Stony Brook Leaders Highlight American Universities’ Pivotal Role in Drug Innovation in Op-Ed
A new STAT op-ed by Stony Brook University’s Kevin Gardner and Michael Kinch shines a spotlight on the often-overlooked role of U.S. universities in bringing life-saving medicines to market. Drawing on new research, the authors reveal that academic institutions — especially those in the U.S. — are behind a growing share of the drug patents tied to FDA-approved treatments, reinforcing the critical need for continued investment in university-driven innovation.
In their June 6 op-ed, Gardner, vice president for research and innovation, and Kinch, chief innovation officer, share striking new findings from their ongoing study of FDA-approved drugs. Their analysis reveals that American universities contributed key patents to half of all drugs approved from 2020 to 2024 — with U.S. institutions accounting for 87 percent of those academic discoveries.
“These new findings have profound implications,” they write, emphasizing that the pipeline of life-saving therapies increasingly depends on research conducted within U.S. academic institutions. “Behind nearly every prescription filled in America lies a powerful engine of innovation, fueled by the research conducted within the nation’s universities.”
The op-ed places these contributions in historical context, tracing the postwar rise of U.S. research leadership to the visionary policies of Vannevar Bush, whose call for federal investment in basic research laid the groundwork for America’s biotech dominance. That leadership, Gardner and Kinch argue, now faces threats from global competitors like China, and from domestic underinvestment.
They note that past research has shown over 90 percent of new medicines, vaccines, and devices stem from NIH-funded academic research, illustrating the powerful return on public investment, but they also cite a recent Nature poll in which 75 percent of U.S.-based scientists reported considering leaving the country, raising concerns about the future of American innovation.
“Were the nation to allow its academic enterprise to wither,” they warn, “decisions about which diseases to treat and which therapies to develop will be made elsewhere.”
As Gardner and Kinch make clear, the future of medicine depends on the strength of the nation’s academic research enterprise. With universities now serving as a critical engine for drug discovery, maintaining federal investment is imperative for public health and economic resilience.