The FDA is not an ethics organization that evaluates drugs based on the total effect of public health. That simply isn't contained in the bevy of Bills that together form the Code that FDA mandate is derived from. I understand how frustrating watching these public health issues is, but the FDA isn't tasked with that, and only Congress can change that.
The FDA does something else: Drug company says they have a drug that does X. Does the drug do X?
That's it (okay, the FDA regulates a lot, but in the context of pharmaceuticals, this is their mandate -- "efficacy"). They require inordinate amounts of proof of efficacy.
Not the morality or ethics behind the application of the drug, but rather: does this molecule, in this concentration, in this delivery route, in this population, have the exact pharmacological effect that they claim it does.
From there, it is up to each person and their doctor to decide what treatments are needed!
Blame the doctors, then, or blame Congress, but the FDA follows it's mandate quite wonderfully.
The FDA does something else: Drug company says they have a drug that does X. Does the drug do X?
That's it (okay, the FDA regulates a lot, but in the context of pharmaceuticals, this is their mandate -- "efficacy"). They require inordinate amounts of proof of efficacy.
Not the morality or ethics behind the application of the drug, but rather: does this molecule, in this concentration, in this delivery route, in this population, have the exact pharmacological effect that they claim it does.
From there, it is up to each person and their doctor to decide what treatments are needed!
Blame the doctors, then, or blame Congress, but the FDA follows it's mandate quite wonderfully.