[ksen]

Private pharmaceutical companies, for example, foot a significant amount of the costs of drug development, and they do it in a much more cost-effective way.

No they don't.

Pharmaceutical R&D – its cost and what it delivers

Data from companies, the United States National Science Foundation, and government reports indicate that companies have been spending only 1.3% of revenues on basic research to discover new molecules, net of taxpayer subsidies. More than four fifths of all funds for basic research to discover new drugs and vaccines come from public sources.

Pharmaceutical Companies Spent 19 Times More On Self-Promotion Than Basic Research: Report

[dfwgator]

This is one area where you and I agree....the pharmaceutical companies privatize the profits and socialize the expenses.

[Lou L]

No they don't.

Amazing how you have some left-bent website and its links, all ready to paste into your response. The methodology used to measure "efficiency" is meaningless, as well as the term, "basic research."

Being very close to a major pharma company, I can tell you have no idea how much is spent on funding clinical trials and drug development. And drug formularies still have to approve paying for those drugs, even if they are approved. Increasingly, if your newly-approved drug doesn't offer significant improvements over existing treatments--particularly off-patent treatments--as a drug company, you won't be profitable.