When we think back on the progress that President Obama has achieved, we will realise that America, the huge America has a momentum of it's own that once moving in a certain direction cannot be easily manoeuvred without great cost. Just shifting America's direction of technological focus ever so slightly can cost billions. In the late 1960's, America had the Thaliomide crisis which resulted from a company good at one technology, that of manufacture, trying to break into a market where another technology, that of detecting issues with drug use, came unstuck along with much of the US pharmaceutical industry. We encouraged companies to engage in more basic research and found them wanting. Very few major drug innovation came along after the 1960's. The era of miracle drugs had passed and firms concentrated more on marketing and minor improvements and copy catting. We are still in the doldrums. When law and drug innovation intersect, we find that it is easier to forego the real sacrifice that true innovation requires. Thus don't expect a revolution to come from stem cell research. There are too many alternative less risky avenues that the drug companies can pursue and bad laws give them every excuse to stay with the status quo while racking up billions in profits just marketing me too or little risk products with dubious benefits. Patents will be filed, but little innovation will come from American firms. They are risk averse because the laws and judges encourage laziness. We, in turn, feel protected by the 'do nothing much' evolution of the industry for even though the profits to the drug companies are much too high and they spend far too much marketing surpriseless products, we have our own solution.
The Covenant
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/09/06/100906fa_fact_boyer?printable=true
(via Instapaper)