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A bit unrelated / meta question.

Since it's developed in UCLA - do they have resources to do the next phases of trials (humans, etc)? I wonder if in such cases pharma (those who obviously have enough money) care about these molecules at all? Since they probably can't put a patent on it and heavily monetize it later. Are there examples of drugs that were developed like this successfully?

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It's very much patentable and thus represents an IP asset that can be traded, contracted, exchanged, etc, similar to a "technology invention". UCLA likely owns it or a part of it, so can trade it freely. This is quite very very early for a drug, so there's huge risk it will fail in human trails, so that high risk lowers the value significantly versus a phase III passed drug. There's a kazillion drugs like this, XYZ-123 type format, most of which failed or never reached Phase I, Phase II, phase III, phase IV, or phase kappa trials

Most labs in universities have wildly different finances. Each lab basically has to compete for funds independently of their parent university - few are funded by the school.

It’s very unlikely that a lab equipped to study mice is also equipped for human studies. Those require a lot more money and different expertise and in addition to different equipment and facilities.

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