Note that the protein is not patentable, but using it in a process is what's under the patent discussion. As mentioned elsewhere in the thread, this process is

Note that the protein is not patentable, but using it in a process is what's under the patent discussion. As mentioned elsewhere in the thread, this process is also available for free for academic use, but costs money if a company makes a product that's sold for money. Penicillin was not patentable, but a process for making and harvesting it easily was. Whether that's a good thing or not is certainly up for debate, although some interesting facts and opinions are documented in this article about penicillin: https://www.awesomestories.com/asset/view/Alexander-Fleming-and-Penicillin-The-Wonder-Drug- https://www.awesomestories.com/asset/view/Alexander-Fleming-...