The Food and Drug Administration has targeted four cigarette products, including Camel and Pall Mall brands, for not meeting regulations, the latest companies to get ensnared in a burgeoning agency dragnet.
The agency on Tuesday issued orders to stop the sale and distribution of four products all marketed by R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. All of the products flouted certain agency regulations for governing tobacco products, the FDA said.
The agency halted sales of Camel Crush Bold, Pall Mall Deep Set Recessed Filter, Pall Mall Deep Set Recessed Filter Menthol and Vantage Tech 13 cigarettes.
The problem hints at a growing regulatory battle over tobacco oversight.
The agency received the authority to regulate tobacco products in 2009.
A tobacco company that wants to bring a new cigarette to market has two options. It can go through a lengthy approval process or demonstrate the product is the same as one marketed before February 2007, the date when products already on the market were grandfathered and aren’t regulated.
The four products were already on the market, but reached shelves after the February 2007 grandfather date.
Therefore, Reynolds had to get new approvals or prove they were similar to products marketed before 2007.
Reynolds went with the latter, but the FDA said Tuesday that the products were too different from grandfathered products and that they have higher levels of menthol and new ingredients.
Retailers have 30 days to dispose of the cigarettes.
R.J. Reynolds did not immediately return a request for comment.
The grandfather date has been a point of contention between the FDA and the industry for some time. A House bill even seeks to eliminate the 2007 date and replace it with the date of the law’s passage in 2009, which would ensure more products are grandfathered.
The e-cigarette industry is also interested as to how the grandfather date affects them since the agency has yet to issue final regulations on e-cigarettes.
