Abstract
[Excerpt] "The FDA’s regulation of drugs is frequently the subject of policy debate, with arguments falling into two camps. On the one hand, a libertarian view of patients and the health care system holds high the value of consumer choice. Patients should get all the information and the drugs they want; the FDA should do what it can to enforce some basic standards but should otherwise get out of the way. On the other hand, a paternalist view values the FDA’s role as an expert agency standing between patients and a set of potentially dangerous drugs and potentially unscrupulous or at least insufficiently careful drug companies. We lay out here some of the ways the FDA regulates drugs, including some normally left out of the debate, and suggest a middle ground between libertarian and paternalistic approaches focused on correcting information asymmetry and aligning incentives."
Publication Date
1-1-2014
Journal Title
American Interest
Document Type
Article
Recommended Citation
W. Nicholson Price II and I. Glenn Cohen, “Nudging the FDA,” 10 AMERICAN INTEREST 35 (2014), available at https://perma.cc/3J48-7WLY?type=source
Included in
Bioethics and Medical Ethics Commons, Biotechnology Commons, Clinical Trials Commons, Health Law and Policy Commons, Medical Pharmacology Commons, Medicinal Chemistry and Pharmaceutics Commons, Pharmaceutical Preparations Commons, Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences Commons
Additional Information
Also available at http://www.the-american-interest.com/2014/10/17/nudging-the-fda/ and http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=98931789&site=ehost-live