The discoverers of insulin chose not to patent the drug!

Diabetes is a lifelong disease in which there are high levels of sugar in the blood, and for which there is no cure, only treatment. In the case of Type 2 diabetes, the treatment is almost always a change in diet and exercise habits. However to keep Type 1 diabetes at bay, daily doses of insulin are often required. 

In 1922, Sir Fredrick Grant Banting and Charles Best discovered insulin and its significance. Now, it would have been very easy for them to patent the idea and spend their entire lives rolling around in dough. But instead, they decided they wanted to share the life-changing effect of their invention with the entire world. 

By not choosing to patent the drug, relatively inexpensive insulin therapy could be immediately available world-wide. For the price of an injection a day, dozens of people with type 1 diabetes have been able to avoid falling into a coma, heart disease, kidney disease, blindness, amputation, and impotence. 

This part of history dealt with an question that is perhaps even more relevant today; are the inventors of drugs ethically obliged to make the life-saving products accessible to all those who need them? 

(Source)