|
In the last decade, many successful biomedical products have come from pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies that licensed early-stage technologies from NIH. Examples of these include Taxus Express® (paclitaxil-eluting coronary stent), Kepivance® (palifermin), and Velcade® (bortezomib).
To facilitate the continued development and success of NIH technologies, NIH is considering new and innovative ways to advance those inventions and foster their development. One of the significant challenges facing many licensees is finding suitable partners to share costs, infrastructure, and expertise as the research and development progresses to later stage clinical trials. NIH Small Business Innovation Research/Small Business Technology Transfer (SBIR/STTR) awardees face similar challenges as the pharmaceutical industry and even the venture capital (VC) community look increasingly for more developed technologies that entail less financial risk.
The NIH Office of Technology Transfer (OTT) and the SBIR/STTR Program Office have identified a way to assist NIH licensees and SBIR/STTR awardees in crossing the so-called “Valley of Death” - the costly divide between early-stage technologies and those representing more intermediate stage development eagerly sought by companies. OTT joined with the NIH SBIR/STTR Program Office to create a virtual space where NIH licensees and SBIR/STTR grantees can showcase their technologies and product development for an audience of potential strategic partners, investors, and licensees.
A pipeline of technologies available for partnering is on the OTT website at www.ott.nih.gov/p2p as an index searchable by category of technology and stage of development. Once a technology of interest is identified, the interested party is directed to the relevant licensee/awardee developing the technology. All submissions to the site by the licensees and grantees will be on a voluntary basis, with no endorsement or direct involvement from NIH in the partnering.
By providing this resource, NIH is advancing its own mission to further the development of its own licensed technologies or those for which it has provided SBIR/STTR funding. This website provides a new avenue by which NIH can facilitate more rapid development of products for the benefit of public health.
For additional information, please contact:
Bonny Harbinger, Ph.D., J.D.
Deputy Director
Office of Technology Transfer
National Institutes of Health
(301) 594-7700
(202) 250-9731 (cell)
harbinger@nih.gov
or
Jo Anne Goodnight
NIH SBIR/STTR Program Coordinator
Office of Extramural Research
National Institutes of Health
(301) 435-2688
jg128w@nih.gov
|
