FDA Big Factor Behind High Drug Costs -Economist

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration, with its costly and time-consuming drug approval process, is a big reason Americans pay far more for medicine than consumers in the rest of the world, U.S. Nobel laureate Milton Friedman said on Tuesday.

"The FDA is the most serious situation regarding the high costs of prescription drugs in this country," Friedman told a San Francisco forum on U.S. importation of Canadian drugs.

"Their (the FDA's) whole incentive is to be ultra-careful, to not make a mistake ... but that's where the problem starts," said the economist, one of the most prominent free market advocates the past century.

Drug-import supporters say medicines from countries like Canada can as much as two-thirds cheaper than U.S. drugs because of the role many governments play in setting prices.

Some of those supporters - who believe the FDA should err on the side of caution in approving new drugs - believe U.S. drug prices are simply overpriced by the pharmaceutical industry, which also vigorously opposes importation.

The forum, held by free-market think-tank Pacific Research Institute, coincides with a growing number of proposals by states from California to Massachusetts to make it easier to buy Canadian drugs.


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