Approved to Fail: Inside the FDA’s Drug Approval Collapse
The FDA has abandoned science in favor of corporate profits.
An investigation by The Lever has confirmed what skeptics have long suspected: the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved hundreds of drugs over the past decade with no solid evidence they work.
And many that actively cause harm remain on the market.
73% of Drugs Approved with No Real Proof
Between 2013 and 2022, 73% of new drugs failed to meet even the FDA’s own minimum standards for approval.
Nearly 40 drugs met zero of the four key criteria: no control group, no replication, no blinding, and no proof of real-world benefit.
Instead, companies got the green light using junk data, surrogate endpoints, and speculation — and patients paid the price.
Pharma campaign donations doubled around the time Congress passed laws to weaken drug approval rules.
FDA: From Watchdog to Lapdog
After intense lobbying by Big Pharma and so-called patient advocacy groups, the FDA shifted from a “prove it works” model to “we’ll find out later — maybe.”
Drugs were shoved through using accelerated pathways, often without measuring whether they actually helped patients live longer, suffer less, or recover faster.
The FDA’s current approval model is built on flimsy evidence, fake science, and captured regulators. Companies aren’t required to show their drugs help people — just that they do something. Temporarily shrink a tumor slightly? Good enough! Never mind the side effects, or whether it even improves survival.
Cancer Drugs: The Biggest Red Flag
Cancer treatments were the worst.
Of 123 FDA-approved cancer drugs, just 2.4% met all four criteria. Twenty-nine met none.
Genentech’s Avastin was approved in 2008, made $6.8 billion, and was later pulled after showing no benefit and causing serious harm. The FDA got bullied for pulling it, and hasn’t grown a spine since.
What About Vaccines?
Vaccines were excluded from the investigation, but experts say the same dodgy playbook applies: fake placebos, unblinded trials, antibody results instead of real protection, and no long-term safety data.
“Clinical trial” now just means marketing phase one.
