A Shot At Making Drugs Safer

摘要

In 1992, the food & drug administration made what some now see as a deal with the devil. Chronically underfunded, the agency was taking two years or more to review new drugs. The pharmaceutical industry was losing billions in potential sales. AIDS activists were screaming that people were dying while the FDA fiddled. So with budget increases unlikely, the FDA and drugmakers made an historic bargain: The agency agreed to review drugs faster if industry chipped in to help pay related salaries and costs. It worked. For a mere $40 million in fees in 1994—23% of review costs—they got billions of dollars in extra sales by being on the market sooner.