Name: Anonymous 2006-09-02 2:26
In a recent article in the Liberator Online, the newsletter for the Advocates for Self-Government (http://www.self-gov.org/), a libertarian organization:
" 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 )"
If you would be interested in subscribing to the Liberator Online, you can access it here:
http://www.theadvocates.org/publications/liberator-online.html