Tpoxx: patented from NIH-funded research

Siga Technologies, Inc. reported 2 patents on it to NIH as inventions made with NIH grant money.

Patent reported as grant-funded

Reported

–

Medicare paid, 2025

before rebates

Calculated

–

Medicare, 2020–2025

Reported

–

Medicare, 2026 Q1

the newest quarter CMS has published

Reported

$11M

NIH grants behind the patents

whole-grant totals, not the drug's cost

The public record, link by link

1 · Public research
2 NIH grants to Siga Technologies, Inc., $11M in all.
2 · Patent
7737168, 8039504, reported to NIH under R43AI056409, R44AI056409.
3 · FDA approval
Approved Jul 13, 2018, sold by Siga Technologies (NDA 208627).
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 grants

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

Small Molecule Inhibitors of Smallpox Virus Replication
R44AI056409 · Siga Technologies, Inc. · NIAID, small-business grant · 2004–2008
$10M
Small Molecule Inhibitors of Smallpox Virus Replication
R43AI056409 · Siga Technologies, Inc. · NIAID, small-business grant · 2003
$502K

The patents

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

US 7737168
Compounds, Compositions, and Methods for Treatment and Prevention of Orthopoxvirus Infections and Associated Diseases
Reported by Siga Technologies, Inc.
FDA-listed expiry Sep 4, 2031
US 8039504
Chemicals, Compositions, and Methods for Treatment and Prevention fo Orthopoxvirus Infections and Associated Diseases
Reported by Siga Technologies, Inc.
FDA-listed expiry Jul 23, 2027

Siga Technologies'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, Siga Technologies received $577M in federal contracts and grants since fiscal 2020, which includes purchases. Siga Technologies's page shows its other products on this list, its federal awards, its PAC's giving and its lobbying. If Siga Technologies 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.