Biocat and Interbio edited a White book to help public health research reach the market

By Biocat

Biocat, along with members of the European Project Interbio have published the first edition of the white book From Research to Market: Key Issues of Technology transfer from public research centers. This is a guide that contains practical guidelines for the whole process of technology transfer in the field of public research in biotechnology, biomedicine and medical technologies. This process goes from the identification of technology through different protection, evaluation and assessment alternatives, to the transfer of results to companies to develop and maintain a drug, a treatment or a medical device on the market.

More specifically, you can check the specificities of public research centers regarding protection and the regulatory environment policies which may influence the technology transfer process (Chapter 1). It also describes the steps and stages to be followed by companies interested in commercializing technology from a public research center (Chapter 2) and provides an overview of the most important sources to identify potential technologies (Chapter 3). The final chapter identifies the key issues to be taken into account, which are discussed extensively in Chapter 4.

Technology transfer stages (Chapter 2)

The purpose of this white book is to become a reference publication in the processes of technology transfer, especially those carried out in institutions in Catalonia, Valencia, Lisbon, Toulouse and Bordeaux (Interbio project regions). Moreover, for start-up and spin-off companies (mainly SMEs), it wants to be a guide to counseling because, among other things, it details and explains the key elements to consider before offering or purchasing a product or technology.

According to the Biocat 2011 report Catalonia represents nearly 1% of worldwide scientific production and 2.5% of EU-15, a production which mainly comes from the academic (64.2%) and health sector (28%). Despite the efforts of the Results Transfer Office (RTO) of the last five years and the significant increase in intellectual property protection, only 10% of inventions and 14.6% of new patent applications come from the public sector (25% of applicants have generated more than five patents in the last decade). A positive indicator is that 26.6% of spin-off companies which do research come from the public environment.

Download the white book (pdf)

For any questions you can send an e-mail to innovacio@biocat.cat