The insulin patent was sold for one dollar, and the polio vaccine was never patented.

1923 · 1955 · apart: 32 years

In 1923 insulin's discoverers sold the rights to the University of Toronto for a token sum; in 1955 Jonas Salk sought no profit, so the vaccine would spread fast.

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The event

• Salk polio vaccine declared safe1955 · Ann Arbor. On 12 April 1955 the results of huge field trials showed Jonas Salk's polio vaccine to be safe and effective. Together with Albert Sabin's oral vaccine, mass-tested in the USSR, it has nearly eradicated polio worldwide.

20th century

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