FDA Funding Swells

Bloomberg - Are you a robot??

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It looks like they are jacking up FDA funding so they can do more overseas inspections. That doesn’t sit right with me at all. Our government should not be helping to import food and drugs from China and the like.

The burden of proof should be on the Chinese. If they cannot prove it is safe it should not be brought in. If the FDA needs more money to check on the Chinese then the Chinese should pay for it.

We should extend this to all companies who manufacture drugs, not the Country who imports them.

The burden of proof should be on the company and they (the customer) should pay for it, not me.

We can’t regulate the Chinese in China, though I guess we could threaten to stop all Chinese imports - I just don’t think we’d ever do something like that (nor would I generally favor it as anything other than a big stick we don’t plan to use).

I think the best course of action is for the FDA to hold importers directly liable for the safety of products they import - that will give the importers the incentive to demand quality and testing from the foreign parties with whom they contract. It will mean higher prices, but the tradeoff is higher prices for more safety - the question is where you draw the line.

I think the FDA is the single most destructive force in healthcare today. Nothing good can possibly come of giving it more regulatory power.

[quote]belligerent wrote:
I think the FDA is the single most destructive force in healthcare today. Nothing good can possibly come of giving it more regulatory power.[/quote]

They already have the power - what they don’t have is the resources.

I think they’re a bit overzealous w/r/t the amount of documentation they require for new drugs - but they’re not doing much of anything prophylactic w/r/t the food supply, and particularly with regard to imported foodstuffs. Imported drugs and supplements generally are in the same boat.