Through the support of Tech Launch Arizona, founded to lead UA invention and commercialization activities, researchers disclose new inventions, patents are filed, products are licensed and companies are established by the hundreds each year. (Photo: Ariel da Sliva Parreira)
University Relations – Communications | November 12, 2014
A potentially curative drug for valley fever, nikkomycin Z (NikZ), has been given a boost in its development by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. It has been designated as a qualifying infectious disease product
It was one year ago that University of Arizona President Ann Weaver Hartpresented “Never Settle,” the UA’s strategic plan, to the Arizona Board of Regents.One important priority of the plan is the expansion of research and discovery to ensure the institution’s future success and also to benefit communities through the creation of new knowledge and the expansion of inventions taken to market.To support that charge, and to build a dynamic “commercialization ecosystem” throughout campus, the UA has revised its intellectual property policy and its promotion and tenure policy to enhance commercialization activities while also ensuring that the University is more inclusive about the type of scholarship that is rewarded.
“Our researchers continue to come up with innovative and amazing ideas and technologies. The translation and commercialization assistance that we can provide to realize that research into marketable solutions fits very well with the Never Settle plan,” said Kimberly Andrews Espy, the UA’s senior vice president of research. “These revisions will provide even more incentive for our researchers to continue to explore the realm of what’s possible.”
Teleost Biopharmaceutical, a company based on an invention developed at the UA, is moving its headquarters from Colorado to Tucson to position the company to effectively partner long-term with the original UA inventors. (Photo: Paul Tumarkin, Tech Launch Arizona)
Through Never Settle and the mission of Tech Launch Arizona, which are more closely aligned with the approval of these policies, such activities will not merely continue but grow, said David Allen, TLA’s vice president. “The University is undergoing an important transformation in this arena,” Allen said.The promotion and tenure policy was revised to consider not merely commercialization but other technology transfer activities as part of the tenure process.”I’m very enthusiastic about departments having the option to include items like patents and inventions in the broad range of possible scholarly activity that they will consider for promotion and tenure,” said UA Provost Andrew Comrie. “It is important for the UA to be inclusive and progressive in the types of scholarship that advance the institution.”
A technology developed at the UA offers an innovative way to grow vascularized human tissue – an advance that has applications in testing potential drug therapies and the development of treatments for cardiovascular disease. (Photo: Angiomics Inc.)
Additionally, the Commercialization Advisory Network was launched. The network now has upward of 800 experienced domain experts, entrepreneurs, investors and others to help researchers identify and act on potential impacts of their inventions.
One recent example is an innovative way to grow vascularized human tissue — an advance that has applications in testing potential drug therapies and the development of treatments for cardiovascular disease — which recently was licensed and commercialized. TLA facilitated the development of the exclusive license agreement between the UA and Angiomics Inc., which is based in Louisville, Kentucky.
Another example: A peptide that helps people produce photo-protective melanin to prevent skin cancers was developed by UA Regents’ Professor Emeritus of Chemistry and Biochemistry Victor J. Hruby and the Peptide Group in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry. In September, the UA licensed the invention to Teleost Biopharmaceutical, a company based on the invention, which is now moving its headquarters from Colorado to Tucson to partner long-term with the original UA inventors.
Such activities also benefit communities around the state.
Flagstaff-based Senestech and SinfoníaRx in Tucson are growing their operations in Arizona, creating high-tech, high-wage jobs. SinfoníaRx — a provider of personalized medication management, in only its second year of operation — is hiring graduates from the UA College of Pharmacy, keeping talent in Tucson.
To further accelerate growth, TLA launched the Catapult Corporation, also called “Cat Corp,” to provide early-stage capital to the most promising startup companies emerging from UA researchers. Tucson’s Thomas R. Brown Foundations pledged to match up to $2.5 million raised to initiate the donor-funded organization.
In the coming year, the Arizona Board of Regents has set goals for TLA that include delivering 190 invention disclosures, 17 patents and 10 new companies.
“In almost all cases, faculty want impact, and often that comes in the form of adding to a body of knowledge,” Allen said.
“We need to move that knowledge forward into the marketplace. It has to be protected. For a licensee to invest tens to hundreds of millions, they need protected IP in order to obtain a return on their investments.”
Lynn Nadel, Regents’ Professor of Psychology and Cognitive Science and chairman of the Faculty Senate, said the policy improvements would have a long-term tangible impact.
“Whether or not our move contributes to a broad culture change is hard to predict,” Nadel said, “but it should change the culture at the UA in positive ways, better connecting what we do to what the public needs.”
CONTACTS
Paul Tumarkin
Tech Launch Arizona
520-626-8770
Source: http://uanews.org/story/moving-ideas-to-market-becomes-the-ua-way