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Comment by alive-or-not | Hacker News Reader

Health care R&D is extremely expensive in US (insanely high executive salaries, "lobbing" expenses, etc.). US companies may spend as much as the rest of the world, but deliver a lot less innovation.

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I don't see any evidence to support your very dramatic claim.

Quite the opposite. From early chemotherapy on to the human genome, stem cells, the Allen Brain Atlas, The Gates Foundation, modern biotechnology, organ regrowth, medical devices like the CT scanner (half invented in the US) or the da Vinci system of robotic surgery, etc etc etc the modern healthcare / pharma / biotech world owes a spectacularly massive debt to the US. To say nothing of the surrounding infrastructure everything requires related to technology from the microprocessor to the Internet. How much did that tech speed up R&D, try quantifying that little contribution.

And all of that surrounding infrastructure is reliant on Mathematics which didn't originate in the US.

Such a useless comment. Mathematics was arrived at by research which everyone shared when the vast majority of the research was happening...

I'm not sure why it's useless. If you're going to account for value provided by external sources then account for all sources, not just the ones that support your argument.

For what are you accounting? Most mathematics has been known about for 100+ years... IMO, This comment was a reason for you to hear yourself "talk" or alternatively for you to take a (weak) shot at the U.S.

Lets see, mathematics[1], language[2], writing[3], the printing press[4], scientific method[5]. Each of these innovations are absolutely required for the innovation that pharma companies produce, and none originated in the US.

Your 100 year cut-off point is entirely arbitrary and chosen only because it supports your arguments.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_mathematics

[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Origin_of_language

[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_writing

[4] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Printing_press

[5] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_scientific_method

Such a useless comment. Everything you mentioned was arrived at by research which everyone shared when the vast majority of the research was happening...

"The Human Genome Project (HGP) is an international scientific research project with a primary goal of determining the sequence of chemical base pairs which make up DNA, and of identifying and mapping the approximately 20,000–25,000 genes of the human genome from both a physical and functional standpoint.[1] The first official funding for the Project originated with the Department of Energy’s Office of Health and Environmental Research, headed by Charles DeLisi, and was in the Reagan Administration’s 1987 budget submission to the Congress.[2] It subsequently passed both Houses. The Project was planned for 15 years.[3] "

I don't see how the HGP was unrelated to government investment...

He didn't say it was unrelated to government involvement, he said it's one of many examples of how the US private sector has delivered innovation. See Celera's role in sequencing the human genome. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celera_Corporation "Celera's use of the shotgun strategy spurred the public HGP to change its own strategy, leading to a rapid acceleration of the public effort."

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