerned about the use of emerging products, including e-cigarettes. When it comes to youth there’s no redeeming aspects of tobacco product use.
Surveys have shown many adult smokers think e-cigarettes are as dangerous as traditional cigarettes. Is that a problem?
I’m fully aware of the misperceptions that are out there and aren’t consistent with the known science. We do know that e-cigarettes — as a general class — have markedly less risk than a combustible cigarette product. It’s critical that we inform any communication campaigns using
science and evidence.
What’s your view on the potential for vaping to help reduce adult smoking?
I think there’s a lot of really important science and innovations that have occurred in the industry in recent years. The most notable I think is nicotine salts (in e-cigarettes).
We know that when you smoke a tobacco product, it’s a very efficient way to deliver nicotine across the blood-brain barrier. So it’s been very difficult to rival that efficiency in another product. But in the case of nicotine salts you have the potential to more efficiently deliver nicotine, which could hold some public health promise in terms of giving smokers enough nicotine that they would transition completely. But you also have to consider the opposite side of the coin, which is the inherent risks of initiation among youth. So I do worry about that.
There’s a lot happening and I think that it could be promise or peril. But I think it’s important that the science drives that.