New FDA tobacco chief named

As chief public-health officer for the Department of Veterans Affairs, Dr. Lawrence Deyton is credited with improving the agency's tobacco-cessation programs for veterans.

Now, Deyton will lead the Food and Drug Administration's newly created Center for Tobacco Products, which is tasked with regulating the $80 billion U.S. tobacco industry.

The FDA announced Deyton's appointment yesterday as director of the center, which will have sweeping influence over the industry by setting standards for tobacco products, reviewing applications for new and reduced-risk products, and enforcing advertising restrictions.

After a more than 10-year lobbying battle, Congress passed legislation this summer granting the FDA regulatory authority over tobacco products. President Barack Obama signed the legislation into law in June.

"We're pleased that the FDA has appointed a new director for the tobacco center, and we look forward to working with him and his colleagues," said David Sutton, a spokesman for Henrico County-based Altria Group Inc., which owns the nation's largest cigarette and smokeless tobacco companies.

Altria, parent company of cigarette maker Philip Morris USA, supported FDA regulation of the industry, but the company has said it has concerns about some aspects of its implementation, such as advertising restrictions.

A phone message left for Deyton yesterday at his Veterans Affairs office was not returned. A spokesman for the FDA said he was not available for comment.

In a statement released by the FDA, Deyton said he was eager to take on the role and called the new tobacco center a tremendous opportunity to combat tobacco use, "the leading cause of preventable death in the United States."

The American Cancer Society and the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids yesterday praised Deyton's appointment to the post. Yet some prominent tobacco-control activists did not immediately recognize his name.

"I don't know him and, in a way, I am glad I don't," said Scott Ballin, a public-health policy consultant and lobbyist on tobacco issues. "One of the things that the whole tobacco-control issue needs is some fresh blood and someone with different skill sets. From what I have seen, Deyton has got them."

For the FDA post, "you need a good manager and someone who understands science," Ballin said.

Deyton most recently served as chief public-health and environmental-hazards officer at the Veterans Health Administration. A medical doctor, he is also a professor at the George Washington University School of Medicine and has served in leadership positions at the National Institutes of Health.

"I think it is fair to say that what stands out in Dr. Deyton's background is a long history of being a senior administrator in the federal government, with a solid record of building and administering new public-health programs," said Matthew Myers, president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids.

The FDA said in a statement that Deyton was chosen for the post partly because he revitalized the VA's tobacco-cessation program. Smoking rates among veterans who enrolled in the program fell from 33 percent in 1999 to 22 percent in 2007, the agency said.

Contact John Reid Blackwell at (804) 775-8123 or .