Drugs were cheaper back then because they were less safe and effective, and because the easy stuff had mostly already been found.

Before 1962, drugs were already regulated to be safe. 1962 brought about the requirement for effective, which enormously increased drug prices. It's all in the book I referenced.

Yes, what's your point? We could have lots of cheap drugs if we don't care whether they actually work.

The reference says what happens with the greatly increased cost to develop a new drug, is the number of new drugs developed dropped dramatically. But the percentage that turned out to be effective stayed the same.

So, yes, we are worse off because of that, because we wind up with far fewer effective drugs.

A proper solution is for the patient, a legal consenting adult, to sign a piece of paper that says he understands that the FDA has not verified the drug to be effective.