Yissum Takes Technology Transfer Services by Storm

Founded in 1964 as a way to encourage the “inventiveness” of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s staff, Yissum Research and Development Company seeks to support and encourage research, development and education in their efforts to turn science into commercial products for society. Yissum is charged with the not insignificant task of protecting HU’s inventions, products and technologies. Serving as the Technology Transfer Services for the university, Yissum focuses on the ongoing assessment, protection and commercial optimization of the university’s intellectual property.

In their 40-plus year history, Yissum has perhaps surpassed expectations, with reported annual revenues in excess of $40 million, mostly from royalties, and properties ranging from long-shelf-life tomatoes to treatments for cancer and Alzheimer’s disease, placing the Hebrew University in the world’s top 15 academic institutions as measured by revenues from intellectual property sales.

Protect, Partner, Perform

As the Technology Transfer University for HU, Yissum serves not only to protect the university’s intellectual properties, but also to partner with researchers and worldwide businesses to develop commercial markets, and through licensing, establishing companies, joint ventures and collaborative research, enhance the market value and performance of HU’s discoveries, increasing their availability to a global marketplace.

The arrangement has a track record of success. Hebrew University generates approximately $1 billion in annual sales from products in its IP base and Yissum represents over 250 licensed technologies and 60 spin-off companies. The numbers keep adding up with over 3,000 ongoing research projects, 1,200 researchers, 1,400 registered patents and 5 Nobel laureates, all representing 40% of Israel’s civilian scientific research. The range of intellectual properties includes a diverse mix of industrial and therapeutic areas, including biotechnology, nanotechnology, medical research and technologies, pharmaceuticals, agriculture and nutrition, water and environmental technologies, computer science and software development, homeland security and more.

The seemingly endless supply of promising research projects come from the university’s research base; supported by an annual budget of over $77 million, allowing Yissum to take advantage of Technology Transfer Opportunities by identifying appropriate commercial partners, negotiating license agreements, creating spin-off companies and working closely with local and global commercial partners.

Recent news items focus on the medical arena, with HU’s concept of using cellular technology to send X-rays and other medical diagnostics. The new technology would allow for the use of a smaller, less expensive and easier to use Data Acquisition Device (DAD) at remote patient sites, which would be connected via cell technology with advanced image reconstruction at a central site. The implications are far-reaching and could serve to bring advanced medical technology into areas that otherwise could not afford to have it at their disposal; bringing MRIs, X-Rays and other medical diagnostics into rural and third-world areas.

Technologies Supported

Reading through Yissum’s list of products and companies is like reading a Who’s Who directory of the medical and technological worlds. The lists are full of recognized names, successful products and companies that make headlines on a regular basis.

Products from Yissum include Alzheimer and dementia treatment Exelon, dry-eye treatments Cationorm and LO2A (Lacrycon, Dropyal), ovarian cancer treatment Doxil (Caeylx), UV-protection product UV-Pearls-already adopted by major companies for sunscreens and cosmetics, and a variety of other pharmaceutical products. Oh, remember those long-shelf-life tomatoes? That would thanks to BonTom Vegetable Breeding and Research Group, from HU, of course. Another agricultural product from Yissum and Hazera Genetics is the Ram Onion. On the software side, there is Making Better Career Decisions, an interactive, Internet based career-guidance and information system.

Looking over a partial list of companies shows even more diversity, touching on pharmaceuticals, biotech, agriculture and irrigation, water treatment, software development, safety, nanotechnology, and medical technologies, research, development and devices.

Water treatment technologies like En Gibton Ltd and Treatec 21 Industries Ltd; agricultural endeavors Leafsen Irrigation Systems Ltd, Kovax Ltd-vaccines for the aqua culture world, Avian Tech Ltd, and Ravgalai Ltd-detection of antibiotic residues in milk, meat and food products are just the start of the list. Technology and software development come into play with Ex Libris Ltd-high-performance applications for libraries, Mobileeye Vision Technologies Ltd-with automated, on-board driver assist systems and MusicGenome Inc-a system of identifying musical taste based on artificial intelligence.

Perhaps the heaviest area of development is in the medical and pharmaceutical arenas with a long list of companies researching and developing treatments for cancer-including Algen Pharmaceuticals Inc-basically “tricking” cancer cells into “committing suicide.” Other treatment technologies focus on infectious and autoimmune diseases, rheumatoid arthritis and improving the efficacy of vaccines; even delving into the “nutraceutical” field with carriers for nutraceuticals to be incorporated in food systems and cosmetic formulations.

Technology Transfer Services

Yissum serves the Hebrew University, protecting its intellectual properties and moving forward with innovations and technologies into commercial endeavors, ultimately, serving the world community as well as the university through applied chemistry, physics, life science and biotechnologies, water technologies, nanotechnologies, and even veterinary medicine and agricultural technologies. It’s easy to see why Yissum is so highly regarded in the scientific and academic communities and ranks among the top Technology Transfer Services in the world.

Innovations in Oral Solid Drug Delivery and Advances in nanotechnology, controlled formulations & peptide delivery

This report concentrates on innovations in oral solid dose delivery systems (OSDDS) with an emphasis on the links between start up companies and academic collaborations. It deals with the impact of the difficult economic climate with the restriction on funding and opportunities for partnering projects.

Developments are assessed in relation to understanding the dynamics of the market. For instance the report discusses the loss of patent protection for blockbuster drugs peaking between 2007-2012, loss of patent protection for the first-generation of OSDDS in the last few years, the dearth of NCEs coming through the pipeline and puts new developments in the context of a market that is seeing a decline in its value in some therapeutic areas. It identifies the drivers for new OSDDS and the issues surrounding them.

A key theme is the transition of peptides and proteins from intravenous to oral delivery. The report looks at the competitive landscape, making reference to sales and market dynamics. A recurring theme is the reformulation of old generic drugs to get over inadequacies in the original drug for instance: low solubility, bioavailability, short duration of action, high side effect potential, poor stability, poor absorption following oral administration, bitter or unpleasant taste, narrow GI absorption window and inter- and intra-patient variability in absorption.

With a growing geriatric population and with people living longer much of the emphasis is on development of OSDDS drugs to more effectively treat diseases of an aging population such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, type 2 diabetes and obesity, osteoporosis, cancer and rheumatoid arthritis, etc. Often these treatments have side effects, problems with dosing and short duration of action or have to be administered by injection which reduces their acceptability.

Key features of this report

* Analysis of innovative platform technologies, companies and product development pipelines involved in transitioning injectable to oral drug delivery.
* Review of companies and technologies developing oral formulations of peptides and small proteins, highlighting stage of development, indications and competitive nature of the area.
* Providing an understanding of the specific problems involved in transitioning intravenous peptides to oral delivery and the mechanisms of crossing the GI mucosa, together with a review of approaches utilized.
* Analysis of sales data, growth rates, market share, generic entrants, new products for therapeutic areas in which the new products using the new technologies will compete.
* Assessment of market potential of the new osdds products in relation to the current market and competitors.

Scope of this report

* Get a comprehensive understanding of the range of new innovative osdds technologies and how they can overcome problems with the original active ingredient.
* Identify potential novel technologies which might allow you to overcome a problem with your own drug portfolio or which would allow you to extend your products’ franchise in the market place.
* Allow you to identify potential licensing opportunities or collaborations with innovative technology companies and assess the potential with respect to recent products commercialized.
* Allows you to identify which companies and which therapeutic areas are successful in gaining backing for their technologies and those that are not.
* Identify the time scales, hurdles and progress in developing new innovative technologies such as nanotechnologies/nanomedicines, oral peptides and proteins, new prodrugs and assess market factors affecting the developments and their success/failure.

Key Market Issues

* Asthe population ages and those elderly people live longer there is a greater need for better drugs which treat chronic conditions associated with aging such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, osteoporosis, rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis, type 2 diabetes and obesity,cancer, hypertension and heart disease.
* The specific challenges in providing for mentally ill patients in which compliance is a problem is driving the demand for formulations which get over problems with swallowing difficulties, frequent dosing, variability in oral absorption or bioavailability,unacceptable side effect potential .
* The low numbers of new chemical entities approved annually (around 30 compared to 40-50 three decades ago), the record number of blockbuster drugs becoming generic up to 2012 and the first-generation delayed-release products losing patent protection is depressing the sales value in certain billion dollar therapy markets.

Key findings from this report

* The development of oral peptide hormones is a highly competitive area with many companies developing oral versions of the same peptide and these products will have to compete with new developments in inhaled peptides and very long-duration transdermal or sc depot products which are several years ahead of oral formulations.
* The failure of Exubera (inhaled insulin) has had a knock on effect on the development of new oral insulins with investors seeing oral insulins as being more risk prone and in addition the issues encountered with some oral insulins has meant that some companies are no longer considering this area a key focus.
* Many dds companies have switched their development focus to new oral GLP-1 analogs for the treatment of type 2 diabetes and obesity in the light of Byetta’s success but these oral products are several years behind the development of new long-acting transdermal, injectable and inhaled GLP-1 analogs .
* Generic nasal calcitonin products have depressed the value of second-generation nasal preparations which are still patent protected thus this does not bode well for prices achievable for oral salcatonin products which are nearing the market as they have to offer better therapeutic outcomes in order to achieve higher prices and ultimately market share.

Key questions answered

* What oral peptide products have the greatest growth potential and how far along the development path have they reached?
* What are the strategies employed by brand leaders to protect their franchise in the $10 billion US antiepileptic market in the face of recent generic competition?
* How has the failure of Exubera (inhaled insulin) affected the oral insulin developments and oral peptides in general?
* What are the main diseases and how advanced are the oral peptide and protein formulations?
* How successful is prodrug technology in terms of drug development and what are the latest developments?
* What innovative companies and platform technologies are attracting investment and collaboration agreements?