This is a linkpost for https://maximumprogress.substack.com/p/surgery-works-well-without-the-fda

Here is a conversation from the comments of my last post on the FDA with fellow progress blogger Alex Telford that follows a pattern common to many of my conversations about the FDA:

Alex: Most drugs that go into clinical trials (90%) are less effective or safe than existing options. If you release everything onto the market you'll get many times more drugs that are net toxic (biologically or financially) than the good drugs you'd get faster. You will almost surely do net harm.

Max: Companies don't want to release products that are worse than their competitors.

Companies test lots of cars or computers or ovens which are less effective or safe than existing options but they only release the ones that are competitive. This isn't because most consumers could tell whether their car was less efficient or that their computer is less secure [...]

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First published:
January 26th, 2024

Source:
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/KJdvNJKan2osHHkcL/surgery-works-well-without-the-fda

Linkpost URL:
https://maximumprogress.substack.com/p/surgery-works-well-without-the-fda

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

[Linkpost] “Surgery Works Well Without The FDA” by Maxwell Tabarrok

LessWrong (30+ Karma)