FDA Commissioner: Agency To Name Tobacco Czar This Week
August 17 2009 - 1:31PM
Dow Jones News
Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Margaret Hamburg said
Monday she's planning this week to name a director to run the
agency's new tobacco division.
Hamburg wouldn't identify the pending director or elaborate on
whether the person comes from industry or another public health
agency. Hamburg said she personally interviewed six potential
candidates.
In late June, just after President Barack Obama formally signed
into law legislation giving the agency the authority to regulate
tobacco, the FDA began looking for a czar to oversee the FDA's new
division. An advertisement for the job said the agency was looking
for someone who was politically savvy, familiar with the
inner-workings of Congress and had scientific expertise and
experience in toxicology, epidemiology and public health.
Under this new authority, the FDA will charge tobacco companies
such as Newport cigarette maker Lorillard Inc. (LO) and Reynolds
American Inc. (RAI), which makes Camel and Winston cigarettes among
others, an annual fee to pay for the regulation. The legislation
also bans candy- and fruit-flavored cigarettes, and restricts
companies to marketing their products only through black and white
advertisements.
Hamburg said the FDA's tobacco division will likely house
hundreds of FDA employees who will help the agency implement the
new authority.
-By Jared A. Favole, Dow Jones Newswires; 202.862.9207;
jared.favole@dowjones.com