Prémios ou patentes?

Lembram-se da discussão - iniciada pelo Zèd - em torno da importância (ou falta dela) das patentes e a estrutura de incentivos à inovação na descoberta e produção de novos medicamentos? Foi há mais de 2 meses aqui no "Peão".
Agora, descobri por acaso um artigo muito interessante de Joseph Stiglitz sobre esta questão.

Um excerto:

There is an alternative way of financing and incentivizing research that, at least in some instances, could do a far better job than patents, both in directing innovation and ensuring that the benefits of that knowledge are enjoyed as widely as possible: a medical prize fund that would reward those who discover cures and vaccines. Since governments already pay the cost of much drug research directly or indirectly, through prescription benefits, they could finance the prize fund, which would award the biggest prizes for developers of treatments or preventions for costly diseases affecting hundreds of millions of people.