I'm not discounting the great benefits we have obtained through research but long gone are the days when Jonas Salk declared the following regarding his discovery of a polio vaccine...
NHEWhile being interviewed by Edward R. Murrow on See It Now in 1955, Salk was asked: "Who owns the patent on this vaccine?" Surprised by the question's assumption of the requirement of a profit motive for his creation, he responded: "There is no patent. Could you patent the sun?"