Demystifying Licensing and Technology Transfer in Life Sciences
Pooja Bhatia shares her insights on the role of technology transfer in supporting biotech innovation and examine best practices for Technology Transfer Offices in universities and research institutes .
The life sciences sector relies heavily on the knowledge exchange across diverse sectors . Central to this exchange is technology transfer which act as bridges between academia and industry through different mechanisms such as licensing , open challenges , sponsored research , joint venture etc . These mechanisms not only accelerate the translation of ideas into real-world applications but also stimulate economic growth and contribute to improving public health .
Licensing in the Life Sciences : Facilitating Innovation
Licensing is a process of allowing one party ( the licensee ) to use , modify , or commercialize intellectual property ( IP ) owned by another party ( the licensor ) under specified terms and conditions . In the life sciences , licensing is pivotal in translating research findings into tangible products such as drugs , diagnostics , medical devices , and therapies that can benefit public health . Take , for example , the development of COVID- 19 vaccines . Bharat Biotech ’ s Covaxin was developed using the SARS-CoV-2 strain licensed by the Indian Council of Medical Research ( ICMR ). Similarly , the vaccine developed by Oxford University was licensed to AstraZeneca for mass production . These examples illustrate how licensing enabled the rapid translation of research into
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