Health Care part 1: Fast track FDA approval

I wonder if I am doomed to have long discussions about health care reform every even-numbered year for the rest of my life. But I think I have one idea that even my friends on the left can agree on.

Let's have fast track FDA approval for treatments proven to work in other countries. Beta-blockers had been saving the lives of Europeans for years before the FDA approved their use over here.

Phage therapy is another treatment available outside of the US. The process involves the use of bacteriophage, viruses that infect bacteria, to attack a bacterial infection. Since bacteriophage exist in nature, it's 100% organic if you're into that sort of thing. Unlike other "organic" treatments, this really does work.

Phage therapy has been available in Eastern Europe for decades, but it is still not available here. The reason why? Because it costs a lot of money to clear the FDA approval process. A company would cheerfully fund the required trials if it thought that there would be a return on the investment. Except one cannot patent a process that has already been invented elsewhere, so there is no money to be made from this. So if you are inflicted with an antibiotic resistant strain of a disease, you'll likely have to travel to the Republic of Georgia for phage therapy.

I proposed that if a treatment has been proven to work in other countries, the FDA should simply approve it. There is no biological difference between Americans and foreigners, so whatever drug works on them should work on us as well.