FDA, NIH establish tobacco-research centers

SILVER SPRING, Md. — A new research institution set up by the federal government will conduct tobacco-related research around the country using more than $50 million from the Food and Drug Administration and the National Institutes of Health.

The FDA and NIH announced Thursday the creation of 14 Tobacco Centers of Regulatory Science, which will receive up to $53 million in fiscal year 2013 to conduct the research. The centers, called TCORS, are designed to generate research to inform the regulation of tobacco products to protect public health, under coordination from the NIH's Office of Disease Prevention and administration by the National Cancer Institute, the National Institute on Drug Abuse and the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute.

"For the first time, under the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, the federal government, through the FDA Center for Tobacco Products, is able to bring science-based regulation to the manufacturing, marketing and distribution of tobacco products," FDA commissioner Margaret Hamburg said. "The FDA is committed to a science-based approach that addresses the complex public health issues raised by tobacco product regulation."

TCORS will include scientists with expertise in epidemiology, behavior, biology, medicine, economics, chemistry, toxicology, addictions, public health, communications and marketing.