The U.S. National Institutes of Health plans to award an exclusive license for promising medical technology that was funded by U.S. taxpayers to a company controlled by a Chinese billionaire.
In a notice posted on the Federal Register on Monday, the agency proposed giving patent rights for antibody drugs that would be used to treat liver cancer to Salubris Biotherapeutics, a division of a company that is largely owned by Ye Chenghai, a former mayor of Shenzhen, China, who is the 51st richest person in China, according to Forbes.
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The NIH gives its technology away to pharma companies all the time at taxpayer expense. Are we supposed to. E outraged just because the owner of this particular company is Chinese? This type of taxpayer subsidization is done and is rewarded with high drug prices. Why not write an article about this?
Hi Jim,
Thanks for your note. To your point, I have written about taxpayer funded research leading to high pricing for a drug – in this instance, Xtandi.
If you do a search on our site – using the terms ‘Xtandi,’ ‘price,’ and ‘patent,’ you’ll see several stories about the controversy.
Let me know what you think,
ed at pharmalot