Academic medical product development: an emerging alliance of technology transfer organizations and the CTSA

To bring the benefits of science more quickly to patient care, the NIH National Center Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) supports programs that enhance the development, testing, and implementation of new medical products and procedures. The NCATS clinical and translational science award (CTSA) program is central to that mission; creating an academic home for clinical and translational science and supporting those involved in the discovery and development of new health-related inventions. The technology transfer Offices (TTO) of CTSA-funded universities can be important partners in the development process; facilitating the transfer of medical research to the commercial sector for further development and ultimately, distribution to patients. The Aggregating Intellectual Property (IP) Working Group (AWG) of the CTSA public private partnerships key function committee (PPP-KFC) developed a survey to explore how CTSA-funded institutions currently interface with their respective TTOs to support medical product development. The results suggest a range of relationships across institutions; approximately half have formal collaborative programs, but only a few have well-connected programs. Models of collaborations are described and provided as examples of successful CTSA/TTO partnerships that have increased the value of health-related inventions as measured by follow-on funding and industry involvement; either as a consulting partner or licensee.