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FDA’s Top Tobacco Official Removed Amid Leadership Changes

Sweeping cuts were handed down on Tuesday across the federal health workforce, including the removal of the Food and Drug Administration's chief tobacco regulator, Brian King.
These cuts follow the departure of 10,000 workers who left the Department of Health and Human Services voluntarily, amounting to approximately a quarter of its original staff, and come as the CDC announced it was pulling $80 million in pandemic grants for the state.
Brian King, who joined the FDA in 2022, has been placed on administrative leave and was offered reassignment to the Indian Health Service after ordering thousands of companies to remove their fruit and candy-flavored e-cigarettes from the market, a move that vaping lobbyists vigorously criticized.
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Released a video announcing the cutbacks, which are projected to save close to $2 billion a year, while pushing ahead with plans to scrutinize ultra-processed foods, childhood vaccines, and antidepressants.
The FDA now faces a leadership vacuum and a beleaguered workforce due to weeks of layoffs and a chaotic return-to-office process, resulting in the departure of nearly all of its top leaders, including Dr. Peter Marks, who cited Kennedy's support for vaccine misinformation in his resignation letter, and incoming commissioner Marty Makary will inherit an agency without many of its top experts, potentially leading to a scientific brain drain as European institutions actively recruit American researchers.

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FDA Tobacco Head Brian King Among Casualties of Mass HHS Layoffs

On April 1, Dr. Brian King, the controversial director of the Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Tobacco Products (CTP), whose responsibilities included overseeing the authorization or rejection of vaping products for sale in the United States, emailed his staff. “It is with a heavy heart and profound disappointment that I share I have been placed on administrative leave,” he wrote. According to the Associated Press, King was offered reas…

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FDA's Top Tobacco Official Removed From Post

FDA tobacco director Brian King was removed from his post and dozens of staffers in FDA’s tobacco center also received notices of dismissal, including the entire office responsible for drafting new tobacco regulations.

2 days ago·Washington, United States

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FDA Chief Tobacco Regulator Brian King Removed Amid Sweeping Agency Cuts

Brian King, the FDA’s chief tobacco regulator, has been placed on administrative leave amid sweeping cuts across the agency and the federal health workforce. King joined the FDA in 2022. King has been offered reassignment to the Indian Health Service, as confirmed by sources fami

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