Recent Tech Transfer Deals (10/1999)

Summarizing the month in tech transfer deals between Academia and Industry.

Tech Transfer Offices in This Month's Deals

Institution Phone Number

Columbia University [phone]

MD Anderson Cancer Center [phone]

New York Blood Center [phone]

Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service (44) 131 536 5700

University of California, Irvine [phone]

University of Iowa Cancer Center [phone]

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill [phone]

University of Vermont [phone]

Washington State University [phone]

ChromaVision Medical Systems Inc. (San Juan Capistrano, CA)

University of Vermont (Burlington, VT)

ChromaVision Medical Systems(cellular imaging systems) will collaborate with the University of Vermont to develop a new breast cancer detection application for ChromaVision's Automated Cellular Imaging System, a diagnostic system that applies color-based imaging and automated microscopy technology to cell-based diagnostics. (Sep.)

The company, working with the university's Dr. David Krag, hopes to perfect a method for using its ACISsystem to accurately identify the sentinel lymph nodes—the first nodes to absorb a tumor's cancerous cells—using its FDA-approved immunohistochemical staining method in conjunction with Krag's radioactively guided sentinel lymph node mapping technology. Traditional axillary lymph node dissection involves a highly invasive surgical procedure with potentially serious side effects. The identification and biopsy of the sentinel lymph nodes serves as a highly predictive and less invasive tool for the oncologist in predicting breast cancer. ChromaVision is also involved in a collaboration with Dako to develop a test for breast cancer.

Photogen Technologies Inc. (Knoxville, TN)

Photogen Biotechnologies Inc. (Knoxville, TN)

University of Iowa (Iowa City, IA)

University of Iowa Cancer Center(Iowa City, IA)

Photogen Technologies(developing photodynamic-based therapeutic and diagnostic products) signed an option agreement with Dr. Mary J. C. Hendrix of the University of Iowa Cancer Center to form a new joint venture company that will be named Photogen Biotechnologies. (Sep.)

Photogen will provide the JV with $3mm, get an 85% stake, and will name two of three members to its board. The new company will develop cancer diagnostics, therapeutics, and vaccines based on Dr. Hendrix's research, including recent discoveries on the way some aggressive cancers progress by generating connections to the body's blood supply. This research may provide an alternative explanation to current theories of angiogenesis, the method that tumors use to build external blood vessels, and implies a new set of genes that could be the basis for new cancer treatments. Photogen said the JV could also generate some revenues through the out-licensing of methods to improve vaccine manufacturing.

Atairgin Technologies Inc. (Irvine, CA)

University of Texas (Houston, TX)

MD Anderson Cancer Center(Houston, TX)

Atairgin Technologies(reproductive cancer diagnostics and therapeutics) will work with the MD Anderson Cancer Center at the University of Texas on R&D of a potential ovarian cancer therapeutic. (Aug.)

The partners will use Atairgin's lysophospholipids platform technology in their discovery efforts. Atairgin's research suggests that there are high levels of certain bioactive lipid regulators (lysophospholipids) in abnormal tissue; it has identified compounds that may inhibit the activity of certain bioactive lipid agents, and may be used to stop abnormal cell growth. Atairgin and MD Anderson signed a deal two years ago to develop diagnostic tools for ovarian and other gynecological cancers.

Atairgin Technologies Inc. (Irvine, CA)

Washington State University (Pullman, WA)

Atairgin Technologies(reproductive cancer diagnostics and therapeutics) and Washington State University will work together to expand Atairgin's platform technology to include fertility and reproductive cancer therapeutics. (Sep.)

The company will conduct research with Michael K. Skinner, PhD, co-founder of Atairgin and director at the Center for Reproductive Biologyat Washington State and the University of Idaho. Atairgin's bioactive lipid research has shown that certain lipid regulators, or lysophospholipids, may be very high in abnormal tissues and may be used as a tumor marker to detect early-stage ovarian, breast, and other cancers. The company has isolated compounds that appear to inhibit the activity of bioactive lipid agents, and believes those compounds could potentially be used in therapeutics to stop abnormal cell growth.

Incara Pharmaceuticals Corp. (Research Triangle Park, NC)

Renaissance Cell Technologies Inc.

University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill, NC)

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill(Chapel Hill, NC)

Incara Pharmaceuticals' subsidiary Renaissance Cell Technologieslicensed from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine exclusive worldwide rights to patent applications and related technologies for isolating and purifying human liver progenitor cells. (Aug.)

As liver progenitor cells are capable of growing into adult liver tissue, Incara will develop an intravenous gene therapy procedure that would infuse the cells directly into patients. This process, it says, would not only be less invasive, but would also be less costly than a liver transplant, presently the only cure available to sufferers of diseases such as cirrhosis and some inherited metabolic deficiencies. The technology is an outgrowth of the achievements of the university's professor Lola M. Reid, PhD, whose work in liver progenitor cells Renaissance has been supporting. Clinical trials in adults and in infants who are too young to sustain a transplant could begin with the next year and a half.

MedImmune Inc. (Gaithersburg, MD)

Columbia University (New York, NY)

MedImmune(immune disorders, infectious disease, and cancer therapeutics) licensed exclusive worldwide rights to a catalytic antibody, MAb 15A10, which shows promise for treating cocaine addiction and overdose, from Columbia University. MedImmune paid Columbia a license fee, and will pay milestones and sales royalties upon commercialization. (Sep.)

Catalytic antibodies bind to a target and then degrade it. Columbia researchers said that in in vitro studies MAb 15A10 binds to cocaine, degrades it, and then releases it, thus freeing the antibody to attach to another molecule. In animal studies it has blocked the effect of cocaine and prevented seizures and sudden death. There are an estimated two million cocaine addicts and four million regular users in the US, and in 1998 there were about 150,000 cocaine-related emergency room admissions. Ixyswill optimize the MAb, through an alliance with MedImmune signed last February.

NeoTherapeutics Inc. (Irvine, CA)

University of California (Oakland, CA)

University of California, Irvine (Irvine, CA)

NeoTherapeutics(neurological drugs; based in Irvine, CA) will work with UC Irvine to continue research on neurotransmitters and their receptors conducted by UCI scientists. NeoTherapeutics will provide $900k in R&D support over three years, and gets an option for exclusive rights to develop drugs based on the team's findings. (Sep.)

If it exercises its option, NeoTherapeutics will pay $1.1mm more. It also has the right to sign co-development agreements with other companies. The UCI researchers, led by Dr. Olivier Civelli, focus on matching neurotransmitters with their receptors to discover their effects in physiological functions, and thus provide new targets for therapeutics. Civelli recently discovered a receptor that binds to melatonin-concentrating hormone, which regulates eating behavior. This receptor is included in the alliance.

Novartis AG (Basel, Switzerland)

VitaResc Biotech AG (Martinsried, Germany)

Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service (Edinburgh, Scotland, UK)

VitaResc Biotech AG(founded March 1999; developing products to treat critically ill patients) licensed exclusive worldwide rights) from the Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service (SIRS) to a patented monoclonal antibody that shows promise in treating systemic inflammatory response syndrome. (Oct.)

The antibody was discovered through a research collaboration between SNBTS and Sandoz (now Novartis), and the latter has a right of first negotiation to re-enter the development process after VitaResc reaches certain milestones. The antibody is an antilipopolysaccharide, and the company says it is highly cross-reactive and a potent neutralizer of gram negative bacteria endotoxins, the major cause of SIRS. VitaResc plans to begin clinical trials in late 2000. It has another SIRS compound that will soon enter Phase III trials for treating nitric oxide induced shock, which it got earlier this year through its acquisition of Apex Biosciences.

Quark Biotech Inc. (San Ramon, CA)

New York Blood Center (New York, NY)

Pathology-specific gene products company Quark Biotechand the New York Blood Center will work together to identify the genes implicated in hemopoietic stem cell differentiation (when stem cells become blood cells). (Aug.)

QB will apply its custom-designed microarray cDNA chips and bioinformatics systems to NYBC biologist Dr. Jan Visser's purified stem cell subpopulations, to perform differential expression profiling. The company is seeking genes and proteins, such as growth factors and receptors, that are expressed during stem cell differentiation for use in drug discovery and development. It is particularly interested in finding drug candidates in the areas of cancer, autoimmune disease, and primary and acquired bone marrow failure syndromes. QB gets exclusive worldwide rights to any discovered genes and gene products, plus a right of first negotiation for fifteen additional genes found by Dr. Visser's research group; and will pay royalties on net sales of resulting products.