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Children’s Hospital Boston has quietly launched a $1 million-plus fund to help its researchers make the financial leap over the often-described “valley of death” for their projects, moving from the lab to the marketplace.
The hospital hopes the fund will bridge that gap and bring research to the point where venture capitalists or a company interested in a licensing deal might be willing to pony up some cash.
“The problem we’re trying to address is not a new one,” said Erik Halvorsen, director of technology and business development at Children’s Hospital. “It’s one that’s just gotten worse over the past 10 years and dramatically worse over the last two years. An institution such as Children’s Hospital or a nonprofit absolutely needs that corporate partner to fully help with the translation from innovation into a product,” he said.
Most researchers don’t want to handle the transferral process, said Donald Lombardi, CEO of the Institute for Pediatric Innovation Inc., based in Cambridge. “Most just want to do their research.” Lombardi created and oversaw Children’s Hospital’s office intellectual property until three years ago when he founded IPI, which seeks to create medicines and devices specifically for children.
“There is no clear path these days for doing technology transfers. In the old days, up till the 1990s, you filed a patent and companies came by and did something.” Today, however, larger established companies and venture capital firms are doing less and less of the translational work, said Lombardi.
“For quite a long time we have had very promising technology but have not been able to move it along because of lack of funding,” said Monique Yoakim-Turk, technology development manager for Children’s Technology and Innovation Development Office. “Also, there is a lack of access to expertise in product development and technical support. We’ll make this possible with funding and a first-class advisory board.”
Other institutions, such as Boston University, are addressing the same problems, noted Children’s Hospital administrators. Where Children’s is unique, said Halvorsen, is that it’s bringing money in, as well as having an advisory board that can offer expertise in specific technology areas. It also will spend about 70 percent of the funds on external partners for contract research or other services. These firms will make prototypes or do pre-clinical testing for Children’s Hospital scientists, who will retain the intellectual property rights.
About $1 million will be committed, said Halvorsen. Despite the financial pressure the hospital — like other institutions — is facing, the administration sees this as a “core part of the mission to translate research into products.”
Already, Children’s is a major basic science and clinical research institution, with $180 million committed from the National Institutes of Health and other sources for 2008, Halvorsen said. His office receives some 100-plus invention disclosures annually, he said.
Children’s Hospital researcher Robert D’Amato, who is working on creating a formula to apply a drug to the eye to treat macular degeneration, is already considering applying for a grant. “There aren’t any funding mechanisms to work on things like formulation,” he noted.
BU has been awarding transfer money since around 1978 and currently funds these efforts at about $2 million annually, said Ashley Stevens, executive director of technology transfer at BU. The cash is deployed flexibly.
Michal Preminger, senior director of business development at the Harvard University Office of Technology Development, said her institution launched an Accelerator Fund two years ago to help with technology transfer. According to a provost’s letter, in 2008 nine new projects were funded at $1.51 million.
At Children’s researchers have already issued letters of intent, said Yoakim-Turk. The first meeting with the advisors will be on June 30, she said.
At a glance
Children’s Hospital Boston Technology Development
It WILL:
• Offer 1st year funding of around $1 million
• Allow about 70 percent of grants to be spent on contract research organizations
• Use external expert advisors to make recommendations on projects and the development of project plans and for mentorship
• Offer contracting and project management support
It WON’T
• Fund basic research
• Support projects lacking path to market
• Rely on investigators for project management
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