"The Food and Drug Administration, the National Institutes of Health, and a new Cure Acceleration Network Board are supposed to work together to facilitate the discovery of such cures and to translate them from bench to bedside. Grants can be made under the project of up to $15 million a year to eligible entities such as academic medical schools, biotech companies, and drug companies, who need only meet a $1 to $3 matching requirement. $500 million is appropriated for this program for 2010. "
Now here's Jost's take:
"This is all well and good and a great idea. But nothing that I can see in the legislation gives the taxpayer any stake in this investment. A drug or biotech company that in fact discovers a blockbuster drug or biologic through the federal government’s investment (perhaps for an off-label use) owes nothing in return. Shouldn’t we the taxpayers get some return on our investment, or at least the promise of reasonable prices?"
So money losing biotech companies develop a cure for, say Alzheimer's, with the help of maybe a $3 million grant and Jost frets about the taxpayer return. Am I missing something? Meanwhile he has no problem with billions being scattered to various Senators and pet demonstration projects that perpetuate current halfway treatment patterns?
If you want to know why health care reform is so....frustrating, just look at Jost's parade of blogs on health policy.
