The Food and Drug Administration gave the go-ahead on Tuesday. philip morrisAs the Trump administration eases regulations on nicotine products, tobacco giants have scored a major regulatory victory as their Zyn company’s nicotine pouches will now be marketed as less harmful than cigarettes.
The decision, first reported by Axios, allowed 20 Zyn products to be given modified risk claims stating that switching from cigarettes to Zyn reduces the risk of oral cancer, heart disease, lung cancer, stroke, emphysema, and chronic bronchitis.
Zyn pouches contain nicotine, but no tobacco. They sit between a user’s gums and lips and have soared in popularity among conservatives, technology workers and others who tout them as a cleaner alternative to cigarettes and chewing tobacco, or as a productivity booster.
The FDA’s decision does not mean Zyn is safe. The agency said there are no safe tobacco products, adolescents should not use tobacco products, and adults who do not use tobacco products should not start using tobacco products.
Still, as cigarette sales continue to decline in the United States and major tobacco companies increase investment in smokeless products, the order gives Philip Morris a strong health-related claim for one of the fastest-growing products in the nicotine market.
President Donald Trump supported regulating flavored e-cigarettes during his first term, but reversed course during the 2024 campaign, promising to “save vaping.” Since returning to power, the administration has taken a more industry-friendly approach, including creating a pathway for some flavored e-cigarettes and nicotine pouches to remain on the market while they undergo FDA review.
The move followed intense lobbying from the tobacco and e-cigarette industries, which say adult smokers need more access to less harmful alternatives to cigarettes.
“President Trump has consistently promised on the campaign trail to expand access to nicotine e-cigarettes, pouches and other products that evidence shows can help adults quit smoking,” White House Press Secretary Khush Desai told CNBC. “Gold standard science is the only guide to the Trump administration’s decision-making.”
Zyn has also become a cultural beacon of conservative politics. Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson helped popularize the right-wing brand until he later became fed up with Zyn and launched his own nicotine pouch brand, Alp.
Nicotine pouches have also gained fans around President Trump. The Wall Street Journal reported that Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. uses nicotine pouches and that President Trump recently asked Kennedy which pouch he used after a lunch with tobacco company executives.
The FDA had already authorized the same 20 Zyn products for sale in January 2025, but that earlier decision did not allow Swedish Match, the Philip Morris subsidiary that makes Zyns, to market them as reducing disease risk. Tuesday’s order went further, allowing the company to make certain low-risk claims related to several major smoking-related diseases.
“FDA’s modified risk product review is designed to ensure that adult users have clear, science-based information about the relative harms of tobacco products so they can make informed choices,” Brett Koplau, acting director of the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products, said in a statement. “Today’s decision will allow these products to be sold with modified risk claims that inform adults who smoke that the risks associated with these products are low.”
Products covered by the order include Gin Chill, Cinnamon, Citrus, Coffee, Cool Mint, Menthol, Peppermint, Smooth, Spearmint and Wintergreen, with nicotine concentrations of 3 and 6 milligrams, respectively.
“The FDA’s decision is an important moment for the more than 45 million legal-age nicotine consumers in the United States,” Stacey Kennedy, CEO of Philip Morris U.S., said in a statement. “With today’s news, these adults now have access to information based on hard science, including FDA-approved evidence that switching from cigarettes to ZYN reduces the risk of smoking-related diseases such as heart disease and lung cancer.”
