FDA

Federal regulators have been putting off the decision about whether to put tighter controls on the painkiller hydrocodone for many years, according to the Associated Press.

Five tobacco companies are suing the federal government over graphic cigarette warning labels that are scheduled to be on all packages by the fall of 2012. The manufacturers claim the labels violate First Amendment protections for commercial speech.

New cigarette labels required by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration that will carry graphic images of the consequences of smoking should have the desired effect of reducing demand, a new study suggests.

A Food and Drug Administration panel said Friday it needs more information about the marketing of the smokeless tobacco product called snus, before it can make recommendations about new dissolvable tobacco products.

Electronic cigarettes, or “e-cigarettes,” are crude drug delivery systems for refined nicotine that pose unknown risks, two experts write in this week’s New England Journal of Medicine.

The Food and Drug Administration is considering banning menthol cigarettes following a recent report, from its Tobacco Products Scientific Advisory Committee, that the cigarettes are extremely popular among African Americans, the poor and young.

A monthly injection to treat opioid dependence, approved in October 2010 by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), has gotten off to a slow start but is proving useful in helping certain patients, say doctors familiar with the drug, extended-release naltrexone (Vivitrol).

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Tobacco Products has announced it will review research on the impact of the use of menthol in cigarettes on the public health. The independent review will evaluate the impact of the cigarettes overall, as well as on children, African Americans, Hispanics, and other racial/ethnic minorities.

A group of U.S. senators is asking the Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Tobacco Products to regulate a new form of dissolvable tobacco products that they say poses health risks, especially for children.

New cigarette labels mandated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration will carry graphic images of the consequences of smoking, including diseased lungs and rotting teeth.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said on Thursday that the smoking-cessation drug Chantix (vareniclene) may be associated with a small, increased risk of certain heart problems in patients with heart disease.

The Food and Drug Administration has sent warning letters to online retailers for illegally marketing tobacco products using misleading health claims. The letter said the 11 retailers had illegally marketed tobacco products using words such as ‘light,’ ‘less toxic,’ ‘mild,’ ‘safer’ or ‘low.’

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced it will regulate smokeless electronic cigarettes as tobacco products, treating them the same as traditional cigarettes. The decision comes after the FDA lost a court case in which it argued that the devices should be regulated as drug-delivery devices, which must satisfy stricter requirements.

As part of the new government plan to reduce prescription drug abuse, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is asking manufacturers of prescription painkillers to create materials for consumers about how to safely use and dispose of opioids.