Nearly all of the 14 new warning letters the FDA has sent to online distributors and retailers of vape products are related to the sale of unlawful Disposable Vapes. The measures are in line with the agency's most recent strategy, which involves looking for enforcement targets online by looking for unusual vendors associated with search terms like "Elf Bar" and "Lava disposable."
The FDA also issued a warning to Kangertech, a well-known Chinese company, about their wholesale distribution of a vape pen and replacement coils that, in the rapidly evolving vape industry, are essentially outdated. "Kanger TOP EVOD Kit, Kanger T2 Replacement Coil – 5PK, Kanger SOCC Replacement Coil – 5PK – 2.2OHMS" was the list of items included in the warning letter. Based on the original eGo-style devices that were used with clearomizers, the EVOD is a low-wattage vape pen.
According to an FDA press release, "the youth-appealing e-cigarette products of focus were identified through rapid surveillance and a data-driven approach to investigations." "The FDA identified the rising popularity of these youth-appealing products, which were subsequently prioritized for investigation across the supply chain, from manufacturers to distributors to retailers," the agency said. "Retail sales data, emerging internal data from youth surveys, as well as other data sources helped."
Even the Center for Tobacco Products' anti-vaping fanatics, however, were unable to misidentify the Kanger TOP EVOD as a "youth-appealing" device. If vapers are still in need of this product, it's most likely because they started using it years ago and have become reliant on it.
The only "nimble tools" used by the FDA in its "rapid surveillance" and "data-driven" enforcement approach are PCs with Google search capabilities, aside from selecting product names to look up. The agency looks for vendors who have never been cited before and targets products that it already knows are not permitted (to maximize the probability they’ll be frightened into compliance).
Aside from Kangertech, the online retailers selling disposables manufactured by Bang (named in one letter), Cali Bar (six letters), Elf Bar/EBDESIGN (eight letters), and Lava (seven letters) received warning letters today. Several of these brands were mentioned in certain warning letters. The data-driven FDA investigators' search criteria for the scofflaws they listed today are not a mystery.
Regretfully for the FDA, manufacturers will just rebrand their products or perhaps their entire line and continue to supply merchants that are willing to offer the well-liked disposables that currently control the convenience store vape market. However, because it would take too much time, money, and effort to enforce against physical and mortar establishments, the FDA is mainly ignoring them.
Recipients of warning letters have 15 working days to respond, outlining any corrective measures they've implemented or refuting the accusations made by the agency. Additional FDA sanctions could be imposed on those who disregard the warning, though this is rare.
