← All drugs built on NIH-funded research
Apellis Pharmaceuticals · Pegcetacoplan
Empaveli: patented from NIH-funded research, then Medicare paid $29M for it in 2024
Medicare paid, 2024
$29M
before rebates
Medicare, 2020–2024
$74M
$402K per patient in 2024
Medicaid paid, 2024
$11M
before rebates
NIH grants behind the patents
$7.5M
whole-grant totals, not the drug's cost
The public record, link by link
1 · Public money
2 NIH grants to University of Pennsylvania, $7.5M in all.2 · Patent
7888323, 7989589, 9169307, reported to NIH under R01AI030040, R01GM062134.3 · FDA approval
Approved May 14, 2021, held by Apellis Pharmaceuticals (NDA 215014).4 · Public pays
Medicare paid $29M in 2024 for 71 patients; Medicaid $11M.
What Medicare paid for Empaveli
The grants
| Grant | Research | Years | NIH paid |
|---|---|---|---|
| R01AI030040 NIAID | Structural analysis of the third component of complement University of Pennsylvania | 1993–2016 | $5.1M |
| R01GM062134 NIGMS | Design of Novel Complement Inhibitors University of Pennsylvania | 2001–2010 | $2.5M |
The patents
- FDA-listed expiry Dec 4, 2027
- FDA-listed expiry Dec 4, 2027
- FDA-listed expiry Nov 18, 2027
Apellis Pharmaceuticals's side
Drug makers pay for the clinical trials that take a compound from the lab to FDA approval, and they often license the patent from the university and pay royalties on sales. Those terms are not public. The FDA's approval records for Empaveli are linked above, and Apellis Pharmaceuticals's page shows its other drugs on this list. If Apellis Pharmaceuticals wants to add its account, we will publish it here.
How this is built. Universities and companies that use NIH grants must report the inventions those grants produce to NIH, under the Bayh-Dole Act. NIH publishes the patent numbers and the grants they were reported under. We match those patents to the patents drug makers list with the FDA for each approved drug (the Orange Book), then add what Medicare Part D, Part B and Medicaid paid for each drug. Only patents still listed with the FDA appear, so drugs whose patents have expired drop out, and biologics, which the Orange Book does not cover, are not here yet.
What the numbers mean. "NIH grants" is everything NIH paid out on the grants a patent was reported under, from 1985 on. A grant usually paid for more than the one invention, so it is not the cost of the drug. Medicare and Medicaid figures are gross spending before the rebates drug makers pay back, which are confidential. Companies also paid for the clinical trials that took these drugs to approval; each drug page links the company's own filings.
Sources: NIH RePORTER patents reported under NIH grants (from iEdison); NIH RePORTER project funding; FDA Orange Book patent and product files; Medicare Part D Spending by Drug; Medicare Part B Spending by Drug; Medicaid Spending by Drug. Updated 2026-11-05.