My thinking as well. I’m fine with the FDA not giving drug approval to a substance as long as they don’t ban it. There are a few drugs I take regularly that are not FDA approved in the US (I.e Moclobemide as there are no approved reversible MAOIs in the US) but I’m still legally allowed to import them and usually it’s pretty cheap.

> It wouldn't matter; you'd still be free to sell it as an unregulated supplement.

Patent protections on supplements are very weak compared to the protections afforded to FDA approved drugs.

That alone limits research into supplements.

Also what counts as a supplement is limited, companies cannot just declare any random drug to be a supplement. Dietary supplements have to have some tenuous connection to being from a natural source. (Though obviously that line gets skirted a lot, such was with DMAA prior to 2013)

> That alone limits research into supplements.

Why is that relevant? In the scenario under discussion, you've already invented the drug.