The Patriot Post® · The FDA's Two Types of Errors

Walter E. Williams: “The Food and Drug Administration can make two types of errors. It can approve a drug that has dangerous unanticipated side effects, or it can reject or delay approval of a drug that is safe and effective. … People who are injured by incorrectly approved drugs – and their families – will know that they are victims of FDA mistakes, or under-caution. Their suffering makes headlines. FDA officials face unfavorable publicity, perhaps congressional hearings and possible termination. The story is very different when the FDA incorrectly delays or denies drug approval – errs on the side of over-caution. Here victims are people who are prevented access to drugs that could have helped them. … This kind of FDA victim is invisible. … If U.S. doctors know that a lifesaving drug has been approved in Europe, Japan and Canada, it is their ethical duty to inform their patients. Second, when the FDA calls a news conference to announce approval of a drug, somebody should ask the official how many Americans died from the drug’s not being approved the previous year.”