← All drugs built on NIH-funded research
Pfizer · Tafamidis
Vyndamax: patented from NIH-funded research, then Medicare paid $2.83B for it in 2024
Medicare paid, 2024
$2.83B
before rebates
Medicare, 2020–2024
$5.81B
$203K per patient in 2024
Medicaid paid, 2024
$27M
before rebates
NIH grants behind the patents
$16M
whole-grant totals, not the drug's cost
The public record, link by link
1 · Public money
3 NIH grants to The Scripps Research Institute, $16M in all.2 · Patent
7214695, 7214696, reported to NIH under R01DK046335, R29DK046335, R37DK046335.3 · FDA approval
Approved May 3, 2019, held by Foldrx Pharmaceuticals (NDA 212161).4 · Public pays
Medicare paid $2.83B in 2024 for 13,925 patients; Medicaid $27M.
What Medicare paid for Vyndamax
The grants
| Grant | Research | Years | NIH paid |
|---|---|---|---|
| R01DK046335 NIDDK | Probing the biochemical mechanism of amyloid disease The Scripps Research Institute | 1998–2025 | $9.3M |
| R37DK046335 NIDDK | Probing the biochemical mechanism of amyloid disease The Scripps Research Institute | 2006–2015 | $5.9M |
| R29DK046335 NIDDK | BIOCHEMICAL MECHANISM OF AMYLOID DISEASE The Scripps Research Institute | 1993–1997 | $505K |
The patents
- US 7214695FDA-listed expiry Dec 19, 2026
Compositions and methods for stabilizing transthyretin and inhibiting transthyretin misfolding
Reported by The Scripps Research Institute
- US 7214696FDA-listed expiry Dec 19, 2026
COMPOSITIONS AND METHODS FOR STABILIZING TRANSTHYRETIN AND INHIBITING TRANSTHYRETIN MISFOLDING
Reported by The Scripps Research Institute
Pfizer'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 Vyndamax are linked above, and Pfizer's page shows its other drugs on this list. If Pfizer 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.