"Big Medicine and Big Energy"

A correspondent wrote in response to our review of Happy Accidents: Serendipity in Modern Medical Breakthroughs by Morton A. Meyers,

"Big medicine and big energy share a morbid feature. Big medicine cannot deliver cheap, safe, un-patented medicine that anyone can produce by throwing some seeds on a bare patch of ground. It has to come from immensely expensive, slow, lengthy projects that cost billions and result in patented products that are only available from a few point sources, typically at a back-breaking cost per dose. Big energy cannot provide energy that comes directly from the sun and is captured cheaply by simple apparatus that anyone can own. It has to come from a few point sources halfway around the world, after bloody struggles costing trillions."