Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The Collapse of the FDA

nytimes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

121–130 of 220 posts

Re: The Collapse of the FDA

#121

Post by lotsofpulp »

infecto wrote: post #112
Amezarak wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://www.propublica.org/article/fda-drug-loophole-sun-pha... > Digging through company records and test results, they found more evidence of quality problems, including how managers hadn’t properly investigated a series of complaints about foreign material, specks, spots and stains in tablets. > Those unknowns have done little to slow the exemptions. In 2022, FDA inspectors described a “cascade of failure” at one…

I think it can be both actually. The FDA through over regulation scared local manufacturing from generics which are generally low margin. Overtime you become dependent on Indian generics which have a horrible track record, this is a country that has massive lead contamination from spices and the government does nothing about it. Too late now the ship has sailed and you are now forced to utilize these. No doubt it’s a…

That is a problem of the government not inspecting imports and/or allowing them from places with known problems.

If the government had said the imports from India are not allowed due to insufficient quality controls, then the market price for the generics would increase in the US, maintaining the necessary profit margins for the manufacturers to provide higher quality medicine produced at higher cost.

Re: The Collapse of the FDA

#122

Post by IAmBroom »

3D30497420 wrote: post #80
UltraSane wrote: post #77

The FDA's creation was directly triggered by multiple mass poisoning incidents in the early 1900s.In 1937 over 100 people died from diethylene glycol-contaminated medicine, leading to the 1938 Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act that significantly expanded FDA authority.

As the adage goes, "regulations are written in blood". The problem is the blood was spent before many people can remember (or bother to remember). They just know the "limitations" imposed by those regulations and therefore want to get them removed.

Maybe it's like Jefferson's admonition that each generation must purchase their liberty in blood.

Not happy about that possibility, but it is a possibility. "What's so bad about measles, anyway?"

Re: The Collapse of the FDA

#123

Post by monero-xmr »

AdieuToLogic wrote: post #51
terminalshort wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> So you advocate a costly post-harm remediation instead of a preemptive solution provided by governmental regulations Absolutely. Such solutions tend to be much cheaper and more effective. It's how we deal with the vast majority of problems for a good reason. If we sold oxycontin over the counter we would have much less of an overdose problem than we do. Would also take a lot of stress off our emergency medical care…

>> So you advocate a costly post-harm remediation instead of a preemptive solution provided by governmental regulations > Absolutely. Such solutions tend to be much cheaper and more effective. This is not supported by any credible analysis I am aware of, as the cost of rectifying a problem post hoc has historically been far greater than preventing it in the first place. > If we sold oxycontin over the counter we woul…

People with opiate addiction have access to the cheapest and strongest narcotics ever available on the street. Unfortunately they are of uneven strength and cut with horrors that make their body shut down. I would much prefer they could just buy clean drugs from the pharma companies.

Re: The Collapse of the FDA

#124

Post by johanneskanybal »

brookst wrote: post #117
temporallobe wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s baffling that TV ads for alcohol and cigarettes are illegal, but pharmaceuticals? That’s free speech!

TV ads for cigarettes are not legal in the US at least. And alcohol ads have a bunch of weird regulations like they can’t show people in the act of drinking (holding the booze is fine).

that's what illegal means.

Re: The Collapse of the FDA

#125

Post by monero-xmr »

TFYS wrote: post #69
monero-xmr wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Should allow pharma to sell drugs to the market. Allow people to sue if they are harmed. Do not care about a government agency preventing access to new drugs. They can gatekeep government funds at best, limiting Medicaid / Medicare to those that want to pass their hoops My experience is in selling tech to government. Disgusting and corrupt.

Insanity. Do you honestly believe the average person (probably a sick one at that) has the resources and time to fight a large pharmaceutical company in court? And do you really believe that during the time between releasing the drug and losing in court the faulty drug wouldn't make the company much more money than they'd have to pay as compensation? The amount of organization it would require to beat a large company…

All of that still happens even with the FDA approving drugs. Luckily we have class action process

Re: The Collapse of the FDA

#126

Post by monero-xmr »

sorcerer-mar wrote: post #108
monero-xmr wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Should allow pharma to sell drugs to the market. Allow people to sue if they are harmed. Do not care about a government agency preventing access to new drugs. They can gatekeep government funds at best, limiting Medicaid / Medicare to those that want to pass their hoops My experience is in selling tech to government. Disgusting and corrupt.

Tell me: how do you prove that a drug hurt you? Spoiler alert: you cannot. The reason clinical trials are so expensive and complicated is because it's extremely hard to isolate signal of "what is this drug doing to people." So on what basis would you possibly sue a company? As another commenter said, we have an entire industry of the form you desire: supplements. Go take them to treat your next illness so you can rea…

Insurance companies will not cover ineffective drugs. Pharma will have to prove efficacy. Allow free people to spend their own money how they want

Re: The Collapse of the FDA

#127

Post by monero-xmr »

mcphage wrote: post #40
monero-xmr wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Government agencies that spend massive amounts of tax dollars while accomplishing nothing and being net-negative for society. Anyone who has worked for or dealt with the government for extended periods of time will clearly know how fucked it is

> Government agencies that spend massive amounts of tax dollars while accomplishing nothing and being net-negative for society. I’ve spent my entire career working for wasteful companies who accomplish nothing and are net-negative for society. The government at least picks up my garbage every week.

The private company can fail. The government will only reform very very rarely, and do so kicking and screaming and shrieking like we see now

Re: The Collapse of the FDA

#128

Post by mcphage »

monero-xmr wrote: post #38
nine_zeros wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Government agencies that spend massive amounts of tax dollars while accomplishing nothing and being net-negative for society. Anyone who has worked for or dealt with the government for extended periods of time will clearly know how fucked it is This is only true of republican governments. Republican-led governments are truly appalling in their spending, and wasteful tax cuts. Democrat governments are far far more e…

[flagged]

> Letting people keep more of the money they earned through productive work is how we increase wealth.

This isn’t even remotely true.

Re: The Collapse of the FDA

#129

Post by monero-xmr »

tsimionescu wrote: post #102
monero-xmr wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

You know so little about how the world actually works that it's funny you even try to speak about it. Society would literally cease to function if the government stopped providing the services that your "friction" funds. Roads, the court system, police, waste and water, defense - these barely scratch the surface of what the US government provides, and yet remove any one of them and it would be enough to bring down th…

The us government should only provide a system for contract resolution, police, and defense. I can’t think of a single other thing the government should do

Re: The Collapse of the FDA

#130

Post by IAmBroom »

ineedaj0b wrote: post #96
nosianu wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you would give a balanced PoV you would not only count the good drugs that could have been, but also list all the bad ones that were fortunately prevented from being released on the public. If you only list one side, your argument is missing something essential. Loosening regulations has an effect not only on drugs that turn out to be very net positive, we will also see more bad ones. Now I'm just waiting for some…

some drug are moneymakers. lots of people can take them. viagra was that or now ozempic etc. but there's lots of novel drugs that never get past testing because they cost too much or the market too small to recover profit. these studies struggle to find candidates, the testers rarely have serious side effects, so i think on the net this will not cause the harm you worry. however! i would be worried taking new broad m…

More of your "lots", "rarely", "fewer"... but zero actual data at all. Two large posts of your opinion, and no information to back it up.
Post reply on HN