Posted on 12/14/2015 10:24:04 AM PST by reaganaut1
Imagine if you were faced with this situation. Your doctor, after running a battery of tests on your six year-old daughter, tells you that she is suffering from a rare cancer that is almost invariably fatal.
"But there must be something doctor," you blurt out. "Aren't there some new drugs available that work in at least some cases?"
The doctor replies, "Yes, there are some drugs that do show promise in treating your daughter's cancer. The problem is that they have not yet been approved by the Food and Drug Administration and therefore I can't get any of them. And even if I could, I'd lose my license if I prescribed one of them for you."
You reply, "Is there anything we can do?"
"The drugs that might help her are available in other countries," he replies. "If you can afford to leave the U.S. and seek treatment in Europe or Israel, she would have a chance."
Conversations like that happen many times every year in the United States. After hearing that a loved one's survival is in jeopardy because some federal officials have created a bottleneck for new drugs, people think that something is very wrong. I suspect that even the most dedicated "progressives" who otherwise believe that Americans should never doubt the wisdom and beneficence of federal regulators, would in that situation think, "This is intolerable. I should be free to try to save her life."
The problem with giving FDA officials exclusive power to approve or deny drugs for use in the nation has been understood for a long time. Austrian School and public choice economists pointed out decades ago that government bureaucrats frequently have incentives that are opposed to what many of the people they ostensibly work for actually want.
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
I’ve seen a number of these heart-string pulling articles now in regard to this.
This is not coincidence.
What law is being pushed and who is behind it?
“Conversations like that happen many times every year in the United States”
I call Hog Wash.
Has it been pushed since 1992?
'(See, e.g., "Drug Approval Overregulation" by Michael R. Ward in Regulation magazine in 1992.)'
FDA kills kids Nanny State PING!
I thought there were changes in laws (Fed/ healthcare) concerning experimental drug use, but can only find articles about states attempting to make local change.
Of course there still is the problem (as with the ebola drug) of limited availability.
A quarter century old article?
I’m talking what law is being pushed now?
This sounds just like the AIDS drug push of a few decades ago, in rhetoric.
There were changes for AIDS drugs. That was a while ago.
There’s a lobbying effort going on, clearly. I’m curious as to what it us about and who it is for.
It’s a crisis! Quick! Let’s set up another government program.
Maybe Ted Cruz should add the FDA to the list of federal bureaucracies to get rid of when he becomes President.
Yeah, but no, I just looked up “experimental drug law changes” and got hits about states proposing that use be allowed.
It might just be the manner in which to make the query.
Think what I recall was due to the experimental ebola drug not being released...
IMO next to the government & the unions, Big Pharma is the next worst corrupt institution.
Thanks.
“Big Pharma is the next worst corrupt institution.”
That is definitely the leftist/liberal position.
Why do you agree with them?
If it’s true, it’s true...whether stated by a leftist or conservative.
Ed
Agreed.
Yes. If it’s true, it’s true.
I am asking you why you think it is true?
It isn’t hogwash. It happens. There are treatments for lots of things available, just not in the US. That’s why medical tourism is a business.
Ask anyone with chronic pain how hard it is to get pain medicine.
What medicine for chronic pain is available outside the US not here?
The article was addressing cancer treatment.
What treatments not available here is it referring to?
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