AUTM’s U.S. Licensing Activity Survey: FY2008 brought especially good news for the University of Utah, which now leads the nation in spinning off companies such as Catheter Connections — one of 20 Utah spinoffs during 2008. A few years ago, nurses Michael Howlett and James Mercer began patenting concepts for catheters that would block the transmission of pathogens into patients’ bloodstream — the source of infections that cause up to 100,000 preventable deaths a year. “We designed a prototype and got a provisional patent, then looked for someone to turn it into a reality,” Howlett says. “It’s hard for a couple little guys to get to the titans of industry.” The clinicians went to U-Utah biomedical engineers, who developed their ideas into marketable products and launched the young company, which doesn’t even have an office yet.
U-Utah performs well not only in creating companies but also in filing patents (119), patents awarded (33), and generating revenue from licensing technology ($26.2 million), according to the AUTM report. Since 2005, when U-Utah established its TTO, the university has spun off 83 companies that employ 400 people and have attracted $240 million in capital, according to Jack Brittain, vice president for technology venture development. All but five of the companies are still operating. “These are the real deal,” Brittain says. “We are creating a future in Utah for really good jobs,” with an average salary of $85,000. Outside reviewers credit the support U-Utah provides entrepreneurial faculty to shepherd their ideas to the marketplace. Joe Tanous, who heads Oregon State University’s TTO, contends that U-Utah is the nation’s most successful institution in translating research expenditures into economic growth. According to data he has compiled, the university spins off one company for every $15 million in research grants it attracts, while the national average is one company for every $104 million.
Catheter Connections formed after IP lawyer Vicki Farrar, now the company’s CEO, introduced Mercer and Howlett’s ideas to U-Utah’s department of biomedical engineering to evaluate their marketability and develop them into commercial products. The university assisted with viability studies, helping to secure VC, and patenting issues. The new company donated the Mercer-Howlett patents to U-Utah, which then licensed them back under terms that helped Catheter Connections to flourish, Farrar says. FDA approval is near for a device that company officials hope to have on the market in the coming months.
Source: The Salt Lake Tirbune