Science Commons :

"Shortly after a large-scale clinical trial in 1955, the first inactivated polio vaccine was being injected into tens of millions of people around the world - possibly the most successful pharmaceutical product launch in history. Asked why he had not obtained a patent on the phenomenally successful vaccine, Jonas Salk reportedly replied, "That would be like patenting the sun." A few decades later, this view seemed laughably quaint."
Alan Dove, When science rides the MTA, J. Clin Invest. 110:425-427 (2002)