On Patents And Appropriations—And Tragedies

The author comments on Sasha Hoyt’s work concerning the impact of the Supreme Court’s patent eligibility decisions on private investment in the development of medical diagnostic technologies. As Hoyt discusses, medical diagnostic technologies enable the diagnosis of diseases and other medical conditions such as genetic disorders, and early and accurate diagnosis may lead to early treatments and, ultimately, at least in some cases, saved lives. But the creation of medical diagnostic technologies often comes at great cost, and so a relevant question thus becomes how to fund the underlying work required to create these technologies. The two options up for consideration, broadly speaking, are private and public investment. Here the author analyzes both options