The Office of Technology Transfer (OTT) at Emory University is celebrating its 30th year of operation.
Starting as part of Emory’s Office of Sponsored Programs, the office has since spun-out and now employs 17 people supporting commercialisation on campus at the institution.
The OTT says that it is spinning out between three to six companies a year, and has launched 72 companies overall – 53 of which are still active. Through licensing activities and the sale of equity stakes, the OTT has raised $845m for its parent institution.
Some of Emory’s biggest spin-out successes include depression-focused life sciences firm Neuronetics which has secured $128m in venture backing, hepatitis C biotech Pharmasset which was acquired by Gilead Science for $11bn, and Triangle Pharmaceuticals, also purchased by Gilead for $464m.
Todd Sherer, executive director of OTT, said: “When the Bayh-Dole Act was passed in 1980 by the federal government, technology transfer was just an experiment. The theory was that a lot of innovation was coming out of federally funded research, but it was all owned by the government and ‘sitting on the shelf.’ So the country embarked upon a pretty novel approach to put ownership of these innovations in the hands of the university, and that birthed the profession of technology transfer.”
