Altria to pay millions in tobacco user fees

About half of the millions of dollars in fees that will pay for the Food and Drug Administration's regulation of tobacco products will come from Henrico County-based Altria Group Inc.

The FDA this week started collecting fees from the nation's tobacco companies to fund the agency's newly created Center for Tobacco Products. The user fees, which will be collected quarterly, are based on each company's share of the U.S. tobacco market.

The FDA will collect about $23 million for fiscal 2009. That will rise to $235 million in 2010 and grow to $712 million by 2019.

The agency did not disclose the assessments for specific companies, but a spokesman for Altria confirmed reports that the company is responsible for about 50 percent of the total fees. Altria owns Philip Morris USA, the leading cigarette maker with about half of the U.S. market.

Companies started paying the fees this week as the federal government defended itself against a lawsuit challenging some marketing restrictions on tobacco products. A law enacted in June granted the FDA regulatory powers over the industry.

In August, cigarette makers R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. and Lorillard Inc., joined by several other tobacco companies, filed a federal lawsuit in Bowling Green, Ky., to block marketing restrictions that include provisions limiting print tobacco advertising to black and white text.

The companies claim the restrictions violate their right to free speech and restrict their ability to communicate with consumers. Altria and its tobacco subsidiaries are not plaintiffs in the lawsuit.

In a response filed yesterday, the government gave a full-throated defense of the public health interest in the regulations.

"The health risks associated with tobacco use and nicotine addiction are overwhelming and incontrovertible," the government wrote in its response. "Tobacco use is not only deadly but also addictive."

Eleven public health and consumer advocacy groups on Wednesday also asked the federal court to reject the lawsuit, saying the provisions are narrowly tailored to satisfy First Amendment constitutional requirements.

Staff writer John Reid Blackwell and The Associated Press contributed to this report.