Most of the work of drug discovery is not done by the pharma companies, it's done by publicly-funded research labs. What big pharma pays for is the elaborate (a

Most of the work of drug discovery is not done by the pharma companies, it's done by publicly-funded research labs. What big pharma pays for is the elaborate (and very large) clinical trials which are required by the FDA before a drug can be sold. One simple change the US could make is to direct the FDA to fast-track approval for drugs that have been approved in other countries the US considers to have high enough standards of rigour, such as the EU or Canada.