Through the National Institutes of Health, taxpayers in 2001 poured some $16-or-more billion into non-federal researchers working in universities, medical centers, hospitals, and research institutions throughout the country and abroad. Of the 47-some $500-million-blockbuster drugs that made it to the market by 1997, the NIH has government-use or ownership rights to at least four of those drugs. And yet, they have never actually received any royalties of sorts from their investments.Certainly, much of their initial investment covers little of the advanced production of these drugs, but certainly the nascent idea deserves patent protection, and ergo, adequate reward. Unfortunately, the NIH has admitted that tracing these ties and even capitalizing on them isn’t just complicated, but vehemently lobbied against by not just Big Pharma, but by smaller research institutions that argue these claims would only “stymie innovation” – where have we heard this before?
For more details, check out this NIH report.
I apologized for the dated numbers. It's crazy how hard it is to find up-to-date information on government funding. I would imagine this is another part of the twisted and complicated world of public funding...
ReplyDeleteI don't see how allowing the NIH (and therby taxpayers) to recoup some monetary reward for their investment, which can then be turned around to fund even more R&D and therby spur more products and innovation, would be bad for the industry as a whole, mucch less "stymie innovation". And it is certainly not bad for the public, who would receive the benefits of the extra investment that they paid for in the first place.
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