China and Russia caught paying American scientists royalties

Topline: Scientists at the National Institutes of Health received royalty payments from 139 foreign companies in 2023, according to NIH records.

Only 102 American companies paid royalties to NIH and its scientists, marking the first time the majority of royalty payments came from outside the U.S.

Key facts: The NIH receives royalties when private companies pay to license medical innovations from government scientists.

Every year since 2016, the number of foreign companies licensing NIH products has increased or stayed the same. The number of domestic companies decreased from 250 in 2020 to 102 in 2023.

Foreign payments represent a potential conflict of interest, as government scientists accept money from political rivals like China, Russia and Belarus. Meanwhile, NIH employees earned $2.7 billion in salary from the U.S. government last year.

Thirty-nine Chinese companies have paid royalties to U.S. scientists since 2010, including 116 payments from WuXi AppTec and WuXi Biologics. The New York Times reported that WuXi may be affiliated with the Chinese military and has access to American genetic information.

The Pokrov Biologics Plant in Russia has made 20 royalty payments to the NIH since 2010. The plant performed research on how to weaponize smallpox for the Soviet Union during the Cold War, according to defense officials interviewed by the Washington Post.

Search all federal, state and local government salaries and vendor spending with the AI search bot, Benjamin, at OpenTheBooks.com. 

Background: OpenTheBooks spent three years battling the NIH in court with assistance from Judicial Watch to force the government to release unredacted information on its royalty receipts.

The NIH has still refused to release the dollar value of each individual payment, but OpenTheBooks did find that the agency has accepted $2.7 billion in total royalty payments since 2009. Some of the payments went to the agency as a whole, but over $1 billion was split among over 2,600 individual scientists. The NIH still has not released the name of every scientist.

The total includes $690.2 million paid to the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases in 2022 and 2023. Dr. Anthony Fauci ran the subagency from 1989 to 2022.

Summary: There have already been some Congressional efforts to fight for transparency at the NIH, such as Sen. Rand Paul’s Royalty Transparency Act. OpenTheBooks will keep battling until all unredacted royalty payments are released.

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