> The fact that the taxpayers already funding a lot of the research (university grants mostly, I believe) I see this argument a lot, but most people don't real

> The fact that the taxpayers already funding a lot of the research (university grants mostly, I believe) I see this argument a lot, but most people don't realise the amount of research, work and vast amounts of money that goes into turning an academic finding into an effective drug on the market. Identifying a cellular pathway involved in a disease, or even going as far as presenting a hit compound that targets that pathway in a paper is such a small step towards a useful drug. There are hundreds of things that are yet to be considered and any one of them could result in the entire project being scrapped, and that is of course assuming the work published by academia can actually be replicated.