People often talk about "evidence based medicine" but it has many problems. One is the cost of trials to bring a new drug to market. I read somewhere it is in the vicinity of one billion dollars. No-one will spend that amount of money on trialling an unpatentable natural product for FDA approval.
Another problem is the length of the trials themselves. They tend to be no longer than a few weeks, so we have no idea of the longer-term effects of these substances.
Another issue is the interaction between the various drugs people are often on. Drugs are not generally tested for this, but rather in isolation.
Another issue is that new drugs are generally treated on healthy, young volunteers without any major health complaints, whose response to a drug may be quite different to that of a sick, debilitated or old person.
Finally there is the issue of drug companies, who perform their own tests, cherry picking ones with the best results to present to the FDA for approval.
These are just a small sample of some of the issues with the current drug approval regime.
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