Government as the Entrepreneur?

The entrepreneur is one who takes chances, albeit educated and calculated, to try and deploy a novel and potentially profitable new product or service. The entrepreneur will work for nothing, spend their own resources, go 24 by 7 and do this with total risk, no insurance, no safety net. I know since I have been there a few times.

Now the new proposals from the current Administration to have Government sponsored and managed and institutionalized innovation, not only having the Government fund it but also have it in the Government itself is fruitless. It will be a total waste of funds.

However NIH has over the years managed to do some good research. Not entrepreneurial but good research. The Vietnam War in a strange sort of a way was a great stimulus. Any MD avoided the draft or at least going to Vietnam by going to NIH is they could not find a VA Hospital to hide in. Today some of the best minds can find a good post doc slot there, pay is good, and some great minds still left over from the late 60s and early 70s.

The new proposal to have NIH create a pharmaceutical development company may be a stretch. If industry is falling behind as viewed by the Administration perhaps the reason is Government and NOT the industry and the solution is less Government and not more.

The challenges going forward say in cancer is understanding how to deal with all the new knowledge rather than just pumping out standard drugs. For example if miRNAs are a major issue then how do we deal with them. That is a university and industry issue and should not be subsumed under a new power grab by the Government.