In July 2022, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner, Dr. Robert Califf, released a public statement saying the agency “has confronted a series of challenges that have tested our regulatory frameworks and stressed the agency’s operations.” As such, Commissioner Califf was “prompt[ed] . . . to take a closer look at how [FDA does] business.” To this end, Commissioner Califf commissioned external agency experts to conduct a comprehensive evaluation of the Agency’s Center for Tobacco Products (CTP), given the growing concerns from a chorus of industry and public health stakeholders about CTP’s approach to the regulation and enforcement of tobacco products. In Commissioner Califf’s statement, he noted that CTP has “greater challenges . . . ahead as we . . . navigate complex policy issues and determine enforcement activities for an increasing number of novel products that could potentially have significant consequences for public health.”
Big Tobacco Bill, A Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing
Aesop wrote a famous fable about the wolf who donned sheep’s clothing to conceal his true nature long before society coined “catfishing” and “gas lighting”
