> if not for the FDA to come down on operations like Theranos, then who?
Theranos was committing fraud - selling investors a product that didn't exist. You don't need the FDA for fraud to be illegal, ordinary civil and financial law covers this.
If Theranos weren't defrauding investors and actually had a product that worked, it'd be up to the market to determine if that product were worth paying for. Since different customers have different risk profiles there's no one-size-fits-all best balance between safety, efficacy and cost - let people buy different products that choose different tradeoffs.
Theranos was committing fraud - selling investors a product that didn't exist. You don't need the FDA for fraud to be illegal, ordinary civil and financial law covers this.
If Theranos weren't defrauding investors and actually had a product that worked, it'd be up to the market to determine if that product were worth paying for. Since different customers have different risk profiles there's no one-size-fits-all best balance between safety, efficacy and cost - let people buy different products that choose different tradeoffs.