How the FDA Kills

This is from Libertarianism from A to Z, the blog of Harvard economics professor Jeffrey Miron.

""Late last year, Biosensors International, a medical device company, shut down its operation in Southern California, which had once housed 90 people, including the company’s top executives and researchers.

The reason, executives say, was that it would take too long to get its new cardiac stent approved by the Food and Drug Administration.

“It’s available all over the world, including Mexico and Canada, but not in the United States,” said the chief executive, Jeffrey B. Jump, an American who runs the company from Switzerland. “We decided, let’s spend our money in China, Brazil, India, Europe.”

In partial defense of the FDA, I suppose one could argue that we should let the residents of other countries be the guinea pigs for new medicines and devices, and then take advantage of what they learn.

But that approach still suggests we should approve things quickly here, once they have passed muster abroad, rather than requiring a whole new costly and time-consuming testing process."