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Juul gets a temporary postponement to keep selling his e-cigarettes

    A federal appeals court on Friday granted a temporary reprieve to Juul Labs, allowing it to keep its e-cigarettes on the market, pending further judicial review of a Food and Drug Administration decision just a day earlier to stop selling e-cigarettes. ban the company. Products.

    The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia issued a temporary reprieve requested by Juul. The appeals court’s brief decision warned that the suspension “should in no way be construed as a judgment on the merits”.

    The stay relates to the FDA’s injunction on Thursday, when the agency said Juul had to stop selling its products because it had provided conflicting and insufficient data that prevented the FDA from assessing the potential health risks of its products.

    It is up to the appeals court to decide whether Juul can continue to sell its products while the company appeals the FDA’s decision. The court gave Juul until noon Monday to file an additional motion, and it gave the FDA until July 7 to file a motion in response.

    In its emergency solicitation request, Juul argued that the FDA’s decision to ban the sale was motivated by political forces seeking to blame the company for the youth vaping crisis. The FDA issued its ruling against Juul “after immense political pressure from Congress,” the filing reads, “although several of its competitors now have greater market share and much higher rates of use by minors.”

    However, the FDA did not mention the use by minors in its decision to ban Juul from the market. Rather, the agency said Juul had not provided sufficient evidence that its product prevents leaching of chemicals from the device into the nicotine vapor that users inhale.

    While the stay is in effect, consumers will be able to purchase Juul cartridges and the accompanying tobacco- and menthol-flavored pods. The FDA had warned that retailers selling Juul products would be subject to enforcement action at some point, but not as long as there is a residency permit.

    In the court statement, Juul pointed out that the agency’s decision was “already having its intended effect,” indicating some retailers had stopped selling Juul products.

    The FDA is not seeking a blanket ban on all vape products. As part of its new regulatory authority over so-called electronic nicotine delivery systems, or ENDS, the agency has reviewed applications for millions of products. It has already approved 23 of them, including Vuse Alto, the industry leader, made by RJ Reynolds, and several others produced by NJoy and Logic. (Applications for a million other products have been rejected.)

    As part of its assessment, the agency must consider whether a product is a viable alternative to combustible tobacco that could help cigarette smokers quit, and whether the public health benefits outweigh the harm.

    According to data from Nielsen, Vuse Alto was the best-selling vape brand in the US in the past 12 weeks, with sales of $414 million and 33.4 percent of the total e-cigarette market. A close second was Juul, with a market share of 33 percent. None of the other brands came close to these two companies; the next best-selling brand, NJoy Ace, accounted for just 2.4 percent of the market.

    The United States cigarette industry brought in about $99 billion in revenue last year, compared to $7.8 billion for vaping products like Juul, according to Euromonitor, a data research firm. But tobacco sales are declining: Euromonitor estimates cigarette sales will fall by about 13 percent through 2026, while vaping products are expected to grow by about 22 percent. Altria, the tobacco giant that took a 35 percent stake in Juul in 2018, reported that its sales fell slightly last year, according to regulations.

    There are an estimated 30 million smokers of traditional cigarettes in the US, a number that has been declining for decades.