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Comment by refurb | Hacker News Reader

I'll also add that the educational institute who received the government funds out-licenses the drug while maintaining a royalty interest in it. Lyrica came out of Northwestern and they build a brand new, shiny chemistry building out of the royalties.

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Why is that bad? Shouldn't the discoverers of pregabalin, who helped millions in excruciating incurable chronic pain, receive a portion of the profit from the sales of the drug to build facilities for future research?

That seems like a well-formed feedback loop to me.

How much of that goes to the actual researchers vs the school?

Depends on the school. The general rule of thumb is about 1/3rd to the inventors themselves, 1/3rd to the department, 1/3 to the school.

Cynically, even if the school gets 100% of the profits, the feedback loop of "encourage drug development, get paid" functions properly. They would only have to pay their researchers just enough to continue working...

The guy at Northwestern who discovered Lyrica is a multimillionaire. The incoming royalties are usually split between the researcher and school.

I'm not saying it's bad at all! I'm just pointing out that the academics who invent something and pass it to a biotech company for development get something in return!

Totally agreed. I misread your tone, which can be tough to perceive over the interwebs sometimes. My apologies :)

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