According to a report from Jota on January 15th, the Brazilian National Health Surveillance Agency (Anvisa) plans to allocate approximately 70,000 reais (about $10,000) to dispatch two directors and two staff members to visit the production facilities of British American Tobacco (BAT) and pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca next week. The visits are expected to take place between January 28th and 31st. The mission was approved last week, but specific objectives have not yet been determined, and the visit times for each facility have not been disclosed.
The visit took place at a time when the pressure was mounting for the introduction of e-cigarettes in the country. This issue is currently being discussed in Congress and has previously been debated within Anvisa. In April 2024, the board of Anvisa decided to maintain the ban on e-cigarettes based on the principle of prevention. They believed that these devices should only be produced and sold if safety evidence is provided, but as of now, there is no research to support this.
The task has raised concerns among internal Anvisa employees, who state that there are currently no discussions related to tobacco taking place. JOTA interviewed Anvisa's board members, who stated that this type of visit is a routine practice and does not require a specific reason. Even if there are no specific discussions or regulatory agenda items, inspections of regulated industry production sites will still take place. In response to inquiries from the public, Anvisa did not provide specific details about the itinerary of the visit, only stating in a release that there are no plans to reintroduce e-cigarette-related topics to Anvisa's regulatory agenda at this time.
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