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Comment by bwindels | Hacker News Reader

Interesting... I wonder if these moves (using mRNA for malaria and creating a mRNA lab/factory on the African continent) can be seen as Biontech doing something for poorer countries after Biden said he would release the patents for the J&J COVID vaccine if Biontech would do the same.

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Its hearsay, but my brother in law works with someone who has known Sahin and his wife (and cofounder) for a long time and according to them, they actually couldn’t care less about money. Cloths, cars etc are of little concern to them. They are research addicts and they only see money as means to do more and better research. So I guess it just makes sense to pick diseases where the impact of their work is maximized.

These companies aren't doing anything out of the goodness of their hearts $$$$

https://www.cnn.com/2021/05/21/business/covid-vaccine-billio...

There is a reason why this research moved out out of universities. It seems that capitalism works "better" than academic research (at least the Oxford vaccine shows that it can be effective). Makes me sad in a way, because it would feel better if all the tax $$ would stay in nonprofit oriented orgs. But it seems that capitalism is converting a bit of narcism and greed mixed with genius better to some useful outcome that the academic system. IMHO we need to create better incentives in non-profit research before we complain about capitalism. At least those guys really create something. Having said that it is pitty that nobody funds clinical trials on the same scale for stuff that you cannot patent anymore (e.g. covid or cancer medication candidates) . Here we really need to fix also the incentives in the commercial space ...

I cant agree, I am in the world you speak of. Grantees will do whatever is in their power, including CREATING results that agree with their benefactor in order to retain monies.

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