• Wall Street Journal, Tuesday, September 28, 2010 11:45 AM

GlaxoSmithKline, which markets over-the counter quit-smoking aids such as Nicorette gum and Commit lozenges, is asking the Food and Drug Administration to remove oral dissolvable tobacco products such as Camel Orbs from retailers' shelves until manufacturers "can demonstrate to the FDA that their marketing is appropriate for the protection of public health," David Kesmodel reports.

Reynolds American, the second-largest U.S. tobacco company by sales, has been test-marketing Orbs, which are tiny oval-shaped lozenges. Similarly, Star Scientific sells dissolvable products such as Ariva and Stonewall.

The companies don't market the products to people who want to stop smoking, Kesmodel point out. "Our Camel dissolvable tobacco products provide an option for adult tobacco consumers who have made an informed choice to use tobacco," a Reynolds spokesman asserts.

"These products are being marketed not as substitutes, but to be used in addition to cigarettes,'' GlaxoSmithKline said in a letter to FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg, and have the "potential to initiate tobacco use and perpetuate smoking."

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