The Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, issued a recommendation for the FDA from their Handbook for Congress on their RSS feed yesterday. The recommendation is simple:

Congress should modify the Food, Drug and Cosmetics Act of 1938 to allow pharmaceutical companies to opt out of Food and Drug Administration testing requirements and to use alternative organizations to certify product safety and efficacy ... and allow individuals the freedom to use any non-FDA-approved product. ... As an agency, the FDA has a strong incentive to delay allowing products to reach the market. After all, if a product that helps millions of individuals causes adverse reactions or even death for a few, the FDA will be subject to adverse publicity with critics asking why more tests were not conducted. Certainly, it is desirable to make all pharmaceutical products as safe as possible. But every day that the FDA delays approving a product for market, many patients who might be helped suffer or die needlessly.

I know some GWH contributors and readers will not appreciate this suggestion. While I think a discussion about it would be profitable, I bring it up only to ask those who prefer the FDA's monopoly,

"What advantage does the FDA have over alternative certifying organizations other than the coercive power of the State to enforce its regulations?"