What Will a Government Monopoly on Pharmaceuticals Research Do for Medicine?

Coyote blog and Megan McArdle have comments on Ezra Klein's suggestion that government money can make up for the lack of private money.

I will answer the title question with a question: What did a government monopoly on nuclear research do to nuclear energy? (I mean besides hand Joseph Romm and similar clowns a set of excuses for suppressing nukes.)