Patent Buyouts And Challenge Prizes

Professors Lisa Ouellette and Daniel Hemel have published a terrific article today (April 8, 2020)  in the New York Times.  Entitled "Pharmaceutical Profits and Public Health Are Not Incompatible:   We need the capital and creativity of the private sector to take on the coronavirus", it proposes the use of government prizes or market-price buyouts of patent rights to spur and distribute successful treatments to combat SARS-CoV-2 and the Covid-19 it causes.  If such a prize were to lead to a cure, all of society would be the winner.