The role of the contract research laboratory (CRO) in the tobacco industry is unusual compared to the role of CROs in other industries. Historically, there have been a limited number of tobacco CROs focused on smoke constituent measurement as typical projects were usually related to on-going product stewardship efforts or regulatory compliance programs. In the past, the tobacco industry worked with and relied on CROs to develop testing methods and quality control procedures to measure chemical constituents in their products. Since the industry has historically only had standardized methods for a few compounds, only a small number of CROs developed and implemented validated test methods to serve the tobacco industry. However, in the past few years, there has been a tremendous increase in the number of governmental bodies proposing regulations that would or do require measurement and testing of compounds in tobacco and mainstream smoke. Some of these new regulations include prescribed testing methodology while others greatly expand the number of compounds requiring measurement. This presentation gives a brief historical perspective, addresses the impact of these new requirements, and discusses the changing role of CROs in the tobacco industry.