The Simple Way to Prevent Hedge Funds from Gaming Government Pandemic Research Funding: Don’t Give Patent Monopolies

The Washington Post had an interesting piece on how a hedge fund managed to secure $16 million in public funds (10,000 food stamp person-years) for a shell company, Ridgeback Biotherapeutics, which then used the money to contract for research with Emory University. When the results showed some promise, Ridgeback Biotherapeutics then sold the rights to Merck, which is doing further testing.

This problem would have been easy to avoid if the government had a rule that when it pays for research, all...