particularly when a lot of the research was achieved by charity funding and tax grants. public funded then privately profited is a disgusting outcome of our current research system.
I would disagree. Securing a patent means that further investment is possible.
Yes, one of the two labs discovered CRISPR. OK, now what? It's not a treatment at this point, it's just a technique. So someone has to invest a ton of money to turn the technique into a therapy for humans. And I would bet that investment will absolutely dwarf what's been spent so far.
Depending on what the other uses are, the patent holder is always able to out-license the patent for specific uses. This is actually pretty common in biotech.
