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Doktor Zoom's avatar

Also too, arigato to Yr Editrix for "mewling," a far better verb than my "sniffling."

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Mal Speranza's avatar

Fun anecdote. About 25 years ago, I was on a flight to Chicago sitting next to a middle-aged guy who was going to a medical conference. He was a research professor at (I think) Cornell Medical Center in NYC. He was a cardiologist specializing in the connections between obesity and heart disease. I myself was on my way to a publishing conference, so I asked him what sessions and presentations he was going to see and what new research he was going to present.

He looked at me like I was from Mars and said, "Oh, I don't go to that stuff. I'm going to be meeting with pharmaceutical companies to talk about the rollout of the drug I've been working on." He was very excited because obesity and heart disease are very prevalent in the US and lots and lots of people were going to want this drug.

I asked him if he liked teaching or research better. Dumb Martian me. He said, "Oh, I don't teach" (he spat the word). He then told me he was going to share the patent with Cornell. After which he also told me that the entire research program that had developed the drug had been funded by the NIH and other federal sources. All of it. So I said, "Shouldn't the US government hold the patent, then?"

We didn't talk any more after that. Awkward flight.

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