Recipients of secret royalty payments who hold key roles at the National Institutes for Health (NIH) have been revealed by nonprofit government watchdog Open the Books.
Through the federal Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), Open the Books has discovered that payments totaling more than $134 million were paid to more than 1,600 NIH executives, scientists, and researchers by outside firms, thought to be primarily from the pharmaceutical industry, between 2010 and 2014.Royalty payments also went to at least three of the top echelon of NIH leaders, including Dr. Francis Collins, the immediate past director of NIH, who got 14 payments. Dr. Anthony Fauci received 23 payments and his deputy, Clifford Lane, received eight payments.
"When an NIH employee makes a discovery in their official capacity, the NIH owns the rights to any resulting patent. These patents are then licensed for commercial use to companies that could use them to bring products to market.
So what "rights" does the NIH retain, having given away the monetary rights?
"Employees are listed as inventors on the patents and receive a share of the royalties obtained through any licensing, or ’technology transfer,’ of their inventions. Essentially, taxpayer money funding NIH research benefits researchers employed by NIH because they are listed as patent inventors and therefore receive royalty payments from licensees."
But the NIH has 'safeguards', to prevent conflicts of interest, it says somewhere in the middle of the long article, so it's no big deal. Unexpectedly.
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