"The research was paid for by the National Institutes of Health and the German government (some co-authors work at the University of Bonn). Northeastern University holds a patent on the method of producing drugs and licensed the patent to a private company, NovoBiotic Pharmaceuticals, in Cambridge, Mass., which owns the rights to any compounds produced. Dr. Lewis is a paid consultant to the company."
If the research was paid for by the National Institutes of Health, why is the patent privately owned? This does not seem fair to taxpayers.
Income equality helps businesses and the economy grow. Consider the extreme case of inequality where all the wealth is concentrated in just a few people... there'd be no market for Uber.