Juul’s lobbying skyrockets as FDA weighs e-cig ban

Juul significantly ramped up its federal lobbying efforts in 2018 while the Trump administration intensifies its threats to ban sales of electronic cigarettes amid what it calls a health epidemic among youths.

The popular brand spent $1.5 million on advocacy efforts in Washington D.C. last year. The company -- which calls itself an alternative to cigarettes -- spent just $120,000 on lobbying the year prior.

Staff in the company's D.C. office, which opened in Feb. 2018, have been engaging "with lawmakers, regulators, public health officials and advocates to drive awareness of our mission to improve the lives of the world's one billion smokers and to combat underage use so we keep JUUL out of the hands of young people," a spokeswoman said.

The Food and Drug Administration has already indicated it planned to halt the sale of flavored e-cig offerings in convenience stores and gas stations. Juul later voluntarily pulled those products.

And agency Commissioner Scott Gottlieb has threatened to ban the sales of e-cigs that haven’t been approved by the FDA unless companies like Juul put forward concrete plans to reduce use of their products among younger individuals.

Despite the initial steps from Juul, Gottlieb appears unsatisfied. He told the New York Times in January that “recent actions and statements appear to be inconsistent” with commitments to eliminate some products from store shelves.

Supporters of the industry say e-cigs have helped adults stop smoking, an argument Gottlieb doesn’t discount but notes it can’t come at the expense of kids.

“We have been proponents of e-cigarettes as potentially being a modified risk alternative for adults who currently smoke cigarettes," he told Fox Business in 2018. "That availability cannot come at the expense of addicting a whole generation of young people on nicotine through these same products. We now have evidence that this has reached epidemic proportions."

Tobacco giant Altria recently purchased a 35 percent stake in Juul for $12.8 billion, an investment that valued the San Francisco-based company at $38 billion. But as the regulatory environment becomes more perilous, analysts are warning that the high valuation may be overshadowing the risks.

Flavored e-cig products, for instance, represent 60 percent of Juul’s total sales, according to Morgan Stanley’s Pamela Kaufman. Still, Altria’s plan to “provide JUUL with shelf space and marketing support enhances JUUL’s competitive threat,” she wrote in a recent note.

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Juul is not the only company ramping up its lobbying. The pharmaceutical industry spent a record $27.5 million on advocacy efforts, while the tech sector doled-out $64 million.