[uxp]

PBMs are rent seeking middlemen. Their desire to seek the lowest drug price is arguably what contributes to things like quality standards at pharmaceutical manufactures slowly loosening and contaminants getting into the supply line.

Honestly, we should have an independent 3rd party with zero financial investment in either approving or rejecting a quality check of a batch sample. Something Federal, so manufacturers cant "shop states", that administers and regulates drugs and their distribution. Not sure what I would call it. I tend to go with cartoonish things, so Merlin after the bumbling wizard sounds fun, but the bureaucrat in me thinks the acronym "F.D.A." would suffice.

[gus_massa]

Nitpicking: The FDA doesn't test every single batch of each product. They review the results of the clinical trials and then they set the rules to approve the batches. When a batch is ready, someone in the drug production factory is responsible to check that all the test and quality meet the regulations and then sign a paper approving the release. S/he must have a degree in pharmacology or chemistry or something similar. If something gets wrong the person that signed the release approval is the first one that get questioned, so they should be very careful.

It's somewhat similar to the role of the NHTSA(?). They set the general rules and approve each vehicle model, but they don't go to the factory to test each single car.