(Bloomberg) -- British American Tobacco PLC’s e-cigarette Vuse and its tobacco-flavored pods were authorized by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as part of a sweeping review of whether millions of cigarette alternatives have a public health benefit.  

The authorization marks one of the first major products to make it through the agency’s reviews of vape and oral tobacco products by companies including Altria Group Inc. and Juul Labs Inc. 

The agency denied BAT’s request to sell flavored Vuse products. It’s still evaluating a proposal to sell a menthol version. 

Stakes are high for the FDA to decide on the benefit of such products given that Covid-19 has intensified concerns about lung health. A spate of lung illnesses in 2019 also scared some vape-users back to smoking, raising the stakes for an authoritative decision on whether alternative products are safer.

BAT’s U.S. American depositary receipts initially spiked before falling slightly after the announcement.

“Today’s authorizations are an important step toward ensuring all new tobacco products undergo the FDA’s robust, scientific premarket evaluation,” Mitch Zeller, director of the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products said in a statement. “The manufacturer’s data demonstrates its tobacco-flavored products could benefit addicted adult smokers who switch to these products –- either completely or with a significant reduction in cigarette consumption –- by reducing their exposure to harmful chemicals.”

The FDA’s authorization applied to R.J. Reynolds Vuse Solo closed ENDS device and its accompanying tobacco-flavored e-liquid pods, allowing them to be legally sold in the U.S.

The FDA’s decisions could make or break fortunes for cigarette companies, which are increasingly diversifying into alternatives like e-cigarettes and oral nicotine pouches, and for rival upstarts that make competing next-generation nicotine products. 

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