The US Food and Drug Administration has sent warning letters to six online retailers for selling unauthorized e-liquid products from the Bad Drip brand that imitate prescription drug bottles.
The retailers were also warned for selling unauthorized flavored, disposable vaping products, including those under the brand names Funky Republic and HQD, according to an FDA release.
“It boggles the mind that someone thought it was a good idea to package a tobacco product to look like a prescription drug bottle,” said Brian King, director of FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products. “There’s no place for this gratuitous and blatantly dangerous packaging, and FDA is committed to taking action against the illegal sale of these products.”
In a Senate Judiciary meeting yesterday, King noted that products like Elf Bar cannot legally be sold in China because the government there has banned non-tobacco flavored e-cigarettes. Outraged that brands banned in China are sold in the U.S., Texas Senator John Cornyn vowed to introduce legislation to rectify that situation.
Jefferies analyst Owen Bennett said the Congressional testimony could spur the FDA to approve more products from British American Tobacco and Juul. “This hearing is another example of increasing political pressure for the FDA to act” against unauthorized products, he said in a research note quoted by Bloomberg.