FDA authorizes first fruit-flavored e-cigarettes in US amid political pressure

May 5 (Reuters) - The ‌U.S. Food and ​Drug ​Administration on Tuesday allowed the marketing of fruit-flavored e-cigarettes in a first authorization of non-tobacco-flavored ‌vaping products, amid mounting political pressure on the ⁠agency.

The authorized pods from Los Angeles-based Glas Inc, a small vape ‌maker that uses technology to ‌age-gate its devices, include flavors such as Classic Menthol, Fresh Menthol, Gold and Sapphire, the FDA said.

"The FDA's ​rigorous, scientific review of these products found that the applicant sufficiently demonstrated that Glas's device access restriction ⁠technology, combined with FDA-required marketing restrictions, is expected to effectively mitigate the ability ​of youth to use the product," the regulator said.

Earlier in the day, the Wall Street Journal ​reported that President Donald Trump over ‌the weekend rebuked FDA Commissioner Marty Makary for not moving quickly enough to approve ⁠flavored vapes and nicotine products.

U.S. regulators have avoided granting licenses to flavored vapes, and the FDA has said it would continue ⁠to require a heavy burden of evidence of benefits to smokers ​for vape flavors that also have strong appeal to youth, such as fruit or candy flavors.

However, earlier this year, the agency tweaked ‌its strict approach to flavored vapes, a shift that follows intensifying tobacco industry lobbying ‌and political pressure to allow more products to market.

With the ⁠latest decision, the FDA ‌has now authorized ​45 e-cigarette products for sale in the U.S.

(Reporting by Aishwarya Venugopal in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj ‌Kalluvila)

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