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Pfizer · Tafamidis

Vyndamax: patented from NIH-funded research, then Medicare paid $3.92B for it in 2025

The Scripps Research Institute reported 2 patents on it to NIH as inventions made with NIH grant money.
Patent reported as grant-fundedOrphan drug
Reported

$3.92B

Medicare paid, 2025

before rebates

Calculated

$9.73B

Medicare, 2020–2025

$196K per patient in 2025

Reported

$1.16B

Medicare, 2026 Q1

the newest quarter CMS has published

Reported

$16M

NIH grants behind the patents

whole-grant totals, not the drug's cost

The public record, link by link

  1. 1 · Public research

    3 NIH grants to The Scripps Research Institute, $16M in all.

  2. 2 · Patent

    7214695, 7214696, reported to NIH under R01DK046335, R29DK046335, R37DK046335.

  3. 3 · FDA approval

    Approved May 3, 2019, sold by Pfizer (NDA 212161); orphan-drug exclusivity runs to May 3, 2026.

  4. 4 · Public pays

    Medicare paid $3.92B in 2025 for 19,958 patients; Medicaid paid $27M in 2024.

What Medicare paid for Vyndamax

Medicare Part D and Part B gross spending by year, before manufacturer rebates.
2020: $253M20202021: $532M20212022: $845M20222023: $1.35B20232024: $2.83B20242025: $3.92B2025: $3.92B2025

Plus $1.16B in the first quarter of 2026, for 18,288 patients.

The grants

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

  • Probing the biochemical mechanism of amyloid disease

    R01DK046335 · The Scripps Research Institute · NIDDK · 1998–2025

    $9.3M

  • Probing the biochemical mechanism of amyloid disease

    R37DK046335 · The Scripps Research Institute · NIDDK · 2006–2015

    $5.9M

  • BIOCHEMICAL MECHANISM OF AMYLOID DISEASE

    R29DK046335 · The Scripps Research Institute · NIDDK · 1993–1997

    $505K

The patents

Patents the FDA lists for this drug that were also reported to NIH as grant-funded inventions.
  • US 7214695

    Compositions and methods for stabilizing transthyretin and inhibiting transthyretin misfolding

    Reported by The Scripps Research Institute

    FDA-listed expiry Dec 19, 2026
  • US 7214696

    COMPOSITIONS AND METHODS FOR STABILIZING TRANSTHYRETIN AND INHIBITING TRANSTHYRETIN MISFOLDING

    Reported by The Scripps Research Institute

    FDA-listed expiry Dec 19, 2026

Pfizer'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, Pfizer received $43.02B in federal contracts and grants since fiscal 2020, which includes purchases. Pfizer's page shows its other products on this list, its federal awards, its PAC's giving and its lobbying. If Pfizer 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.