>> ABC News last night was suggesting that this was a major drug disaster that yet again called into question the FDA's competency. <<
I meet a wide variety of individuals, crossing lots of society's corners. It is the GENERAL BELIEF, among those who I meet, that medicines are poisons with benefit. But when an alarmist goes all Politico-Hollywood on us? Poof, it's lawsuit time, brains in neutral!
I worked at a pharma, in R&D. The entire story was about finding good medicines. It's not about a bunch of cloaked mad men, huddled around steamy cauldrons and driven by marketing managers. And FDA? The agency serves a dual purpose.... it controls the gate to medical innovation (given the contribution of U.S. markets to total), and it must assure safety. Tough job, and FDA has set the performance standard for a slug of years.
In recent years, the U.S. regulatory environment is looking a tad irrationally tight. We are going out of our way to make our markets unattractive, and to simultaneously enrich plaintiff's attorneys. |
