We encourage our Dispatch followers to read an op-ed by ACSH’s Dr. Josh Bloom that criticizes the Obama administration’s attempt to hasten the currently slow drug development process through a $1 billion plan by which the government will allocate funding to work with private industry to develop new drugs. The new NIH branch would focus its efforts on areas the pharmaceutical industry perceives as too risky, but as Dr. Bloom points out, the NIH has very little expertise in this high-risk arena:
Even with the best scientists and equipment, it is difficult to imagine how $1 billion is going to make a difference. Pfizer, the world’s largest pharmaceutical company, alone spends about $8 billion per year and has been spectacularly unsuccessful at discovering new drugs over the past decade.
So, in order to address a real problem, our government is looking in the wrong place. Instead of funding an agency that is ill-equipped to fulfill its mandate, we ought to be looking at a different agency — the FDA, which seems to be doing its job too well, but unwisely.
So, in order to address a real problem, our government is looking in the wrong place. Instead of funding an agency that is ill-equipped to fulfill its mandate, we ought to be looking at a different agency — the FDA, which seems to be doing its job too well, but unwisely.