Public/Private hybrids are not uncommon. Let research universities and private drug companies compete for grants. The rub is to make it ok to fail, and reward

Public/Private hybrids are not uncommon. Let research universities and private drug companies compete for grants. The rub is to make it ok to fail, and reward treating causes not just symptoms. You are right though, it does require some government intervention to incentivize long term gambles with huge up front costs. NASA and The Manhattan Project are no different. Spend lots of money now, knowing you wont reap benefits for years. Our current system of using temporary intellectual property ownership of the formula is broken.