Cincinnati Children's Forms Board of Experts To Help Commercialize Technology
Thursday, July 03, 2003CINCINNATI -- The Office of Intellectual Property and Venture Development at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center has created a Technology Validation Advisory Board (TVAB) to help commercialize biomedical technologies developed at Cincinnati Children's.
The TVAB is composed of venture capitalists, industry leaders and entrepreneurs with experience in commercializing early stage biomedical technologies. Members will give input to the Office of Intellectual Property and Venture Development and to investigators at Cincinnati Children's on which technologies and discoveries have the greatest commercial value.
When Cincinnati Children's commercializes technology that is attractive to the marketplace, the licensing revenue received in return is dedicated to additional research and technology development within the institution. This ultimately results in the improvement of child health.
"The typical, newly patented invention that comes out of our labs is very early stage," says Joseph D. Fondacaro, PhD, director of the Office of Intellectual Property and Venture Development. "Potential commercial partners, whether they are entrepreneurs looking to start a new company or existing life sciences companies, want technology that is further developed and thus less risky. In many cases, it may take only a few months and a modest sum of money to further develop the technology to the point where it is more attractive to the marketplace. When Cincinnati Children's makes the investment in further developing our technologies, we can have confidence that the end result will be a technology that we can license."
The primary role of the Office of Intellectual Property and Venture Development is to protect, manage and license the intellectual property created within Cincinnati Children's. These inventions include early stage therapeutics, medical devices, diagnostics and clinical software applications.
"The mission of Cincinnati Children's is to improve child health," says Thomas F. Boat, MD, director of the Cincinnati Children's Research Foundation. "This process of developing our innovations and technologies will better enable us to fulfill that mission. We're excited about the quality of the board that we've assembled to assist us."
Members of the board include: Stephen Baker, Fort Washington Capital Partners, Cincinnati; Mark Butterworth, SciTech, Columbus; Paul Cashen, Emerging Concepts, Inc., Cincinnati; Cameron Durrant, PediaMed Pharmaceuticals, Florence, KY; Sid Goldstein, Prasco, LLC, Cincinnati; Rich Grant, E-Prime LLC, Cincinnati; Don Harrison, University of Cincinnati; Don Lucas, Procter & Gamble Pharmaceuticals, Cincinnati; John McIlwraith, Blue Chip Venture Co., Cincinnati; John Rice, Triathlon Medical Ventures, Cincinnati; Andy Schwab, 5AM Ventures, Menlo Park, CA; H. Scott Silverman, Oxford Bioscience Partners, Westport, CT; Ruth Sutherland, BTG plc, London, England; and Teri Willey, Arch Development Partners, Chicago.
"Cincinnati Children's is a high-impact catalyst for the growth of the life-sciences industry in Greater Cincinnati," says Johnathan Holifield, executive director of CincyTechUSA. "By attracting key resources from beyond Cincinnati, the TVAB has added value to our entire region. Increased licensing activity by Cincinnati Children's adds the type of high-end, biotech-related jobs that the community craves."
Although many universities and nonprofit research institutions are trying to further develop technologies to make them increasingly attractive to potential licensees, Cincinnati Children's approach of forming a validation advisory board is one of the first of its kind in this part of the country. "Cincinnati Children's is saying that it is ready to be a major player -- on a national level," says John Rice, managing partner of Triathlon Medical Ventures, a Cincinnati-based venture capital fund, and a member of the TVAB. "The universities and research institutions across the country that are serious about commercializing technology are all moving in this direction."
The TVAB will meet every other month to assess technologies developed by Cincinnati Children's. "Ultimately, decisions about developing and licensing the technologies will rest with Cincinnati Children's, but the role of the TVAB in understanding the marketplace interests will be extremely valuable," says Dr. Fondacaro.
Contact Information
Jim Feuer, 513-636-4656,
jim.feuer@cchmc.org
