Gift to NYU based on patent royalties for Remicade

"NYU gave me a faculty position when I came to this country. I was 31 and had no prior experience anywhere outside communist Czechoslovakia," Jan T. Vilcek said in a telephone interview August 12. "It was a courageous thing for NYU to do. They took a risk, and I think it worked out."

The gift, which the medical school said is the largest it has ever received, will endow professorships and fellowships, support research and faculty recruiting efforts, improve facilities and enhance programs in basic sciences.

The donation will consist of royalties Vilcek has earned from the sale of Remicade, an anti-inflammatory agent that, in addition to treating rheumatoid arthritis, can help people with Crohn's disease, ankylosing spondylitis and psoriatic arthritis.

Vilcek and an adjunct professor at the school, Junming Le, developed an antibody that is the basis for the drug, then collaborated with a biotechnology company now owned by Johnson & Johnson to turn it into a medicine.

Because the total amount of the royalties generated by Remicade sales is still unknown, the gift could eventually exceed $105 million, the medical school said.



[from AP]