Inveltys: patented from NIH-funded research, then Medicare paid $1.1M for it in 2025

Johns Hopkins University and Kala Pharmaceuticals, Inc. reported 12 patents on it to NIH as inventions made with NIH grant money.

Patent reported as grant-funded

Reported

$1.1M

Medicare paid, 2025

before rebates

Calculated

$19M

Medicare, 2020–2025

$770 per patient in 2025

Reported

$200K

Medicare, 2026 Q1

the newest quarter CMS has published

Reported

$6.2M

NIH grants behind the patents

whole-grant totals, not the drug's cost

The public record, link by link

1 · Public research
7 NIH grants to Johns Hopkins University, Kala Pharmaceuticals, Inc., $6.2M in all.
2 · Patent
9056057, 9393213, 9532955, 9737491, 9827191, 10058511, 10646437, 10688045, 10864219, 11219597, 11642317, 11872318, reported to NIH under R01CA140746, R01HD062844, R21AI079740, R21AI094519, R33AI079740, R33AI094519, R43EY021705.
3 · FDA approval
Approved Aug 22, 2018, sold by Alcon (NDA 210565).
4 · Public pays
Medicare paid $1.1M in 2025 for 1,379 patients; Medicaid paid $130K in 2024.

What Medicare paid for Inveltys

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

Plus $200K in the first quarter of 2026, for 384 patients.

The grants

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

Pathogen trapping by genital mucus secretions
R01HD062844 · Johns Hopkins University · NICHD · 2010–2014
$1.6M
Mucus-penetrating nanoparticles for sustained microbicide delivery
R33AI079740 · Johns Hopkins University · NIAID · 2010–2012
$1.4M
Mucus Penetrating Particles for Rectal Microbicides
R33AI094519 · Johns Hopkins University · NIAID · 2013–2015
$1.4M
Mucus penetrating nanoparticles for early stage cervical cancer
R01CA140746 · Johns Hopkins University · NCI · 2009–2010
$665K
Mucus-penetrating nanoparticles for sustained microbicide delivery
R21AI079740 · Johns Hopkins University · NIAID · 2008–2009
$450K
Mucus Penetrating Particles for Rectal Microbicides
R21AI094519 · Johns Hopkins University · NIAID · 2011–2012
$440K
Long-Acting Mucus-Penetrating Steroid Particles for Treatment of Eye Inflammation
R43EY021705 · Kala Pharmaceuticals, Inc. · NEI, small-business grant · 2011
$256K

The patents

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

US 9056057
NANOCRYSTALS, COMPOSITIONS, AND METHODS THAT AID PARTICLE TRANSPORT IN MUCUS
Reported by Johns Hopkins University
FDA-listed expiry May 3, 2033
US 9393213
NANOCRYSTALS, COMPOSITIONS, AND METHODS THAT AID PARTICLE TRANSPORT IN MUCUS
Reported by Johns Hopkins University
FDA-listed expiry May 3, 2033
US 9532955
NANOCRYSTALS, COMPOSITIONS, AND METHODS THAT AID PARTICLE TRANSPORT IN MUCUS
Reported by Johns Hopkins University
FDA-listed expiry May 3, 2033
US 9737491
NANOCRYSTALS, COMPOSITIONS, AND METHODS THAT AID PARTICLE TRANSPORT IN MUCUS
Reported by Johns Hopkins University
FDA-listed expiry May 3, 2033
US 9827191
COMPOSITIONS AND METHODS FOR OPHTHALMIC AND/OR OTHER APPLICATIONS
Reported by Kala Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
FDA-listed expiry May 3, 2033
US 10058511
NANOCRYSTALS, COMPOSITIONS, AND METHODS THAT AID PARTICLE TRANSPORT IN MUCUS
Reported by Johns Hopkins University
FDA-listed expiry May 3, 2033
US 10646437
Compositions and Methods for Ophthalmic and/or Other Applications
Reported by Kala Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
FDA-listed expiry May 3, 2033
US 10688045
COMPOSITIONS AND METHODS FOR OPHTHALMIC AND/OR OTHER APPLICATIONS
Reported by Kala Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
FDA-listed expiry May 3, 2033
US 10864219
COMPOSITIONS AND METHODS FOR OPHTHALMIC AND/OR OTHER APPLICATIONS
Reported by Kala Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
FDA-listed expiry May 3, 2033
US 11219597
COMPOSITIONS AND METHODS FOR OPHTHALMIC AND/OR OTHER APPLICATIONS
Reported by Kala Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
FDA-listed expiry May 3, 2033
US 11642317
NANOCRYSTALS, COMPOSITIONS, AND METHODS THAT AID PARTICLE TRANSPORT IN MUCUS
Reported by Johns Hopkins University
FDA-listed expiry May 3, 2033
US 11872318
NANOCRYSTALS, COMPOSITIONS, AND METHODS THAT AID PARTICLE TRANSPORT IN MUCUS
Reported by Johns Hopkins University
FDA-listed expiry May 3, 2033

Alcon'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. Separately, Alcon received $22M in federal contracts and grants since fiscal 2020, which includes purchases. Alcon's page shows its other products on this list, its federal awards, its PAC's giving and its lobbying. If Alcon 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.