FDA on Tuesday suspended its order banning Juul from selling and marketing its e-cigarette products, in today's bite-sized hospital and health industry news from Maryland, New York, and Ohio.
- Maryland: FDA on Tuesday temporarily paused an order that banned Juul from selling and marketing its e-cigarettes. The agency "has determined that there are scientific issues unique to the Juul application that warrant additional review." According to FDA, "This administrative stay temporarily suspends the marketing denial order during the additional review but does not rescind it." Notably, a federal appeals court last month ruled that Juul would be allowed to keep its products on the market while it appeals FDA's ban. Last month, FDA said it denied Juul's application to sell and market its products because it "lacked sufficient evidence ... to demonstrate that marketing of the products would be appropriate for the protection of the public health." In addition, FDA Commissioner Robert Califf noted that Juul products played a "disproportionate role in the rise in youth vaping." (Axios, 7/6)
- New York: New York City health officials last week ended its Covid-19 alert system, which provided residents with regular updated on transmission levels. On June 28, the city's website noted that it was still at "medium risk level," and urged residents to continue wearing masks in public indoor settings. Now, the website says the city is experiencing high levels of Covid-19 transmission, and the alert system is currently being evaluated. On June 30, New York City Health Commissioner Ashwin Vasan said, "We're [at] a different phase of the pandemic that demands new analytical tools to match our assessments and communications about risk with reality, accounting for the multiple inequitable realities faced by New Yorkers and Americans of different stripes and different situations." Notably, city data shows a seven-day average of 3,441 positive cases on July 1—an increase from the previous week's count of 3,009. However, daily hospitalizations declined, with a seven-day average of 79 on July 1, down from 106 during the previous week. (DeSilva, Becker's Hospital Review, 7/5)
- Ohio: Cleveland Clinic on Monday announced that a team of surgeons performed the first-in-the-world full multi-organ transplant in September. The patient, who had a rare form of appendix cancer called pseudomyxoma peritonei, received five digestive organs during the procedure, including a liver, stomach, pancreas, duodenum, and small intestine. Notably, Anil Vaidya, co-director of Cleveland Clinic's intestinal transplant program, who led the seven-surgeon team, said there has been no evidence of cancer recurrence since the procedure. (Gleeson, Becker's Hospital Review, 7/5)