A Break Is Given!

My favorite TeeVee news personality is on my favorite soapbox.

John Stossel blasts the FDA in a second column in two weeks, hitting a personal favorite, private competition to the FDA

Why must we give big government so much power? Couldn't FDA scrutiny be voluntary and advisory? Companies that want government blessing would go through the whole process and, after 10 or 15 years, get the FDA's seal of approval. Those of us who are cautious would take only FDA-approved drugs.

But if you had a terminal illness, you could try something that might save your life. You could try it without having to wait 15 years — without having to break your country's laws to import it illegally from Europe — without sneaking into Mexico to experiment in some dubious clinic. If I'm dying, shouldn't my government allow me the right to try whatever I want?

If FDA scrutiny were voluntary, the government agency would soon have competition. Private groups like Consumer Reports and Underwriters Laboratories (UL) might step in to compete with the FDA. The UL symbol is already on thousands of products. No government force was required. Yet even though UL certification is voluntary, its safety standards are so commonly accepted that most stores won't carry products without the UL symbol.

With such competition, the FDA might devise a ratings system ("general use," "medical guidance suggested," "patients strongly cautioned," or something like that), and drug packages would carry that information. We'd know that the government was evaluating new drugs, but government wouldn't stand between lifesaving treatments and us. Most of us, most of the time, would take the government's advice, but because it would be our choice, we could try new or risky drugs when nothing government-approved was available.

I had suggested privatization before, but I like the idea of a voluntary FDA. As long as they are no longer empowered to remove compounds from the market, I'd even fund them.

ADDITIONAL NOTE: Stossel's book is very good. It's a ot more accessible than Hayek or Mises, yet it gives a pretty good overview of most of my basic beliefs. Billy-Jo-JK-Bob gives it Five stars!

Pharmaceuticals Posted by jk at June 8, 2005 11:46 AM