Let's suppose that you are attacked by an angry mob of 16 people wielding blunt objects. The surveillance video had facial recognition technology that positively identified all 16 attackers. You sustained multiple injuries that were verified by a physician and fully documented in your medical record. However, there's a catch. The attack was so chaotic that the surveillance footage is not able to decipher which assailant landed which specific blows. Therefore, you cannot conclusively link any specific injury with any specific assailant. Heck, your injuries themselves are suspect - sure they are documented, and the timing of the injuries matches up with the timeframe of the assault, we have to remember that correlation does not equal causation. Because you can't prove that ANY of your injuries were caused by ANY of the assailants, then NONE of the assailants are responsible for ANY of injuries. And thus, we can further conclude that being attacked by an angry mob is 100% safe. That's the principle by which the CDC does vaccine safety research.
The Legal Framework: How Government Scientists Get Lifetime Cash Flows
The system was codified in the 1980s through a series of tech transfer laws—the Stevenson-Wydler Act (1980) and the Federal Technology Transfer Act (1986) being the big ones. The logic was: if government scientists invent something, they should share in the upside to incentivize innovation. Not unreasonable in theory. In practice, it created a machine.
How the money flows:
NIH licenses patents to pharma companies
Pharma pays royalties on sales back to NIH
NIH distributes a cut to the named inventors by statutory formula
Payments are bi-annual, every year, for the life of the patent (often 20+ years)
The estate keeps collecting after the inventor dies—yes, payments go "To The Estate of..."
The statutory formula per inventor, per license, per year:
Tier
Royalty Amount
Inventor Cut
1
First $2,000
100%
2
$2,001 – $50,000
15%
3
Above $50,000
25%
Annual cap: $150,000 per inventor per year. That's per license. A scientist named on multiple patents with multiple licensees can pull substantial money, year after year after year.
A GAO report found that from 1980–2019, HHS held 4,446 U.S. patents. Just 32 licenses on a handful of blockbuster drugs generated up to $2 billion in royalties. Three individual licenses broke $100 million each. The HPV vaccine Gardasil alone—developed from NCI technology—is a massive cash engine.
🩸 The Gallo Case: Fraud, Glory, and a Revenue Stream That Never Stopped
Robert Gallo's story is the template for understanding how broken incentives intersect with big money.
The short version: Gallo at NCI claimed to have discovered the AIDS virus (HTLV-III) and filed a patent in April 1984. The problem? The French team at Pasteur Institute under Luc Montagnier had already isolated the virus (LAV) and sent samples to Gallo's lab in September 1983—with a written agreement restricting commercial use. Gallo's lab used those samples extensively. The patent examiner later stated she would never have granted the patent had she known the French had a competing application.
A 1994 HHS Inspector General inquiry found Gallo failed to disclose the French work to the patent office. The summary was described as "damning" by Pasteur's director. Gallo was eventually found guilty of scientific misconduct by the Office of Research Integrity—though that finding was later walked back on appeal on a technicality about the standard of proof, not because the underlying facts were exonerating.
The money never stopped. The 1987 settlement split royalties 50/50 between the US and France. By 1994, HHS had pulled over $20 million in royalties, Pasteur $14 million. The HIV blood test patent generated revenue for decades. Gallo personally collected royalties the entire time.
Was he fired? He was pushed out of his lab chief position at NCI in 1995 after years of investigations, but he landed softly—heading the Institute of Human Virology at University of Maryland, which received substantial NIH funding. The royalty payments to him as named inventor continued regardless of employment status. That's the genius of the system: once your name is on the patent, the checks arrive twice a year no matter what.
💉 Fauci: The Interleukin-2 Money Trail
Fauci's royalty situation is less scandalous in origin but reveals the same structural opacity.
Fauci and his deputy Clifford Lane developed interleukin-2 as an AIDS treatment in the 1980s. Between 1997 and 2004, they each received about $45,000 in royalties. Open The Books later documented 37 royalty payments to Fauci between 2010 and 2021, mostly from Santa Cruz Biotechnology.
Fauci's defense: he told the AP in 2005 he donates all royalties to charity, that he tried to refuse the money but was told he was legally obligated to accept it. Whether he actually donated—NIH doesn't track it, and Fauci never provided proof.
The deeper problem isn't whether Fauci kept the money. It's that:
Royalty payments are classified as "federal compensation" — meaning they don't appear on public financial disclosure forms
The amounts are hidden behind FOIA exemptions for "confidential commercial information"
No independent verification exists for what individual scientists receive or what they do with it
The firewall between scientist-inventors and the licensing process is entirely self-policed by NIH
🎯 Was the Research Valid? Does It Have Positive Value?
This is where it gets uncomfortable, because the answer is: sometimes yes, sometimes deeply compromised, and the system is designed to blur the distinction.
The valid side
Some NIH-derived patents produced genuine breakthroughs. Gardasil prevents cervical cancer. Synagis protects premature infants from RSV. HIV antiretrovirals developed from NIH research have saved lives. The tech transfer system, in principle, moves taxpayer-funded discoveries into commercial products that wouldn't exist otherwise.
The compromised side
Gallo's HIV test patent was built on misappropriated French research. The patent was arguably fraudulent. The royalties were arguably unjust enrichment—the exact claim Pasteur made. Yet the checks kept clearing for decades. The research that actually discovered HIV was Montagnier's (Nobel Prize 2008, which pointedly excluded Gallo). The commercial value was real, but the attribution and compensation were corrupt.
Fauci's interleukin-2 work: The drug never became a blockbuster AIDS treatment. It had modest utility at best and significant toxicity. The royalties were small potatoes compared to Gallo's situation, but the conflict of interest is the same—a researcher directing clinical trials on a treatment they personally profit from, with no meaningful disclosure to the public.
The broader pattern: When a government scientist's personal income depends on a drug's commercial success, the incentive to honestly assess safety and efficacy is compromised. The NIH's firewall is a joke—the IRB is told whether a researcher receives royalties but not the amount. The IRB is composed of NIH colleagues. The system runs on trust in a building where everyone knows where the bodies are buried.
🏛️ The Big Picture
The $150,000 annual cap sounds modest until you realize:
A scientist can be named on multiple patents with different licensees
Payments continue for 20+ years per patent
The estate keeps collecting after death
No public disclosure exists—neither the amounts nor the conflicts
A well-positioned NIH scientist with their name on 3–4 commercially successful patents can quietly pull high six figures annually for decades, entirely hidden from public view, while directing research agendas and clinical trials involving the very products generating their income.
The GAO report noted that NIH had 93 patents that contributed to 34 FDA-approved drugs — and those 34 drugs generated up to $2 billion in royalties. The concentration is extreme. A tiny number of scientists attached to a tiny number of blockbuster patents capture enormous long-term cash flows.
Gallo wasn't an anomaly. He was the prototype. The system was built to reward people exactly like him, and it still does.
The Medical System is so corrupt...It's out to extract everything the traffic will bear. It has provided no cures, but its drugs and vaccines have done humongous damage to the multitudes. It sure hasn't done doing any good for humanity. The Danish scientist Poulsen's "research' on autism contributed nothing, but lies...and robbed taxpayers of over One Million dollars. Fauci's support of Wuhan research cost the world dearly in lives and money. It seems all the "scientists' are interested in is getting patents, so they will obtain royalties on their sickness-creating products..
Thomas, thank you for this incredibly eye-opening expose. I knew there was corruption but now I understand how it works. I appreciate the time you took to outline this. You obviously have an extensive background with this and it shows. And so what do we do? Is there any hope that Congress would change this? How would changes to this subterfuge be made? It’s truly sickening. Another piece of negative news that makes me lose faith in human decency. 😔
These alphabet government agencies (FDA, CDC, HHS, NIH, CIA, FBI, etc.) should be completely shutdown, dismantled and removed from any further conflicts, illegal activity, and thefts of taxpayer dollars. Obviously the foxes are guarding the hen houses.
It seems that the real objective of gain of function in some specific cases had less to do with virology. Served a multi faceted function. Hmmm. Edit: I remain very appreciative of Dr Malone for his perseverance and integrity. It seems a Herculean task after what him and his wife Jill have had to endure. Kudos! 😊
Are you sure you're not a detective by night and a scientist/farmer by day? No wonder the government agencies are so highly sought after for employment or election. Want to make a few extra bucks? Do you like intrigue and want to see if you can pull the wool over almost everyone's eyes? Russian Roulette excite you? I have a job for you, says the government!
Your work is the best in investigative journalism and should be held up as template for administrative policy. I hope the office of Inspector General adopts your rigorous methods and is taught throughout Government departments. Congress should also let this be wake-up call to improve written policies and not have gaps that could be exploited.
What's so tragical about all of this is that I'm no longer surprised at the length, depth and breadth of the pharmaceutical tentacles that twist our trust of the medical establishment into a house of horrors, and the roles our government agencies play in this "science" is just...mind boggling. Great post and great comments.
The lack of accountability is astounding. Rubber stamps circulated to get rubber stamps upon them. Anthony Fauci in particular functioned like a candy dispenser at a children's birthday party with the kids being research grant recipients and pharma. The achievers that we bleed, ( working people in the U.S.A, ), for this give away money just need to work harder.
I am going to need a second ice cream sandwich over this three-part, tag-team criminal syndicalism in conspiracy and collusion with disparate factions in tandem that somehow or another comes together with the proper routing numbers and account numbers.
Describing it how you have here must have left at least one mare jealous and feeling neglected.
Thank you for sharing this masterful analysis! Clearly (from where I sit) a painful process. I'm not in a position or of a mind to critique it. Judging from your past work experiences Xand fidelity, I welcome and well appreciate your contribution.
As an aside, as a part of my federal staff development, I participated in a fedral government contracting course. It left me with a conviction that this was clearly an opportunity to avoid.
The inadequacy of the adequate federal guidance is mind numbing. One suspects Schendel's supervisor was incompetent or complacit initially and covering up in the end.
It sounds as if the money is hopelessly gone and can't be clawed back.
The legitimacy of a further investigation and conclusions is one assumes it could impact on the issue of the vaccine, the additive and their impact in causing autism as well as eligibility for funds from the appealing damaged.
One hopes your scholarship here is recognized, appreciated and used in a further pursuit of justice, validations and corrective actions as relates to federal rules.
Thank you Dr. Malone for adding Executive Summaries on these past two article this week. I was successfully able to show and explain your points to three of my closest friends including my wife. Keep it coming and thank you for your and Jill's dedication. Your information is greatly needed.
Robert, I have worked in Govt contracting for years and am familiar with the FAR and DAR. This article is fascinating and represents a substantial effort. Thank you. Some people at CDC must see you as a royal pain in the butt. Keep up the good work.
Let's suppose that you are attacked by an angry mob of 16 people wielding blunt objects. The surveillance video had facial recognition technology that positively identified all 16 attackers. You sustained multiple injuries that were verified by a physician and fully documented in your medical record. However, there's a catch. The attack was so chaotic that the surveillance footage is not able to decipher which assailant landed which specific blows. Therefore, you cannot conclusively link any specific injury with any specific assailant. Heck, your injuries themselves are suspect - sure they are documented, and the timing of the injuries matches up with the timeframe of the assault, we have to remember that correlation does not equal causation. Because you can't prove that ANY of your injuries were caused by ANY of the assailants, then NONE of the assailants are responsible for ANY of injuries. And thus, we can further conclude that being attacked by an angry mob is 100% safe. That's the principle by which the CDC does vaccine safety research.
On target!
Great analogy. And thoroughly frustrating to ponder. No wonder we have such a mess in our bureaucracies.
The Legal Framework: How Government Scientists Get Lifetime Cash Flows
The system was codified in the 1980s through a series of tech transfer laws—the Stevenson-Wydler Act (1980) and the Federal Technology Transfer Act (1986) being the big ones. The logic was: if government scientists invent something, they should share in the upside to incentivize innovation. Not unreasonable in theory. In practice, it created a machine.
How the money flows:
NIH licenses patents to pharma companies
Pharma pays royalties on sales back to NIH
NIH distributes a cut to the named inventors by statutory formula
Payments are bi-annual, every year, for the life of the patent (often 20+ years)
The estate keeps collecting after the inventor dies—yes, payments go "To The Estate of..."
The statutory formula per inventor, per license, per year:
Tier
Royalty Amount
Inventor Cut
1
First $2,000
100%
2
$2,001 – $50,000
15%
3
Above $50,000
25%
Annual cap: $150,000 per inventor per year. That's per license. A scientist named on multiple patents with multiple licensees can pull substantial money, year after year after year.
A GAO report found that from 1980–2019, HHS held 4,446 U.S. patents. Just 32 licenses on a handful of blockbuster drugs generated up to $2 billion in royalties. Three individual licenses broke $100 million each. The HPV vaccine Gardasil alone—developed from NCI technology—is a massive cash engine.
🩸 The Gallo Case: Fraud, Glory, and a Revenue Stream That Never Stopped
Robert Gallo's story is the template for understanding how broken incentives intersect with big money.
The short version: Gallo at NCI claimed to have discovered the AIDS virus (HTLV-III) and filed a patent in April 1984. The problem? The French team at Pasteur Institute under Luc Montagnier had already isolated the virus (LAV) and sent samples to Gallo's lab in September 1983—with a written agreement restricting commercial use. Gallo's lab used those samples extensively. The patent examiner later stated she would never have granted the patent had she known the French had a competing application.
A 1994 HHS Inspector General inquiry found Gallo failed to disclose the French work to the patent office. The summary was described as "damning" by Pasteur's director. Gallo was eventually found guilty of scientific misconduct by the Office of Research Integrity—though that finding was later walked back on appeal on a technicality about the standard of proof, not because the underlying facts were exonerating.
The money never stopped. The 1987 settlement split royalties 50/50 between the US and France. By 1994, HHS had pulled over $20 million in royalties, Pasteur $14 million. The HIV blood test patent generated revenue for decades. Gallo personally collected royalties the entire time.
Was he fired? He was pushed out of his lab chief position at NCI in 1995 after years of investigations, but he landed softly—heading the Institute of Human Virology at University of Maryland, which received substantial NIH funding. The royalty payments to him as named inventor continued regardless of employment status. That's the genius of the system: once your name is on the patent, the checks arrive twice a year no matter what.
💉 Fauci: The Interleukin-2 Money Trail
Fauci's royalty situation is less scandalous in origin but reveals the same structural opacity.
Fauci and his deputy Clifford Lane developed interleukin-2 as an AIDS treatment in the 1980s. Between 1997 and 2004, they each received about $45,000 in royalties. Open The Books later documented 37 royalty payments to Fauci between 2010 and 2021, mostly from Santa Cruz Biotechnology.
Fauci's defense: he told the AP in 2005 he donates all royalties to charity, that he tried to refuse the money but was told he was legally obligated to accept it. Whether he actually donated—NIH doesn't track it, and Fauci never provided proof.
The deeper problem isn't whether Fauci kept the money. It's that:
Royalty payments are classified as "federal compensation" — meaning they don't appear on public financial disclosure forms
The amounts are hidden behind FOIA exemptions for "confidential commercial information"
No independent verification exists for what individual scientists receive or what they do with it
The firewall between scientist-inventors and the licensing process is entirely self-policed by NIH
🎯 Was the Research Valid? Does It Have Positive Value?
This is where it gets uncomfortable, because the answer is: sometimes yes, sometimes deeply compromised, and the system is designed to blur the distinction.
The valid side
Some NIH-derived patents produced genuine breakthroughs. Gardasil prevents cervical cancer. Synagis protects premature infants from RSV. HIV antiretrovirals developed from NIH research have saved lives. The tech transfer system, in principle, moves taxpayer-funded discoveries into commercial products that wouldn't exist otherwise.
The compromised side
Gallo's HIV test patent was built on misappropriated French research. The patent was arguably fraudulent. The royalties were arguably unjust enrichment—the exact claim Pasteur made. Yet the checks kept clearing for decades. The research that actually discovered HIV was Montagnier's (Nobel Prize 2008, which pointedly excluded Gallo). The commercial value was real, but the attribution and compensation were corrupt.
Fauci's interleukin-2 work: The drug never became a blockbuster AIDS treatment. It had modest utility at best and significant toxicity. The royalties were small potatoes compared to Gallo's situation, but the conflict of interest is the same—a researcher directing clinical trials on a treatment they personally profit from, with no meaningful disclosure to the public.
The broader pattern: When a government scientist's personal income depends on a drug's commercial success, the incentive to honestly assess safety and efficacy is compromised. The NIH's firewall is a joke—the IRB is told whether a researcher receives royalties but not the amount. The IRB is composed of NIH colleagues. The system runs on trust in a building where everyone knows where the bodies are buried.
🏛️ The Big Picture
The $150,000 annual cap sounds modest until you realize:
A scientist can be named on multiple patents with different licensees
Payments continue for 20+ years per patent
The estate keeps collecting after death
No public disclosure exists—neither the amounts nor the conflicts
A well-positioned NIH scientist with their name on 3–4 commercially successful patents can quietly pull high six figures annually for decades, entirely hidden from public view, while directing research agendas and clinical trials involving the very products generating their income.
The GAO report noted that NIH had 93 patents that contributed to 34 FDA-approved drugs — and those 34 drugs generated up to $2 billion in royalties. The concentration is extreme. A tiny number of scientists attached to a tiny number of blockbuster patents capture enormous long-term cash flows.
Gallo wasn't an anomaly. He was the prototype. The system was built to reward people exactly like him, and it still does.
And while the media keeps us focused on Grocery and Gas prices...The thievery continues...
The Medical System is so corrupt...It's out to extract everything the traffic will bear. It has provided no cures, but its drugs and vaccines have done humongous damage to the multitudes. It sure hasn't done doing any good for humanity. The Danish scientist Poulsen's "research' on autism contributed nothing, but lies...and robbed taxpayers of over One Million dollars. Fauci's support of Wuhan research cost the world dearly in lives and money. It seems all the "scientists' are interested in is getting patents, so they will obtain royalties on their sickness-creating products..
WOW.....OUCH!
Meanwhile all the participants of the Easy Money tree all agree,
Sit back and say "Phuck all Ya'll" !!
It’s all about follow the $cience.
Thomas, thank you for this incredibly eye-opening expose. I knew there was corruption but now I understand how it works. I appreciate the time you took to outline this. You obviously have an extensive background with this and it shows. And so what do we do? Is there any hope that Congress would change this? How would changes to this subterfuge be made? It’s truly sickening. Another piece of negative news that makes me lose faith in human decency. 😔
Perhaps such a reward structure helped to freeze Alzheimers research into as ineffective avenue for a couple of decades??
These alphabet government agencies (FDA, CDC, HHS, NIH, CIA, FBI, etc.) should be completely shutdown, dismantled and removed from any further conflicts, illegal activity, and thefts of taxpayer dollars. Obviously the foxes are guarding the hen houses.
INCREDIBLY DETAILED -- AMAZING INFO.
It seems that the real objective of gain of function in some specific cases had less to do with virology. Served a multi faceted function. Hmmm. Edit: I remain very appreciative of Dr Malone for his perseverance and integrity. It seems a Herculean task after what him and his wife Jill have had to endure. Kudos! 😊
Are you sure you're not a detective by night and a scientist/farmer by day? No wonder the government agencies are so highly sought after for employment or election. Want to make a few extra bucks? Do you like intrigue and want to see if you can pull the wool over almost everyone's eyes? Russian Roulette excite you? I have a job for you, says the government!
The SWAMP is sooooo deep! Will we ever get it drained???
Just help yourself to the Tax $$$$$'s
Sheesh!
A BROKEN SYSTEM. SADLY, I THINK THIS IS ALL TOO COMMON.
Dr. Malone,
Your work is the best in investigative journalism and should be held up as template for administrative policy. I hope the office of Inspector General adopts your rigorous methods and is taught throughout Government departments. Congress should also let this be wake-up call to improve written policies and not have gaps that could be exploited.
What's so tragical about all of this is that I'm no longer surprised at the length, depth and breadth of the pharmaceutical tentacles that twist our trust of the medical establishment into a house of horrors, and the roles our government agencies play in this "science" is just...mind boggling. Great post and great comments.
The lack of accountability is astounding. Rubber stamps circulated to get rubber stamps upon them. Anthony Fauci in particular functioned like a candy dispenser at a children's birthday party with the kids being research grant recipients and pharma. The achievers that we bleed, ( working people in the U.S.A, ), for this give away money just need to work harder.
You have an incredible mind Drs MALONE!
I am going to need a second ice cream sandwich over this three-part, tag-team criminal syndicalism in conspiracy and collusion with disparate factions in tandem that somehow or another comes together with the proper routing numbers and account numbers.
Describing it how you have here must have left at least one mare jealous and feeling neglected.
Thank you for sharing this masterful analysis! Clearly (from where I sit) a painful process. I'm not in a position or of a mind to critique it. Judging from your past work experiences Xand fidelity, I welcome and well appreciate your contribution.
As an aside, as a part of my federal staff development, I participated in a fedral government contracting course. It left me with a conviction that this was clearly an opportunity to avoid.
The inadequacy of the adequate federal guidance is mind numbing. One suspects Schendel's supervisor was incompetent or complacit initially and covering up in the end.
It sounds as if the money is hopelessly gone and can't be clawed back.
The legitimacy of a further investigation and conclusions is one assumes it could impact on the issue of the vaccine, the additive and their impact in causing autism as well as eligibility for funds from the appealing damaged.
One hopes your scholarship here is recognized, appreciated and used in a further pursuit of justice, validations and corrective actions as relates to federal rules.
I didn't read the whole thing, it was very clear early, that the CDC F@@K's ALL tax paying Citizens !!
Well that's our whole Government NOW - Were all just TAX SLAVES to THE SYSTEM Controlled
by ZIONIST and Oligarchs!
THEN they VAC you at birth now, so you can be a slave to Big Pharma, for life !
It seems to me you don't get much sleep
Thank you Dr. Malone for adding Executive Summaries on these past two article this week. I was successfully able to show and explain your points to three of my closest friends including my wife. Keep it coming and thank you for your and Jill's dedication. Your information is greatly needed.
Robert, I have worked in Govt contracting for years and am familiar with the FAR and DAR. This article is fascinating and represents a substantial effort. Thank you. Some people at CDC must see you as a royal pain in the butt. Keep up the good work.