July 21, 2014
Judge Richard Leon, who has consistently ruled against the FDA on everything related to tobacco, is at it again, ruling that the FDA Tobacco Products Scientific Advisory Committee is flawed. (Why does every tobacco case on the FDA end up in front of the same hostile judge?)
The opinion basically concludes that because the challenged members acted as consultants to companies selling cessation products (or in the case of Henningfield an ownership interest in a cessation product), they would have a conflict because banning Menthol might generate consulting fees. The judge also concludes that the challenged members would have a conflict because they would want to protect their past expert testimony on tobacco (and in one case menthol) issues and would want plaintiff lawyers to hire them in the future.
This is truly amazing to disqualify scientists for something they might do in the future. Perhaps Judge Leon has a time machine to observe the future.
You can read Judge Leon's ruling at https://ecf.dcd.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/show_public_doc?2011cv0440-82
TFK put out the following statement, which I completely agree with:
July 18, 2014
My colleagues at UCSF just submitted this comment to the FDA on the deeming rule:
The Regulatory Impact Analysis Must Consider the Benefits of the Likelihood that the Regulated Companies will Pass the Costs of Compliance on to Smokers, which Will Raise the Cost of the Regulated Products, thereby Reducing Consumption and Improving Health
Docket No. FDA-2014-N-0189
Hai-Yen Sung, PhD
Professor of Health Economics
Wendy Max, PhD
Professor of Health Economics
James Lightwood, PhD
Professor of Health Economics
University of California San Francisco
July 15, 2014
The U.S. tobacco companies have a long history of passing increased costs through to consumers, as recently evidenced by the large price increase following the Master Settlement Agreement (Alamar, Mahmoud, and Glantz, 2003). The companies also often increase wholesale prices concurrently with excise tax increases by more than the amount of the tax increase to maintain revenue streams in the face of price-induced declines in consumption (Sung, Hu and Keeler, 1994; Keeler and Hu et al., 1996; Chaloupka and Cummings et al., 2002; Hanson and Sullivan, 2009; Sullivan and Dutkowsky, 2012).
July 18, 2014
My UCSF colleagues just put in this public comment on the FDA deeming rule:
The Regulatory Impact Analysis Fails to Adequately Document the
Sources for the Benefit and Cost Estimates upon Which it is Based
Docket No. FDA-2014-N-0189
Wendy Max, PhD
Professor of Health Economics
Hai-Yen Sung, PhD
Professor of Health Economics
James Lightwood, PhD
Professor of Pharmacy
University of California San Francisco
July 11, 2014
July 17, 2014
According to the new sci-fi/horror film Snowpiercer (R, Weinstein), the last cigarettes on earth are Marlboro Light.
That’s what one train passenger cries out when another snaps open a cigarette case, eighteen years after the planet is flash-frozen. Other passengers stare at the two cigarettes in awe. Both cigarettes are smoked in the film.
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HELP US OUT!
While the US version of this film names Marlboro Light, other country versions (Korea, Japan, France, etc.) might name another cigarette brand instead. Philip Morris International sells the Marlboro brand in South Korea. If you have the chance to review this film outside the US, please let us know.
Be aware before viewing: This well-crafted film is extremely violent.
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Snowpiercer is a South Korea/Czech/Austria co-production, with subsidies available from all. Production companies, including finance sources, are Korean and Czech, led by CJ Entertainment (Seoul).
July 17, 2014
Eric Crosbie, Mariaelena Gonzalez, and I just published a paper in American Journal of Public Health, "Health Preemption Behind Closed Doors: Trade Agreements and Fast-Track Authority," that describes how trade agreements such at the Trans Pacific Parnership, which are being negotiated in secret, can have the effect of preempting a wide range of health and safety laws, notably tobacco control policies, which are adopted at all levels of government.
Here is the abstract: