Bio-Rad won’t license its patent for an instant HIV test because it already controls the market on the lousy tests that take two weeks.

I wonder what other technology that could benefit society isn’t being made available to us because some company has decided it can make more money on it later (presumably after more people have been infected with whatever it is a cure for, causing the demand to be higher and the profit margins to be larger).

Open plea to Bio-Rad executives: if you’ve already cornered the market, why not start phasing in the faster, more accurate tests to all of your existing customers? You can charge more for the tests and the demand for them will go way up because people won’t have to deal with the hassle of coming back to get the results. You can still make a fortune, and you’ll get to be the good guys for a change. — Time to make money and help the world…

See:
Patent owners stall fast HIV test:
Long wait for results cuts effectiveness in fighting disease,
by Geeta Anand for the Wall St. Journal.

“…simple, fast HIV tests, which are commonly used in
dozens of other countries, aren