As Big Pharmas seek to hedge their development risk and look for more externally sourced programs, partnerships with academic institutions are one of the many ingredients in the R&D secret sauce. Such deals aren't the academic-industry tie-ups of yore-where Big Pharma sought small money partnerships without giving a lot back to their academic partners. Business development execs view them as yet another way to access critically important innovation.

Our monthly update on 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.

With most Big Pharmas facing a steep and costly patent chasm and in-house R&D failing to produce the necessary bridge to patent-challenged franchises, companies have been forced to look for new sources of innovation beyond traditional in-licensing and acquisition. As a result, some drugmakers are looking with renewed interest at the innovation housed in universities. The tie-up between Johnson & Johnson and Vanderbilt University is just the latest example of this important trend.