"We are now on the threshold of achieving the first effective vaccine for a coronavirus". You need some help here. The first effective vaccine is, in fact, Russia's Sputnik V. Your commentary about government/industry collaboration is well taken which is probably why Russia has at least two vaccines in the works, Sputnik V, which my daughter who lives there tells me is being shipped to Argentina, and another one and China has four. Even little Cuba, in full throated defiance of American economic warfare has one in development.
But you only mention the ones being developed by The West. Why was that? Especially since the three countries I mentioned are either largely or wholly socialist countries.
There are other examples of government doing what's called basic research. The wind tunnel complex at Langley AFB is absolutely world class and they started back in the '30s when NASA was still NACA. They did the mind numbing but absolutely essential business of measuring all the data to calculate the aerodynamic coefficients for various airfoil designs. They were openly published and I know that 74A000000-1001, the top assembly drawing for the F-18A aircraft, identifies the wing as a modified NACA [umptyfratz] airfoil. I suspect that Boeing's 747 top assembly drawing has a similar note. This information was all free to anyone who needed/wanted it.
For something like this I would think that you would be recommending that the government provide the data for a percentage of the future profits of any eventual drugs. But to be fair, the pharmaceutical does have a bunch of stuff to do that's not cheap. They have to finish the development of the drug(s), get them through the stages of testing which are a considerable hurdle unless governments want the drug badly, and most importantly they "productionize" the drug and upscale the production process for mass production. American companies are experienced at this part.
It used to be that the US gave the knowledge away and made money when that knowledge made money for companies using it. ... But we don't do that anymore, do we?
"We are now on the threshold of achieving the first effective vaccine for a coronavirus". You need some help here. The first effective vaccine is, in fact, Russia's Sputnik V. Your commentary about government/industry collaboration is well taken which is probably why Russia has at least two vaccines in the works, Sputnik V, which my daughter who lives there tells me is being shipped to Argentina, and another one and China has four. Even little Cuba, in full throated defiance of American economic warfare has one in development.
But you only mention the ones being developed by The West. Why was that? Especially since the three countries I mentioned are either largely or wholly socialist countries.
There are other examples of government doing what's called basic research. The wind tunnel complex at Langley AFB is absolutely world class and they started back in the '30s when NASA was still NACA. They did the mind numbing but absolutely essential business of measuring all the data to calculate the aerodynamic coefficients for various airfoil designs. They were openly published and I know that 74A000000-1001, the top assembly drawing for the F-18A aircraft, identifies the wing as a modified NACA [umptyfratz] airfoil. I suspect that Boeing's 747 top assembly drawing has a similar note. This information was all free to anyone who needed/wanted it.
For something like this I would think that you would be recommending that the government provide the data for a percentage of the future profits of any eventual drugs. But to be fair, the pharmaceutical does have a bunch of stuff to do that's not cheap. They have to finish the development of the drug(s), get them through the stages of testing which are a considerable hurdle unless governments want the drug badly, and most importantly they "productionize" the drug and upscale the production process for mass production. American companies are experienced at this part.
It used to be that the US gave the knowledge away and made money when that knowledge made money for companies using it. ... But we don't do that anymore, do we?