Is The FDA's Caution Hazardous To Our Health?

NPR ^ | 05/14/13 | NPR Staff

[oxcart]

When it comes to approving new medical treatments, the Food and Drug Administration is balancing the need for patient safety against the urgency of making important new treatments available as quickly as possible.

Some argue the FDA sets the bar too high, requiring a process that takes too much time and money to carry out. They say that can leave patients waiting longer than necessary for promising treatments or lead to drugs not being developed at all.

But others counter that letting drugs on the market before it's known whether they truly help or hurt patients is a serious risk. They argue that the FDA actually has a high rate of approving new drugs — and that in critical cases, that process can be accelerated.

A team of experts recently faced off two against two for an Intelligence Squared U.S. debate on the motion "The FDA's Caution Is Hazardous to Our Health."

[i_robot73]

Interesting. My copy of ‘the ol’ rag’ doesn’t include an FDA authorization.

Either way, of course it’s too big and too slow to adapt to any needed changes in the fields is has been ‘granted domain’ over.

We have a plethora of incarcerated and/or dying Citizens who would gladly sign up for human testing if it meant reduced sentences and/or a cure to what ails ‘em. But, it’s got to get their thugs to churn the $$ machine from ‘big pharm’