>Unfortunately, most of the drug development efforts by public entities have had a really poor track record.

Could you quantify this? Is it because they're tackling the very difficult diseases and not the low-hanging (profitable) fruit?

The polio vaccine was developed with federal money and was provided for free as a result. There is no way the polio vaccine could have been done more efficiently if the private sector did it.

Oh yes I imagine the pharmaceutical industry wouldn't fight such a move at all, would breeze right in.

You talk about the gov't like it's powerless! You do realize that the US gov't extracted billions of dollars in concessions from the pharmaceutical industry during the Obamacare roll-out?