[thedingwing]

While the Broad institute is private, it is a non-profit that is tightly affiliated with MIT and Harvard. To me, this is different than a patent getting transferred to a multinational pharmaceutical corporate.

[aluminum96]

I didn't know they were a nonprofit. In that case, my OP is pretty off-topic for this case.

[rst]

Non-profits can still have patent portfolios that they try to exploit for commercial gain -- though by licensing, rather than producing products directly. When the research was publicly funded, the same conflicts of interest apply.

[dekhn]

The Broad also makes enormous bank as a sequencing service for pharma. They are "non profit" but they make a profit.