There isn't any direct way that I know of (such as via Paste Special), but one way to get the same effect is to make a copy of your regular font, remove the vertical hints, delete the regular outlines, paste in the italic outlines, and copy other font info into it. Not very elegant, but I think it would be less work than rebuilding the hints.
Is there any way in FLS to copy or duplicate hints from one .vfb to another?
I have a regular and italic weight and I'd like the hints to be the same on the italic minus vertical hints. It would be nice to not have to do it all manually.
(This is with Type 1 hinting)