A newly acquired Freedom of Information Act request report reveals that from 2010 to 2020, individuals at the National Institutes of Health received an awful lot of money in royalty payments from third-party payers, likely pharmaceutical companies. How much money? The FIOA report, obtained by the nonprofit government watchdog group Open the Books, found that “between fiscal years 2010 and 2020, more than $350 million in royalties were paid by third-parties to the agency and NIH scientists — who are credited as co-inventors.”

The report further observes, “Because those payments enrich the agency and its scientists, each and every royalty payment could be a potential conflict of interest and needs disclosure.”

Exactly who at NIH received royalties and who paid those royalties remains a mystery, given that the documents received from NIH were heavily redacted. The information that was available notes the total number of NIH scientists and the total aggregate royalty payments NIH received.

The report noted that the agency’s top officials did indeed receive royalty payments, but the total amount and the source of those royalty payments remains hidden. What is known is that former NIH Director Francis Collins as well as Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), received royalty payments.

The revelation brings up an obvious conflict of interest question. Without knowing exactly what drug company was paying the royalties, it’s difficult to answer that question, but at the very least there is certainly the appearance of impropriety. Making matters worse is the fact that both Fauci and Collins went out of their way during the pandemic to promote certain narratives, like support of vaccine and masking mandates, while at the same time stifling legitimate inquires, such as the lab leak theory.

If it is learned that any of the pharmaceutical companies that produced COVID vaccines — companies like Pfizer, Moderna, or Johnson & Johnson — were making royalty payments to Fauci or Collins or both, that would present a significant breach of trust.

But it could go even deeper. Should any company with roots in China be discovered to have been making payments to NIH leadership, that might also go a long way to explaining the reason why Collins in particular was so adamant in his downplaying of the lab-leak theory.

More light needs to be shined on this, and NIH needs to disclose who was paid and by whom. The officials need to be held to account and not be allowed to hide behind a mountain of bureaucratic obfuscation.