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0 pointsyummyfajitas13y ago0 comments

Most serious medical research is being paid for NiH with the use of tax money.

This is simply not true. The NIH pays for basic research into NMEs (New Molecular Entities). The gap between an NME and a drug (i.e., a molecular entity, approved manufacturing methods, approved usage, identified side effects, monitoring) is huge.

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belorn13y ago· 1 in thread

The gap is then derivative work. They basically take the core research done by NiH for free and refine it and demand in return a 20 years monopoly from the state. The biggest single actor in medical research is by a large factor NiH, paid through tax money.

Drug companies are the only market where this is happening. Why should they get this free research if we want the market to handle the research of medical innovation? You don't see the state doing the basic research of mobile phones and then giving it away to Samsung or apple. They can't just take some already taxed funded research and "refine", getting themselves a 20 years monopoly for the effort on the expensive of the public.

And what is the benefit for the public? They give their money away with tax money and get zero back in return? It is taxed paid research, and then the state gives out a additional 20 years enforced monopoly to the first one who do the last step and refine it. Maybe a bit ism'ish, but is this the core idea of capitalism; having the state pay for the core part of the medical industry without getting anything in return?

yummyfajitasOP13y ago

You don't see the state doing the basic research of mobile phones and then giving it away to Samsung or apple.

The state (mainly the military) did basic research in signal processing and electromagnetism. Apple and Samsung turned that basic research into consumer devices you can buy at the store.

They give their money away with tax money and get zero back in return?

If private entities didn't turn molecular entities into drugs, then yes, the public would get nothing for their money.

The fact is you can't buy arbitrary chemicals in the pharmacy, and very likely you believe it should be illegal to do so (do you favor abolishing the FDA and all drug regulation?). Pfizer needs to turn drug ideas (what the NIH generates) into actual drugs, just as Samsung needs to turn coding schemes and relativistic corrections into actual consumer devices.

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