Panel says FDA should not trust tobacco industry’s research
An expert panel on Wednesday recommended high standards for allowing tobacco companies to market their products as low-risk.
The Food and Drug Administration has the power to approve “modified-risk” tobacco products, which can be marketed as safer than cigarettes. FDA regulators should demand a rigorous scientific evaluation before classifying products as low-risk, the Institute of Medicine said in a report released Wednesday.
The IOM specifically said the FDA should not rely on research from tobacco companies.
“The industry’s history of improper manipulation of data undermined the credibility of its research and left it isolated from the mainstream scientific community,” the IOM said in a release.
The IOM report recommends using third-party auditors to vet scientific research on tobacco products and says the FDA should make tobacco data public.
The American Lung Association praised the IOM recommendations. Millions of smokers died because they believed “light” and “low-tar” cigarettes were less dangerous, the group said.
“The scientific standards recommended by this expert panel are designed to prevent a repeat of similar attempts to deceive the American public,” the association said in a statement. “We encourage the FDA to heed these lessons and never lose sight of the deception and fraud perpetrated for decades by Big Tobacco.”
