[starcraft2wol]

Individuals often respond to social status incentives more than cash. Undoubtedly this invention helped Salk's financial and personal outlook in other ways.

Also the models of development of these is just completely different from what modern medicines often requires. Specifically, operateing large research labs (which are heavily regulated) and then pursuing the marathon that is FDA approval. Individuals will still tinker, but those industrial scale developments are not going to happen without funding.

[disgruntledphd2]

I dunno, the reason that we have such long patent periods is supposedly to pay for all the losses in Phase 1/2/3. However, if we merely let scientists do clinical research, as per usual, and license the right to conduct these studies to contract research labs, and then license the production rights for the successful trials to contract manufacturers, we could probably cut out a huge amount of the waste and marketing spend by Pfizer/Novartis et al and still achieve the better goals.

In fact, because the people in this chain would be less incentivised to focus on diseases of rich people, then humanity might overall be better off.

[worik]

> Individuals often respond to social status incentives more than cash

Incentives matter. But they are not the whole story.

People act for reasons other than incentives, also.