Gingrich: Remove Obstacles to Medical Breakthroughs
What do you think about the presidential candidate's promise to maximize the speed and impact of medical breakthroughs by removing unnecessary obstacles that block new treatments from reaching patients with diseases such as Alzheimer’s and autism?
Newt Gingrich is coming to Burlingame this weekend to headline the California Republican Party spring convention.
The presidential candidate has outlined his legislative proposals should he be elected into office.
One of those is to "Maximize the speed and impact of medical breakthroughs by removing unnecessary obstacles that block new treatments from reaching patients and emphasizing research spending toward urgent national priorities, like brain science with its impact on Alzheimer’s, autism, Parkinson’s, mental health and other conditions that knowledge of the brain will help solve," according to his campaign website.
What do you think of this proposal? Do you believe there is too much red tape in getting treatments approved by the Food and Drug Administration?
Tell us in the comments.
commuter
1:57 pm on Wednesday, February 22, 2012
Is he talking about stem cell research?
Camden Swita
2:29 pm on Wednesday, February 22, 2012
No. He's mainly talking about an FDA reform and making it easier to bring new brain science breakthroughs to practice in the U.S. He's vowed to ban embryonic stem-cell research: http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/gingrich-vows-to-ban-embryonic-stem-cell-research-questions-in-vitro-practices/2012/01/29/gIQAIO9saQ_story.html
Marcia Appel Reisman
3:52 pm on Wednesday, February 22, 2012
As long as republicans confuse science and religion they can't be trusted to look out for your well-being. Lack of government oversight has certainly proven itself in the banking and financial sectors, so let's give companies free reign over healthcare. Right now, people are dying of cancer due to severe drug shortages. I guess there is more money in viagra then doxil. Let's see a politician address the concerns of people. Oh I almost forgot, corporations are people
Robbins
5:27 pm on Wednesday, February 22, 2012
My rule of thumb used to be: Never pay any attention to anything a politician says within 90 days of the election. Now it's at least a year. Look at what they did when they had leadership roles and who they are as people.
Zeke Mead
9:04 pm on Wednesday, February 22, 2012
I will if he let's me be one of the first to move to his colony on the moon.... but he has to go first...
Cyn Stern
7:21 am on Thursday, February 23, 2012
He wants to rush relatively-less-tested medications to market, allegedly for the benefit of patients everywhere. Maybe he's sincere. Maybe he wishes to maximize Big Pharma's profits. I'm betting on the latter.
I'd suggest a compromise: Go ahead and rush the meds to market, but distribute them for free or at cost to fully-informed and closely-monitored patients, and have the results of all of these patients' outcomes readily available to both the medical community and to the public. Also have funding set aside to compensate any patients who experience adverse side-effects.
Dianna Taylor
8:08 am on Thursday, February 23, 2012
He just wants the votes.Keep a file on all the grand promises and see what happens within the next couple of years
jen l.
10:23 pm on Sunday, February 26, 2012
Newt Gingrich's public persona is that of a cheating womanizing hypocrite, but maybe he's an angel in private. But i doubt he'll do the right thing and shut down the embryo experimentation factories, which he's vowed to ban. That's big business.
Dianna Taylor
8:21 am on Monday, February 27, 2012
Please read the Sunday article in the SF Chronicle by Debra Saunders
in the INSIGHT SECTION It says it all and everyone who votes better do their homework in getting the correct info