New Hearing for Suit Against FDA

Why on earth anyone would oppose this is incomprehensible. Only bureaucratic rigidity can explain the opposition

A federal court agreed yesterday to rehear a case that aims to get terminally ill patients early access to experimental drugs unlikely to be approved before they die. The full 10-judge U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit will probably hear the case next summer, said Richard A. Samp, chief counsel for the Washington Legal Foundation.

The group, with the Abigail Alliance for Better Access to Developmental Drugs, sued the Food and Drug Administration in 2003. It is seeking broader access to drugs that have undergone preliminary safety testing in as few as 20 people and have yet to be approved by the FDA.

In 2004, a district court dismissed the case. In May, a three-judge appeals panel reinstated the lawsuit in a 2 to 1 decision. The FDA, in turn, appealed and asked for the full court to rehear the case.

Source

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For greatest efficiency, lowest cost and maximum choice, ALL hospitals and health insurance schemes should be privately owned and run -- with government-paid vouchers for the very poor and minimal regulation. Both Australia and Sweden have large private sector health systems with government reimbursement for privately-provided services so can a purely private system with some level of government reimbursement or insurance for the poor be so hard to do?

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