A Food and Drug Administration (FDA) panel Friday said it needs more information before making recommendations about the risks and potential marketing restrictions involving new flavoured dissolvable tobacco lozenges, reports the Wall Street Journal.

The FDA advisory panel will make recommendations to the FDA after it meets again on tobacco lozenges in November. In March 2012 the FDA is expected to release a report on the safety, health and potential dependence issues of these products, which will determine the specifics of how the products will be regulated.
Opponents of the lozenges say they look like candy and might be eaten by children, encourage nonsmokers to use tobacco, and are used by smokers in tandem with rather than instead of cigarettes.
Reynolds American Inc.'s R.J. Reynolds, and Star Scientific Inc., a producer of smokeless tobacco products, both sell this variety of hard snuff, which fully dissolves in the mouth. Philip Morris USA doesn't have a lozenge for sale now, but a representative from Altria Group Inc., the parent company of Philip Morris USA, said that, depending on FDA's classification of the product, they would be interested in developing one. (pi)