Federal funding for universities led to development of these 6 vital drugs

UCLA alumnus Fred Ramsdell on Monday was named a winner of the 2025 Nobel Prize for physiology or medicine, joining three fellow Bruins as Nobel laureates in the same category: Adam Patapoutian (2021), Randy Schekman (2013) and faculty member Louis Ignarro (1998).

Ignarro, professor emeritus of pharmacology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, shared the 1998 Nobel Prize with two other researchers for their work demonstrating nitric oxide's role as a signaling molecule in the cardiovascular system.

When he began studying nitric oxide in the late 1970s, few envisioned the significance of the compound. Ignarro's research was primarily focused on its heart-related effects. But in 1992, he discovered that nitric oxide also played a major part in male sexual function. That helped pave the way for Pfizer to get approval for Viagra in 1998 for erectile dysfunction, instead of the heart drug the company had initially been working on. The drug became one of Pfizer's most successful drugs. In 2012, Viagra - now a generic - generated $2 billion in sales.

Ignarro is one of several scientists spotlighted in a Washington Post article that presents the history of six vital drugs invented at universities over the past few decades. These drugs, which include Keytruda, Lyrica and Ozempic, got their start thanks to federal funding that's now under threat as billions in research grants have been frozen. That could jeopardize the development of new lifesaving or life-changing medications.

"Without funds, without the money, you cannot bring in the good people to do your work," Ignarro, who retired in 2016 from his academic responsibilities at UCLA but remains active in science, told the Washington Post. "Without the money, you can't buy the chemicals, you can't buy the instrumentation you need to make discoveries."

Read the full story on the Washington Post's website.