Can you even IMAGINE a US government agency capable of pulling off such a wonderful feat these days? After NASA in the ‘60s and’ 70s it became impossible for that to happen. People lost their patriotism, Puritan work ethic, and became stupid as a result of our failed education system.
It seems that Israel might have come up with something for cancer but the media isn’t going to give credit to THEM.
A lot of people (many whom do their share of griping about big pharma), believe that "most drug development" is funded by the government. Ergo, they also believe that drugs should be much cheaper as a result.
While it's true the NIH throws around billions in research dollars each year--and some of that research may be used in part or whole by large pharma companies, it's a stretch to say that NIH funds the majority of drug development.
For starters, the body of medical research comes from many sources, all the way back to Hippocrates. We've learned much through collaborations like the Genome Project. Learning about various diseases like cancer still requires significant input from R&D pharma companies. Knowing about a disease, is not the same as developing a cure, and spending the 10 years or so that it takes to conduct (and pay for) clinical trials.