End the FDA Drug Monopoly: Let Patients Choose Their Medicines | Doug Bandow | Cato Institute: Commentary

End the FDA Drug Monopoly: Let Patients Choose Their Medicines | Doug Bandow | Cato Institute: Commentary: "Drug discovery is an uncertain business. Unfortunately, new medicines do not appear miraculously, like manna from heaven. Firms typically have to assess between 5,000 and 10,000 substances for every one that survives the extensive testing process and makes it to market. Of those that win approval, 80 percent lose money. Only a few pharmaceuticals pay for the entire development process.

The average cost of developing a new drug runs more than $1 billion, with estimates traditionally ranging between $1.2 and $1.5 billion."

"Between 1962 and 1967 the average delay in approval time rose from seven to 30 months. Total drug development time jumped from around three years in 1960 to six years in 1965 and ten years in 1970. The Tufts University Center for Drug Development found little has changed in recent years. Estimates range between 10 and 20 years, most commonly settling around 15 years.

Economist Sam Peltzman concluded that the introduction of new drugs fell by more than half after Kefauver-Harris. Yet there was no comparable drop in the release of unsafe or ineffective pharmaceuticals or withdrawal of unsafe products from the marketplace."

"The FDA's slowness did not increase safety: post-approval drug withdrawals were comparable on both sides of the Atlantic."

"For years the FDA prevented any mention of aspirin's value in preventing heart attacks or even the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's recommendation that women take folic acid supplements to reduce birth defects."

"The benefits of FDA regulation relative to that in foreign countries could reasonably be put at some 5,000 casualties per decade or 10,000 per decade for worst-case scenarios. In comparison... the cost of FDA delay can be estimated at anywhere from 21,000 to 120,000 lives per decade."

"The government could be restricted to judging safety, leaving efficacy up to the marketplace. After all, assessing effectiveness is what markets do every day."

"Best would be to make the FDA's approval advisory. If you only trust the U.S. government, then only take medicines (or use medical devices) endorsed by the agency. Otherwise consider the opinion of doctors, hospitals, and other medical providers, as well as look for certification by public or private organizations."

Surveillance requests to cellphone carriers surge | Fox News

Surveillance requests to cellphone carriers surge | Fox News: "Law enforcement agencies in the U.S. made more than 1.3 million requests for consumers' cellphone records in 2011, an alarming surge over previous years that reflected the increasingly gray area between privacy and technology.

Cellphone carriers, responding to inquiries from a member of Congress, reported responding to as many as thousands of police requests daily for customers' locations, text messages and call details, frequently without warrants. Special legal teams operating round-the-clock have been set up to field requests"

3 dead after gunfire at Del. soccer tournament | Fox News

3 dead after gunfire at Del. soccer tournament | Fox News: "Investigators said one of the suspects, 43-year-old Sheldon Olge, was fatally shot by someone in the crowd after he and two accomplices opened fire Sunday afternoon before fleeing in a car."

Identity theft scam claims Obama will pay your utility bills | Fox News

Identity theft scam claims Obama will pay your utility bills | Fox News: "Last week, 2,000 people were tricked in Tampa, and at least 10,000 people fell for the fake deal in New Jersey in recent weeks."

Conservatives make it rough for business | Fox News

Conservatives make it rough for business | Fox News: "They and their ideological leaders argue that the marketplace should dictate what businesses thrive and falter, not Washington.

"What we find now is this cronyism and this corporate welfare, it's corrupting the politics because there's nothing now that goes through that doesn't have a corporate interest," Republican Sen. Jim DeMint told The Associated Press in an interview. "It's not just the Ex-Im Bank. It's the transportation bill that has huge entities involved. The farm bill basically guarantees large corporate farmers."

The South Carolina lawmaker warned that the combination of big government and big industry is creating a nation that is becoming "too big to succeed.""

Vikings star Peterson arrested in Houston on charge of resisting arrest | Fox News

Vikings star Peterson arrested in Houston on charge of resisting arrest | Fox News: "arrested in Houston on a charge of resisting arrest"

That just doesn't make sense.

Insurance companies send crews to protect homes | Fox News

Insurance companies send crews to protect homes | Fox News: "For insurers, hiring their own crew is worth the cost. They spend thousands on well-equipped, federally rated firefighters, potentially saving hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars to replace a home and its contents.

Insurance companies began sending crews to wildfires around 2006"

Minnesota inmates can now receive email (but not send) | Fox News

Minnesota inmates can now receive email (but not send) | Fox News: "Any emails sent to the state's 9,300 adult inmates will be printed by correctional officers and placed in their mailboxes. Minnesota Department of Corrections deputy commissioner, Terry Carlson, tells KSTP-TV emails will reduce the risk of contraband arriving with a mailed letter.

The emails have a price. Each will cost the sender 30 cents, with 20 cents going to the state to cover expenses."

Is it free to receive letters? Does it really cost that much?

Over a barrel, city of Niagara Falls seeks life in new grads | Fox News

Over a barrel, city of Niagara Falls seeks life in new grads | Fox News: "Just 20 people will be selected for the first round of buyers and renters, whom the city would pay up to $3,500 in annual student loan payments for two years."

"Local officials have said the program could help ensure that the shrinking city doesn’t dip below a population count of 50,000 for the 2020 Census, when it would lose key funding through the state and federal governments. In 2010, the city had a population of 50,193, down from 55,593 in 2000."

$7,000 per person?!?! And they may not even be around for the next census!

5 Ways to Solve Health Care | Michael D. Tanner | Cato Institute: Commentary

5 Ways to Solve Health Care | Michael D. Tanner | Cato Institute: Commentary: "Nothing would do more to fix our health-care system than moving away from a system dominated by employer-provided health insurance and instead making health insurance personal and portable, controlled by the individual rather than government or an employer. There is, after all, no logical reason for an individual to receive health insurance through their job. We don't receive most other types of insurance — auto, homeowners, life — in that way.

Employer-based health insurance is an anomaly that grew out of unique historical circumstances during World War II. Despite the widespread entry of women into the labor force during the war, the shift of men from private employment to the military created a labor shortage. At the same time, wage controls prevented employers from competing for available workers by raising salaries. In an effort to circumvent the regulations and compete for available workers, employers began to offer non-wage benefits, including health insurance.

In 1953, the IRS ruled that employer-provided health insurance was not part of wage compensation for tax purposes."