If the Food and Drug Administration gets gutted, and pressured by politicians to lower its standards to allow more drugs on the market more quickly, how would that change the pharmaceutical business?
That’s a big question with many answers. Pharmaceutical companies and their investors, at least in the short term, would celebrate the quicker path to the market for new medicines. But in the long term, it would probably erode public confidence in the safety and effectiveness of the U.S. drug supply. Doctors and insurers might stake out a more cautious “buyer beware” position before prescribing, or paying for, any new drugs. In that world, where an FDA approval might not mean much, a premium would be placed on medicines that can prove their mettle in long-term follow up studies.
