Full Plate for FDA Tobacco Center

The FDA’s new Center for Tobacco Products has had a busy first year — banning most tobacco flavorings and issuing regulations on cigarettes and smokeless tobacco, among other steps — and the coming year promises to be equally active, the Louisville Courier-Journal reported June 27.

The center, headed by Lawrence Deyton, staffed with 100 employees, and funded by fees on the tobacco industry, will issue new rules on cigarette packaging and warning labels and decide the fate of menthol cigarettes in the coming months. Much of the agency’s early work has revolved around implementation of the 2009 law that gave the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulatory power over tobacco products.

Deyton said the tobacco industry has been largely cooperative with the center, even though some firms have sued over portions of the 2009 legislation. “At this point, if somebody wanted to make the claim that (the industry is) being negative or obstructive, I don’t see any evidence of it,” he said. “They’re learning how to work with us and we’re learning how to work with them and I feel very hopeful that we’re building a good, solid foundation of a working relationship between FDA and this regulated industry.”

Some tobacco-control advocates disagree about that, but there is broad consensus that the new FDA agency is off to a good start.