FDA names 9 of 12 on tobacco advisory panel, sets meeting to begin menthol study

FDA names tobacco panel, sets first meeting

RICHMOND, Va. — The Food and Drug Administration on Monday named its new tobacco advisory panel and said the group is preparing for its first meeting late this month.

The Tobacco Products Scientific Advisory Committee is to focus on the health impacts of menthol in cigarettes when it meets March 30 and March 31. The industry is keeping a close eye on the committee and its recommendations for regulating menthol, which is included in a growing share of the shrinking cigarette market.

The committee of 12, including three yet-to-be-named, nonvoting members representing the tobacco industry, is to advise FDA on a range of issues.

The FDA “will be faced with many challenging tobacco-related public health, science and regulatory issues,” Dr. Lawrence Deyton, director of the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products, said in a statement.

“The breadth of knowledge amassed by this highly qualified group will supplement and enhance the agency’s understanding of tobacco control, prevention and health promotion issues,” Deyton said.

Seven members are health professionals, one represents state governments and one the general public.

Chairing the committee is Dr. Jonathan Samet, director of the University of Southern California’s Institute for Global Health and former director of the Institute for Global Tobacco Control at Johns Hopkins University.

The other members announced Monday are:

— Dr. Neal Benowitz, nicotine and addiction specialist at University of California, San Francisco;

— Dr. Mark Clanton, chief medical officer for American Cancer Society;

— Dr. Gregory Connolly, professor at Harvard University School of Public Health and tobacco control expert;

— Karen DeLeeuw, director of Center for Healthy Living and Chronic Disease Prevention at Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment;

— Dorothy Hatsukami, director of University of Minnesota Transdisciplinary Tobacco Use Research Center;

— Dr. Patricia Nez Henderson, vice president of Black Hills Center for American Indian Health;

— Jack Henningfield, vice president of research and health policy for consumer health company Pinney Associates; and

— Melanie Wakefield, director of Centre for Behavioural Research in Cancer at Cancer Council Victoria, a nonprofit in Australia.

The FDA won the authority in June to regulate tobacco including banning certain products, limiting allowable nicotine and blocking labels such “low tar” and “light” meant to convey that certain products are less harmful.

The law doesn’t let the FDA ban nicotine or tobacco, just regulate what goes into tobacco products, require the ingredients be publicized and limit how tobacco is marketed, especially to young people.