Regulators must follow their heads, not their hearts

Drug approvals

Source: © Liam Bardsley/Ikon Images

The 2019 US approval of antibiotic Recarbrio seems not to have met the normally expected standards

I have never envied the job that the drug regulatory agencies do, especially those in the US and Europe that much of the rest of the world take their cues from. They are assailed constantly for being too slow or too lax, or both at the same time. But what most of the industry wants is a degree of consistency and transparency in their decisions.