GSK Consumer Healthcare to FDA: Smoke out smokeless tobacco products

PARSIPPANY, N.J. GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare is urging the Food and Drug Administration to remove smokeless tobacco products from the market.

GSK Consumer Healthcare, which manufactures such nicotine-replacement therapy products as Nicorette and NicoDerm CQ, submitted a comment to the FDA on the potential public health impact of oral dissolvable tobacco products, "calling for such products to be withdrawn from the market until their sponsors can demonstrate to [the FDA] that their marketing is appropriate for the protection of public health," the company noted in a release Tuesday.

The announcement comes after the American Heart Association issued a policy statement on smokeless tobacco products, which said that such products are not safe alternatives to smoking and are associated with heart attack, stroke and certain cancers.

GSK Consumer Healthcare also said that it is committed to working with the FDA, in addition to medical and clinical experts to make smoking-cessation products safe and available for consumers.