Partnership aims to accelerate technology transfer from federal labs to grow businesses and jobs
ROCKVILLE, MARYLAND, March 12, 2012 – BioHealth Innovation, Inc. (BHI), a new regional private-public partnership focusing on commercializing market-relevant biohealth innovations and increasing access to early-stage funding in Central Maryland, announced today it has entered into a Partnership Intermediary Agreement (PIA) with the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) Office of Technology Transfer (OTT). As a partnership intermediary for NIH OTT, BHI will assist, counsel, advise, evaluate and cooperate with small businesses or educational institutions to make productive use of technologies from a federal laboratory.
“We are thrilled to partner with NIH to accelerate technology transfer and the commercialization of early-stage research,” said Richard Bendis, BHI Interim CEO. “This Agreement will allow health care industry experts to proactively identify market-relevant technologies being conducted at one of the finest research institutes in the world to better capture the commercial value of those technologies. Ultimately, the goal is to advance human health care while growing jobs in Central Maryland.”
Under the PIA, BHI will employ and place Entrepreneurs-in-Residence (EIR) within OTT to evaluate, identify and license intramural technologies in the areas of drugs, vaccines, therapeutics, diagnostics and medical devices from the intramural research programs at both the NIH and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). An NIH EIR is an industry expert with scientific, entrepreneurial/managerial and financial experience who works side by side with NIH scientists to identify, evaluate and support the development of new start-up companies based upon technology license agreements from OTT. BHI anticipates placing its first EIR this spring.
“The NIH Office of Technology Transfer is excited by the opportunity to work with BHI as a way to accelerate the licensing and commercial development of inventive technologies coming from the NIH and FDA intramural research programs,” said Mark Rohrbaugh, director of OTT. “We expect synergies particularly between the planned ‘Entrepreneur-In-Residence’ program fostered by BHI and the new ‘Start-up Express License’ that NIH launched late last year.”
About BioHealth Innovation, Inc.
BioHealth Innovation, Inc. a regional innovation intermediary focused on commercializing market-relevant bio-health innovations and increasing access to early-stage funding in Maryland. BHI focuses on a cluster of related industries to drive the region’s innovation economy, including biotechnology, biopharma, medical devices and healthcare services, Health IT, e-health, mobile health, electronic medical records, health informatics, and biohealth cyber security. For more information, visit www.biohealthinnovation.org.
About the NIH Office of Technology Transfer (NIH OTT)
OTT manages the patenting and licensing of a wide range of inventions made by scientists working for the NIH and FDA intramural research programs as mandated by the Federal Technology Transfer Act and related legislation. OTT also facilitates access to NIH and FDA inventions by developing research relationships between NIH and FDA intramural scientists with researchers in businesses and higher educational institutions. More information can be found at www.ott.nih.gov.
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Media contact:
Rich Bendis, Interim CEO, 215-496-8102, rbendis@biohealthinnovation.org.