Dear Donald:
Good move on Dr. Tom Price at HHS and Jim O’Neill at the FDA. Both seem to be disruptor/game changers, which is exactly what HHS and FDA need. As a guy who has been battling the FDA for a few years and per your request, here are a couple things which they should do from the get-go, without alot of bureaucratic red tape. Let’s start with getting the FDA bureaucrats off the backs of patients and consumers.

Stem Cells:
You’re not going to believe this, but according to the FDA’s current thinking, patients need the FDA’s permission to use their own stem cells for most medical conditions. Really. That’s crazy isn’t it? There are about 600 clinics here which are giving stem cells to patients, but they will have to shut down if the FDA gets its way. Here are two things which Jim should do immediately:

First: withdraw the FDA’s four pending draft guidance documents which impose some of these crazy restrictions on peoples’ rights. (I’ve talked about this in some of my past blogs in case your people want the details.).

Second: Jim should issue a new policy statement that the use of your own stem cells, tissue or body parts (what the FDA calls “autologous use”) is not regulated by the FDA because it’s the practice of medicine which is governed by state law. That would also include the expansion or culturing of your own stem cells. The one sentence response to hand-wringers about patient safety: the state medical boards are in a better position to oversee doctors who treat patients with their patients’ own body parts.

Dietary Supplements:
My guess is that you’re not into nutritional supplements, but tens of millions of Americans are and they spend upwards of 40 billion dollars a year on them. We have the freedom to purchase supplements with minimal FDA oversight. Basically, manufacturers can’t say supplements can cure diseases or medical conditions. The FDA is trying to change that with another of its “draft guidance documents” on what it calls “new dietary ingredients.” Under the FDA new position, it’s going to be very hard for consumers to buy supplements. So Jim needs to withdraw the pending draft guidance document on “new dietary ingredients.”

I also think manufacturers ought to be able to tell consumers about the research supporting their products, but Jim and I can talk about that later, and he’ll fill you in.

Drugs and Pharma:
Dealing with drugs is more complicated. Because of how busy you are, you might not have picked-up that Congress just passed a law which will streamline the FDA approval process, (supposedly), by allowing the FDA to consider real world results rather than just formal clinical trials, and accepting data from foreign clinical trials (and a bunch of other stuff, but no need to get into the weeds).

This should save Pharma big money in future drug testing, so let’s get something back, since Pharma’s been raping American for years with excessive drug prices (which by the way, it doesn’t do when it sells its drugs in the rest of the world).
You’re 100% right to tell Pharma it has to lower the cost of drugs. For sure, let government agencies negotiate lower drug prices. That will save the government a few hundred billion over time. You’ll have to fight both parties since they’re both in Pharma’s pocket. (It was Congress which gave up the government’s right to negotiate bulk discounts.) But you can fix that. Seems like twitter is the way to go. Just have your followers email the Republican leaders for a bit and that should do it. And no one will complain about your going after congressional leaders on twitter. Your supporters will love it!

Next, a money making idea. I’m going to tell you something which as a businessman you’re not going to believe. The federal government via the NIH actually invents many of the novel drugs which Pharma sells. Guess how much the government receives for the drugs which it discovers?

NADA! Really. The government gives away these drugs, even the ones that eventually becomes blockbuster multibillion dollar revenue producers. Nuts isn’t it. So let’s get our piece from the back end. A couple billion here and there eventually adds up.

Vaccines

I don’t know whether it was real or fake news that you met with Andy Wakefield, but I do hear you have some concerns about vaccines. I do too. I’m working on what may be the most important vaccine case in the country now. It involves a doc who thought a child shouldn’t get any more vaccines after having two very bad adverse reactions. The medical board is going after him. One thing I’ve discovered is that that many physicians are afraid to come forward for fear of professional retailiation from the pro-vaccine scientific Mafia. You might know there are two big scandels involving the CDC, phony safety and non causation data issues. This needs to be looked into.

My Suggestion: Tom needs to get some folks to figure out whether vaccines are causing some diseases like autism, which is what the anti-vaxxers claim. It shouldn’t be a CDC operation since those folks may be part of the problem and may even involved in a cover-up. Nor should the muckimucks at the establishment pediatrician groups be involved (other than as witnesses or targets) since many of them have serious conflicts; they take money from vaccine manufacturers or are vaccine inventors.

Ok, this is just off the top of my head, but doing the above would be a very good start. I’ve got a couple thoughts about replacing Obamacare. I’ll send you something after Saturday Night Live.

And by the way, I’d like to serve, so I’d appreciate it if you could put in a good word about me to Arnold. I hear you’re still involved.

Regards, and best of luck with the new gig.

Rick Jaffe, Esq.