The National Institutes of Health and its scientists received royalties from Chinese Communist Party-controlled pharmaceutical companies, including one that collaborated with a suspected source of the COVID-19 pandemic, and a Russian vaccine maker that reportedly may have served as a front for Soviet bioweapons research, according to newly disclosed records.
NIH fought to shield the identities of the entities that paid to license its taxpayer-funded inventions from the agency and individual scientists, including then-Director Francis Collins and then-National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci, who together received 58 payments from seven companies.
While the feds lost that fight in court, the amounts that Fauci, Collins and hundreds of other government scientists were paid in royalties remains hidden for the moment. The top 10 scientists received between 387 and 655 payments each, the new figures show.
OpenTheBooks.com sued the feds nearly two years ago when NIH refused its Freedom of Information Act requests for specifics on royalties paid to its employees by outside entities among other information.