FDA Tobacco Chief Touts Progress After Clearing Flavored E-Cigs

The FDA’s acting tobacco chief is promoting the agency’s first authorization of fruit-flavored e-cigarettes this week, signaling progress for an industry counting on President Donald Trump’s promise to save vaping.

“These flavored products are exclusively used with device technology, which includes ID verification, smartphone pairing, and periodic biometric check-ins,” Bret Koplow, acting director for the Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Tobacco Products, said Friday at a nicotine conference. “Effective age-gating and access restriction technology holds particular promise to help mitigate risk to youth for products that could be beneficial to adults who smoke.”

The clearances Tuesday were for e-cigarettes ...