I can remember my father saying that glass would never be approved as a building material if it were introduced today. Vioxx, We Hardly Knew Ye makes a similar case about aspirin:
No other anti-arthritis drug, including aspirin and the older NSAIDs, have been studied over the length of time that Vioxx has been. Even aspirin would not be approved for human use if it had to pass FDA evaluation today, due to its propensity for inducing GI bleeding, allergic reactions, and blood thinning. Indeed, while critics accuse the FDA of being lax, the opposite is true: getting an innovative, life-saving pharmaceutical to market in the US is an incredibly daunting, time-consuming and expensive endeavor.