The NYTimes recently ran a piece about a malnourishment treatment that could save lives in Africa, but one company owns the recipe and controls it tightly. (See the article, I apologize if I'm not getting it exactly right.) There's similar discussion about the inventors of birth-delivery forceps keeping their invention secret for many years; they made a lot of money, but who knows how many babies died because the forceps wasn't more popular?

While we want to encourage innovation (and reward it accordingly), how do we balance that with the greater good?

Can anyone point me to sources of ours (Bible, Talmud, Medrish, responsa) on the topic?