Emory University has sold the royalty rights for an Aids drug it developed for $525 million (€432 million), marking one of the biggest payments to a US university for intellectual property.

The Atlanta institution decided to accept a one-off sum for its rights to the emtricitabine treatment, marketed as Emtriva, rather than continue collecting royalties throughout the drug's commercial life.

James Wagner, president of Emory, said the agreement with Gilead Sciences and Royalty Pharma reflected a new trend towards universities cashing in on royalty rights to intellectual property rather than waiting for uncertain future returns.

"My expectation is that we will see this more and more, particularly when a university finds itself at a moment in its history where it makes more sense to invest the cash rather than keep the royalties in the market place," he said.

Emory will receive 60 per cent of the $525 million payment, with the remainder shared between the three researchers who discovered the drug in 1996. The deal represents a huge windfall for the university, which has an annual research budget of $350 million.

Mr Wagner said the money would be mainly reinvested in research, as stipulated by the Bayh-Dole law that regulates how intellectual property payments are used by universities.

Emtriva is one of the main components of many of the most commonly used drug combinations that help prolong the life of people infected with the HIV virus.

The drug is owned by California-based Gilead Sciences, which previously paid royalties to Emory based on its sales.