People should understand that this meeting is NOT addressing e-cigarettes directly. For advocates, it's more about promoting tobacco harm reduction. This meeting is about the FDA allowing longer use of NRT (gums, patches and lozenges) and other "innovative" smoking cessation products.
How this eventually affects e-cigarette users is that currently the FDA does NOT acknowledge tobacco harm reduction products. Anything that contains nicotine is either a smoking cessation product that is required to have low, fixed amounts of nicotine and instruct users to wean off by 12 weeks or it's a tobacco product. That is why e-cigarettes only had two choices for classification: NRT that must be strictly regulated for short term use and proven to work as a treatment for nicotine addiction or a tobacco product. So, if the FDA agrees to allow long-term use of approved pharmaceutical nicotine products it is, in a way, acknowledging that there can be tobacco harm reduction uses for nicotine products (which is much like having a 3rd category.) Once they approve NRT products for long-term use, it theoretically opens the door for other nicotine products to be approved for tobacco harm reduction use, too. So, this hearing isn't about e-cigarettes directly, but could affect e-cigarettes and smoke-free tobacco products in a roundabout way. It's a STEP in the right direction!