Michele Mital to Become Acting Director of FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products

Michele Mital, the current deputy director for the U.S. Food & Drug Administration’s (FDA) Center for Tobacco Products (CTP), will become the acting director next month, coinciding with the retirement of Mitch Zeller.

FDA confirmed to me that Michele Mital, the deputy director of the Center for Tobacco Products, will become the acting director after Mitch Zeller retires in mid-April.

— Alex Norcia (@Alex_Norcia) March 30, 2022

This is of little surprise given that Mital has held the deputy position since 2018 and is believed to be a leading candidate to replace Zeller on a full-time basis. She has spent more than 25 years at FDA, beginning in 1996 as a policy analyst for FDA”s Office of Tobacco Programs. She joined CTP in 2009 as the acting associate director for policy.

Zeller’s planned retirement became public in December. His tenure began in March 2013 and he has overseen FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products through most of its existence as the department was not established until August 2009. During his tenure, FDA enacted the Deeming Regulations, a set of rules that regulated products like cigars, pipe tobacco and e-cigarettes for the first time in a meaningful way at the federal level. Zeller’s legacy will be defined by both the passing of the deeming regulations, as well as the proliferation of e-cigarettes and vaping products.

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 has said that it plans on banning all flavored cigars and has previously said an update on its proposal would be unveiled this spring.