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Tech Transfer
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In this issue:
Ties
between drugmakers and university researchers getting ever closer
It's no secret that
big pharma companies and university research labs are getting cozier these
days. Big dollar sponsored research deals have become commonplace, and
while the funding is critical, changes in how -- and how deeply -- universities
and drug makers interact are accompanying these research windfalls. Drugmakers
are looking for more accountability and collaboration than ever before.
Academic institutions, meanwhile, are taking a more targeted approach
to research to make sure their sponsors are not disappointed -- a trend
that is accelerating as universities look to diversify funding streams
amid dwindling government grants. The end result is a new breed of industry-academia
alliance that closely connects researchers from both sides of the fence.
"The
approach 20 years ago was pharma gives a chunk of change, and then they
have the rights to license any discoveries," says Laurie H. Glimcher,
a professor at Harvard Medical School who also sits on the board of Bristol-Myers
Squibb and recently teamed up with Merck to work toward new osteoporosis
treatments. "I don't think that really works anymore. It has become
apparent to many people in the private sector and the academic sector
that closer ties between industry and academia are the wave of the future."
Rudolph L. Leibel, head of molecular genetics and co-director of the Naomi
Berrie Diabetes Center at Columbia University Medical Center, offers a
similar assessment. "I think the time is right for a greater emphasis
on bringing together both intellectual and physical tools in a coordinated
way," says Leibel, who helps steer a research collaboration between
the medical center and AstraZeneca that is focused on metabolic diseases.
He believes the move from the bench to the bedside can occur more quickly
if researchers on either end of the spectrum -- academics with expertise
in establishing promising new targets and companies with compound libraries
and other critical but expensive research tools -- would only work together.
Typical
of the new model of industry-university linkage is a deal AstraZeneca
signed this spring with Harvard to fund Glimcher's osteoporosis research.
The agreement has the trappings of typical sponsored research arrangements:
Merck hands over money and has the right to license molecules that come
out of the research. Not so typical, however, is that scientists from
Merck and Harvard are working together to discover new signaling pathways
and explore the function of a protein that mediates bone growth. "Merck
is using their enormous resources to help us assemble huge expression
arrays and integrate the signaling pathways in samples we give them,"
Glimcher says. The two lead Harvard scientists on the project interact
with Merck almost daily, she adds. The team gets together once a month,
and all participants have access to a virtual meeting room where they
can post data.
Other
newfangled agreements are coming in all shapes and sizes. In one AstraZeneca
deal with Columbia, for example, the drug company and the university are
collaborating to develop new drugs for diabetes and obesity. Collaborations
follow a set pattern: a Columbia scientist makes a proposal and then is
teamed with an AstraZeneca scientist. Together, they develop a line of
inquiry that includes crafting a research plan, assigning responsibilities
to each partner's lab, and determining methods of communication. For some
projects, the research begins at Columbia and later shifts to AstraZeneca.
For others, activities start jointly and can include deeper contact, even
having a company scientist on-site at the university. At St. Louis-based
Washington University, a 20-year relationship with Pfizer has evolved
into something more like a joint venture than a old school sponsored research
agreement. Scientists across a range of disciplines make short research
proposals related to immunology and inflammation. The proposals are reviewed
by a joint steering committee, and the academic researchers are then paired
with Pfizer scientists to write a full proposal. "There is complete
openness -- no walls, no barriers," Seibert says. "The ideas
develop collaboratively, and the focus often changes when our scientists
come together to the table." Go to: Chemical
& Engineering News
Top
U
of Texas launching entrepreneur-in-residence program to boost start-ups
The University of
Texas has become the latest in a growing list of universities creating
entrepreneur-in-residence program, in which experienced start-up executives
scour the school's wealth of research discoveries to find breakthroughs
that could become companies. Before the end of the year, UT expects to
hire two or three executives for six-month stints in the program. The
goal is to accelerate the school's ability to turn its research into start-ups
and generate more licensing revenue. The executives, who will be paid
$5,500 a month, will be charged with identifying opportunities and developing
business plans around those with the most promise. If a plan wins preliminary
approval from the Texas Emerging Technology Fund, they will be paid a
$25,000 bonus. "We will be the first university in the country doing
it this way," said Neil Iscoe, director of UT's Office of Technology
Commercialization, who developed the idea. "We have invited the entrepreneurs
inside our tent, so they can be inside our system and then take things
outside."
Clint
Bybey , managing director for Arch Venture Partners, calls the program
"a great thing to do. The idea is to have a business-minded person
that is looking at technology, finding leading researchers and bringing
the perspective of the marketplace to bear on research ideas." The
program is a swan song for Iscoe, who has headed the university's TTO
for five years and will be leaving the job once a replacement is found.
During his tenure, UT's licensing revenue has tripled to $11.5 million
in the just-completed 2008 fiscal year. UT now owns part of 36 technology
start-ups, including 10 created in the past year. Go to: Austin-American
Statesman
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Capture
every dollar you're due with an effective royalty audit program
In this tough economy
and with TTO budgets tightening, you simply can't afford to let royalty
dollars slip through your fingers. Yet without an effective audit program
in place, you may be losing literally tens of thousands of dollars --
or more -- due to under-reporting. Here's your chance to get the practical
know-how you need to begin an audit program, bolster your existing efforts,
and recoup much-needed dollars your university is rightfully due. Join
audit expert Dan Burns of Daniel Burns Associates for an audioconference
event that promises to bring you a tremendous return-on-investment: Royalty
Audits: Are You Getting What You Bargained For? scheduled for
December 18, from 1:00-2:30 p.m. eastern. In this how-to session, you’ll
gain a deeper understanding of the most common and hard-to-spot areas
where under-reporting occurs, how the audit process works, and how to
proceed once you’ve received the results and identified discrepancies.
To register of for more information, CLICK
HERE.
Note: This is
the last day to register for the live webinar, Selling University
IP In Cyberspace: Best Practices In Web-Based Marketing For Tech Transfer
Professionals, Thursday, November 20, 2008, 1:00-2:30 p.m. eastern.
For full details or to register, CLICK
HERE.
Top
Vanderbilt
TTO launches e-commerce site
Vanderbilt University
has launched a new e-commerce web site that allows users to purchase innovative
software, courseware and other digital products over the Internet. The
site features technologies developed exclusively at school, and is modeled
after similar "click-through" licensing and sales efforts developed
at the University of Washington and the University of Minnesota. The online
store will initially sell six university-developed products and will add
more soon, reports Peter Rousos, the Vanderbilt TTO's senior business
development executive. “After investigating similar web sites, we
have determined that we are one of the first universities to set up an
e-commerce site of this type,” said Rousos. “Hundreds of patents
have been issued to Vanderbilt and the university has entered into numerous
license agreements. We realized that a number of them were suitable for
online sales.”
Initial online product offerings include:
- “Play Nicely,”
a video series developed by a Vanderbilt pediatrician that offers advice
to parents, teachers and day-care instructors on how to deal with and
modify anti-social and violent behavior among preschoolers.
- Three products
designed to aid social scientists involved in observational studies,
two of which allow the researchers to replace traditional paper-and-pencil
methods for recording data with personal digital assistants, which link
to computers where the data can be analyzed. A third product collects
observational data from audio or video recordings.
- ListVUe is a software
tool that aids professionals responsible for determining whether the
export of certain sensitive devices and information is consistent with
the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Commerce Control List.
- OLINDA/EXM is
a software program for doctors and researchers who work with radiopharmaceuticals.
It calculates the radiation doses that various organs will receive when
different radioactive drugs are administered in given amounts.
Go to: VUCast.
To take a look at the new online store, go to Vanderbilt
Innovations.
Top
Yissum
licenses new compound aimed at treatment of inflammatory bowel disease
Yissum Ltd., the technology
transfer company of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, has signed a worldwide
exclusive license agreement with BioLineRx Ltd.to develop and commercialize
BL-5040, a new drug candidate for the treatment of inflammatory bowel
disease (IBD), including colitis and Crohn's disease. Rights to the compound
were also obtained from collaborating institution Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical
Center. BL-5040 utilizes a mutated version of leptin acting as an antagonist
with anti-inflammatory properties. Leptin is a hormone that plays an important
role in regulating inflammation immunity, as well as appetite control.
Animal studies have shown the drug can block inflammation without discernible
side-effects. "IBD belongs to a large family of diseases caused by
the unleashed activity of our own immune system. BL-5040 addresses the
very mechanism causing the disease and therefore has the potential to
be a breakthrough in the treatment of inflammatory diseases such as colitis
and Crohn's," stated Nava Swersky Sofer, Yissum's CEO. Approximately
1 in 500 people suffer from IBD. The condition has few specific treatments
available. Even so, sales of existing drugs that address IBD symptoms
are estimated at $1.8 billion, though none of the current treatments offer
complete relief, according to Yissum. Go to: BioSpace
Top
Princess
Sumaya calls for establishing 'Jordanian Innovation System'
At a tech transfer
conference in Amman, Jordan's Princess Samaya gave a royal push to that
country's fledgling research commercialization efforts, citing "an
urgent need now … to establish a Jordanian Innovation System."
Noting an abundance of research talent and infrastructure already in place,
she urged research leaders there to begin thinking big. “What we
want to hear is that the next Google, Cisco, Nokia and Samsung is coming
from this region -- Arab region -- and I have no doubts about the capabilities
of our talent and I believe this is inevitable. What we lack is a system
that puts things in the right order,” Princess Sumaya said, kicking
off the fourth annual Conference on Technology Commercialization, “Technology
Transfer Research and Development and IP Commercialization, Policies,
and Investment."
“Whether it
is a blue ocean strategy, diffusions of innovations, a Bayh-Dole Act,
intellectual property law enforcement, technology readiness level, or
others, the way ahead is clear and there is no better time than now to
move ahead," she emphasized. "The process should include the
entire community and specifically a myriad of research institutions, governments
and even large multinationals including economists, engineers, lawyers,
marketers and scientists.” Princess Sumaya singled out the Queen
Rania Center for Entrepreneurship (QRCE), part of El Hassan Science City,
as a promising model for nurturing entrepreneurism in the academic community
and fomenting a knowledge-based economy in Jordan.
Speaking at the same
conference, past AUTM president John Fraser, assistant VP for research
and economic development at Florida State University, called on Jordan
to benefit from the American experience in tech transfer and engage aggressively
in developing innovations from academia, spinning out companies from university
research, creating clear policies and procedures, standardizing IP agreements,
and establishing measurement systems to assess progress. Go to: ag-IP-news
and ag-IP-news
(2) .
Top
UT-San Antonio
launches niche incubator focused on cyber security
Incubators have become
a staple of university innovation and economic development efforts, but
a new facility at the University of Texas-San Antonio may signal a trend
toward incubators specializing in technology niches. The university has
launched a new incubator attached to its Institute for Cyber Security
and hopes to attract companies in that technology space to create a specialized
cluster of new start-ups. The first two tenants are Denim Labs, a spinoff
of the San Antonio-based Denim Group, and SafeMashups Inc., a university
spinoff. The incubator will supply start-ups with office space, staff
expertise, support with patent applications, and research and development
resources. In return, the schools gets an ownership stake in any new venture
created. The companies are expected to stay in the system for up to 18
months before spinning out on their own, said Ravi Ganesan, the Institute
for Cyber Security’s director of commercialization. Go to: My
San Antonio
Top
TTOs reap the
benefits of student-run investment funds
Some technology transfer
offices have an additional weapon in their arsenal to develop and commercialize
new technologies: technology-focused investment funds managed by entrepreneurial
MBA candidates. These funds typically provide limited pre-seed,
seed, and early-stage venture capital funding. Cornell University’s
Center for Technology Enterprise and Commercialization (CCTEC) and its
partnership with Big Red Ventures, an investment fund managed by Cornell
students, is a prime example. Alan Paau, MBA, PhD, CCTEC’s executive
director and vice provost for technology transfer and economic development,
says the benefits for TTOs can be significant, including:
- Access to capital.
A student-run fund can offer “relatively local, relatively friendly
access to capital for the TTO and the entrepreneurs who are trying to
commercialize a technology or get a business off the ground,”
says Steve Peck, a Cornell MBA candidate and Big Red’s CEO.
- Access to management
talent. “Interacting with Big Red Ventures gives us a conduit
to recruit management talent," Paau notes. The entrepreneurial
MBA student involved in the fund "may become the CEO or interim
CEO of a start-up,” he says.
- An enhanced entrepreneurial
culture. “The benefit to the university in helping to build an
entrepreneurial culture far exceeds the [value] of deals we do,”
stresses Tom Porter, managing director of the student-run Frankel Commercialization
Fund at the University of Michigan. “For each of the three deals
that the Frankel Fund actually has concluded, we probably spent a fair
amount of time on six to eight additional ideas. So a number of individuals
or groups have gotten significant exposure to our students and learned
what it takes to prepare an idea for an investment.”
A detailed article
on student-run investment funds, including specific steps and best practices
used in establishing one, appears in the November issue of Technology
Transfer Tactics. For subscription information, CLICK
HERE.
Top
Innovation
of the Week: Singapore institute licenses self-cleaning paint technology
The Singapore Institute
of Manufacturing Technology has licensed a patented nanotechnology designed
to create self-cleaning paints, which will get rid of accumulated dirt
on their own. The process created by the Institute, part of the Singapore
Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), produces a photo-catalytic
self-cleaning coating using titanium dioxide nanoparticles. Exposure of
the coating to UV light from a fluorescence source or the sun causes selective
oxidation at its surface, causing the self-cleaning effect. Exploit Technologies
-- A*STAR's commercialization arm -- will execute a license for the technology
with Singapore-based paint and chemical producer Haruna Pte Ltd. tomorrow
during Exploit's TechLicensing Fair 2008. In a release announcing completion
of the deal, Exploit officials say the cost saving potential of self-cleaning
coatings is immense, given that a typical commercial building has its
surface washed at least once a year. Other commercial structures such
as shopping malls may pay for cleanings as often as once a quarter, with
each wash costing between S$10,000 to S$50,000 (about $6,600 to $33,000
US), depending on the size of the building. Go to: Exploit
Technologies
Top
Learn how to
value your life sciences portfolio from discovery to start-up
The co-founders of
Avance, Basel GmbH, a life sciences valuation firm with offices in the
U.S. and Switzerland, have published a guide to life sciences valuation
that contains useful information for business development and licensing
professionals as well as TTOs, researchers and investors. In Valuation
in Life Sciences: A Practical Guide (Springer, 2008, 334 pp.), Boris Bogdan
and Ralph Villiger, explain how to translate characteristics of drug and
medical device development into valuation, and provide compelling industry
data. After examining the theory of valuation, including discounted cash
flow and real options models, the authors provide real-life examples to
demonstrate the process by which products and businesses can be valued
at all stages of their development, from projects and patents to licenses,
firms, and stocks. Bogdan and Villiger emphasize the practical use and
realistic outcomes of proposed methods by including many hands-on examples,
including some complex licensing and company structures.
Rudolf Gygax of Basel,
Switzerland-based Gygax and former managing director of Novartis Venture
Funds, previewed the book last fall in Nature Biotechnology [2007;Vol.
25(9)], writing, “Valuation in Life Sciences: A Practical Guide
opens up the black box and describes, step by step, a relatively simple
procedure for quantitative valuation in life sciences. The book guides
the reader through the recommended procedure of quantitative valuation
[and] is recommended to those who would like to acquire a profound understanding
of quantitative valuation and use a simple spreadsheet approach [to] their
own cases.” View the table of contents and read excerpts from the
book at: Valuation
in Life Sciences (via Google Book Search).
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