Scott Gottlieb

“The spread of HIV through contaminated blood was a tragic illustration of the risk that blood products could harbor undetectable and latent infection that's only revealed once it's widely distributed.”

“The period of time between the uncovering of some fundamental scientific finding that underpinned a medical advance, and the realization of the corresponding advance in the form of a new drug or medical technique that improves the health of patients, is being continually hastened.”

“When gene therapy was believed to harbor latent risks, research was largely put on hold until the risks were better understood. Sometimes, the theoretical risks have led to a principle of absolutist precaution that impedes progress.”

“It is true that some off-label drug use is based on very unsettled science and has more risks. But medicine - and not just cancer care - involves lots of hard choices. And the more serious the disorder, often the more likely it is that for every right and wrong treatment choice there are many other practical decisions painted in shades of gray.”

“Once an effective drug is approved to treat a deadly condition, introducing a second drug to treat the same disease can be hard. It's tough to recruit patients with a debilitating disease for a clinical trial when a proven medicine is already available.”

“Our Founders thought politicians should be accountable when it comes to citizens' right to life, liberty and the pursuit of heart surgery.”

“In fast moving fields like cancer, where doctors tailor treatments based on evidence that's constantly evolving, two years can be an eternity of waiting to learn about important science. For some patients, that interval can be fatal.”

“Covid-19 may be here for a long time.”

“Among the most common reasons why people come to an emergency room are bouts of heart failure or pneumonia. Sometimes they have a touch of both.”

“Creative destruction is an increasingly prominent feature of modern medical practice.”

“Printing novel DNA might open the way to achievements once only conceivable in science fiction: designer bacteria that can produce new chemicals, such as more efficient fuels, or synthetic versions of our cells that make us resistant to the effects of radiation.”

“Policies I advanced as FDA commissioner aimed to get smokers off cigarettes and onto less-harmful forms of nicotine delivery.”

“The higher cost of getting a generic drug approved by regulators means that many old medicines don't face competitors. It's only after substantial price hikes that these drugs offer enough revenue to offset the rising generic entry costs, and start to entice competition.”

“EpiPen is not unique. It falls into a category of old drugs, many of which should have long been subject to generic competition.”

“One thing about Covid-19 is clear: We don't fully understand its severity and transmission. At various turns, we've both underestimated and overestimated the virus.”

“Rather than redistribute physician income as a way to subsidize an expansion of government control, Mr. Obama should fix the payment system to align incentives with improved care.”

“We need to make sure that access to a curative drug doesn't become a yardstick by which poverty is eventually measured. Doing so requires a shared commitment between innovators and the insurance plans that are harder pressed to offer these advances to the poor.”

“The key to the generic-drug economic model is to keep entry prices low enough to attract multiple competitors.”

“ObamaCare has accelerated many of the detrimental trends doctors see in their profession, and introduced new ones.”

“Gene therapies and other treatments that can cure - not just treat - disease are going to be expensive. All of the cost of innovating and reaping an economic return may need to be recouped in a single payment.”