Sign up to create alerts for Instruments,
Economic Events and content by followed authors
Free Sign Up Already have an account? Sign In
Quotes
All Instrument Types
- All Instrument Types
- Indices
- Equities
- ETFs
- Funds
- Commodities
- Currencies
- Crypto
- Bonds
- Certificates
Please try another search
⏰ React to the Market Faster with Custom, Real-Time News Get Started
Juul e-cigarettes to be ordered off U.S. shelves - WSJ
© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: A woman holds a Juul e-cigarette while walking in New York, U.S., September 27, 2018. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid
By Praveen Paramasivam
(Reuters) -The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is preparing to order Juul Labs Inc to take its e-cigarettes off the market in the United States, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter.
Shares in tobacco giant Altria Group (NYSE:MO), which owns a 35% stake in the vaping products maker, fell 8.5% following the report. The decision could come as early as Wednesday, the report said.
Juul has faced heightened scrutiny from regulators, lawmakers and state attorneys general over the appeal of its nicotine products to teenagers. Under pressure, the company in late 2019 had halted U.S. sales of several flavors.
The FDA declined to comment on the report, while Altria and Juul did not respond to requests for comment from Reuters.
"This clearly comes as a surprise to the market ... we would expect that Juul would appeal the decision, and remain on the market through that process, which would likely take a year or more," Cowen analyst Vivien Azer said.
The looming verdict comes nearly two years after Juul had applied for approval to keep selling e-cigarettes in the country.
The FDA's review of the applications was based on whether the e-cigarettes are effective in getting smokers to quit and, if so, whether the benefits to smokers outweigh the health damage to new users, including teenagers.
In October, the FDA had allowed Juul rival British American Tobacco (NYSE:BTI) Plc to market its Vuse Solo e-cigarettes and tobacco-flavored pods, the first-ever vapor product to get clearance from the health regulator.
The estimated fair value of Altria's investment in Juul was $1.6 billion as of March end, a fraction of the $12.8 billion it paid in 2018, as a crackdown on vaping has upended the once fast-growing industry.
"The investment in Juul was always a mistake, the company paying top dollar for a business which was already clearly (on) the wrong side of the regulators," said Rae Maile, analyst at Panmure Gordon.
Related Articles
Add Chart to Comment
Confirm Block
Are you sure you want to block %USER_NAME%?
By doing so, you and %USER_NAME% will not be able to see any of each other's Investing.com's posts.
%USER_NAME% was successfully added to your Block List
Since you’ve just unblocked this person, you must wait 48 hours before renewing the block.
Report this comment
I feel that this comment is:
Comment flagged
Thank You!
Your report has been sent to our moderators for review
Add a Comment
We encourage you to use comments to engage with other users, share your perspective and ask questions of authors and each other. However, in order to maintain the high level of discourse we’ve all come to value and expect, please keep the following criteria in mind:
Enrich the conversation, don’t trash it.
Stay focused and on track. Only post material that’s relevant to the topic being discussed.
Be respectful. Even negative opinions can be framed positively and diplomatically. Avoid profanity, slander or personal attacks directed at an author or another user. Racism, sexism and other forms of discrimination will not be tolerated.
Perpetrators of spam or abuse will be deleted from the site and prohibited from future registration at Investing.com’s discretion.