Final answer:
Pharmacies usually order medication from wholesalers, while also dealing with individual manufacturers and sales representatives. The FDA regulates these medicines, but strict regulations can delay the availability of new drugs, negatively affecting smaller companies and patients in need.
Step-by-step explanation:
Pharmacies typically order their medication from wholesalers, which serve as intermediaries between pharmacies and individual manufacturers or drug companies. While pharmacists could potentially order medications directly from manufacturers or through sales representatives, the majority of orders are facilitated by wholesalers for efficiency and cost-effectiveness. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) plays a critical role in regulating these medicines to ensure they are safe and effective. However, the intensive and prolonged process of drug approval can serve as a disadvantage to smaller drug companies and patients awaiting new therapies, effectively making them the 'anonymous losers' in need of faster access to the market. While striving for public health safety through their regulations, the FDA closely supervises drug manufacturing and approval processes to minimize the risk of situations like the incidents of bribery and corruption seen in the past.