Why Giving It All Away Doesn’t Always Work

Inside the Breakthrough - How Science Comes to Life

You’ve probably heard that Banting and Best gave away the patent for Insulin for one dollar. But why did they do that? And did it achieve what they wanted? We often associate being successful with being profitable. And for a lot of enterprises that is true. But what if your goal is to win the second world war, and you do, but you go bankrupt in the process… is that a ‘success?’ What if your goal is to save a lot of people’s lives, and the only way to do that is to also make a lot of money? Does that sound like a contradiction? The truth is the relationship between ‘social good,’ and ‘good business’ is messy. We dig deep into this idea of morality, profits and what it really means to ‘do the right thing.’ These science stories from history shed light on the modern research being done on Type 2 Diabetes. Specifically, we highlight the work of SciMar as they examine the hormone HISS - Hepatic Insulin Sensitizing Substance - and the effect it has on glucose levels in people who are insulin resistant. www.SciMar.ca