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pai mei - you asked the question, so I'll answer it - yes, you're naive. State funded research won't work because people aren't basically altruistic. They're (we're) all greedy. That's the reason that communism has failed in every country it's been tried in, mainly because people are greedy.
Drugs aren't cheap because it takes a lot of time and effort to discover them and then make sure that they are safe. It's not like you can walk around the Amazon, get sap from a random tree and say "Eureka! I've found a cure for cancer!" You have to find the right one, get the right part of it, isolate the portion that does what you hope it does, find a way to manufacture it then test it on animals and people. If there were simple cures for cancer, don't you think that they would have been found a long time ago, like aspirin was?
As for the Thai's, they're welcome to do whatever they want with their own patent laws. By breaking these patents, though, they've probably done their people a disservice in the long run since most drug companies will be hesitant to do business there.
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"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." - B. Franklin
"There ought to be limits to freedom." - George W. Bush
"We have met the enemy and he is us." - Pogo
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