New FDA-NIH Tobacco Research Initiative Is Critical Investment in Fighting Nation’s Top Cause of Preventable Death

WASHINGTON, DC – Today, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced that, as part of an interagency partnership, they have awarded up to $53 million in fiscal year 2013 to fund tobacco-related research and create 14 Tobacco Centers of Regulatory Science (TCORS). The agencies announced that they will invest a potential total of more than $273 million in this research initiative over the next five years. Funding is provided by tobacco industry user fees established by the 2009 law granting the FDA authority over tobacco products.

This is a critical investment in research needed to inform FDA’s regulation of tobacco products and accelerate progress in reducing tobacco use, which is the number one cause of preventable death in the U.S.

Because of research like this, agencies charged with protecting public health may finally know as much as the tobacco industry about how tobacco products are made, their health effects, how they are marketed and who uses them.

This information will help guide regulatory action to end the scourge of tobacco use and help public health regulators respond quickly and effectively to changes in the tobacco marketplace.

More information can be found through the FDA-NIH press release.