FDA Big Factor Behind High Drug Costs

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration, with its costly and time-consuming drug approval process, is a big reason Americans pay far more for medicine than consumers in the rest of the world, U.S. Nobel laureate Milton Friedman said on Tuesday. "The FDA is the most serious situation regarding the high costs of prescription drugs in this country," Friedman told a San Francisco forum on U.S. importation of Canadian drugs. "Their (the FDA's) whole incentive is to be ultra-careful, to not make a mistake ... but that's where the problem starts," said the economist, one of the most prominent free market advocates the past century. Drug-import supporters say medicines from countries like Canada can as much as two-thirds cheaper than U.S. drugs because of the role many governments play in setting prices.