• Posted April 2, 2025

FDA Removes Top Expert on Vaping and Tobacco

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) top tobacco regulator, Brian King, has been placed on leave as part of a large wave of cuts across federal health agencies. 

King, who led the FDA's tobacco control efforts, told his staff Tuesday that he was removed with “a heavy heart and profound disappointment.”

“If you make it virtually impossible to create and draft policy, then you are eviscerating the role of the center,” Mitch Zeller, the FDA’s former tobacco chief, said in an interview with The Associated Press. “From a public health perspective it makes absolutely no sense.”

King joined the FDA in 2022 and became a target of vaping industry criticism for ordering thousands of flavored e-cigarettes off the market. During his tenure, teen vaping dropped to its lowest level in 10 years.

His removal follows the recent resignation of vaccine chief Dr. Peter Marks, who said he could no longer support the Trump administration’s promotion of vaccine misinformation.

The FDA has seen a major leadership turnover in recent months. Top officials overseeing drugs, food, vaccines and medical devices have either resigned or retired. In an online post, former FDA Commissioner Robert Califf said “history will see this as a huge mistake,” The Associated Press reported.

“The FDA as we’ve known it is finished, with most of the leaders with institutional knowledge and a deep understanding of product development and safety no longer employed,” Califf, who stepped down at the end of the Biden administration, said.

The cuts dovetail with a push by U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to fire 3,500 FDA workers and investigate common products like vaccines, antidepressants and ultraprocessed foods.

New FDA Commissioner Marty Makary now goes to work with many of his agency’s top experts gone and employees rattled with uncertainty.

Makary told senators during his confirmation hearing that he plans to “conduct an assessment” of the recent job cuts.

The FDA’s tobacco center has faced pressure from politicians, parents, as well as anti-tobacco groups.

Critics say the agency has been too slow to approve low-risk products for adults, while anti-vaping advocates say more should be done to stop illegal products aimed at kids and teens.

While smoking rates are at historic lows, tobacco-related diseases still kill over 480,000 Americans each year, according the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. E-cigarettes were once promoted as a tool to help people quit tobacco.

Under King’s leadership, the FDA rejected millions of flavored e-cigarettes, saying there wasn’t enough evidence they helped adult smokers quit, according to The Associated Press.

The Vapor Technology Association, a group representing vape companies, called King’s removal "the first step in correcting the broken mindset that has crippled the FDA and the Center for Tobacco Products over the past four years.”

More information

The American Lung Association has more on the health risks of e-cigarettes and vaping. 

SOURCE: The Associated Press, April 1, 2025