By Associated Press,
Mitch Zeller will become the center’s director on March 4, FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg said in an internal memo sent late Thursday and confirmed by The Associated Press.
The center was created following a 2009 law gave the FDA authority to regulate a number of aspects of tobacco marketing and manufacturing, though the agency cannot ban nicotine or cigarettes outright. Its first chief, Dr. Lawrence Deyton, plans to step down and become a professor of medicine and health policy at George Washington University, Hamburg said.