FDA Names New CTP Director
Photo courtesy of Robert Califf’s Twitter
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has named Brian A. King as the new Center for Tobacco Products (CTP) director.
“After a robust executive search, I have selected Dr. Brian A. King as FDA’s new Center for Tobacco Products Director,” Robert Califf wrote on Twitter. “Dr. King brings extensive and impressive expertise in tobacco prevention and control and has broad familiarity with FDA from his more than 10-year tenure at CDC.”
King is the deputy director for research translation in the Office on Smoking and Health (OSH) within the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In this capacity, he is responsible for providing scientific leadership and technical expertise to CDC/OSH, the lead federal agency for comprehensive tobacco prevention and control.
King joined the CDC in 2010 as an epidemic intelligence service officer before which he worked as a research affiliate in the Division of Cancer Prevention and Population Sciences at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center in Buffalo, New York. During his time at Roswell Park, his primary research focus related to tobacco prevention and control.
King has worked for over 15 years to provide sound scientific evidence to inform tobacco control policy and to effectively communicate this information to key stakeholders, including decision makers, the media and the general public. He has authored or co-authored over 200 peer-reviewed scientific articles pertaining to tobacco prevention and control, was a contributing author to the “50th Anniversary Surgeon General’s Report on Smoking and Health,” was the lead author of CDC’s 2014 update to the evidence-based state guide, “Best Practices for Comprehensive Tobacco Control Programs,” and was the senior associate editor of the 2016 Surgeon General’s report, “E-cigarette Use Among Youth and Young Adults” and the 2020 Surgeon General’s report, “Smoking Cessation.” He was also the renior official for the CDC’s emergency response to the 2019 outbreak of e-cigarette, or vaping, product use-associated lung injury.
King holds a doctorate degree and a Master of Public Health degree in epidemiology from the State University of New York at Buffalo.
