The U.S. Food and Drug Administration authorized two new cigarettes from Lorillard Tobacco Company onto the market on Tuesday, according to reports.
The FDA does not believe the products allowed are safe, but suggest the cigarettes are no worse than what is already being sold on the market. The FDA also denied four new cigarettes, which they believe is a step in the right direction in the prevention of tobacco related diseases.
"Today's historic announcement marks an important step toward the FDA's goal of reducing preventable disease and death caused by tobacco," said FDA Commissioner Margaret A. Hamburg, M.D., in a press release. "The FDA has unprecedented responsibility to protect public health by not allowing new tobacco products under FDA's authority to come to market without FDA review."
According to the FDA's press release, it was the first time the agency has approved a new cigarette since it received legal authority in 2009 to regulate tobacco products. The agency issued approvals for two Lorillard Tobacco Company cigarette products, Newport Non-Menthol Gold Box 100s and Newport Non-Menthol Gold Box.
"The FDA is committed to making science-based decisions on all product applications and providing the agency's scientific rationale behind its actions to ensure the most transparent and efficient process possible for all involved parties, according to the law," Mitch Zeller, J.D., director of the FDA's Center for Tobacco Products, said in the press statement.
The FDA made it clear that the release of the SE Marketing Order for the two new cigarette products does not mean they are safe.
"An SE Marketing Order is not a finding that the product it is safe or safer than its predicate product, or less harmful in general," the FDA said in the press release. "In addition the law makes clear that companies cannot say their products are FDA approved."
*This article has been edited to note a change.
