Industrial Policy Fails Another (Rapid) Test

Scott LincicomeIt was good to see President Biden finallyacknowledge yesterday what anyone in America with a school ‐​age child, job in a front ‐​facing industry, or overseas travel plans has known for months: U.S. policy regarding COVID-19 testing has been a piping hot mess. What the president didn ’t mention, however, was that the administration’s most recent plan for at‐​home rapid tests — announced in December in response to extreme public frustration about empty drug store shelves and long testing lines — was actually Biden’ssixth promise to subsidize and plan our way to testing abundance via the type of “industrial policy” that’s all the rage in Washington these days. Nor did the president note that the biggest impediment to American testing abundance hasn’t been a lack of subsidies for domestic manufacturing capacity, but instead the Food and Drug Administration ’s onerous standards and processes for approving rapid tests — one of which (from MIT lab E25Bio) wasreportedly ready inMarch of last year.As I explain inBarron ’s today, the United States ’ continued rapid testing situation is not only a frustrating look at failed political promises and persistent regulatory sclerosis,but also a cautionary tale for U.S. industrial policy advocates:Since September, even as the Delta variant raged, the FDA has approved only a handful of additional tests. Two of those [emergency use authorizations], mor...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - Category: American Health Authors: Source Type: blogs