Food And Drug Administration - FDA

The FDA is part of the United States Department of Health and Human Services. This federal agency was created in 1906 with the goal of ensuring that Americans weren’t eating food or taking drugs that didn’t meet certain quality and safety standards. Rules on animal product testing, blood storage, tobacco regulation, and much, much more are also handled by the FDA; they’ve got a lot of influence over a lot of market sectors.

One of the big progenitors of the Act was the novel, The Jungle. Humans ground into hot dogs. Probably not the kind the masses want to eat at ball games.

One of the biggest impacts the FDA can have on financial investors is in the world of prescription drugs. In order to be sold or used in the U.S., drugs have to meet the standards laid out by the FDA. Sometimes, even if a drug passes muster in another country, it won’t be approved by the FDA. This can impact the value of the company producing the drug, which can, in turn, impact the value of investments in that company.