Gregory Conley, president of American Vaping Association, said that while “Verve may have been a dud as a consumer product, it is still positive news whenever the FDA authorizes a smoke-free product in a non-tobacco flavor.”

Altria debuted the Verve discs, chews, chewable dissolvables and melts products in May 2012.

Verve products are oral tobacco products that contain nicotine derived from tobacco, but do not contain cut, ground, powdered or leaf tobacco. All four products are chewed and then discarded, rather than swallowed, once the user is finished with the product.

In November 2017, Altria applied for the premarket tobacco application (PMTA) status for the Verve products approved Tuesday.

“Based on the FDA’s comprehensive review of available scientific evidence in the company’s PMTAs, the agency determined the marketing of these products would be consistent with the statutory standard — ‘appropriate for the protection of the public health,'” the FDA said in its statement.

“This includes a review of data showing that youth, nonsmokers and former smokers are unlikely to initiate or reinitiate tobacco use with these products.”

Mitch Zeller, director of the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products, said that “while these are mint flavored products, data submitted to the FDA show the risk for youth uptake of these particular products is low, and stringent marketing restrictions will help prevent youth exposure.”