The inventor of the polio vaccine didn't patent it to benefit mankind. He missed out on $7 billion!
The race was on to find a vaccine to stop the disease from crippling more. Jonas Salk was the first to come up with a successful vaccine. He could have patented this incredibly valuable discovery but he chose not to.
As Salk put it, "can you patent the sun?" He did not want to keep the vaccine from those in need and saw himself as a scientist not a celebrity.
However, if he were to have patented his discovery, he would likely have earned close to $7 billion. Salk died while trying to find a vaccine for AIDS.
