LogFAQs > #957430682

Zeus posted...

But, besides those particular challenges, the FDA is both sloppy and untrustworthy. The FDA has consistently failed to do its job on both fronts -- they failed to assess safety properly, and they blocked life-saving medication from going to market, killing many. Even worse, they initiated programs that gave rights to medications used for thousands of years -- things that cost basically nothing -- to drug companies who charged a small fortune, even when the testing program had no direct connection to what they were taking the rights for.

The entire organization needs to be gutted, and some of its leaders should be probably be criminally investigated to see how they may have profited from interactions with drug companies, etc.

Oh yeah, there's plenty of room to criticize and improve the FDA. The US pharmaceutical industry is a hot, corrupt mess. The fact that post-approval issues arise isn't necessarily cause to distrust them, though. That's just the nature of trials: You're always going to have a more limited scope in trials than you see when the product hits shelves, no matter how hard you try. Establishing robust standards for how hard manufacturers have to try is still important, and the FDA's been eroding those standards for some time, but problems are always going to slip through.

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