University of Minnesota's Tech Transfer Problem
| April 10, 2008 |  View for printing |
The University of Minnesota needs more eggs ... and more baskets. With time running out on its royalty income stream, the U is scrambling to find the next Medtronic.
The anti-AIDS drug Ziagen has been good to the University of Minnesota. Maybe a little too good.
Since 1999, Ziagen, manufactured by GlaxoSmithKline, has generated $290 million in royalties for the university. But take away Ziagen and the university is left with very little else to show for its recent intellectual property investments.
The drug generates 95 percent of the school's annual licensing income. To make matters worse, Ziagen's patents expire overseas next year and in the United States in 2013. That leaves the U scrambling to replace the more than $50 million in annual royalty payments that Ziagen now generates.
"We are coming in at the bottom of the eighth," said Jay Schrankler, a former Honeywell executive who was recently tapped to lead the school's Office for Technology Commercialization. "We've got to work hard and fast to turn this around."
By THOMAS LEE, Star Tribune
Full Story: http://www.startribune.com/business/17284174.html
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