[LINK] Einstein's fridge an example for NICTA?

[Brendan Scott]

Chris Maltby wrote:
>> On 2006/Dec/11, at 8:28 PM, Chris Maltby wrote:
>>> The pharmaceutical industry is a case in point - in spite of the
>>> rhetoric about drug company R&D, most new drugs are derived from
>>> discoveries made in conjunction with research which is not product
>>> driven. The rate of discovery of new classes of drugs has dropped
>>> since the Reagan research doctrine was introduced - and research
>>> into areas considered non-commercial is now conducted largely by
>>> charitable foundations.
> 
> On Tue, Dec 12, 2006 at 08:50:45AM +1100, Kim Holburn wrote:
>> I remember reading about this but can't find anything on it now.
>> Do you have any references?
> 
> I don't have any to hand. There was a fair amount of discussion about
> this in the political debate surrounding the impact of the US FTA
> on Australia's Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme. The industry claims
> that high retail prices for drugs is necessary to pay for the costly
> R&D they undertake - the counter argument is that the industry spends
> more on marketing than R&D (especially pure research). I recall that
> this assertion was supported by figures showing a decline in the
> rate of discovery of new drug types...

"At the same time, companies have been anxious to forge links with universities because for all their private R&D dollars they are profoundly dependent on public science in all fields of technology.  In biotechnology the dependence is striking; for example, more than 70 percent of scientific papers cited in biotechnology patents originated in solely public science institutions compared with 16.5 percent that originated in the private sector."

Drahos with Braithwaite, Information Feudalism, at 165.