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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