Final answer:
The PMPRB is the agency responsible for monitoring drug prices to ensure they are fair for both manufacturers and consumers, not the FDA, CDC, or DEA. The FDA ensures drug safety and efficacy, which benefits consumers but can also delay the availability of new medicines.
Step-by-step explanation:
The watch agency that monitors the prices of patented drugs to ensure fairness to both the manufacturer and the consumer is the PMPRB, which stands for the Patented Medicine Prices Review Board. This is neither the FDA (Food and Drug Administration), CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), nor the DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration).
The FDA does play a crucial role in ensuring the safety and efficacy of pharmaceuticals by regulating what medications pharmacies can sell, requiring extensive testing and approval processes that can span several years. While this helps protect consumers from unsafe drugs, it also means that there are winners and losers in the system.
The winners are the consumers who are shielded from potentially dangerous medications, and the more anonymous losers could be those who experience delays in accessing potentially beneficial medicines due to the strict regulatory requirements.