As a research scientist, ethicist, and libertarian author and activist, Dr. Mary J. Ruwart has had a long and accomplished career in various fields. But it was perhaps her position in the Upjohn Company, as a senior research scientist working on developing new therapies for diseases such as AIDS and liver cirrhosis, that gave her the greatest insight into serious problems stemming from the 1962 amendments to the Food and Drug Act.

Dr. Ruwart believes that these amendments, which are in effect to this day, have had the unintended, devastating consequence of causing millions of Americans to die prematurely. "Regulations can have side effects that are just as deadly as drugs," she observes.

Alarmed by this state of affairs, Dr. Ruwart was moved to write her new book, Death by Regulation: How We Were Robbed of a Golden Age of Health and How We Can Reclaim It.

In the book, Dr. Ruwart details how the amendments have not significantly improved drug safety or effectiveness, have been extremely detrimental to innovation, have greatly slowed the process of getting important drugs from the lab to patients, and have shifted American healthcare from inexpensive preventions to expensive treatments.