Drug Safety
America's committment to drug safety began in 1906, when the agency that would become the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) was created. Our drug safety laws have been improved throughout the intervening century, but the most important addition was the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act of 1938, which granted the agency real power for the first time. Most importantly, the 1938 act was the first law to require the testing of drugs before they were sent to market. It also banned drugs that didn’t list all their active ingredients and forced companies to truthfully describe the effects of their products. (Before the FDA got to it, Listerine advertised its ability to cure tuberculosis.)
Commentary
How a Shadow Drug Industry Tries to Avoid Regulation
Behind the Meningitis Outbreak: Pharmacies fought FDA regulation
Cry Wolf Quotes
[Government intervention would mean dealing with] a pestilential lot of spies, meddlers, and informers. The Federal Government was not created for the purpose of cutting your toe nails or corns. I believe there are millions of old women, white and black, who know more about good victuals and good eating than my friend Doctor Wiley and all his apothecary shop.
Mr. Gingrich recently denounced the FDA as a 'Stalinistic' agency. While Mr. Gingrich's comment may be hyperbolic, there are some interesting parallels between Dr. Kessler's responses to the FDA's problems and Josef Stalin's response to the problems of the Soviet planned economy…. Dr. Kessler, like Stalin, instead of fixing the obvious problems, has issued one denunciation after another of those who opposed or disagreed with him…. Stalin sought to solve the problems of defects and crashes among advanced Soviet Air Force fighter planes by executing some of the aircraft engineers; Dr. Kessler has responded to the occasional problems of new medical devices with a de facto regulatory pogrom that is exiling the industry.
If overcautious and restrictive Government regulation had blocked [penicillin] testing and introduction twenty years ago, some lives would have been saved while a multitude of lives would have been lost.
I feel that additional legislation…is only helpful to large industry and has a tendency to throttle small industry...
Related Laws and Rules
Backgrounders & Briefs
Good Rules: Ten Stories Of Successful Regulation
Demos looks at ten laws and rules that we take for granted.
Resources
Consumer Federation of America defends the consumer interest in fields ranging from housing and financial services to food safety.
Alliance for A Stronger FDA tries to strengthen the Food and Drug Administration by increasing the appropriations allotted to the agency.
The Center for Science in the Public Interest, since 1971, has been a leading advocate for nutrition and health, food safety, alchohol policy, and sound science.
