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Explaining why the FDA blocks access to new treatments

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So, I have a popular media outlet accompanying me for my upcoming offshore stem cell treatment escapade, this being my third such treatment. It’s going to be on TV. They are going to interview me, and I need to be able to articulate why I can’t get this treatment in my own country. The fact that the FDA is blocking it is easy enough to explain, but I’m struggling more with figuring out how to succinctly explain why they are doing so. There are a combination of political and economic conflicts of interests at work.  

The economic aspect is easier: trade groups representing incumbent drug companies want to control the trade of stem cell products, so they lobby the government for barriers to entry with the future goal of selling FDA approved stem cell “drugs” at very high prices and with no competition.

The political side is a trickier because there are so many aspects of it, and I’m not sure which to emphasize, given that I’ll be answering interview questions and not giving a PowerPoint presentation.

Politicians sell themselves to the public by pandering to anti-capitalism and promising to “protect the public” from evil businessmen selling snake oil. Most voters are uneducated enough to go for this, not realizing that the politicians are the bad actors they need protection from, and that regulation is the snake oil that’s taking years off their lives.

Thee are health authoritarian types who simply live to control other peoples health decisions. The control is an end itself, and they don’t care what the actual decision is as long as they are the ones making it. These are the bureaucrats, who get their power from the politicians, some of whom are health authoritarians themselves.

And then there is egalitarianism. In the West, the idea that everyone should have equal access to medical care is culturally dominant. If the government pays for medical care, or controls access to it, then 1) the government has to decide what treatments it will pay for directly, or allow people to access within the system; and 2) it will be strongly compelled to suppress other forms of medicine outside the public system for the sake of preventing discrepancies.

I can’t discuss all these issues at length without sounding too scripted and long-winded. The leitmotif running through the whole thing is the government simply violates individual rights in the name of “the public health.” 

So I would appreciate any ideas on how to effectively answer the question of why the FDA blocks access to stem cell treatments.

Edited by happiness
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Perhaps the FDA could provide you with a succinct summary why they have not approved the treatment.

From there, pick the essential element you consider yourself able to speak well to. Oft times, picking the right issue to zero in on can damage the foundation that superlative issues are resting upon.

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8 hours ago, happiness said:

The economic aspect is easier: trade groups representing incumbent drug companies want to control the trade of stem cell products, so they lobby the government for barriers to entry with the future goal of selling FDA approved stem cell “drugs” at very high prices and with no competition.

That's the easiest one people will understand.

But you may have to also make the case that they are not derived from live babies pulled from mother's wombs or you'll lose traction.

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How you answer a question probably has to depend to some extent on just what the question is, making it more difficult to give advice.

You may wish to consider focusing less on the FDA's motives and more on the basic principles that say the FDA, and government in general, shouldn't have this kind of power.

I might be tempted to say that with government agencies, resistance is futile, with the last three words delivered in a Borg tone.  (If you don't know what that is, ask a Star Trek fan.)

 

 

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