I work as a consultant to several large nonprofit research organizations. While most get some funding from drug companies, by far the largest proportion comes from the U.S. government via the National Institute of health. This has been true for at least the 30 years I have worked with them.
These nonprofits, like Fred Hutchinson Research Institute and The Benaroya Research Institute depend on federal grants and endowments for the vast majority of their funding. If the researcher comes up with a patentable product while working on a federal grant, that patent belongs to the federal government.
I am a firm believer in capitalism but the current system of pharmaceutical lobbyist pushing their addenda is wrong. Consider that the recent legislation to expand drug coverage under Medicare has a specific provision forbidding the govt to bargain for the best price. Where do you suppose that little gem came from? If you doubt the money the pharmaceuticals make just watch you TV during prime time and see how many pills they are pushing.

Here are some interesting numbers from 1999, I can only imagine this trend has accelerated in the past ten years. These are the bonuses paid to to[ executives of our 10 largest pharmacutical companies. If ypu want more data follow this:

http://www.actupny.org/reports/durban-licensing.html



$31,424,000


$15,159.000


$6,032,000


$16,486,000


$12,505,000


$4,381,000


$6,041,000


$4,093,000


$2,119,000


$2,366,000
$39,753,000


$38,983,000


$26,424,000


$22,061,000


$18,525,000


$16,272,000


$12,940,000


$11,779,000


$6,385,000


$5,042,000
$159,691,000


$107,115,000


$80,559,000


$250,681,000





$830,000


$33,667,000


$29,867,000


$104,506,000


$17,291,000