Legislation to expose today's biologics to easier competition, after legitimate patents have expired, is going to accelerate development of improved products.

Today, nearly 80 percent of active pharmaceutical ingredients originate outside the United States. But the FDA cannot adequately oversee the safety of chemicals manufactured overseas and imported into the United States.

When it comes to making new drugs safer, most of the obvious solutions are already accounted for; we have reached the flat part of a curve that measures incremental safety against the additional cost.

New drug treatments often take time to prove their effectiveness, and medical progress will slow if the lack of immediate and dramatic results disqualifies new drugs from research and use.