(Reuters) – The following are some significant events in the history of Juul.
2007— Stanford design graduates James Monsees and Adam Bowen found Ploom Inc, drawing from their thesis project on a new kind of cigarette.
2012- Ploom introduces Pax, a vaporizer that becomes popular as a discreet way to consume cannabis.
2015— Ploom becomes Pax Labs, after selling the rights of Ploom products to Japan Tobacco International, which had been an investor in the company.
2015— Pax Labs introduces the Juul e-cigarette.
2017— Pax Labs spins out into a separate company, leaving Juul Labs to focus on nicotine e-cigarettes.
December 2017 – Kevin Burns joins Juul Labs as chief executive.
April 2018 – U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced it has conducted an investigation of underage sales of Juul products, and sends letter to Juul requesting documents around the marketing of its products.
September 2018 – Then-FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb calls teenage vaping an “epidemic,” tells Juul and other e-cigarette makers they have 60 days to submit plans detailing ways to combat youth use.
November 2018 – Juul announces plans to pull all flavors from retail stores except tobacco, mint and menthol; the FDA follows with an announcement that it will craft similar regulations around those flavors.
December 2018 –Juul-Altria deal inked, as the tobacco giant invests $12.8 billion in Juul, taking a 35 percent stake in the vaping device maker that valued it at $38 billion.
August 2019 – The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announces it is working with health departments in Wisconsin, Illinois, California, Indiana, and Minnesota to investigate more than 90 potential cases of severe lung illnesses associated with vaping.
September 6, 2019 – U.S. health officials caution Americans to avoid buying vaping products on the street, and to refrain from using THC oil or adding any substances to vaping products purchased in stores. Juul says its products “do not include THC, any compound derived from cannabis, or vitamin E compounds like those found in THC products,” and that it is confident the FDA and CDC “will get to the bottom of this issue.”
September 9, 2019 – American Medical Association urges the public to avoid the use of e-cigarette products until health officials further investigate and understand the cause of the illnesses.
September 9, 2019 – FDA sends warning letter to Juul Labs CEO over its unproven claims that its products pose less harm than traditional cigarettes. Agency chastises Juul’s insistence that it has had little, if any, role in youth e-cigarette use that skyrocketed by 78 percent among high school students and 48 percent among middle school students nationwide in 2018.
Sept 11, 2019- Trump administration says it will ban the sale of most flavored e-cigarettes.
Sept. 25, 2019- Juul names KC Crosthwaite as its new CEO. Burns resigns. Juul also suspends all advertising in the U.S. and says it will refrain from lobbying the Trump administration.
(Reporting by Chris Kirkham and Bill Berkrot; Editing by Steve Orlofsky)
