&gt; And what about the cost of the clinical trial, which could be $500m?<p>That&#x27;s an interesting one, because that cost is entirely <i>caused</i> by the government.  The government could for example fund clinical trials, since they&#x27;re the ones who are interested in it&#x27;s results (as is by extension the public).<p>As for the rest, if the science were freely available without a patent from the scientists, companies could still spend money making it a therapy and making a profit by doing it better and more efficiently than their competitors, and they could still get a patent on their work.<p>We&#x27;re talking about making the <i>science</i> patent free, not the product.