UPenn Nets at least $1 Billion from Covid19 Vaccines

The Philadelphia Inquirer reported on Sunday that the University of Pennsylvania has profited to the tune of at least one billion dollars from patents associated with its gene therapy research used in Moderna’s and Pfizer’s Covid19 shots.

Penn originally announced the success of this novel mode of medicine in 2005 stating that the findings could lead to new types of therapeutic RNAs
for cancer, genetic diseases.  Its use for a respiratory virus like Sars-CoV-2 was a surprising twist use of the technology that ultimately led to the first commercial application of modified RNA treatments.

CEO for Pfizer, Albert Bourla, explained his disbelief in the application of this technology for a vaccine when he spoke to the Washington Post in March.  The “mRNA was a technology that never delivered a single product until that day, not vaccine, not any other medicine. So it was very counterintuitive.”  I “was surprised when they suggested”.

The monetary costs of the Covid19 crisis eclipse those of World War Two.  Penn’s billion dollar windfall represents a drop in the bucket that overflows with over a five trillion dollar outlay made since March of 2019.