Having said that, the FDA sometimes does seem to look the other way on certain products and then they jump on the public tarring and feathering of other products because of widely publicized anecdotes. The last thing we need is Congress pretending to know anything about how drugs are developed and tested, sticking their dirty little fingers into the process.
IMHO I believe that's already happened and is happening even now. One of the hidden fatalities against these law suits are products that never come to be, or that may only come into being many, many years down the road.
Money that companies would have used in R&D, et. al. gets gobbled up paying up, buying off, and/or going to court. The ultimate winner? The tort lawyers. The ultimate victim? The person whose quality of life would have been improved (dramatically) for the better.
Exactly. It's the reason we have little flu vaccine this year. It was outsourced to escape trial lawyers
But this article is a way over the top. Accutane has been on the market for over 20 years. Does it have side effects? Yes. But compared to the average birth control pill, these effects are doodly. BCP are way more dangerous but you won't hear about that.
All in all I would trust the FDA more than Congress. Back in the 80's the Congress listened to Jack Klugman's (he played Quincy on the TV show and did an episode on orphan drugs) testimony on orphan drugs before making their decision. That is very scary.