By Gilbert Ross, M.D.
Posted: Friday, October 19, 2007

LETTER
Publication Date: October 19, 2007

This letter originally ran on October 19, 2007 in the Los Angeles Times:

The alarming reports in the Journal of the American Medical Association outlining the extent of two "superbug" infections should chasten those who call for ever-more-stringent regulation of pharmaceutical companies and their products.

Drug research is already under the gun from over-regulation: It typically takes more than 10 years and $1 billion to get a new drug to market, and even then the threat of liability for unforeseeable toxicity looms.

Now the need is clearly for new, effective drugs -- antibiotics and vaccines -- to counter the variant germs that increasingly threaten us. These include not only the currently newsworthy methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus and pneumococcus but resistant tuberculosis and other multi-drug resistant infections.

We need stronger weapons against these infections, and incentives must be given to pharmaceutical researchers to create such weapons.

Why should a drug company these days invest so much time and money in research when the Food and Drug Administration puts up obstacles, demanding absolute safety at every turn, and when plaintiffs' lawyers search for any perceived opening to pick their deep pockets?

Gilbert Ross, M.D.
Medical Director
The American Council on Science and Health
New York