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Juul’s Claims It Helps Smokers Quit Questioned by Lawmaker

Juul’s Claims That It Helps Smokers Quit Questioned by Lawmaker

(Bloomberg) -- Juul Labs Inc. is making fraudulent claims that its vaping devices help smokers quit cigarettes, the chairman of a House Oversight and Reform subcommittee said in a letter to U.S. health officials.

Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi, an Illinois Democrat, wrote Food and Drug Administration Acting Commissioner Ned Sharpless on Thursday urging the agency to look into the claims Juul is making and “take all appropriate enforcement action.” The House panel held a hearing on Juul in July.

Juul has become popular among underage vapers due in part to an early social-media campaign that appealed to kids and teens. Juul executives have said their e-cigarettes have always been intended to help adults quit cigarettes, though the FDA hasn’t approved any of the company’s products as smoking-cessation tools.

“These marketing activities are part of an ongoing investigation and the agency will have more to share on this early next week,” Stephanie Caccomo, a spokeswoman for the FDA, said in an email.

The agency seized documents from Juul’s San Francisco headquarters almost a year ago as part of its investigation of the company’s marketing practices.

Ted Kwong, a spokesman for Juul, said the company claims its devices help smokers switch to an alternative source for nicotine and is not intended as a smoking-cessation device.

“Switching is not another word for cessation,” Kwong said. “They mean two very different things. Switching involves continuing to consume nicotine but from a different device, while cessation is about getting users to eliminate their nicotine consumption altogether. We are a switching product.”

FDA’s Caccomo said the public may understand the term smoking cessation to refer to quitting cigarettes and switching to a noncombustible tobacco product.

“The FDA has not approved any e-cigarette product as a smoking cessation aid under the safety and efficacy standard governing FDA-regulated medical products,” she said.

Paper Trail

Krishnamoorthi pointed to testimony by Juul co-founder James Monsees during the July hearing where he implied on half a dozen occasions that Juul’s device can help smokers quit.

The letter also highlighted a contract the company had with a consulting group to market Juul to smoking-cessation programs; Juul ads that mentioned quitting smoking; and a June letter that Juul sent the U.S. Trade Representative about the administration’s tariffs on lithium batteries that said a 25% duty would harm “American consumers who are hoping to improve their lives by reducing or eliminating their use of combustible tobacco products.”

Juul and other e-cigarette manufacturers must seek FDA clearance to continue selling their products by May of next year, according to a court decision handed down in July.

Even if Juul is able to prove its benefit to society outweighs any risk, including youth vaping, a green light from the FDA won’t mean Juul is a smoking-cessation device or even that vaping is safer than smoking. Companies must file separate applications for such claims and meet more rigorous standards.

To contact the reporter on this story: Anna Edney in Washington at aedney@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Drew Armstrong at darmstrong17@bloomberg.net, Timothy Annett

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