Today’s (12/25/19) NY Times describes a developing crisis in antibiotics (see https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/25/health/antibiotics-new-resistance.html). Bacteria and fungi are becoming more and more resistant to existing antibiotics. New antibiotics are needed.
But FDA regulations make their development extremely costly, and the government and health-insurance companies don’t want to pay the resulting high prices. Result: makers of anti-biotics are unprofitable and are going out of business. Development of new anti-biotics is throttled.
SOLUTION: in cases in which an infection threatens the loss of life or limb, a) waive the need for the drug having been FDA approved; b) give the patient the option of paying its high price.
This will allow developers of new drugs to bypass the FDA, thereby cutting their costs, and to be paid profitable prices.
Private medical insurance policies could be designed that, for an additional premium, would pay much or most of the drug price in these cases.
The key is getting the FDA out of the way of the drug companies and giving freedom to the patients to buy or not buy their drugs.
For more on medical care and the need for freedom from government interference to safeguard and improve it, see my essay “The Real Right to Medical Care Versus Socialized Medicine.” 99¢ at https://amzn.to/2OjmKxy.
