I used to smoke cigarettes. I don’t anymore. I completely stopped smoking and switched to an electronic inhalable tobacco product called IQOS. It’s the only one of its kind authorized by the Food and Drug Administration as a modified risk tobacco product and the only product that let me leave cigarettes behind. In less than two weeks this product could disappear from American stores and I’ll likely go back to smoking cigarettes and I won’t be alone.
The White House must not let this happen.
The U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) ignored the tremendous promise IQOS offers to promote public health and recommended banning sales because of a dispute involving antiquated patents. This decision completely ignores the public health needs of adult smokers.
In reaching its conclusion, the ITC discredited a years-long scientific review of IQOS by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). With the stroke of a pen a patent court invalidated the conclusions of the only federal agency with the authority and the expertise to make public health decisions that can reduce smoking in this country.
The ITC’s decision is now working its way through what’s known as a “Presidential Review Period,” basically the Biden Administration has the power to reject the sales ban handed down by the ITC on public interest grounds—and there is a massive public interest issue at the heart of their decision. Many of the thousands of American adult smokers who have switched completely to IQOS, like me, will likely switch back to cigarettes, also like me, if they are no longer able to choose a better alternative that works for them.
So much progress has been made to reduce cigarette use in the United States, but there is still a long way to go. That journey only gets longer if patents prevail over health and smokers lose choice. We need to focus on reducing the harms caused by tobacco, not maintaining the status quo.
However, the clock is ticking. The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) will soon make a recommendation to the White House on whether to reject the ITC’s ban or let it stand. It is imperative that the FDA make its voice heard and make the case for letting its scientific acumen and public health mission prevail—and it is imperative that the Administration side with science.
As uncomfortable as the tobacco industry might be to USTR, and others in the Biden Administration, this is not about tobacco companies. This is about real people who must be put first.
Unfortunately, real people don’t seem to be on the mind of Congress, either.
Right now, the House of Representatives’ latest Build Back Better bill contains a truly bizarre proposal to dramatically hike taxes on better choices to cigarettes, like e-vapor and nicotine pouches, making them more expensive than cigarettes.
The Wall Street Journal this week reported that Sens. expressed by Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev) and Joe Manchin (D-WV) oppose the proposed tax—and they are right. I hope others join them.
According to research from Georgia State University, increasing the tax on e-vapor products would raise the number of daily adult cigarette smokers by 2.5 million nationally and reduce adult e-cigarette users by a similar number. For every e-vapor pod eliminated by making it more expensive than a cigarette, an additional 5.5 extra packs of cigarettes will be sold.
This is not a science-driven path to lessening the public health burden of tobacco use.
My message to the White House and Congress is simple: let smokers choose better options to cigarettes. Denying them that choice is also a simple matter: it’s not good government.
