PPI - Radically Pragmatic
  • Donate
Skip to content
  • Home
  • About
    • About Us
    • Locations
    • Careers
  • People
  • Projects
  • Our Work
  • Events
  • Donate

Our Work

PPI Policy Brief: Is the FDA Strangling Innovation?

  • June 23, 2011
  • Michael Mandel
Download PDF

As the key gatekeeper for pharmaceutical and device innovation, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has a tough job. If it is too lenient, it will allow the sale of drugs and medical technology that could harm vulnerable Americans. Too tight, and the U.S. is being deprived of key innovations that could cut costs, increase health, and create jobs.

With this in mind, this paper addresses the question: Is the FDA unintentionally choking off cost-saving medical innovation? First, I discuss the difficulty of assessing whether the FDA is under-regulating or overregulating new drugs and devices, given the desire for safety. I then show how the FDA is clearly applying “too-high” standards in the case of one noninvasive device currently under consideration—MelaFind, a handheld computer vision system intended to help dermatologists decide which suspicious skin lesions should be biopsied for potential melanoma, a lifethreatening skin cancer. I then draw analogies to development of the early cell phones and personal computers.

Read the entire policy brief.

Related Work

Budget Breakdown  |  July 3, 2025

Passage of ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’ Renders Republican Deficit Hawks Extinct

  • Ben Ritz Alex Kilander
Blog  |  July 2, 2025

Senate Republicans Go Nuclear to Blow Up the National Debt

  • Ben Ritz
Budget Breakdown  |  June 26, 2025

GOP’s “Big Beautiful Bill” Would Undermine Economic Stability

  • Ben Ritz Alex Kilander Nate Morris
Blog  |  June 26, 2025

“Trump Accounts” Are a Promising Start, But Flaws Remain

  • Alex Kilander
Op-Ed  |  June 18, 2025

Weinstein Jr. for Forbes: It’s The Early 1990s Bond Market Again

  • Paul Weinstein Jr.
Budget Breakdown  |  June 18, 2025

Senate Changes to House Reconciliation Bill Are a Mixed Bag

  • Ben Ritz Nate Morris
  • Never miss an update:

  • Subscribe to our newsletter
PPI Logo
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Facebook
  • Donate
  • Careers
  • © 2025 Progressive Policy Institute. All Rights Reserved.
  • |
  • Privacy Policy
  • |
  • Privacy Settings