Washington (AP) – Food and Drug Administration The chief tobacco regulator was removed from his post in the middle of scanning cuts to the agency and through Federal health workforce Transmitted Tuesday, according to people familiar with the issue.
In an email to the staff, the FDA tobacco director, Brian King, said: “It was with a heavy heart and a deep disappointment that I share, I was placed on administrative leave.”
King was withdrawn from his post and offered a reallocation to the Indian health service, according to a person familiar with the question that did not have permission to discuss the case publicly and spoke under the cover of anonymity.
Dozens of staff members of the FDA tobacco center also received dismissal notices on Tuesday morning, including the entire office responsible for the application of tobacco regulations.
King, who joined the agency in 2022, was vigorously criticized by the vaping of lobbyists for ordering the thousands of companies to remove their electronic cigarettes with fruit and candy on the market. During his stay at the FDA, the Vapot for adolescents fell to a hollow of 10 years.
His dismissal comes a few days after The FDA vaccine chief, Dr. Peter Marks was forced to go out, citing the support of the Secretary of Health, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., at the “disinformation and lie” vaccine in his letter of resignation.
The latest changes mean that almost all the main FDA leaders supervising drugs, food, vaccines, medical devices and now tobacco products have resigned or withdrawn in recent months.
The leadership vacuum cleaner comes as Kennedy moves to draw 3,500 FDA staff members And advance with plans to examine ultra-transformed foods, infant vaccines, antidepressants and other long-established established products.
The wave of departures means entering FDA Commissioner Marty Makary – which was confirmed last week – will inherit an agency without many of its best experts and a besieged workforce which was shaken by weeks of layoffs and a Chaotic process of returning to the office. Only a handful of FDA employees are people appointed by policies, with almost all the scientific exams and decisions of the agency supervised by career officials.
Neither Makary nor Kennedy said much about how tobacco policy is part of their plan to “make America again healthy”. Despite historically low smoking rates, tobacco -related diseases remain the main cause of preventable death in the country, blamed for more than 490,000 per year.
In recent years, the FDA tobacco center has been besieged by criticisms of all parties, including congress legislators, anti-tabac defenders and tobacco and vaping companies.
Politicians, parents and anti-Tobacco groups want the FDA to do more to eliminate unauthorized vaping products that can appeal to adolescents, many of which are imported from China. Tobacco and vaping companies say that the FDA has been too slow to approve more recent products for adult smokers – including electronic cigarettes – which generally have much lower risks than traditional cigarettes.
Under King, the FDA rejected applications for millions of flavored electronic cigarettes, citing insufficient data that products would help adult smokers without becoming popular with minor children. These refusals resulted in multiple proceedings against the FDA of vape manufacturers, one of which was pleaded before the Supreme Court in December.
The VAPORT Technology Association, a group of industry, has disseminated Trump -urging advertisements to pursue a campaign commitment it has made to “save the flavored vaping industry”.
The FDA has authorized a handful of electronic cigarettes for adults, mainly major vaping brands belonging to inherited tobacco companies, including the vuse of RJ Reynold and Njoy of Altria.
The other recent departures of the FDA include:
– The assistant food commissioner Jim Jones, resigned in February after dozens of his employees were dismissed.
– Director of the FDA medication center, Dr. Patrizia Cavazzoni, who resigned a few days before President Donald Trump took office.
– The second agency manager. Dr. Namandje Bumpus, who resigned at the end of last year.
– Longtime director of FDA medical devices, Dr. Jeffrey Shuren, who retired last summer.
Many senior deputies and scientists have also withdrawn or resigned in recent weeks.
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