Rights sale piques interest in research commercialization

The licensing of rights outside China to a series of drug candidates developed by Shanghai's Fudan University has attracted attention across the country to the commercialization of scientific research results in universities.

Fudan University recently announced it would authorize the exclusive license of a series of novel immuno-oncology drug candidates to US-based Huya Bioscience International, a company that accelerates the global development of China's pharmaceutical innovations.

A research team led by Professor Yang Qing for more than a decade at the School of Life Sciences at Fudan University discovered the panel of novel inhibitors of indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase. The indoleamine pathway is one of several immune response checkpoints thought to play an important role in suppressing T-cell function, allowing tumors to avoid immune surveillance.

"We recognize China's potential as an important source of innovative pre-clinical stage compounds for worldwide development," said Mireille Gillings, CEO and executive chairwoman of Huya.

Gillings said the company will work to constantly identify such promising new compounds from China's leading institutes and universities.

Jin Li, vice-president of Fudan University, said, "Such a partnership will help to maximize global value and showcase our university's world-class research abilities." Jin is also an Academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Fudan University said Huya will obtain the exclusive rights to the inhibitors' clinical testing, marketing and sales outside of the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan. The company will give nearly $65 million to the university through milestone payments.

Industry sources said the move will boost the transfer of research results from institutes and university.

Chinese universities and research institutes have strong advantages and strengths in scientific research, and each year many receive patents for those results. However, many stop at that step and do not further develop a marketable product.

This is indicated in a statistical study on Chinese university patents published in May 2015. It showed that, from 2006 to 2013, Chinese universities working under the 985 Project, a government-run plan to establish world-level universities, filed 188,000 patent applications, but only 6,191 licenses were authorized and transferred. That transfer rate is only about 5 percent.

Yi Baxian, vice-president of the China State Institute of Pharmaceutical Industry, said the Fudan-Huya partnership will set a good example for domestic research institutes and universities.

Compared with overseas where there are well-developed cooperation models connecting industry and academic organizations, there is still a development bottleneck for domestic universities and research institutes to transfer their research patents, such as the valuation of innovative drugs during the research stage, Yi told The Paper, an online news platform.

Earlier, the State Council released a document regulating the promotion of scientific research results. It encourages research institutes and universities to transfer their scientific research results to businesses and other organizations for further development.