The conclusion in the stimulus is that the FDA plays a critical role in improving health care in the United States.
Why? We know that the FDA regulates the introduction of new therapeutic agents into the marketplace. We know that those in academic and government research communities engage in long processes of initial discovery and clinical testing of new therapeutic agents and that the FDA's role and responsibility is to help the initial transfer of new discoveries from the laboratory to the marketplace. Further, we are told that it is only after this transfer that important new therapies can help patients.
This is a Must Be True question. That means that our correct answer will be 100% supported by the passage.
(A) is not 100% supported by the passage. We know that the FDA regulates the introduction of new therapeutic agents into the marketplace and that its responsibility is to facilitate the transfer of new discoveries from the laboratory to the marketplace. However, we have never been given any information that states that the FDA is also responsible for ENSURING that ANY therapeutic agent that is marketed is then regulated. The regulation of all therapeutic agents after they have been marketed has not been discussed in the passage.
(B) is 100% supported by the passage. The last sentence of the stimulus states: "Only after the transfer can important new therapies help patients." Thus, these new therapeutic agents do not help patients until they have been transferred to the marketplace, i.e. answer choice (B): "Before new therapeutic agents reach the marketplace they do not help patients."
(C) is not 100% supported by the passage. We do not know what research communities are responsible for. We merely know that the government research communities ENGAGE IN the long process of initial discovery and clinical testing of new therapeutic agents. We also have no information on "excessively long testing" periods for new drugs.
(D) is not 100% supported by the passage. What the FDA should or should not do was never mentioned in the passage. Further, the quality of therapeutic agents being maintained has also not been discussed in the passage.
(E) is not 100% supported by the passage. We do not know whether the transfer of a new medical discovery from the laboratory to the marketplace ENSURES that patients will be helped. We merely know that this is the only way that new patients CAN be helped: "only after the transfer CAN important new therapies help patients."
Hope that clears things up! Please let us know if you have any other questions.
kaori-watanabeMay 16, 2020
I still cannot eliminate answer E. The last sentence indicates that the transfer helps patients, isn't it?
iris.diaz823June 29, 2020
My issue with B is that it says "before new therapeutic agents reach the marketplace they DO NOT help patients." However the stimulus only says "after the transfer CAN important new therapies help patients." We have no way of knowing whether they will definitely help the patient. Help?
shunheJuly 3, 2020
Hi @kaori-watanabe and @iris.diaz823,
Thanks for the question! So let me explain why (B) is right first. Let’s take a look at what exactly is going on in this stimulus. We know that the FDA regulates introduction of new therapeutic agents and thus is important in improving health care in the US. The FDA helps transfer discoveries from the lab to the marketplace, where therapies can then help people.
So now we want something we can infer from the passage. (B) tells us that before new therapeutic agents reach the marketplace they don’t help patients. And this is exactly what the last sentence of the stimulus says. It says:
Help patient —> After transfer
And so if we take the contrapositive, it’s
~After transfer --> ~Help patient
Which is why (B) is correct. The last sentence says ONLY after the transfer can new therapies help; the word ONLY is the key word here.
Now as to why (E) is wrong. The last sentence indicates that transfers allow medicines to help patients because then patients can start using them. But it’s also possible you transfer some useless medications that don’t help anyone in the end. Or maybe you transfer medications to the market but no one buys them anyway. And that’s why (E) is wrong.
Hope this helps! Feel free to ask any other questions that you might have.
