[GauntletWizard]

Regulatory capture is pretty much inevitable. In almost any field, the skills needed for government regulators to evaluate claims are interchangeable with the skills needed to work in the field.

The only thing that will help is strong whistleblower protections, to allow the ethical members of a profession to call bullshit without fear of repercussion. (This won't work in banking, for obvious reasons :P )

[narrator]

How about the Singapore model? Pay government bureaucrats huge salaries and pensions so they don't have to structure their career around getting a private sector cash out after they retire from regulating.

[jonlucc]

I'd wonder where the regulators are going to learn the skills needed to regulate. Drug development is not quite like academic research.