[bamfly]

Then we should:

1) Explicitly fund research with public dollars, then, not make people who need drugs that aren't even very new fund it.

2) Stop paying to fund everyone else's research (I think this is about 90% bullshit, seeing as other developed countries have strong drug research sectors and I doubt that's solely because of their sales in the US, but even if it's not bullshit—why the hell would we do that?)

Every time someone tries to defend the status quo, they seem not to notice that they're defending a very shitty version of what they're advocating for, even if all their claims are true.

[nradov]

Most of the basic research is already publicly funded. Where pharmaceutical companies have huge expenses is in running large scale clinical trials necessary to bring drugs to market. In theory that work could be nationalized but in practice I doubt that government bureaucrats without a profit motive would make good choices. More likely they would operate based on political pressure and focus on whichever diseases have the loudest advocates.