Bret
Koplow
Ph.D., J.D.
Leadership Role
Acting
Director - Center for Tobacco Products
Dr. Bret Koplow serves as Acting Director of the Center for Tobacco Products. The Center is responsible for carrying out the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, which Congress passed in 2009. This law—commonly called the Tobacco Control Act—provides broad authority to regulate the manufacturing, distribution, and marketing of tobacco products. CTP takes a comprehensive approach to reducing the negative health effects of tobacco product use. The Center develops policy, issues regulations, conducts research, educates the public on tobacco products, and reviews and evaluates new tobacco product applications and claims before they may be lawfully marketed. This comprehensive approach advances public health by discouraging people from starting to use tobacco products, encouraging those who use tobacco to quit or switch to lower risk alternatives, and reducing the harmful consequences of tobacco use.
Dr. Koplow joined CTP from the Immediate Office of the Commissioner, where since early 2020 he had served as Senior Counselor to the Commissioner, a role in which he focused principally on regulatory, policy, and operational matters before CTP. Before joining the Commissioner’s Immediate Office, Dr. Koplow served as Senior Counsel in the Immediate Office of FDA’s Office of the Chief Counsel, before which he served in the FDA’s Office of Legislation as the Senior Advisor for Oversight. Prior to joining the FDA in 2011, Dr. Koplow practiced food and drug law as a partner in the Washington DC offices of international law firms. He graduated with honors from the University of Chicago Law School and has a Ph.D. in clinical psychology. Before going to law school, Dr. Koplow was a clinical psychologist, in which capacity he most recently directed the Divisions of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at Case Western Reserve School of Medicine and University Hospitals of Cleveland.