Don't capital gain taxes zero out wrt. to risk, since you also get tax deductions for money lost?

There's waste in both private and public institutions. They work in different ways, and when you make a public institution work it can be extremely efficient in terms of value per dollar.

My point was that maybe public funds could play a bigger role... Imagine a drug being developed by many private subcontractors the same way the space program worked.

I'm sure private competition would be good at optimizing cost of drug trials.. just an example..

I don't have a recipe... Just the feeling that the big picture risk is probably better absorbed by public investments.