Penn Researchers Earn Nearly $1 Billion from mRNA COVID Vaccine Technology Royalties
核心洞察
The University of Pennsylvania has collected nearly $1 billion in royalties from COVID-19 (搜索) vaccines based on mRNA (搜索) technology developed by researchers Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman over 15 years ago.
Penn's overall royalties soared from $30 million in 2020 to $310 million in 2021, representing one of the biggest short-term royalty wins ever by a university.
The university plans to invest $750 million of the proceeds into expanding scientific and medical research, including $350 million for new laboratory space in Philadelphia.
The University of Pennsylvania has reaped extraordinary financial gain from COVID-19 (搜索) vaccines, approaching $1 billion since the beginning of 2021, thanks to patents on mRNA (搜索) technology that Penn researchers developed more than 15 years ago. This represents one of the biggest short-term royalty wins ever by a university.
The windfall stems from groundbreaking research published in 2005 by biochemist Katalin Karikó, now an adjunct professor of neurosurgery at Penn and senior vice president at BioNTech, and immunologist Drew Weissman, a professor of vaccine research in the Perelman School of Medicine. Their discovery showed how to chemically modify messenger RNA (mRNA (搜索)) to enable it to slip past the immune system and deliver genetic instructions to cells.
Financial Impact and Revenue Streams
Penn's overall royalties skyrocketed from $30 million in 2020 to $310 million in 2021, with this year's figure expected to be even larger based on 12 months of vaccine sales. The university collects royalties from both Moderna's and Pfizer-BioNTech's COVID vaccines, which through March 2022 totaled $73.5 billion in combined sales.
"It's a big number," said Craig R. Carnaroli, Penn's senior executive vice president, referring to Penn's slice of that revenue, though citing confidentiality agreements, Penn officials aren't disclosing the exact amount.
Moderna's SEC filings provide insight into the royalty structure. From the beginning of 2021 through March 31, 2022, Moderna paid $848 million to Cellscript LLC (搜索), the company that sublicenses Penn's mRNA (搜索) patents, representing 3.5% of quarterly vaccine sales. If BioNTech operates under similar terms, experts estimate the total payments to Cellscript could reach $2.7 billion, with Penn likely receiving less than half of those royalties.
Technology Development and Licensing Path
The original 2005 research focused on messenger RNA molecules that carry genetic instructions for making proteins. While scientists had long believed mRNA (搜索) could be used to give the human body instructions to fight infectious diseases, the challenge was that the body's immune system attacked and destroyed foreign mRNA before it could function.
Karikó and Weissman's breakthrough was discovering that chemically modifying the mRNA (搜索) enabled it to evade immune detection and deliver its therapeutic payload. At the time, Penn's news release suggested the "findings could lead to new types of therapeutic RNAs for cancer [and] genetic diseases."
In 2010, Penn exclusively licensed the patent to mRNA (搜索) RiboTherapeutics in Madison, Wisconsin, which sublicensed it to Cellscript LLC (搜索). Gary Dahl, Cellscript's CEO, and associates subsequently contributed to additional patents with Weissman and Karikó, creating what Penn officials describe as "an even more robust portfolio of intellectual property."
The licensing deals with Moderna and BioNTech were signed in 2017, several years before COVID-19 (搜索) emerged.
Investment Plans and Regulatory Requirements
Penn will use the proceeds for a $750 million expansion of scientific and medical research in Philadelphia, where it already serves as the main driver of a burgeoning cell and gene therapy sector. The plans include a $350 million addition of laboratory space, with preliminary construction detailing a seven-floor extension at 3600 Civic Center Boulevard.
Under the 1980 Bayh-Dole Act, which allows universities to benefit financially from government-funded basic science research, Penn must reinvest the money back into early scientific research. The university cannot spend the vaccine royalties however it wants, Carnaroli explained.
The federal law also requires institutions to share royalties with inventors. Penn's patent policy allocates 30% of royalties to inventors, which could amount to several hundred million dollars split between Karikó and Weissman.
Future Prospects and Patent Expiration
The COVID vaccines represent the first commercial successes in mRNA (搜索) biology, a field with vast potential beyond vaccines. Researchers at BioNTech, Moderna, and other companies are developing mRNA vaccines against influenza, HIV (搜索), RSV, Zika, and other viruses, with cancer representing another major focus area.
"Because RNA is a lot like biological software, we can rapidly write the code for the proteins that are necessary, that might be deficient or dysfunctional in a cell," said John P. Cooke, medical director at Center for RNA Therapeutics at Houston Methodist.
However, Penn's mRNA (搜索) patents begin expiring in May 2027, and the university faces increasing competition. Scientists at MIT have developed circular RNA that lasts longer in cells, potentially offering advantages over Penn's linear RNA approach.
Carnaroli cautioned that the massive revenue stream won't continue indefinitely. "This will have a short life to it," he said. Jonathan Epstein, Penn Medicine's chief scientific officer, noted that many new treatments would likely emerge after Penn's original patents expire.
"We are incredibly excited to see a lifetime of work be used to help people during this tragic pandemic that has affected the entire world," Karikó and Weissman said in a statement. "We look forward to the application of mRNA (搜索) therapeutics to new diseases through vaccines, gene therapy within the body, and protein therapies in the near future."