According to foreign media reports, when Mitch Zeller retired in April, the FDA's Center for Tobacco Products appointed current CTP Deputy Director Michele Mital as acting director. The agency is currently searching for a permanent director.
On March 31, 2022, FDA Tracker reported on this news for the first time in a tweet, and received confirmation from Filter reporter Alex Norcia after speaking with FDA officials. An official announcement has not yet been released.
According to a paid report by ECig Intelligence on March 25th, Mital is the most likely candidate to take on the permanent position, although other applications are still under review. ECig Intelligence suggests that with her 25-year history at the organization, she is considered as "safe hands.
Whoever is appointed as a permanent director must receive approval from newly-appointed FDA commissioner Robert Califf and Department of Health and Human Services secretary Xavier Becerra, both of whom are skeptical and hostile towards e-cigarettes. In recent years, both have advocated for a complete ban of flavored products.
Mital joined the FDA in 1996 and has served in multiple positions, including in the legislative office. Since the establishment of CTP in 2009, Mital has worked there in various capacities, and was appointed Deputy Director in 2018.
Mitch Zeller has been serving as the director of the Center for Tobacco Products (CTP) since 2013, making him the second person to hold the position since the CTP was established in 2009. He has led the organization as it granted itself regulatory authority over electronic cigarettes under the estimated rules of 2016, and oversaw the implementation of a chaotic pre-market review process.
After a year-long review of Pre-Market Tobacco Applications (PMTAs), the agency issued millions of standardized marketing denial orders (MDOs) to hundreds of small e-cigarette manufacturers, effectively eliminating over 99% of the legal e-cigarette market. The FDA is now facing dozens of legal challenges from independent e-cigarette manufacturers, and has been forced to rescind some MDOs while others are pending in federal court.
Since the submission deadline for Pre-Market Tobacco Product Applications (PMTA) in September 2020, the agency has only authorized three types of electronic cigarette devices.
(Source: Vaping360)
The Deputy Director of the Center for Tobacco Products (CTP) will act as the interim Director when the current Director, Zeller, retires. This move was announced in the vaping industry news platform, Vaping360.
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