normative
AMCs can fund unpatentable but valuable innovation
Advance market commitments could address cases where socially beneficial innovation lacks a patent-based incentive — like testing whether mannose (an unpatentable generic sugar) could selectively starve tumors, or developing absent vaccines like Lyme disease — because no actor has the incentive to fund the work despite potential large benefit.
normativepending
Speaker
Patrick CollisonEvidence Quote
“Mannose is like a generic sugar... importantly, you couldn't patent it. So it's not clear who has the incentive to even fund the work to test, whether or not this would actually work in practice... there are things of this shape”
Created: 6/13/2026, 3:26:23 AM
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