FDA vs. the Patients

This is from a recent report from the Competitive Enterprise Institute:

• The agency's seven-year delay in approving beta blockers in 1981 for the prevention of second heart attacks cost an estimated 45,000 to 70,000 lives.
• Its 1988 ban on advertising aspirin to the general public to prevent a first heart attack likely caused tens of thousands of deaths each year that the ban was in effect.
• More recently, the FDA's crackdown on prescription antidepressants has led to a drop in their use and a corresponding increase in suicides among teenagers and young adults.

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