A123 picks up $249m of your money...

[Finnster]

Originally Posted by JThiessen

We do the same thing for prescription drugs - these companies operate in part on govt grants to research and develope drugs, then we pay the astronomical prices for the product when it comes to market for the ten years it takes for the patent to roll over (then generics can be made).

We give billions out via the NHS and other medical research for cancer and all sorts of things. Its how a lot of university labs and small companies exist. They do expensive and time-consuming research w/ no guaranteed outcomes. If and when they do have a winner, they are picked up by large pharmas and make tons of money.

Yes, the gov't is subsidizing research for private companies, but otoh its how a lot of this research gets done, and it employs high paid scientists doing work in the US, attracting talent from all over the world to our premere universities, and graduates often stay and work/form other small companies to continue the cycle. Its also why we have so much of the major pharmas (and their R&D jobs) here. We have the talent, we have the money, and companies locate in the US, creating US jobs, pay US taxes and own US based patents.
That is not even including all the surrounding lab support companies like Nalgene, GE, all the way to small lab equipment companies that all feed into the pharmas.

The flip side is to not fund it, watch all those jobs go somewhere else, and have korean or Euro companies own all the patents, and we pay billions overseas to buy our drugs, medical devices, etc. Don't get me wrong, its a global business, but we are on the top for a reason. Its not necc a parasitic relationship, but a symbiotic one. I'd rather pay higher taxes on a high-paying job than low taxes on no job.

Of all the dumb things the gov't spends $$ on, I am not quick to critize R&D funding.