On 30 June, the EIC Programme Manager, Iordanis Arzimanoglou and the Health and Biotech team organised a “Licensing in Biotech” online workshop. In total, seven external speakers in the field were invited. The presenters talked about their proven international experiences in Licensing, Technology Transfer and Intellectual Property and are affiliated with institutions such as BioNTech, Johnson & Johnson and Tufts University.
In addition, two panels, 45 minutes each, were organized. John Hodgson, former Editor-at-Large at Nature Biotechnology and current managing Director of Communications at LifeSci Advisors, chaired both of them.
Most of the participants came from universities and small and medium-sized companies in the pharmaceutical sector, currently funded by the EIC.
The overarching scope of the event was to help EIC-funded projects and companies to better understand how licensing is being done in the environment of biotechnology irrespective of the development stage of the technology (very early, early or advanced stage). Furthermore, the participants heard from the experts why some companies succeeded and others did not, based on their personal hands-on experiences. They addresses factors like the right timing, capabilities, mind-set, targeting the right people and the value proposition. They also discussed typical concerns on when deals are made from each side (academics, licensee and established companies and licensor). Besides the role of Technology Transfer Officer, opinions if licensing is scaling up companies were reviewed. Last but not least, they debated about the differences between the US and Europe and in particular between Western and Eastern Europe when it comes to investment attractiveness and readiness.
According to the Chair of the panels, John Hodgson, the workshop:
“Highly engaged participation of European and US business leaders, translation experts and technology transfer professionals. It provided sharply defined perspectives on both the challenges facing those involved in technology licensing and on mechanism for ensuring best practice in the life sciences.”
Disclaimer: Due to a technical issue, the recording has not been started from the very beginning of the session.
Details
- Publication date
- 7 July 2022