The sad thing is that there is any need to ask the question at all. There may already be someone who has found a cure but can't figure out a delivery system or someone who has a delivery system but doesn't know what to deliver.

Just think if medical discoveries were always considered to be in the public domain, how much easier and faster the process would be. But then, who would get all the money?

When Jonas Salk discovered a successful vaccine for polio he did not patent it, he gave it away. Simply amazing.