Companies

The NIH Office of Technology Transfer (OTT) is responsible for the patenting and licensing of technologies that have come out of the research conducted by intramural scientists from NIH and the FDA.  These functions are handled by Licensing and Patenting Managers who manage patent prosecution and negotiate license agreements.

 

For inventions desired by companies for commercial purposes and that are claimed in a patent or patent application, OTT utilizes a variety of agreements including commercial evaluation licenses, internal commercial use licenses, non-exclusive licenses, and exclusive licenses.

 

Additionally, biological materials licenses are available to allow a company to make, use and/or sell commercially useful biological materials which are not in the public domain and for which patent protection cannot or will not be obtained.  This type of license typically is nonexclusive and facilitates the commercial development of biological materials developed in NIH/FDA laboratories without requiring that patent protection be obtained for every material.

Licensing Technology from OTT

OTT has an extensive portfolio of technologies available for licensing across the spectrum of diseases and applications.  These include technologies for the prevention, treatment or diagnosis of acute, chronic, and rare diseases as well as a steadily increasing portfolio of medical devices.

OTT also manages a large license portfolio of unique biological materials, such as cell lines, monoclonal antibodies, and animal models, for use as research tools by the private sector.  Many of these research resources have had a significant impact on research and development and as such facilitated improvements in public health. 

More than 200 products, 25 of which are FDA approved, have reached the market containing inventive technologies licensed from the NIH or FDA.  These include the first vaccines for human papilloma virus and hepatitis A virus, three drugs for treating HIV, the first drug for treating multiple myeloma, some first-in-class in vivo diagnostics, and the most widely utilized drug-eluting cardiovascular stent. 

 

Cooperative Research and Development Agreements (CRADAs) at NIH

 

CRADAs provide an exciting opportunity for NIH investigators to join with their colleagues from industry and academia in the joint pursuit of common research goals.  NIH scientists can leverage their own research resources, as well as serve the larger mission of NIH, to facilitate the development and commercialization of biomedical pharmaceuticals and products.  Companies also can leverage their own R&D efforts while collaborating on state-of-the-art NIH research.

The purpose of a CRADA is to make government facilities, intellectual property, and expertise available for collaborative interactions to further the development of scientific and technological knowledge into useful, marketable products.  Each NIH institute has a Technology Development Coordinator who will assist the company and the NIH investigator in developing the proper documents and obtaining required approvals.