“The
vaping industry is being treated unfairly. We are not the enemy here. Combustible cigarettes that bring 88,000 deaths per year are our common enemy. Why is
vaping treated worse than smoking?” he said.
Earlier, a ranking FDA official
admitted that the agency received grants from foreign anti-tobacco advocates The Union and Bloomberg Initiative when confronted by Nueva Ecija Rep. Estrellita Suansing and Deputy Speaker and Ilocos Sur Rep. Deogracias Victor Savellano during a public consultation on the guidelines.
Dr. Mata said they participated in the FDA public consultation “hoping for a robust and substantive discussion on science not fiction. We were treated to a farcical consultation, a mere tick-the-box exercise for the sake of simply holding one.”
He said there is
“obviously a conflict of interest here. We are therefore constrained to believe that the industry is unfairly being treated by FDA in this regard, the reason now for these almost impossible guidelines.”
