3 ms·

Isn't a lot of medical research funded by governments? Wasn't Pasteur essentially working for the government when he made his discoveries?

• dekhn 11y ago
  In the US, the NIH invests $30B/yr (and other agencies also fund medical research). Note, they're more expansive: much of the research has been into basic biology with no immediate applications (often called pure research, although we were trained to always say the research would eventually leading to curing cancer). England and Japan also do this. Much of the most impactful research has taken decades to play out and the original research didn't necessarily have medical goals, but turned out to be necessary to making progress. Some companies have high enough profit margins to dedicate large budgets to research with no immediate applications. Genentech is the first one that comes to mind, but there are others. It takes a great deal of courage to fund this sort of research when you are a CSO or CEO because of constant calls for immediate profits. I've seen this play out for so long- in biology, in physics, and IT- that I've become inured to the idea that most good ideas take decades to play out until the profits arrive. I am not entirely certain whether it's correct to say Pasteur was working for the government. When a scientist reaches his level of stature, she pays her own ticket.