Tobacco regulation agency added to FDA

SILVER SPRING, Md. The Food and Drug Administration has officially launched a new division to regulate tobacco.

The agency announced Wednesday the launch of the Center for Tobacco Products, which will oversee the implementation of the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, which president Barack Obama signed into law in June, headed by George Washington University medicine professor Lawrence Deyton and located at the FDA’s White Oak Campus in Silver Spring, Md.

The center’s responsibilities will include setting performance standards, reviewing pre-market applications for new and modified-risk tobacco products and establishing and enforcing advertising and promotion restrictions.

“We are thrilled to announce Dr. Deyton’s appointment as director for the Center for Tobacco Products and look forward to him joining the agency,” FDA commissioner Margaret Hamburg said in a statement. “He is the rare combination of public health expert, administrative leader, scientist and clinician.”