Vitravene: invented in a government lab

NIH and FDA scientists invented the technology behind Vitravene, and the government licensed it to Isis Pharmaceuticals Inc..

Invented in a government lab

Reported

–

Medicare paid, 2025

before rebates

Calculated

–

Medicare, 2020–2025

Reported

–

Medicare, 2026 Q1

the newest quarter CMS has published

Reported

–

Medicaid paid, 2024

before rebates

The public record, link by link

1 · Public research
Invented in NIH and FDA labs and licensed to Isis Pharmaceuticals Inc..
2 · Patent
Patents 5003097, 5264423, 5276019, 5286717, licensed by NIH and FDA.
3 · FDA approval
Approved Aug 26, 1998, sold by Ionis.
4 · Public pays
Not in the Medicare Part D or Part B files, or Medicaid's. It may be off the market, generic now, or paid for inside hospital stays.

The government license

From NIH Technology Transfer's list of FDA-approved products built on licenses from NIH, CDC or FDA labs.

NIH and FDA to Isis Pharmaceuticals Inc.
A phosphorothioate oligonucleotide that inhibits cytomeglovirus (CMV) infections in the eye. Such infections commonly occur in immunocompromised patients with resultant damage to the retina. Vitraveneis the first antisense therapeutic approved for use in humans.
First sold 1998. Licensed patents: US 5003097, US 5264423, US 5276019, US 5286717. See the list

Ionis's side

Drug makers pay for the clinical trials that take a compound from the lab to FDA approval, and they pay royalties on licensed patents. Those terms are not public. Ionis's page shows its other products on this list, its federal awards, its PAC's giving and its lobbying. If Ionis wants to add its account, we will publish it here.

How this is built. A product is listed for one of two public records. Either NIH's Technology Transfer office lists it as an FDA-approved product built on a license from an NIH, CDC or FDA lab, or a patent the FDA lists for the drug was reported to NIH as an invention made with NIH grant money, as the Bayh-Dole Act requires. We then add what Medicare Part D, Part B and Medicaid paid for each product, and for each company, the federal grants and contracts it received, its PAC's donations and its lobbying.

What the numbers mean. Medicare and Medicaid figures are gross spending before the rebates drug makers pay back, which are confidential. Hospital-administered therapies such as CAR-T cell treatments are mostly paid under Medicare Part A and do not appear in these files. "NIH grants" is everything NIH paid on the grants a patent was reported under, from 1985 on; a grant usually paid for more than one invention, so it is not the cost of the drug. Federal contracts include purchases, such as vaccine doses, as well as research. Companies also paid for the clinical trials that took these products to approval. None of these figures shows that public money set a price or bought a decision.

Sources: NIH Technology Transfer: FDA-approved products licensed from NIH, CDC and FDA labs; NIH RePORTER patents reported under NIH grants (from iEdison); NIH RePORTER project funding; FDA Orange Book patent, exclusivity and product files; CMS Medicare Part D and Part B Spending by Drug (annual and quarterly); CMS Medicaid Spending by Drug; USAspending.gov federal grants and contracts. Updated 2026-11-06.