[tenger]

The problem is the FDA. When it costs a pharma $500 million to $1 billion to get a drug to market, there’s a serious problem. Get the gov. out of the way and reduce the time and money it takes to get a viable, effective drug to the patients.

[PapaBear3625]

The problem is the FDA. When it costs a pharma $500 million to $1 billion to get a drug to market, there’s a serious problem. Get the gov. out of the way and reduce the time and money it takes to get a viable, effective drug to the patients.

A bigger problem is the tort lawyers. A big part of that $1B is making enough clinical tests to try to convince a jury that the company did all it could to anticipate adverse effects.

Tort reform would be needed, where jury awards would be capped at $1M for death/total-disability due to adverse drug effect, and going down from there.

[Cobra64]

The problem is the FDA. When it costs a pharma $500 million to $1 billion to get a drug to market, there’s a serious problem. Get the gov. out of the way and reduce the time and money it takes to get a viable, effective drug to the patients.

It's a shame more people here don't understand business, and the pharma industry in particular. The Feds force them to tie up that working capital for years before allowing them to release the new drug. Furthermore, the drug companies bake the lost opportunity costs of delays and the generics into their strategic pricing plan.

If the primary drug companies went out of business two things will happen:

1) No more R&D and new drugs on the market.

2) Generic drug companies will have nothing to copy-cat, so they're gone too.