Ra (LSE:RAI)
Historical Stock Chart

From Jun 2019 to Jun 2024

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.

Hamburg said the FDA is also reorganizing the commissioner's office to help the agency communicate issues to the public and better oversee industry.

The FDA will begin a nationwide search for a deputy commissioner for food safety, a new position. This new position will "be very important as part of our overall effort to modernize and strengthen food safety," Hamburg told a group of medical experts who met Monday to discuss the state of science at the FDA.

The group met to discuss several issues, including the FDA's information technology efforts and Bisphenol-A, a chemical used to harden plastics that can be found in baby bottles, sunglasses and food containers.

The FDA has been reviewing the safety of BPA for over a year amid some studies showing the chemical can cause developmental health effects. Chemical companies and several foreign health agencies have said the level of BPA found in current food products isn't high enough for concern.

The FDA has said BPA is safe at current levels in food products but has been criticized for relying too heavily on industry-funded studies.

Hamburg, in one of her first appearances before Congress after being confirmed, said she put the FDA's acting chief scientist in charge of reviewing the FDA's stance on the chemical.

Jesse Goodman, acting chief scientist, said the FDA is still reviewing studies on BPA and will make a final recommendation in November.

-By Jared A. Favole, Dow Jones Newswires; 202.862.9207; jared.favole@dowjones.com