My follow up question is, do strict policies stunt medical innovation and economic growth?

This is a really good follow up question to think about. I believe strict policies do stunt medical innovation and economic growth, but it is necessary. We as a society most definitely want to prevent tragedies like the Thalidomide one if we can do so (which Dr. Kelsey did) using strict policies. Lowering the strictness on policies can only lead to more companies taking advantage of it to push products out faster.
For economic growth, I’m no economist but I believe if we had a less strict system in place, a lot of the standards we have set would be much lower. We have a system in place that is meant to root out the weeds and allow the cream-of-the-crop-products to rise. At least theoretically. Even with our rigorous policies the DePuy scandal with the hip implant recalls still happened, so how strong and strict are our current policies really?