Conservatism, Consumer Choice, and the Food and Drug Administration during the Reagan Era

A Prescription for Scandal

By (author) Lucas Richert

Not available to order

Publication date:

16 May 2014

Length of book:

260 pages

Publisher

Lexington Books

ISBN-13: 9780739182598

In the last quarter of the 20th century, politicians in Washington, as well as interest groups, regulatory policy makers, and drug industry leaders were forced to confront the hot-button issue of pharmaceutical regulation. The struggle always centered on product innovation, consumer protection, and choice in the free market. As the American economy stuttered in the late 1970s, the stakes were extremely high for the powerful drug industry and the American public. At the center of this drama was the Food and Drug Administration, which was censured from both the left and right of the political spectrum for being too strict and too lenient in the application of its regulatory powers.

Lucas Richert explores the FDA, drugs, and politics in the context of the watershed Reagan era, a period when the rhetoric of limited government, reduced regulation, and enhanced cooperation between businesses and U.S. regulatory agencies was on the ascent. As he investigates the controversies surrounding Laetrile, Reye’s Syndrome, Oraflex, patient package inserts, diet pills, and HIV/AIDS drugs, Richert argues that the practical application of conservative economic principles to the American drug industry was
A Prescription for Scandal.
The effect of presidential and interest-group politics on public agencies has been a fundamental problem in public administration for more than a century. This new book, a case study of the Food and Drug Administration during the 1980s, is an effort to show how President Ronald Reagan’s budget and regulatory policies impacted the FDA’s effectiveness in protecting the public and in supporting the creation of new pharmaceuticals. This period was also the time of the beginning of the HIV/AIDS pandemic and the rapid growth of generic drugs. Richert suggests that many of the FDA’s difficulties in the 1980s and beyond can be traced to the Reagan administration’s budget cutting, Congress’s expansion of the agency’s range of responsibilities, and political pressures from HIV/AIDS advocates and makers of generic drugs. He based his analysis on a wide range of secondary sources, along with official documents from the FDA and elected officials. Readers will reach different conclusions regarding the book’s success in establishing the causal connections between Reaganism and the FDA’s problems, but the book makes a strong case that the FDA does not operate in a political vacuum. Summing Up: Recommended. Lower-division undergraduate collections and above.