Zyn nicotine cases and pouches are seen on a table in Recent York City on Jan. 29, 2024.
Michael M. Santiago | Getty Images
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration formally authorized Zyn nicotine pouches on the market after conducting an “extensive scientific review” about their safety.
In a release Thursday, the agency said it had found the favored pouches posed lower risk of cancer and other serious health conditions compared with cigarettes, in addition to in relation to other smokeless tobacco products.
The agency also found the pouches even had the potential to learn cigarette smokers amid evidence they’ll get them to quit.
“The information show that these nicotine pouch products meet that bar by benefiting adults who use cigarettes and/or smokeless tobacco products and completely switch to those products,” Matthew Farrelly, Ph.D., director of the Office of Science within the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products, said in a press release.
Zyn use has exploded in recent times within the wake of a viral online meme trend, even prompting a shortage last 12 months. Yet the product had been operating in a legal grey area while it underwent official FDA review about its health effects and uptake amongst young users.
To that latter point, the FDA found that, to date, Zyn use amongst minors gave the impression to be relatively low, though it was continuing to watch the trend.
A spokesperson for Philip Morris International Inc., which owns the U.S. rights to Zyn, didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment.
In the discharge, the FDA emphasized that its findings about Zyn didn’t mean the products are ultimately secure, nor “FDA approved.”
“There isn’t a secure tobacco product,” the agency said. “Youth mustn’t use tobacco products and adults who don’t use tobacco products mustn’t start.”
