Instead of the government giving money to various researchers and drug companies for "research" and worthless clinical trials (of which there are many), they should just announce that they are STOPPING IT.
Further, they should announce that all such monies will be deposited into interest-bearing accounts (one for each currently funded disease). The first person to come up with a "cure" for the disease takes ALL OF THE MONEY. If they come up with a definitive, exceptionally life-extending treatment, they might qualify for a pro-rated portion. Hopefully, some of the private funds would follow suit.
Doesn't matter if it's a guy in his home lab; a student at a University; or the traditional "research lab" at a pharma company. Everyone in the world would be eligible.
That, of course, will never happen. WAY to many campaign funds to lose. We need to pay people for results; it eliminates the tendency to keep the funding coming at the expense of the patients. It certainly would put some focus into their research.
"We need to pay people for results"
Great post. At the moment we seem to be paying for results.....the wrong results.
Every day more and more evidence comes to light that many drugs are doing far more harm than good. The CDC admits that 48.2% of so called AIDS' deaths are from HAART 'side effects' but then happily calls them 'AIDS mortalities' and uses tax payers money to buy even more of these deadly drugs.
A cycle of madness and profit.
Insanity!