and sale of drugs within their borders. In formulating these guidelines, governments and legislators must minimize the exposure of drug consumers to risks from certain treatments while optimizing the variety of beneficial drugs available to these consumers. This inevitably ends up as a balancing exercise, with some governments placing greater weight upon the availability of drugs while others emphasize the minimization of risk. The United States has historically tended to emphasize the minimization of risks. Consequently, the development of new drugs by U.S. manufacturers has taken a long time in comparison to companies in other countries. Many studies have shown that since 1962, the United States has lagged behind other developed countries in the introduction of new drugs as a result of this regulatory situation. Thus, those individuals who can afford to do so often travel to foreign countries to receive new treatments which have not yet been approved for use in the United States. As a result of the AIDS epidemic, the FDA in the late 1980s began
...