From Don Jewett
Jennifer Washburn’s statements about the need to separate universities and business ignore the reality that in a business-driven culture patents are necessary to get some inventions to the public (12 February, p 19).
For example, if a drug is discovered in a university lab and publicly announced, it cannot then be patented and so no drug company will produce it. Who will shoulder the cost of proving the drug’s safety and efficacy to the satisfaction of the Food and Drug Administration if any company can then produce and sell it? Without the patent, no one will benefit from the discovery generated by the university’s free exchange of ideas.
Washburn needs a more elaborate plan of how to get the discoveries of modern laboratory research out to the public – in this culture, in these times.
Sausalito, California, US
