It's pretty hard to know the path not taken. I used to work at the FDA, and let me tell you, they're basic reason for existence is to slow down innovation. Many

It's pretty hard to know the path not taken. I used to work at the FDA, and let me tell you, they're basic reason for existence is to slow down innovation. Many think it's worth it, but I personally believe that their risk aversion has hurt much more people than it has helped. But from a political perspective, it's the right move because no one is going to blame you for hypothetically preventing some life-saving wonder drug from existing; they're going to blame you for approving some drug that kills a bunch of people. In the first case, the harm is almost impossible to quantify or even reason about, in the second case the harm is direct and known.