Why UMN's tech transfer is good but must improve
Both Tim Post and Paul Tosto of MPR have written about the University of Minnesota's need to commercialize research to replace the royalties it will lose when its patent on the AIDS drug Ziagen runs out.
Now a panel commissioned to study the U's Office for Technology Commercialization has issued a report warning about that, MedCity News reports, estimating the loss at up to $7 million annually after the 2013 expiration.
It warned against trying short-term solutions and instead suggested that the U file more provisional patents. (It apparently files fewer than its peers.)
That said, it has praised the technology transfer office's progress, saying it is:
"... at or near the top of its peer group, and should be considered an exceptional success story over the past five years."
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