Here's something from an op-ed by Senator, and Presidential hopeful, Ted Cruz, making the case for legislation he is co-sponsoring:
... as scientists and investors abandon the U.S., the FDA continues to prevent life-saving drugs from coming into the country. Take, for example, the multiple-sclerosis drug Lemtrada, which has been approved and used in Europe, Canada, Mexico, and Australia. Research has demonstrated that patients who are prescribed Lemtrada are only half as likely to relapse as those prescribed a leading drug in the U.S., but the FDA has refused to approve Lemtrada because the trials did not fit within the agency’s placebo testing requirements. Patients are getting sicker, and the FDA’s outmoded scheme is keeping them that way.
The bill I am introducing takes the first step to reverse this trend. It provides for reciprocal drug approval, so that cures and medical devices that are already approved in other countries can more expeditiously come to the U.S. It requires the FDA to respond to the treatment sponsor within 30 days of its application. ...
This sounds like one of those common sense, no-brainer, clearly beneficial ideas that will be opposed by some interest group and go nowhere. Or perhaps someone will make the argument that we can't liberalize unilaterally like this, or else we'll lose negotiating leverage on regulatory issues in the TTIP.
But we'll see.
More details here.