US
In January 2018 a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advisory panel decided that Philip Morris International (PMI) should not be able to claim its new heat-not-burn device iQOS is safer than smoking.
Nine members of an FDA advisory panel met to discuss whether and how the device should be marketed in the US. Currently sold in 29 countries worldwide, PMI has submitted a separate application to sell iQOS in the US, which is still working its way through FDA.
During the meeting, panel members voted on a series of questions about the device and were nearly unanimous in opposing the claim that switching from cigarettes to iQOS could cut smokers’ risk of tobacco-related disease, deciding in a 5-4 vote against the claim that using IQOS is less harmful than continuing to smoke. While the advisory panel’s recommendation is nonbinding, if FDA follows the panel’s advice, it will be a blow to the tobacco industry’s efforts to expand the market for smoking alternatives.
The advisory panel did, however, mostly side with PMI assertion that there is evidence that “switching completely from cigarettes to the iQOS system significantly reduces your body’s exposure to harmful or potentially harmful chemicals.” On this the panel voted 8-1 in favor of PMI’s claims, but the panel rejected the notion that this would eventually cut users’ disease and mortality risk.