At a recent hearing on drug prices, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said that by funding federal research agencies such as the National Institutes of Health, “the public is acting as an early investor, putting tons of money in the development of drugs that then become privatized.” The American people, she complained, receive “no return on the investment that they have made.” The witness she was addressing, Harvard Medical School professor Aaron Kesselheim, confirmed the absence of “licensing deals that bring money back into the coffers of the NIH.”

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