Brian A. King Named New Director of FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products

Dr. Brian A. King will be the next director of the U.S. Food & Drug Administration’s (FDA) Center for Tobacco Products (CTP).

He will take over the position on July 3 after spending more than a decade at the Centers for Disease Control. King holds a doctorate of philosophy in epidemiology and has worked at CDC’s Office on Smoking and Health since July 2010 according to his LinkedIn profile. Since 2015, he’s served as the deputy director for research translation at the CDC’s Office on Smoking and Health.

“After a robust executive search, I have selected Dr. Brian A. King as FDA’s new Center for Tobacco Products Director,” said Dr. Robert Califf, FDA’s commissioner, on Twitter. “Dr. King brings extensive and impressive expertise in tobacco prevention and control and has broad familiarity with FDA from his more than 10-year tenure at CDC.”

King will take over from Michele Mital, who is serving as the acting director following the retirement of Mitch Zeller, the longtime CTP director, in April. Mital has served as the deputy director of CTP since 2018.

There are two major cigar-related issues in front of the FDA at the moment. First, the agency is still in the process of its review of “premium cigar” regulations and the related court case. Second, FDA recently announced plans to ban all flavored cigars.

Beyond cigars, CTP is in the process of a number of major initiatives. FDA is still in the process of evaluating product approval applications for e-cigarettes and vaping products, including products from some of the largest players like Juul. This process has been delayed and highly controversial to the point where both anti-vaping and pro-vaping advocates publicly voiced their displeasures with FDA as recently as this week. Furthermore, FDA has also announced plans to ban menthol cigarettes.