One Century of FDA Tyranny
It's the centennial of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). FDA workers are
even singing an anthem, written by an employee, to commemorate the event. The
"FDA Centennial Anthem," posted proudly at the FDA's Web site, begins:
"One century past, a people's hope fulfilled
By an act conceived for safe medicine and food
Protecting rights that our founding fathers willed
To life and liberty, to happiness pursued."
Of course, these lines are Orwellian nonsense. If you truly have a right to
life and liberty and the pursuit of happiness, then you have the right to
market and purchase medicines and foods of your choosing. A huge, monolithic
federal bureaucracy that prohibits free choice in such matters is the very
opposite of this.
It should be further noted that, despite claims that it protects the safety of
Americans, the FDA has actually killed hundreds of thousands of people by its
drug regulations.
An article in the July-August 2005 Freeman magazine, "The FDA Cannot Be
Reformed," by Arthur E. Foulkes, points out a few examples:
"[T]he FDA for many years prohibited aspirin makers from advertising the
potential cardiovascular benefits of their product since the agency had not
originally approved it for that purpose and despite widespread knowledge that
aspirin therapy could significantly reduce the risk of heart attack in males
over 50. In the words of economist Paul H. Rubin, "The FDA surely killed tens,
and quite possibly hundreds, of thousands of Americans by this restriction
alone."
"In another example, the FDA approved the gastric ulcer drug Misoprostol in
1988 -- three years after it had been available in other countries. Analyst Sam
Kazman estimated -- using the FDA's own figures -- that this delay may have led
to between 20,000 and 50,000 unnecessary deaths."
There are many other examples.
FDA regulations have made introducing a new drug into the U.S. more lengthy,
difficult, and expensive than anywhere else in the world. Says Foulkes: "It now
typically takes between ten and 15 years to bring a new drug to the U.S. market
at a cost of over $800 million."
This, of course, jacks up drug costs and dramatically lowers the number of new
drugs introduced into the United States, thus depriving Americans of beneficial
and even life-saving drugs. The Cato Institute cites Robert Goldberg of
Brandeis University: "By a conservative estimate, FDA delays in allowing U.S.
marketing of drugs used safely and effectively elsewhere around the world have
cost the lives of at least 200,000 Americans over the past 30 years."
The FDA is inconsistent with a free society, and an actual menace to all
Americans. It is unnecessary, to boot. There are free-market methods of
protecting consumers from dangerous drugs, while also allowing consumer freedom
of choice and not stifling the creativity and ingenuity of scientists and
researchers. (Some alternatives to the FDA are discussed in Foulke's Freeman
article, and in another Freeman article, both linked below.)
A century of bad policy and hundreds of thousands of unnecessary deaths and
untold suffering is enough. It's past time to say goodbye to the FDA.
(Sources: The Freeman:
http://www.fee.org/pdf/the-freeman/foulkes0705.pdf
http://www.fee.org/publications/the-freeman/article.asp?aid=2299
Washington Post:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/30/AR2006073000699.html
The Independent Institute:
http://www.fdareview.org/harm.shtml
Cato Institute: http://www.cato.org/dailys/1-29-97.html)
I happen to take one of the drugs - inderol - that the FDA held up for ten years with its stupid bureaucratic regulations. An estimated 40,000 people who might have been protected by this drug died of stroke during that ten years.
We are poorer for the lack their contributions to our families, society, knowledge and economy due to the unnecessary shortening of their lives.
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