Yesterday the Heritage Foundation published a Legal Memorandum, in which I explain the need for the reform of U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulation, in order to promote path-breaking biopharmaceutical innovation.  Highlights of this Legal Memorandum are set forth below.

In recent decades, U.S. and foreign biopharmaceutical companies (makers of drugs that are based on chemical compounds or biological materials, such as vaccines) and medical device manufacturers have been responsible for many cures and advances in treatment that have benefited patients’ lives.  New cancer treatments, medical devices, and other medical discoveries are being made at a rapid pace.

The biopharmaceutical industry is also a major generator of American economic growth and a high-technology leader.  The U.S. biopharmaceutical sector directly employs over 810,000 workers, supports 3.4 million American jobs across the country, contributed almost one-fourth of all domestic research and development (R&D) funded by U.S. businesses in 2013—more than any other single sector—and contributes roughly $790 billion a year to the American economy, according to one study.   American biopharmaceutical firms collaborate with hospitals, universities, and research institutions around the country to provide clinical trials and treatments and to create new jobs.  Their products also boost workplace productivity by treating medical conditions, thereby reducing absenteeism and disability leave.

Properly tailored and limited regulation of biopharmaceutical products and medical devices helps to promote public safety, but FDA regulations as currently designed hinder and slow the innovation process and retard the diffusion of medical improvements.  Specifically, research indicates that current regulatory norms and the delays they engender unnecessarily bloat costs, discourage research and development, slow the pace of health improvements for millions of Americans, and harm the American economy.  These factors should be kept in mind by Congress and the Administration as they study how best to reform (and, where appropriate, eliminate) FDA regulation of drugs and medical devices.  (One particular reform that appears to be unequivocally beneficial and thus worthy of immediate consideration is the prohibition of any FDA restrictions on truthful speech concerning off-label drug uses—speech that benefits consumers and enjoys First Amendment protection.)  Reducing the burdens imposed on inventors by the FDA would allow more drugs to get to the market more quickly so that patients could pursue new and potentially lifesaving treatments.