I did say that there were other possibilities, including government funding of research. However, it is a strong article of faith amongst the American right-wi

I did say that there were other possibilities, including government funding of research. However, it is a strong article of faith amongst the American right-wing politicians that the marketplace is always more efficient at directing money to be funded at the "right" research approaches than letting the government try to do that. They would point at how (in-)efficiently the Chinese government directed funding of building and roads in 2nd-tier cities where entire city blocks of apartment buildings are empty as an example of that. While I don't agree with that entirely --- there are more definitions of "right" than just what makes the most $$$: witness the vast amount of money being poured into statin research, which I'm not convinced is the best place to devote time, attention and cash if your valuation function was based on improving the overall health of the country or or of the world --- it is fair to say that it's a bit too easy to just say, "oh, we'll just let government fund the pharma development". This begs the question of whether or not you trust politicians to decide how much money to devote towards R&D, and how the money should be spent. Fundamentally, it's a lot more complicated than I suspect the Pirate Party has acknowledged.