FDA drops guardrails on vaping industry in major Trump pivot 

The Trump administration is pivoting hard on vaping, taking down guardrails that have limited the industry’s growth in recent years and making clear the tobacco industry’s enduring influence over Washington. 

In the span of two weeks, the Trump administration granted marketing authorization to four flavored vaping products and issued new guidance allowing unauthorized vapes to stay on the market. 

For almost a decade, federal authorities had sought to tamp down on the proliferation of flavored vapes that appeal to youth, including during President Trump’s first term. 

New guidance from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) does an end run around the agency’s scientific review process and could allow tobacco companies to begin selling flavored vaping products and nicotine pouches that have not been authorized by the agency. 

Currently, any electronic cigarette product that’s on the market without official authorization is illegal, but the FDA has a massive backlog of applications for approval.

The guidance essentially states the FDA plans to allow vaping products to go on the market without premarket approval in an effort more more efficiently allocate “enforcement resources,” while supporting the development of “potentially less harmful tobacco products.” 

The approval of the four new vaping products from Glas Inc. was supported by a similar reasoning of reducing youth uptake and harm reduction, with the FDA pointing to the age-restriction technology employed by the devices that require government-issued IDs and Bluetooth connection to smartphones. 

These recent actions coincide with the departure of former FDA Commissioner Marty Makary, which was closely tied to his objection to approving new vaping products, according to sources familiar with the matter. 

“We’ve reached a period of........

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