Mexico’s 120 million citizens will begin to enjoy free, universal access to healthcare from next year, following a decree by socialist president Claudia Sheinbaum.
Penicillin was invented in a public university lab. We used to have a strong public research in the health sector worldwide.
Then neo-liberalism managed to convince politic leaders to progressively shut down public research and subsidize more and more the private sector.
This is not unique to the US. Your taxes pay for R&D, then your insurance (or your wallet…) pays to get the drugs you subsidized.
And the private sector does not need ginormous margins to stimulate private R&D spendings.
I’ve seen penicillin and insulin mentioned quite a bit in these comments, but these two compounds were relatively low hanging fruits.
Penicillin in particular is an interesting example. While it’s development might have been in public institutions, it was largely the product of obscene defense expenditure. Things wouldn’t have worked out like they did if it didn’t have military applications.
Thats the thing about government research. Governments have narrow interests, and the average voter isn’t equipped to see the bigger picture. They’d prefer tax breaks over research if given an option. They wouldn’t want to pay for the research, but they’d expect the product of that research to be given for free.
Penicillin was invented in a public university lab. We used to have a strong public research in the health sector worldwide.
Then neo-liberalism managed to convince politic leaders to progressively shut down public research and subsidize more and more the private sector.
https://www.ineteconomics.org/perspectives/blog/us-tax-dollars-funded-every-new-pharmaceutical-in-the-last-decade
This is not unique to the US. Your taxes pay for R&D, then your insurance (or your wallet…) pays to get the drugs you subsidized. And the private sector does not need ginormous margins to stimulate private R&D spendings.
I’ve seen penicillin and insulin mentioned quite a bit in these comments, but these two compounds were relatively low hanging fruits.
Penicillin in particular is an interesting example. While it’s development might have been in public institutions, it was largely the product of obscene defense expenditure. Things wouldn’t have worked out like they did if it didn’t have military applications.
Thats the thing about government research. Governments have narrow interests, and the average voter isn’t equipped to see the bigger picture. They’d prefer tax breaks over research if given an option. They wouldn’t want to pay for the research, but they’d expect the product of that research to be given for free.