No Patent? Unthinkable!

Way to mass produce key bird flu drug revealed:

The biggest hope for saving people at the start of a bird flu pandemic, before a vaccine is available, is the antiviral drug Tamiflu - but the drug is hard to make and stocks are limited. That could soon end: a Nobel prize-winning chemist has devised a straightforward method for making Tamiflu, and has not patented it.

Very cool. Of course, the big disasters are never the ones you plan for, so it won't be the bird flu, it'll be an asteroid.