Spinraza: patented from NIH-funded research, then Medicare paid $3.4M for it in 2024

University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School and Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory reported 2 patents on this drug to NIH as inventions made with NIH grant money. Biogen lists them with the FDA as protecting Spinraza.

Patent reported to NIH as grant-funded

Medicare paid, 2024

$3.4M

before rebates

Medicare, 2020–2024

$18M

Medicaid paid, 2024

$113M

before rebates

NIH grants behind the patents

$24M

whole-grant totals, not the drug's cost

The public record, link by link

1 · Public money
4 NIH grants to Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, University of Massachusetts Med Sch Worcester, $24M in all.
2 · Patent
7838657, 8361977, reported to NIH under R01GM042699, R01NS040275, R01NS041621, R37GM042699.
3 · FDA approval
Approved Dec 23, 2016, held by Biogen (NDA 209531).
4 · Public pays
Medicare paid $3.4M in 2024; Medicaid $113M.

What Medicare paid for Spinraza

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

The grants

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

Grant	Research	Years	NIH paid
R01GM042699 NIGMS	Biochemistry of Pre-mRNA Splicing Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory	1989–2026	$12M
R37GM042699 NIGMS	Biochemistry of Pre-mRNA Splicing Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory	2012–2021	$7.7M
R01NS041621 NINDS	Design of molecules that promote SMN2 exon 7 inclusion Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory	2001–2005	$2.0M
R01NS040275 NINDS	MOLECULAR PATHOGENESIS OF SPINAL MUSCULAR ATROPHY University of Massachusetts Med Sch Worcester	2000–2004	$1.6M

The patents

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

US 7838657
Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) Treatment via Targeting of SMN2 Splice Site Inhibitory Sequences
Reported by University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School
FDA-listed expiry Jul 11, 2027
US 8361977
Compositions and methods for modulations of SMN2 splicing
Reported by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
FDA-listed expiry Dec 23, 2030

Biogen's side

Drug makers pay for the clinical trials that take a compound from the lab to FDA approval, and they often license the patent from the university and pay royalties on sales. Those terms are not public. The FDA's approval records for Spinraza are linked above, and Biogen's page shows its other drugs on this list. If Biogen wants to add its account, we will publish it here.

How this is built. Universities and companies that use NIH grants must report the inventions those grants produce to NIH, under the Bayh-Dole Act. NIH publishes the patent numbers and the grants they were reported under. We match those patents to the patents drug makers list with the FDA for each approved drug (the Orange Book), then add what Medicare Part D, Part B and Medicaid paid for each drug. Only patents still listed with the FDA appear, so drugs whose patents have expired drop out, and biologics, which the Orange Book does not cover, are not here yet.

What the numbers mean. "NIH grants" is everything NIH paid out on the grants a patent was reported under, from 1985 on. A grant usually paid for more than the one invention, so it is not the cost of the drug. Medicare and Medicaid figures are gross spending before the rebates drug makers pay back, which are confidential. Companies also paid for the clinical trials that took these drugs to approval; each drug page links the company's own filings.

Sources: NIH RePORTER patents reported under NIH grants (from iEdison); NIH RePORTER project funding; FDA Orange Book patent and product files; Medicare Part D Spending by Drug; Medicare Part B Spending by Drug; Medicaid Spending by Drug. Updated 2026-11-05.