[afarrell]

60-70% public money

How are you judging the percentage there? Are you including the cost of drugs that don't get approved?

[StreamBright]

You can read here about the process in the US more:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK50972/

I guess this is different country by country.

[cowsandmilk]

Nothing in that link says pharmaceutical research is 60-70% public money.

[StreamBright]

According to somebody who works in this industry it is the standard contribution. Does not matter if the drug does not get approved, the money is for the research, as far as I know.

[refurb]

Uhhh... no.

If you compare the NIH budget vs. the major pharmaceutical companies, it's a 2 to 1 ration. And not all the NIH budget is spent on drug research. It's mostly basic science.