I think maybe its about time we set up something life the NSF to conduct these trial for the FDA
This would be a disaster. It really is expensive to test drugs, and so pharma companies must carefully consider which ones are worth pursuing. If they no longer need to bear the cost, then they'll just throw everything at the agency. Then the agency will either fall behind, so that good new drugs never get approved, or it will tremendously balloon the costs of testing (and we're already complaining about those costs).
I read the comment as proposing only that the NSF (or someone) run the trials for old drugs that are already widely used, in lieu of the current odd system of re-monopolizing drugs that had previously been widely available as generics.
For new drugs hoping to win approval, which are inventions and are already granted monopolies via patents, things could still work the current way.
This would be a disaster. It really is expensive to test drugs, and so pharma companies must carefully consider which ones are worth pursuing. If they no longer need to bear the cost, then they'll just throw everything at the agency. Then the agency will either fall behind, so that good new drugs never get approved, or it will tremendously balloon the costs of testing (and we're already complaining about those costs).