We are talking 20% ROI, year after year, for the duration of the patent (17 years). That's a 22x ROI. Most SV investors would drool themselves into a pool at the thought.

Sovaldi is a unicorn. Returns for VC firms who were early investors in Facebook were 200-100x. Sequoia and Kleiner-Perkins got 160x on Google's IPO. Sequoia's return on Linked-In was almost 30x.