VCU Center Receives $19.78M Award for Tobacco Regulatory Data

We have definitely noticed in recent months the increased use of electronic tobacco products lately. While taking a lunchtime stroll down the sidewalks around our offices here in Bethesda, Md., we’ll typically see at least one user of these product releasing the tale-tell plume of odorless smoke. That’s why it piqued our interest when we saw that the Center for the Study of Tobacco Products at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) recently received a $19.78 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Center for Tobacco Products to launch a study on tobacco products, including e-cigarettes.

But these grant funds aren’t going to be used as we first would have thought.

When we first found out about this, we assumed the grant was to see the effects on the human body caused by these products. However, this grant has a broader purpose. The award is for a five-year project focused on predicting the outcomes of government regulations on tobacco products, including electronic tobacco products. The center is one of nine nationwide that works with NIH and the FDA to ensure U.S. tobacco regulatory actions and activities are based on sound and relevant scientific evidence.

According to Thomas Eisenberg, Ph.D., director of the center and professor in the VCU Department of Psychology, the goal “is to be able to give FDA a suite of tools that they can use to predict if a potential tobacco product regulation will achieve its intended consequences, and also if it might have unintended consequences before that regulation goes into effect. We’re trying to inform regulations that protect the health of nonsmokers who might be encouraged by marketing to try electronic cigarettes or other tobacco products, and also protect the health of smokers by making sure that if they were to use an electronic cigarette in an attempt to get off tobacco cigarettes, that they're not using something that is also harmful to their health.”

As part of the grant, VCU’s center will test potential regulations of tobacco products in a series of lab studies, some focused on engineering and the mechanics of the product, some focused on “abuse liability” (i.e., how likely users are to become dependent on a product), and some focused on the effects of tobacco products on people who use them. Their research likely will assess the increasing use of e-cigarettes by teenagers, which we’ve also noticed locally.

According to the VCU public affairs department, the nearly $20 million grant is the third largest NIH award in the school’s history. It will be interesting to see what they find in their research, and hopefully, it will provide the necessary data that can be used when making regulatory decisions about these products.

As a reminder, our final Federal Funding Training Forum scheduled for 2018 will be Wednesday October 17 through Friday October 19 in Atlanta. Please let me know if you have questions or can make this forum. We hope to see you there!

http://www.federalgrantsforum.com/atlanta/index.html?src=EC

In addition, we are now offering a procurement boot camp Wednesday October 24 in Washington, D.C. Feel free to contact us if you are interested in this program!

http://www.thompsongrantsworkshop.com/dcprocurement2018/index.html