‘Before You Take that Pill’ reveals the cozy relationship between Big Pharma and the FDA
by: Julie Wilson
NaturalNews.com
Monday, March 14, 2016
Before You Take that Pill, written by J. Douglas Bremner, explores the symbiotic relationship between today’s pharmaceutical industry and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The following is an excerpt from the book:
The latest drive to get new pills on the shelves and into people’s mouths began when government deregulation and an earnest attempt to help HIV-AIDS patients access important life-extending drugs collided.
In the 1980s there was a strong movement to decrease the role of government regulation in all businesses, and budgets of regulatory agencies like the FDA were slashed as part of that effort. The Reagan administration painted the FDA as a bloated bureaucracy that was slowing down the approval of drugs and getting in the way of business.
There was some truth to that claim. At that time it could take up to two years to gain drug approval, two years too long if you were suffering from HIV-AIDS. Throughout the 1980s, AIDS activists and patients echoed the drug companies’ sentiments, complaining that it was taking too long to bring disease-fighting drugs to market.
An expedited approval process
The Rest…HERE
