alt Hacker NewsAny idea why they'd change their mind about point 4?
The regulatory agencies were understaffed for the work load even before recent layoffs. Why focus on this, of all the things they could put their effort into?
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Whoever isn’t making their profits when people buy them this way is directing the FDA to act. You can bet on it.
Because “this” is about the biggest in-your-face blatant disregard for FDA rules that has quite literally ever existed in history. The scale is unprecedented.
If there was a single thing an understaffed FDA would go after it would be the compounding pharmacies and that whole ecosystem blatantly thumbing their nose at it all.
Not that I agree with the rules - but if this is allowed it’s essentially an end-around the entire prescription drug regime as we know it.
They didn't change their minds. The enforcement was consistent. It's the companies who scaled up their production to mass market levels who prompted the action.
There have been several examples in the past 5-6 years of the FDA loosening regulations to benefit patients and companies rushing in to abuse the opportunity at scale.
Another one that comes to mind is when the FDA loosened restrictions on telehealth prescribing of controlled substances during COVID. Several companies saw this as an opportunity to set up digital pill mills, advertising on TikTok and offering Adderall prescriptions as a service. Nurse practitioners were paid up to $60,000 per month to write prescriptions as fast as they could without interacting with patients.