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Commercialization Deal Advances Research Tool

C4 technology transfer officer negotiates deal for "know how"

Hamilton Health Sciences research team saves time and effort by commercializing their work.

The TECHNOZYM® TAM Activity Assay

For most professors, having a stranger appear and finish your research project might sound like something concocted by the Brothers Grimm. However, for one McMaster research team, such a chance meeting led to a fairytale ending.

Our tale began last year when assistant professor of pediatrics Les Berry traveled to Geneva to present a poster on an innovative method for determining the levels of certain clotting agents in human blood. Berry, who works as part of Anthony Chan’s research team at the Henderson Research Centre in Vascular Biology and Thrombosis, was excited by the science but also concerned about its prospects.

The research team had found a way to determine the amount of thrombin complexed to a2macroglobulin. Unfortunately the Chan group was busy with several basic and commercial projects and they lacked the internal human resources to turn that scientific finding into an assay that could be used as a certified research tool.

“What we had was the concept and proof of principle experiments,” recalls Berry. “We didn’t have the manpower or funds to develop it further.”

Berry did have a good poster, which received a polite reception at the conference. Later that day, as he was walking through the conference hall, Berry spotted a company booth that was displaying some thrombin related research tools. He stopped to ask some questions.

Apparently, Berry can ask really good questions because, after he left, company representatives decided to track down his poster. They liked it. They liked it so much they emailed him.

A year later, the company, Technoclone, has signed an exclusive deal with McMaster and Hamilton Health Sciences and is launching a new product based on the team’s work. The TECHNOZYM® TAM Activity Assay will be available by the end of the year and marketed worldwide for research use. (In the Canadian and U.S. markets the assay will be available through Technoclone’s distributor, the Diapharma Group.)

“Moving from the lab bench to a licence agreement to a product in a year is one of the most rapid commercial developments I’ve ever heard of,” says Berry “It’s an amazing success for us.”

Berry is pleased because this kit will help all scientists working in the field to advance their research without the considerable hurdle of building their own assays. Further, Technoclone’s expertise in stabilizing reagents for storage and sample treatment made the assay far more reliable than a “home-brew” reagent. While the kit will initially be used for research, Berry foresees future clinical applications.

Besides being rapid, the deal is unusual in a second respect. Typically, the university and hospital file patents for discoveries and licences the right to the patent. However, in this case the technology did not lend itself to being patented.

“A deal involving only the transfer of ‘know-how’ is unusual, but in this case it has proven remarkably effective,” notes Sunita Asrani, the C4 technology transfer officer who negotiated the deal for the research team and the McMaster Industry Liaison Office (MILO). This deal will provide an ongoing royalty stream for the university, hospital and researchers. Those  funds can be used to support future research.”

“This industrial collaboration also shows other researchers that they shouldn’t underestimate the value of the skills and techniques they have developed in their labs. There may be commercial potential in that knowledge,” adds Asrani.

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