Orserdu: patented from NIH-funded research, then Medicare paid $387M for it in 2025

Duke University reported 3 patents on it to NIH as inventions made with NIH grant money.

Patent reported as grant-funded

Reported

$387M

Medicare paid, 2025

before rebates

Calculated

$773M

Medicare, 2020–2025

$109K per patient in 2025

Reported

$113M

Medicare, 2026 Q1

the newest quarter CMS has published

Reported

$10M

NIH grants behind the patents

whole-grant totals, not the drug's cost

The public record, link by link

1 · Public research
2 NIH grants to Duke University, $10M in all.
2 · Patent
10071066, 10420734, 11779552, reported to NIH under R01DK048807, R37DK048807.
3 · FDA approval
Approved Jan 27, 2023, sold by Stemline Therapeutics (NDA 217639).
4 · Public pays
Medicare paid $387M in 2025 for 3,542 patients; Medicaid paid $35M in 2024.

What Medicare paid for Orserdu

Medicare Part D and Part B gross spending by year, before manufacturer rebates.

Plus $113M in the first quarter of 2026, for 1,955 patients.

The grants

Totals are everything NIH paid on each grant since 1985. A grant usually funded more than this one invention.

ER and LXR as mediators of the pathobiology of hypercholesterolemia
R01DK048807 · Duke University · NIDDK · 1995–2019
$5.5M
Mechanism of Action of Estrogens and Antiestrogens
R37DK048807 · Duke University · NIDDK · 2005–2014
$5.0M

The patents

Patents the FDA lists for this drug that were also reported to NIH as grant-funded inventions.

US 10071066
METHOD OF TREATING CANCER USING SELECTIVE ESTROGEN RECEPTOR MODULATORS
Reported by Duke University
FDA-listed expiry Oct 10, 2034
US 10420734
METHOD OF TREATING CANCER USING SELECTIVE ESTROGEN RECEPTOR MODULATORS
Reported by Duke University
FDA-listed expiry Oct 3, 2036
US 11779552
METHOD OF TREATING CANCER USING SELECTIVE ESTROGEN RECEPTOR MODULATORS
Reported by Duke University
FDA-listed expiry Oct 10, 2034

Stemline Therapeutics's side

Drug makers pay for the clinical trials that take a compound from the lab to FDA approval, and they pay royalties on licensed patents. Those terms are not public. Stemline Therapeutics's page shows its other products on this list, its federal awards, its PAC's giving and its lobbying. If Stemline Therapeutics wants to add its account, we will publish it here.

How this is built. A product is listed for one of two public records. Either NIH's Technology Transfer office lists it as an FDA-approved product built on a license from an NIH, CDC or FDA lab, or a patent the FDA lists for the drug was reported to NIH as an invention made with NIH grant money, as the Bayh-Dole Act requires. We then add what Medicare Part D, Part B and Medicaid paid for each product, and for each company, the federal grants and contracts it received, its PAC's donations and its lobbying.

What the numbers mean. Medicare and Medicaid figures are gross spending before the rebates drug makers pay back, which are confidential. Hospital-administered therapies such as CAR-T cell treatments are mostly paid under Medicare Part A and do not appear in these files. "NIH grants" is everything NIH paid on the grants a patent was reported under, from 1985 on; a grant usually paid for more than one invention, so it is not the cost of the drug. Federal contracts include purchases, such as vaccine doses, as well as research. Companies also paid for the clinical trials that took these products to approval. None of these figures shows that public money set a price or bought a decision.

Sources: NIH Technology Transfer: FDA-approved products licensed from NIH, CDC and FDA labs; NIH RePORTER patents reported under NIH grants (from iEdison); NIH RePORTER project funding; FDA Orange Book patent, exclusivity and product files; CMS Medicare Part D and Part B Spending by Drug (annual and quarterly); CMS Medicaid Spending by Drug; USAspending.gov federal grants and contracts. Updated 2026-11-06.