[HillaryBriss]

Dean Baker, an economist, has written here and there about alternative ways to pay for drug research:

"There are clearly better and worse ways to structure a system of government financed research. For example, the Free Market Drug Act, a bill recently introduced in the U.S. Congress, called for establishing a set of competing government corporations that would be evaluated at periodic intervals (e.g. 10 years) for the quality of their work. The worst performers would be put out of business with new ones created to take their place."

More here:

http://www.paecon.net/PAEReview/issue32/Baker32.htm

http://cepr.net/publications/briefings/testimony/drugs-are-c...

[refurb]

Considering the number of poorly performing gov't programs, I'm sure the "quality of their work" would be based on things other that actual output. Nepotism and buying votes are probably more likely.