CASAA Call to Action: The ProVari by ProVape was a revolutionary device when introduced in 2010. Today, they still offer a ProVari 2.5 along with Procyon, Radius, Classic ProVari, and the ProVari P3. They are the largest vape hardware company in the US, having shipped over 450,000 devices to 67 countries. ProVari devices are designed by former aerospace and military engineers and made in the US using primarily US made components and electronics. They are manufactured to extremely high standards using high quality components and are nearly indestructible. ProVape also provides great support and stands behind their products with a warranty and a track record to prove it. I have owned my ProVari 2.5 for almost three years and it still performs perfectly.
On May 12, 2016 they told their customers and the world exactly how the FDA Deeming Regulations effect them:
“The FDA will require any product not on the market before February 2007 to go through an arduous pre-market approval process that could cost over $1 million per product,” Flagg said. “Most vape businesses like ProVape don’t have the means or wherewithal to put our products through this cost-prohibitive process and with no guarantee it would get approved.”
“The FDA’s regulations will drastically limit the choices that millions of vapers and an estimated 40 million adult smokers have to just a handful of products,” Flagg said. “It makes it more difficult to switch to vaping, because the safest and most advanced devices like the ProVari will no longer be on the market.”
Those are direct quotes from one of the owners of ProVape, David Flagg. I bolded part of it to make another point. Read the entire Blog Post. The timeline for ProVape and numerous other vendors/manufacterers works like this: their products which are on the market before 8-8-16 can remain on the market until 8-8-18. When I say “products” that means no changes or innovations to a given product. Changing a product would trigger the requirement to obtain a PMTA. It must be identical during this two year period. Any product on the market on or after 8-18-18 will require a valid and properly pending PMTA application or it can not be sold. In summary, all the ProVape products will remain on the market until 8-8-18 and my best guess is that around this kill date they will close shop. Roughly you have two years + to purchase their products if they fit your vaping style. In this analysis, I’m assuming that we will not see any legal action and or Congressional actions which produce legally binding modifications to this timeline/procedure.
The “with no guarantee it would ever get approved” is telling and we have historical evidence to support my views and others that the entire PMTA process by the FDA is double speak, a guise, and in large measure misleading. The FDA has approved exactly ONE product via the PMTA procedure. That’s 100K pages from Swedish Match, which took years and cost millions of dollars. So the entire PMTA process is really a defacto Ban on an entire industry and not only will the FDA reject them all but what Vaping vendor/manufacturer would even try. Dr. Siegel covers this issue via the following Blog post: First PMTA Approvals by FDA Demonstrate Why Treating E-Cigarettes Like Tobacco Products Makes No Sense and Will Decimate the Industry.
On a personnel level, ProVape has always held a special place in my heart. Although I also vape at 60 watts or more with other mods, I will miss ProVape. Hopefully, the candor and direct nature of the ProVape Blog post will help other vapers understand the gravity of the current situation.