Is the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research mostly about more profits for the Kochs?

[highplainsdem]

There's another topic here today about a Mother Jones article which points out that David Koch, while funding the Koch Institute for cancer research at MIT and lamenting deep federal cuts in research money (and asking people to donate to his institute to make up for that), has been bankrolling the same Republicans making those cuts.

http://motherjones.com/mojo/2011/03/david-koch-cancer-research-gop-nih

Which would make no sense, if Koch is at all sincerely interested in this research, unless there's a profit motive -- unless Koch Industries stands to make a lot of money from advances in cancer research that will be more and more likely to happen at the Institute as the Kochs do all they can to cripple research elsewhere (research that won't make money for them).

I haven't been able to find out anything yet about exactly what share of any profitable advances in treatment -- for instance, drugs that can be patented -- will go to the Kochs.

But googling

"koch institute for integrative cancer research" patent

immediately turned up this profile of one member of the Institute's Leadership Council:

http://ki.mit.edu/people/leadership/fraser

Dr. Janis K. Fraser is a Principal at Fish & Richardson P.C., one of the top intellectual property law firms in the world. Since joining Fish & Richardson in 1989, she has helped the firm's biotechnology patent practice grow to its current preeminent position. Her multi-million dollar practice spans all aspects of biotechnology and pharmaceutical chemistry patent law, including patent prosecution, due diligence, freedom-to-operate analyses, and strategic advice. Dr. Fraser's clients include AstraZeneca, Biogen Idec, Genzyme, Chugai, Massachusetts General Hospital, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, the Dana Farber Cancer Institute, and numerous other biotech, pharmaceutical and venture capital companies and academic institutions around the world.

So I started checking out the profiles of others on the Institute's Leadership Council.

http://ki.mit.edu/people/leadership/casimir-lambert

Pierre Casimir-Lambert was on the Board of Directors of Solvay, the Belgian multi-national pharmaceuticals, plastics and chemicals group, from 1971 to 2003. Solvay is one of Belgium's largest industrial companies.

http://ki.mit.edu/people/leadership/bourque

Janice Bourque is Managing Director of Life Sciences for Hercules Technology Growth Capital. At Hercules, the leading specialty finance company, she provides venture debt and equity to venture capital and private equity backed technology and life science companies at all stages of development. Ms. Bourque recently advised and provided strategic corporate investor fundraising for Commons Capital and Oxford Bioscience Partners, two life science venture capital firms, to create a Gates Foundation supported $100 Million Commons Capital Global Health focused on innovative healthcare investments for emerging and developing countries.

http://ki.mit.edu/people/leadership/galakatos

Dr. Nick Galakatos is a co-founder and Managing Director of Clarus Ventures, a leading venture capital firm focused on life science investments. He has been a venture capital investor since 1992, initially at Venrock Associates and then at MPM Capital where he was General Partner of the BioVentures II and III funds. From 1997-2000 Nick was Vice President, New Business and a member of the Management Team at Millennium Pharmaceuticals. He is a co-founder Millennium Predictive Medicine and TransForm Pharmaceuticals, where he also was the Chairman and founding CEO. Nick entered the venture capital business after being Head of Molecular Biology Research at Ciba (presently Novartis). He holds a B.A degree in chemistry from Reed College, a Ph.D. degree in organic chemistry from MIT, and performed postdoctoral studies in molecular biology at Harvard Medical School.

I want to make it clear that not everyone on the Leadership Council seems to have been chosen for expertise in making money off medical research. For instance, there's William M. Haney III, a filmmaker and environmentalist and philanthropist.

http://ki.mit.edu/people/leadership/haney

http://www.filmmakermagazine.com/news/2007/09/bill-haney-the-price-of-sugar/

And there may be others there who don't have a lot of expertise in profiting from advances in medicine.

But at least some of them do. Which makes me think Koch Industries will make a lot of money from the research, and this is just as much about investment as it is about philanthropy.

And in the context of this research as investment, there's no paradox in the Kochs funding politicians who'll cut federal spending on cancer research while spending their own money on a cancer institute.

[rfranklin]

1. They don't even think twice about ethical conflicts...

Making money off everything they do is just natural.

[katnapped]

2. Of course

If it didn't make money no doubts they'd burn it down to collect on the insurance.

[highplainsdem]

3. +1

[highplainsdem]

4. kick

[KharmaTrain]

5. I'm Also Sure It's A Nice Tax Deduction...

A great way to get a nice deduction to shelter billions made other ways.