This is a letter I sent via Downsize DC (http://downsizedc.org/) on the Food & Drug Administration and it's approval policies on medications. I wrote that the FDA should be more of an advisory agency instead of being the over-managing agency it is now.
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Make the FDA advisory, not mandatory.
I want to control what medicines I use.
I DON'T want the government to micro-manage those choices!
While I do believe there's a place for the FDA, the FDA should make advisory recommendations only. It should NOT have the power to mandate which drugs I can buy, and which I cannot.
* If pharmaceutical companies value the FDA seal of approval, then they can pay the FDA to evaluate their drugs.
* If consumers value FDA approval, then they can decide to only buy FDA-approved medications.
If the FDA's seal of approval is really so valuable, then it does NOT need to be mandatory. No coercion is necessary. Instead, the FDA should be able to sell its services through voluntary means, just like Underwriter's Laboratory does.
Consumers and doctors should be free to consult available science, and make their own decisions about which treatments to try.
All human beings are unique. Treatments that might be dangerous for one person, could be the only possible solution for another. There is zero chance that one-size-fits-all dictates can possibly account for the vastness of human variability. Patients and doctors must have the flexibility to deal with individual human uniqueness.
The FDA should serve, not rule. And Congress should do the same. Stop trying to rule me. Instead, serve me. You can do this now by introducing legislation to make the FDA advisory, NOT mandatory.
Pablo Wegesend
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