Since this seems to be generating some controversy (presumably because Big Pharma?) what alternative research and drug discovery, development, testing, and manufacturing ecosystem should we as a society strive for?

There are some interesting startups in the space, but mostly they seem to be focused on ML-driven lead generation. I’m optimistic, but not aware of a grand slam demonstration of success on this front. Honestly some of Derek’s discussion makes me hesitant; are the data one would need to assess things like oral availability and manufacturability available enough to make the current ML approaches viable for creating the finish line? How critical is the role of all this tacit knowledge?

Are there smaller more lab focused drug discovery outfits that would benefit from some policy change that gives unfair advantage to the BigCos with the scale advantage?