Prescription Drug Regulation, Cost, and Access: Current Controversies in Context

Prescription drugs are among the most common health care interventions and have turned many once-fatal diseases into manageable conditions — but they have also been a growing source of controversy. Patients and physicians in the US struggle with increasing costs and express concerns about why certain conditions like Alzheimer’s disease remain without therapeutic options.

At the center of these debates lies the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), a federal agency responsible for monitoring the prescription drug marketplace and enforcing basic rules and laws that affect how prescription drugs are discovered, developed, and sold.