[alsocasey]

Overemphasis on commercialization is a common complaint of the current funding situation in medical research, so I don't think we're failing for lack of interest in commercial exits. In fact, many scientist are serial entrepreneurs.

Moreover, many discoveries that went on to make a lot of people a lot of money had no obvious commercial application when they were first being researched... Predicting future markets is hard.

[jaggederest]

No I don't mean "made money", that would just be standard venture capital.

I mean "achieves their targets by reducing the total burden of disease on humanity", which is a different radical exit.

[throwaway729]

I'm afraid I don't quite understand what you mean by "achieves their targets by reducing the total burden of disease on humanity". Or maybe I just don't understand the difference between this as merely "achieves their targets by selling useful treatments to people"?

Could to elaborate?

[jaggederest]

A malaria vaccine would make no commercial sense but would be a huge reduction in the total burden of disease. That's what I mean.