Ebola Virus Patent Held By...

US Gov....wtf?
http://www.google.com/patents/US20120251502

 

So they "Own" it... the question is, Can They Be Sued (successfully) for the resultant deaths caused by their "Property"...Hummmm?

 

how could that possibly happen?

 

did anyone read the patent? The department of health is a gov org. They created the vaccine.

 

So this patent (and/or the potential vaccine) is actually 'owned' by U.S. citizens, correct?

 

in the same way that the US citizens own federal highways, USS aircraft carriers, and the national debt... yes.

 

yes. this is standard procedure for any employment situation. inventions made in the course of your employment are generally assigned to your employer by contract. just happens in this case the employees worked for the NIH or CDC or whatever research division...

 

I blame the Department of Education.

 

and possibly a researcher but likely not.

 

Sure, I can understand that…I suppose what's really got me is this: why hasn't this 'vaccine' been developed by now? Ebola has been on the radar screen for many years…national security issue maybe?

 

cause the people that get it are poor, and don't live here or europe, and there weren't really any scares about it coming here until recently (and still not even really).

summary: not worth the money for any big pharma company, outside of possible philantrophy or government research groups, to do.

 

The patent was filed almost 5 years ago. Have they been working on vaccine since that time then? Patent = monetization, yeah?

 

Partly what Sweatpants said: no financial incentive for pharma to do it (but, see Tekmira)

but also, it's really hard science. there is still no AIDS vaccine, for example.

 

not necessarily. only the right to exclude.

and most importantly, a patent doesn't mean an invention that works "well"

 

Someone will undoubtedly correct me if I am wrong, but my understanding is there is more than one strain of Ebola. A vaccine for one strain may not be as effective with another. Most outbreaks in the past have been relatively contained, due in large part to the deadly nature of the disease. Outbreaks burn out relatively quickly, so developing a vaccine or even a treatment is difficult.

 

dead on correct, not just for Ebola, but for pretty much any infectious disease that tends to mutate...

 

There's no money for finding a cure for anything these days just to suppress the symptoms so you keep buying their product.
Touchy subject but I question the Breast cancer foundation's resolve to find a cure, look at the huge business that has grown to raise money. If a cure is discovered all that goes away.
I'll bet there's an ebola cure out there somewhere but it's reserved for the pigs that are more equal

 

Make sure you get your flu shot! /sarc

 

Oh boy.. the Gmen folks do this all the time... no big deal. There is a NIH budget, and the NIH distributes money as they feel fit.. And actually they have some pretty good processes... it is not perfect, but as good as or better than any other country. This actually eliminates all the conspiracty nut jobs out there screaming "Big Pharma."

FYI, I now have a certification to review things like Clinical Trials.. Sadly the NIH budget gets cut back year after year... They need more money, not less.. they are the ones making life better for everyone.. believe it..!

Ron - better living through drugs...

 

viruses can be labratory made the same way a GMO is made or a goat is cloned. That technology (rDNA) was discovered in 1972 at Stanford University. Since then 325 new infecteous diseases have appeared from nowhere.