Boehringer Ingelheim has beaten market growth for the past nine years and may continue to outperform rivals. Part of the secret: its private status affords the group a long-term outlook that's far trickier for its public peers to embrace.

Each month, Start-Up presents a survey of technology transfer deals--licensing agreements between companies and universities or other research institutions--in the fields of life sciences, including pharmaceuticals, medical devices, in vitro diagnostics and research/analytical instrumentation and reagents.