Freedom to read published materials is the essence of Open access, and it is important for researchers to build on each other's work.
One way to get there is through repositories, perhaps in combination with search engines, as examplified by the case of Jack Andraka who - as a teenager - developed a diagnostic test for pancreatic cancer that is faster, cheaper and more reliable than the current state of the art and that also works in earlier stages when chances for therapy are higher: