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Comment by slibhb | Hacker News Reader

I think profit motive and regulatory capture are real problems but I don't think they're the only problems and maybe not the biggest.

For example, the FDA is generally agreed to have dropped the ball by dragging its feet on approving covid tests. I don't think profit motive or regulatory capture explain that. What does?

More transparency (as the authors recommend) sounds great but giving more power to regulatory bodies is no panacea.

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> For example, the FDA is generally agreed to have dropped the ball by dragging its feet on approving covid tests. I don't think profit motive or regulatory capture explain that. What does?

I'm no fan of over-regulation, but the FDA finds itself in an impossible situation: approve tests quickly to slow the spread of Covid, only to later find that the tests don't work, or test the products rigorously, while patients suffer.

It's a very difficult balance to strike, and I would argue they've done as good a job as one could hope.

Big Pharma derives its oligopoly from the barriers to entry that the FDA imposes. Presumably they take every opportunity to lobby for more rigorous extensive testing. Not because they want to pay more to run tests, but because they want their smaller competitors to pay more to run studies for drugs that might compete.

This is, of course, not an explanation for how they have variously captured the components of the FDA, but it does explain how such a capture is an explanation for foot-dragging.

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