What will be the upshot if the federal government sets up its own drug development and commercialization program? Most likely, incompetence and political lobbying instead of industry expertise and commercial viability, says former FDA deputy commissioner Scott Gottlieb in an op-ed for the National Review Online.
We recommend reading the entirety of Dr. Gottlieb s critique of President Obama s plans for a federal drug development center sprung from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). For an even fuller understanding of what s at stake, pair Dr. Gottlieb s piece with an earlier op-ed by ACSH s Dr. Josh Bloom, who explained why the NIH's attempts at drug development won t be able to compare to what the expertise of the pharmaceutical industry accomplishes.
