Scientists at UC Riverside have demonstrated a new, RNA-based vaccine strategy that is effective against any strain of a virus and can be used safely even by babies or the immunocompromised.
UC Riverside has now been issued a US patent on this RNAi vaccine technology
Naturally, you’ll want to patent it so you can profit off it instead of just releasing it to benefit all of humanity. Fucking greedy ass people sometimes…
I do t know UC Riverside’s history for how they manage their patents, but I’m on the side of giving them the benefit of the doubt until proven otherwise. It’s okay to have a patent. It’s ok to profit off an invention you spent a lot of money producing. But what’s not ok would be upping the price so high that people have to choose dying over getting the product because they simply can’t afford it. Let’s hope UC does the former and not the latter.
Generally these “patented” products from universities are funded via tax payer money. I am not cool with them profiting off something that is intended to save lives and was also funded by the very people who’s lives will be affected.
Putting things behind a patent wall only hinders progress.
A patent also ensures no one else can patent it. If they make it affordable and available they are protected from someone else patenting it and then “profitmaxxing” because they have legal recourse to prevent that.
Public universities receive funding from a multitude of sources. Research is typically funded by grants, which may come from state or federal sources, but they can also come from alumni, fundraising, or charitable trusts.
Regardless, patents are a necessary part of invention. As others have pointed out, without a patent, what’s to stop some other entity from coming along and (for example) using your hard work to make themselves rich? I’d wager if it were your invention/discovery, you’d want protections too.
There are some entities out there that would easily abuse patents. But I find it hard to believe a public university would be one of them.
Just because it’s patented doesn’t mean it can’t still be released for the benefit of humanity. It does mean it will be harder for some for-profit entity to claim the process for themselves. This may be naive, but I feel like a public (state-owned) nonprofit research university will be a better steward for the patent than a private entity that’s seeking to maximize shareholder value. I would expect that they would either license the patent freely for humanitarian benefit or at a reasonable cost to support the university’s ongoing research efforts.
That’s not how patents work. They have to guard it or else someone else will. You don’t know the university’s goals yet, but you would know the goal of a for profit pharma company.
It’s a fucking nonprofit. Without the royalty stream, shit like this can only be discovered, developed, and brought to market by big pharma. Then what happens?
Naturally, you’ll want to patent it so you can profit off it instead of just releasing it to benefit all of humanity. Fucking greedy ass people sometimes…
I do t know UC Riverside’s history for how they manage their patents, but I’m on the side of giving them the benefit of the doubt until proven otherwise. It’s okay to have a patent. It’s ok to profit off an invention you spent a lot of money producing. But what’s not ok would be upping the price so high that people have to choose dying over getting the product because they simply can’t afford it. Let’s hope UC does the former and not the latter.
Generally these “patented” products from universities are funded via tax payer money. I am not cool with them profiting off something that is intended to save lives and was also funded by the very people who’s lives will be affected.
Putting things behind a patent wall only hinders progress.
A patent also ensures no one else can patent it. If they make it affordable and available they are protected from someone else patenting it and then “profitmaxxing” because they have legal recourse to prevent that.
Of course now it is up to them to do that…
Public universities receive funding from a multitude of sources. Research is typically funded by grants, which may come from state or federal sources, but they can also come from alumni, fundraising, or charitable trusts.
Regardless, patents are a necessary part of invention. As others have pointed out, without a patent, what’s to stop some other entity from coming along and (for example) using your hard work to make themselves rich? I’d wager if it were your invention/discovery, you’d want protections too.
There are some entities out there that would easily abuse patents. But I find it hard to believe a public university would be one of them.
Just because it’s patented doesn’t mean it can’t still be released for the benefit of humanity. It does mean it will be harder for some for-profit entity to claim the process for themselves. This may be naive, but I feel like a public (state-owned) nonprofit research university will be a better steward for the patent than a private entity that’s seeking to maximize shareholder value. I would expect that they would either license the patent freely for humanitarian benefit or at a reasonable cost to support the university’s ongoing research efforts.
That’s not how patents work. They have to guard it or else someone else will. You don’t know the university’s goals yet, but you would know the goal of a for profit pharma company.
It’s a fucking nonprofit. Without the royalty stream, shit like this can only be discovered, developed, and brought to market by big pharma. Then what happens?
You expect too much. They couldn’t see anything beyond their outrage.
It’s a public institution. They aren’t making a profit on this. They do have a right to control their intellectual property, however.
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