Recent Tech Transfer Deals (05/2000)
This article was originally published in Start Up
Executive Summary
Summarizing the month in tech transfer deals between Academia and Industry.
Tech Transfer Offices in This Month's Deals
Institution Phone Number
City of Hope National Medical Center (626) 256-8728
Friedrich-Alexander-University-Erlangen-Nurnberg (49)9 131-8527
Howard Hughes Medical Institute (301) 215-8500
Huntsman Cancer Institute (801) 581-7792
Johns Hopkins University (410) 516-8137
Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology (49) 7071-601350
Max Planck Institute for Immune Biology (49) 761 5108 0
National Cancer Institute (301) 496-0477
The Population Council (212) 339-0525
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital (901) 495-3300
University College London (44)1 713-8770
University of Heidelberg (49)0 62 2154 21 46
University of Iowa Research Foundation (319) 335-2119
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center (214) 648-1888
In VitroDiagnostics
Axys Pharmaceuticals Inc.
(S. San Francisco, CA)
PPGx Inc.
(Wilmington, NC)
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
(Memphis, TN)
Pharmacogenomics company PPGx, a JV set up by Axys Pharmaceuticalsand PPD Inc., signed an exclusive worldwide license with St. Jude Children's Research Hospital to test for TPMT (thiopurine S-methyl transferase) variants in pediatric leukemia patients. (Apr.)
St. Jude holds a patent for the mutations in the TPMT gene. PPGx will market and sell the TPMT test worldwide, and gets rights to develop and market the clinical diagnostic technologies, including reagents and kits. The test will allow physicians to screen for this genetic mutation, which can cause the patient to have severe side effects to certain anticancer drug treatments.
PE Corp.
(Norwalk, CT)
Celera Genomics Group
(Rockville, MD)
City of Hope National Medical Center
(Duarte, CA)
Genomics pioneer Celerawill work with National Cancer Institute-designated cancer research and treatment center, City of Hope, to investigate genetic polymorphisms linked with breast cancer. (Mar.)
Celera gets rights to use all information generated from the collaboration in its database products, and the partners will jointly own intellectual property. The deal combines City of Hope's clinical genetics approach and strength in identifying disease-related polymorphisms, with Celera's DNA sequence and single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) databases. SNPs are single letter variations within a person's DNA sequence that can make one more susceptible to disease. The SNPs being provided to the City of Hope are found within one of the key genes encoding the estrogen receptor, known to play a major role in both causing and treating breast cancer and other diseases.
Pharmaceuticals
Akorn Inc.
(Buffalo Grove, IL)
Johns Hopkins University
(Baltimore, MD)
Akorn(specialty pharmaceuticals and ophthalmic products) licensed exclusive worldwide rights to two patents from Johns Hopkins University's applied physics laboratory. The intellectual property relates to the methodology and instrumentation required for a particular method of treating macular degeneration. (May)
Under terms of the agreement, which lasts for the life of the patents, Akorn will pay the university up-front fees, milestones, and royalties on sales of resulting products. The company plans to develop dye-enhanced photocoagulation treatments for occult and classic versions of age-related macular degeneration, for which it expects to file an IND application by the end of June.
Artemis Pharmaceuticals GMBH
(Koeln, Germany)
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
(Chevy Chase, MD)
Max Planck Institutes
(Munchen, Germany)
Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology
(Tubingen, Germany)
Max Planck Institute for Immune Biology
(Freiburg, Germany)
University College London
(London, UK)
University of Heidelberg
(Heidelberg, Germany)
Artemis(genomics, bioinformatics) and several global research institutions have formed what Artemis claims is the largest international zebrafish genetic screen project ever. The company will work with Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology (Tuebingen, Germany), Max Planck Institute for Immune Biology (Freiberg, Germany), University of Heidelberg, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and University College London in a year-long program called the Tuebingen 2000 Screen. (Apr.)
Artemis gets exclusive marketing rights to any discoveries the project yields. The goal of Tuebingen 2000 is to use the zebrafish—very similar in physiology and biochemistry to humans—as a genetic model to study human biology. Zebrafish have transparent larvae that develop outside of the mother's body, allowing researchers to very easily observe certain traits such as angiogenesis. The collaborators will induce random mutations into the zebrafish; they will then use the genes that are cloned from the mutated fish in drug discovery research for cancer, cardiovascular disease, neurodegenerative, cartilage, and bone-related diseases. The genes will be used as screening targets to find small-molecule drugs; protein products of the genes could be used in therapeutics. Professor Christiane Nuesslein-Volhard, the director of the Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology, developed the methodology for large-scale functional analysis of genes in zebrafish.
Biacore International AB
(Uppsala, Sweden)
University of Utah
(Salt Lake City, UT)
Huntsman Cancer Institute
(Salt Lake City, UT)
The Huntsman Cancer Instituteat the University of Utah, under the direction of biomolecular interaction analyst David Myszka, has agreed to evaluate Biocore International's (affinity-based biosensor technology) prototype high-throughput technology for drug discovery and development, specifically for its capability in small-molecule drug binding analysis. (Apr.)
Bioacore is developing the technology as a time and cost reduction process that will offer improved data for drug lead decisions in preclinical evaluation and in drug lead identification, optimization, and characterization. Specifically Myszka's team will evaluate the technology's performance in analyzing the binding of small molecules to human serum albumin and for certain ADME (absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion) indications.
Idec Pharmaceuticals Corp.
(San Diego, CA)
National Institutes of Health
(Rockville, MD)
National Cancer Institute
(Bethesda, MD)
The National Cancer Institutegranted Idec Pharmaceuticals (antibody products for cancer therapy) an exclusive worldwide license to its Page-4 plasmid DNA and Page-4 protein to develop and market a vaccine for the treatment of prostate cancer. (Apr.)
Idec's scientists will combine its Provaxadjuvant technology with the Page-4 antigen to produce the vaccine. The American Cancer Society estimates that there could be 180k new cases of prostate cancer in the coming year with about 32k annual deaths. Idec's two other cancer products are monoclonal antibodies that bind to targeted immune cells in the patient's blood or lymphatic systems, for the treatment of B-cell non-Hodgkins lymphoma.
Idec Pharmaceuticals Corp.
(San Diego, CA)
University of Iowa
(Iowa City, IA)
University of Iowa Research Foundation
(Iowa City, IA)
Idec Pharmaceuticalsgets an exclusive worldwide license from the University of Iowa Research Foundation to develop 5E10, a prostate-specific, surface-reactive monoclonal antibody, as a prostate cancer immunotherapy. (Apr.)
The company expects to radiolabel, with the radioisotope Yttrium 90, an engineered form of the 5E10 antibody to target specific prostate cancer cells. Idec is also developing immunotherapeutics for the treatment of prostate cancer with the National Cancer Institute.
Idun Pharmaceuticals Inc.
(La Jolla, CA)
University of Texas
(Houston, TX)
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
(Dallas, TX)
Idun Pharmaceuticals(therapeutics focusing on the control of apoptosis) has exclusively licensed rights to the Apaf-1 gene from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center to develop as a therapeutic target for inhibiting the initiation of apoptosis (controlled cell death). (Apr.)
Since apoptosis is a genetically programmed process in which human cells die in response to disease or aging, any drug that inhibits the process could be successful in treating diseases such as cancer, stroke, and cardiovascular. The Apaf-1 gene, identified by Xiadon Wang and colleagues at UT Southwestern as a key regulator in the initiation of apoptosis, activates caspase-3 (a class of toxic proteases) and encodes a protein that is a major player in triggering an irreversible phase of the process. Idun will add the gene license to its existing patent portfolio of 58 issued and 165 pending relating to 23 genes involved in apoptosis.
MediGene AG
(Planegg/Martinsried, Germany)
Friedrich-Alexander-University-Erlangen-Nurnberg
(Erlangen, Germany)
MediGene(therapeutics for cancer and cardiovascular disease) has received patent rights to 3-D matrix technology, developed by Professor Thomas Eschenhagen at the Friedrich-Alexander-University-Erlangen-Nurnberg, which validates the biological role of a gene and screens drugs in a life-like situation. The company will make an up-front payment and provide license fees. (Apr.)
The matrix technology grows cells in an environment that encourages natural contact between cells and can be stretched, letting muscle cells generate a healthy build up and giving data similar to that of animal models. The technology, which produces small tissues, can also function as a screening assay to observe how specific compounds interact with cells. So far it has created beating heart cells which, when stretched, simulate the stressed heart, enabling effects of stimuli to be measured. MediGene officials believe that the new technology complements its Integrated Target Definition (ITD) technology which identifies, analyzes, and validates targeted genes to determine potential pharmaceuticals and provides a bridge between cellular and animal models.
Orion Corp.
(Espoo, Finland)
Orion Pharma International
(Espoo, Finland)
The Population Council
(New York, NY)
The international non-profit Population Councilis granting Orion Pharma (research-oriented division of Finnish drug company Orion Group) exclusive worldwide rights to develop, make, and market Nestorone, a new synthetic progestin, as hormone replacement therapy in transdermal forms other than a patch. (Apr.)
Orion's rights include sublicensing. The company has been studying Nestoronefor several years and has brought it to the proof-of-concept stage, demonstrating that it penetrates the skin (most progestins cannot), is chemically effective, and is well-tolerated. It is continuing Phase II development of a gel preparation that contains Nestorone along with estrogen, and plans to register it in the US and other countries. The Population Council licensed North American rights to patch-delivered Nestorone to Sano (now part of Elan) in 1997. There is no gel-delivered estrogen/progestin combination product on the market yet. Hormone replacement therapy is a core business for Orion, which has done extensive original research and has five other products in its HRT portfolio.
Protarga Inc.
(Conshohocken, PA)
National Institutes of Health
(Rockville, MD)
National Cancer Institute
(Bethesda, MD)
Protarga, a company focused on linking drug agents to natural fatty acids, will apply its Targaceuticaldrug targeting technology in a cooperative research and development agreement (CRADA) deal to develop anticancer therapies with the National Cancer Institute. (Apr.)
NCI will supply anticancer agents from its compound library and Protarga will chemically link these agents to its fatty acid vectors. NCI will conduct preclinical trials and Protarga gets exclusive rights to patents resulting from the work. The Targaceuticalfatty acid vector technology may help increase the effectiveness of the anticancer compound by increasing the quantity of the drug that reaches the tumor cells, while at the same time reducing toxic side effects. Protarga holds 11 US patents covering Targaceutical, and has a pipeline of products in development to treat cancer, neurological disorders, and infectious disease.