[joshgev]

I see two big problems.

The science funding climate, at least in the US (I don't really know what goes on elsewhere) is in a really sad state. Projects with a low probability of success are really hard to get funded but that is precisely what you need to come up with really novel things. Curiously, science funding bodies don't seem to think of things in a probabilistic way.

The second issue is the same idea, but applied to industry. There is an activation energy that you need to surpass in order to make any business profitable. If we are talking about building a business around a brand new and unproven (in a business sense) technology like mRNA, the barrier is _huge_. You need entities with very deep pockets to accept year after year of losses before you can start getting a viable business producing cutting-edge products.

In both cases I think intelligent use of government funds could be a big help. I am not big on socialism, but I have long held that this is one of the most important things a government can and should provide: subsidies for risky research and business endeavors, not to mention large-scale infrastructure projects.

[Ericson2314]

We do fund basic research decently well, but not development. That's mostly in agreement of the above, but leads to a few differences.

In particular, if we start funding the both research & development, the public sector starts taking on all risk, so there is 0 reason to reward the private sector with IP ownership. Do a drug bounty, and then public domain the IP. I would say have the state hold the IP and license it out with cost controls, but I think having medicare actually negotiate will do that well enough.