The current regulations are setup so that it costs a mountain of money to make an antibiotic and you can only make a molehill of money. That seems like regulating the R&D away.
Of course what you want is antibiotics to cost a dollar and be as safe as apply pie and as plentiful as salt water. But that's not really an options. Our options are the status quo, heavily subsidize antibiotic research and pricing, reduce regulations so they can be developed incredibly cheaply, or change regulations to drive up sales.
>The current regulations are setup so that it costs a mountain of money to make an antibiotic and you can only make a molehill of money. That seems like regulating the R&D away.
So why can't pharma companies move their operations to countries with fewer regulations?
Well if you're making a drug to immunize against Ebola, you don't really need it to be FDA approved, since most of the Ebola is in Africa. Getting it approved in Uganda is sufficient. Then, if it comes across the Atlantic and starts killing Americans left and right, while Africans are immunized because their approval process was easier, it would be interesting to see what the FDA does.
Of course what you want is antibiotics to cost a dollar and be as safe as apply pie and as plentiful as salt water. But that's not really an options. Our options are the status quo, heavily subsidize antibiotic research and pricing, reduce regulations so they can be developed incredibly cheaply, or change regulations to drive up sales.
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