Commentary: Perverse effects

Biopharma companies and their investors have complained for years that an increasing regulatory burden in the U.S. and Europe has driven up the cost of drugs and delayed their availability to patients for no good reason. Surprisingly, the head one of the most controversial and powerful regulatory authorities agrees.

According to Sir Michael Rawlins, director of the U.K.'s National Institute for Health & Clinical Excellence, FDA and EMA have driven up the cost of drugs with increasing demands for data that have not translated into a public health benefit...