FDA tobacco official is removed from post in latest blow to health agency's leadership

WASHINGTON — The Food and Drug Administration’s chief tobacco regulator was removed from his post Tuesday, part of sweeping cuts to the federal health workforce that have cleared out many of the nation’s top experts overseeing food, drugs, vaccines and products containing nicotine.

The agency’s tobacco director, Brian King, notified his staff in an email: ‘’It is with a heavy heart and profound disappointment that I share I have been placed on administrative leave.‘’

Dozens of other employees in FDA’s tobacco center also received notices Tuesday morning that they were being dismissed, including two entire offices responsible for drafting new tobacco regulations and setting policy.

‘‘If you make it virtually impossible to create and draft policy, then you are eviscerating the role of the center,‘’ Mitch Zeller, the FDA’s former tobacco chief, said in an interview. ‘’From a public health perspective it makes absolutely no sense.‘’

Elsewhere at the FDA, the entire press office was also given notice. Senior officials who help oversee new drug reviews and vaccines were also let go, according to FDA staffers who spoke on condition of anonymity because they did not have permission to speak publicly.

King, who joined the agency in 2022, has been vigorously criticized by vaping lobbyists for ordering thousands of companies to remove their fruit and candy-flavored e-cigarettes from the market. During his time at FDA, teen vaping has fallen to a 10-year low.

His removal comes just days after FDA vaccine chief Dr. Peter Marks was forced out, citing Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s support for vaccine ‘’misinformation and lies’’ in his resignation letter.

The latest changes mean that nearly all of FDA’s top leaders overseeing drugs, food, vaccines, medical devices and now tobacco products have turned over in recent months, mainly through resignations and retirements.

Former FDA Commissioner Robert Califf said in an online post that ‘’history will see this as a huge mistake.‘’

'‘The FDA as we’ve known it is finished, with most of the leaders with institutional knowledge and a deep understanding of product development and safety no longer employed," said Califf, who stepped down at the end of the Biden administration.

The leadership vacuum comes as Kennedy moves to fire 3,500 FDA staffers and pushes ahead with plans to scrutinize ultraprocessed foods, childhood vaccines, antidepressants and other long-established products.

The wave of departures means incoming FDA commissioner Marty Makary — who was confirmed last week — inherits an agency without many of its top experts and a beleaguered workforce that has been rocked by weeks of layoffs and a chaotic return-to-office process. Only a handful of FDA employees are political appointees, with nearly all of the agency’s scientific reviews and decisions overseen by career officials.

During his confirmation hearing, Makary told Senate lawmakers he wanted to ‘’conduct an assessment’’ of recent probationary layoffs at the agency.

Neither Makary nor Kennedy have said much about how tobacco policy fits into their plan to ‘’Make America Healthy Again.‘’ Despite historically low rates of smoking, tobacco-related diseases remain the nation’s leading preventable cause of death, blamed for more than 490,000 annually.

In recent years, the FDA’s tobacco center has been besieged by criticism from all sides.

Politicians, parents and anti-tobacco groups want the FDA to do more to stamp out unauthorized vaping products that can appeal to teens, many of which are imported from China. Tobacco and vaping companies say the FDA has been too slow to approve newer products for adult smokers — including e-cigarettes — that generally carry much lower risks than traditional cigarettes.

Under King, the FDA rejected applications for millions of flavored e-cigarettes, citing insufficient data that the products would help adult smokers. Those rejections have resulted in multiple lawsuits against FDA from vape makers, including one that was argued before the Supreme Court in December.

The Vapor Technology Association, an industry group highly critical of King’s leadership, said in a statement that his removal ‘’is the first step in correcting the broken mindset that has crippled the FDA and the Center for Tobacco Products over the past four years.‘’

Other recent departures of FDA leaders include:

— Deputy commissioner for foods, Jim Jones, who resigned in February after dozens of his staffers were fired.

— The director of FDA’s drug center, Dr. Patrizia Cavazzoni, who stepped down days before President Donald Trump took office.

— The agency’s second-ranking official, Dr. Namandje Bumpus, who resigned late last year.

— FDA’s longtime medical devices director, Dr. Jeffrey Shuren, who retired last summer.

Many deputies and senior scientists have also retired or stepped down in recent weeks.

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