Agricultural Biotechnology Strategies for National Competitiveness (1987) / Chapter Skim
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5. Technology Transfer
5. Technology Transfer
Pages 108-144
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From page 108... ...
This chapter examines several of the mechanisms that facilitate the exchange of information in technology transfer and recent developments in relationships among universities, industries, and government. It also looks at how patent policies are changing patterns of technology transfer in agriculture.
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From page 109... ...
New traits from the publicly supported breeding programs were made openly available to commercial breeders for seed production. Recently, public funding for this basic breeding work has been reduced and private companies have become active.
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From page 110... ...
The Small Business Innovation Development Act strengthened the role of small, innovative firms in federally funded R&D by requiring federal agencies with R&D budgets of $100 million or more to set aside a percentage of their funds to support R&D done by small businesses. Universities as well as state and federal agencies are expanding their relationships with the private sector as they explore ways to increase scientific communication and the flow of technology.
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From page 111... ...
The following section describes some of these relationships between university and government research and industrial development in agricultural biotechnology. Research Relationships in Technology Transfer With the growth of biotechnology programs in the early 1980s, universities and industry competed for scientists with skills in biotechnology research.
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From page 112... ...
This exchange of information between academic scientists focusing on basic research and industrial scientists concerned with product development is a major means of technology transfer. Consultancies are increasingly common, particularly in biotechnology, as start-up companies and established chemical and drug houses mount research programs in this area.
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From page 113... ...
Affiliate programs benefit universities by fostering consulting arrangements and research contracts and by teaching universities about the needs, especially student training needs, of industrial research laboratories. In some cases they also provide significant funding for stipends and the enhancement or expansion of graduate programs.
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From page 114... ...
Such large grants promote multidisciplinary work within departments, a necessary component of biotechnology research. These arrangements involve more than a simple transfer of funds: The company and the university must define their roles in the R&D efforts.
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From page 115... ...
This status provided additional financial support. Annual support through the program amounted to 10-15 percent of the total investment in biotechnology research at Cornell, which was approximately $20 million in 1985.
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From page 116... ...
The 15-year agreement provides $2 million a year for basic biotechnology research in plant science, with annual increases for a total of $50 million. PPG has put up an additional $10 million for a new building, which belongs to Scripps and houses more than 100 researchers.
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From page 117... ...
The PPG/Scripps arrangement parallels one established in 1982 between Johnson & Johnson and the Scripps Department of Molecular Biology for health-related research. MICHIGAN BIOTECHNOLOGY INSTITUTE The Michigan Biotechnology Institute (MBl)
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From page 118... ...
Current prograrns include the Monoclonal Lymphocyte Technology Center, the Biomolecular Engineering and Materials Application Center, the Bioelectronics Advisory Committee, the Bioprocess Engineering Feasibility Study Committee, Visiting Industrial Scientists and Engineers at North Carolina Universities, the Marine Biotechnology Advisory Committee, the Program in Public Information and Education on Biotechnology, and the Triangle Universities Consortium for Research and Education in Plant Molecular Biology. In FY85-86, the Competitive Grants Program awarded $833,000 to 44 projects, and the Industrial and University Development Grants Program awarded $3.8 million for various biotechnology activities, research, and development statewide.
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From page 119... ...
Thus, the many programs at the center, the Waksman Institute, and the uMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School form a concentration of biotechnology research in New Jersey. Plans for an Advanced Technology Center for Molecular Biology in Agriculture are being explored.
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From page 120... ...
A mandate of the Plant Gene Expression Center is to strengthen the research relationships among ARS, university, and other scientists pursuing new technologies to improve crop plants. This center is a federally funded research facility that will have a core scientific staff of 10 senior researchers.
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From page 121... ...
Government involvement provides a center of activity, which attracts industrial development and promotes economic growth, which in turn benefits the entire nation.
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From page 122... ...
These risks include constraints on the communication of research, bypassing peer review of grants (Omenn, 1982a) , tracking of students onto industrially oriented projects, faculty conflicts of interest, and some tendency of industry to award short-term grants or to favor applied over basic research goals (Blumenthal et al., 1986~.
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From page 123... ...
For instance, industry funds only 10 percent of both the Cornell and Scripps biotechnology programs. Therefore, industry cannot be expected to compensate for any reduction in federal funding.
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From page 124... ...
All universities are authorized to confer exclusive licenses to companies under the Patent Act (P.~.
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From page 125... ...
. Although full title to federally funded inventions cannot be transferred to commercial firms, public policy can encourage land-grant universities to confer exclusive licenses to private companies able to translate their discoveries into commercial products.
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From page 126... ...
Regulation and Field Testing Progress toward field and environmental testing of genetically engineered products has been extremely slow, having relied on public agencies in their traditional research and regulatory capacity. The public debate over regulating field testing research of recombinant organisms has been going on for more than 3 years.
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From page 127... ...
Several companies have had their field testing plans delayed for a year or more, as the federal government attempts to decide which agencies are to handle field testing requests and what regulatory review procedures should be used. These delays have resulted in corresponding delays in acquiring research information from field and environmental testing, as well as in the potential introduction of beneficial products for agriculture.
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From page 128... ...
Initially and temporarily, the public sector should identify and establish a limited number of publicly owned, geographically isolated, and professionally managed test sites that fully meet safety needs for initial field and environmental testing. This enhanced public role in the mid-1980s is as necessary and appropriate as the Recombinant DNA Advisory Committee was when it was formed in the mid-1970s and still is.
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From page 129... ...
To summarize, this proposed role uses existing public sites for field research and provides public professional control of research monitoring in a manner analogous to what the NTH's Recombinant DNA Advisory Committee accomplished for laboratory research. Thus, society would be protected by the collective judgment of the oversight committee, and concerns about direct private sector field research would be minimized.
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From page 130... ...
Within the private sector, technology transfer is a straightforward matter: Once an inventor is granted patent protection, he or she will be sufficiently motivated by the desire for profits to seek commercial outlets for the invention. The public sector, however, is usually not in a position to develop and commercialize its own research.
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From page 131... ...
96-480) and the Federal Technology Transfer Act of 1986 (P.~.
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From page 132... ...
Now inventions resulting from federally funded research with a cooperating private institution may, in general, be patented and an exclusive license granted by that institution. Recent levels of patenting by government agencies are shown in Table 5-2.
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From page 133... ...
Nonexclusive licenses are granted in cases in which access to a technology by many competing firms would not discourage commercialization. Table 5-3 shows the levels of licensing by NTIS since FY82 and projects them to 1990.
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From page 135... ...
WISCONSIN ALUMNI RESEARCH FOUNDATION In 1925, nine alumni of the University of Wisconsin formed the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF)
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From page 136... ...
Its goals are to obtain patents on university inventions, license those inventions, and create a structure for interaction with the private sector that will feed money back into the university. The Science and Technology Development Office has a policy committee that handles conflict of interest questions and an administrative committee that examines research proposals from a business standpoint.
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From page 137... ...
As Table 5-3 shows, government revenues from the NTIS program are expected to grow from $868,000 in FY84 to $4 million in FY90. (This estimate may prove low, given the Federal Technology Transfer Act of 1986.)
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From page 138... ...
This example, outstanding in terms of its financial success, indicates the payoff potential of biotechnology patents. Biotechnology Patenting Activity Approximately 2 percent of recently granted U.S.
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From page 139... ...
. Thus, biotechnology patents have become a significant part of patenting activity at universities.
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From page 140... ...
The Federal Technology Transfer Act of 1986 should stimulate patenting and licensing hv federal laboratories. v O ~ Limitations of patenting and licensing must not be forgotten, however.
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From page 141... ...
Industry's patent experience might offer the public sector a better model. Public policy issues pertinent to biotechnology patents center around two main issues: uncertainty about the scope of protection provided by patents and the government's role in generating research results.
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From page 142... ...
The USDA, SAESs, and CES should emulate other agencies such as NIH and NBS in forming innovative affiliations to increase technology transfer. Cooperative Extension Service The CES should focus some of its efforts on the transfer of biotechnology research that will prove adaptable and profitable to the agricultural community.
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From page 143... ...
The FoocI and Drug Administration, USDA, and EPA must formulate, publish, and implement a research and regulatory program that is based on sound scientific principles. Initially, 5-10 selected, aIready-existing publicly owned field stations should be available as an option for environmental release testing, professionally managed by an oversight committee of public sector scientists with expertise in agronomy, ecology, plant pathology, entomology, microbiology, molecular biosciences, and public health.
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From page 144... ...
We must encourage technology transfer through government-university-industry relationships and patenting activities. And we must formulate workable guidelines and procedures for environmental testing of biotechnology products.
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