Tag: OTT30

Universities are known as centers for scholarship and discovery, but can they also be investors? Looking at GeoVax Labs, Inc., a 2001 Emory start-up that later went on to become the first company the university invested in, the answer to that question may very well be yes. Even today, many universities are hesitant to invest in their start-up companies. The reasons for this are twofold: first, a start-up is a risk. Like their name suggests, start-ups are just getting started, so typically there isn’t an extensive history of the company to give the investors added confidence. Secondly, there is the issue of time.  For a start-up, seeing actual results can be a long way away from the present. “Emory made a monetary investment in GeoVax understanding that we may never see a return on it,” says GeoVax Case Manager, Cliff Michaels. “But [Emory] knew it would be an important company with a product that could have profound global impact, and perhaps, an opportunity for Emory to recoup its investment.” Founded by Dr. Harriet Robinson, formerly of Emory, GeoVax is a pharmaceutical company aimed at creating a vaccine for HIV. The vaccine the company has been developing involves a two-step vaccination

2015 marks the 30th anniversary for Emory OTT and part of that celebration includes a series of blog posts highlighting important “firsts” for the office.  This month we highlight Emory’s monetization of its FTC royalty rights, at the time the largest for a U. S. university. Researchers at Emory invented two drugs Lamivudine (3TC) and emtricitabine (FTC) for the treatment of AIDS. In August of 2005, Emory sold its royalty rights to FTC for $540 million to Gilead Science and Royalty Pharma. The University’s share of the transaction was reinvested in Emory’s research and education mission following the terms of the Bayh-Dole Act. From a recent interview, Emory President James Wagner showed his deep interest and encouragement in expanding research and scientific development at Emory. He stated: “We are extremely proud of our scientists and their lifesaving and life-enhancing discoveries.” “This study illustrates once again that our nation’s long-standing and world-leading policy of investment in research through universities and other public institutions, along with the responsible use of technology transfer, delivers a tremendous return through improved health for millions, innovative technologies, economic development and training for the next generation of innovators.” Even today, more than 90 percent of AIDS patients

2015 marks the 30th anniversary for Emory OTT and part of that celebration includes a series of blog posts highlighting important “firsts” for the office. This month we highlight our first start-up to be acquired – Atrionix. All startups share the same beginning – an idea, yet, of the many companies launched on good ideas, only a few experience success. Of Emory’s 72 start-ups only 9 have been acquired or merged. In 2000, the University’s own Atrionix became OTT’s first acquisition, when the company was acquired by Johnson & Johnson for $62.8 million. Co-founded by Jonathan Langberg, professor and director of cardiac electrophysiology for Emory Healthcare, Atrionix also became the first company to offer a complete line of products to diagnose and treat atrial fibrillation, a condition that affects more than 2.7 million Americans and more than 5 million people worldwide. Atrial fibrillation is the most prevalent cardiac arrhythmia, which is when the heart’s two upper chambers quiver instead of beating properly. Atrial fibrillation causes the atria to not pump out blood completely, which could lead to pooling and clotting. Complications from atrial fibrillation could result in strokes. Atrionix developed several patented cardiac ablation medical devices that eliminated the need

2015 marks the 30th anniversary for Emory OTT and part of that celebration includes a series of blog posts highlighting important “firsts” for the office. This month we highlight the Emory Breakfast Club. In June of 2006, the first Breakfast Club meeting was held. “The idea was to find a better way to engage the business community with regards to licensing opportunities we had in the office. We created this event so that we could find a way to more regularly bring the business community together and pitch technologies to them” says Todd Sherer, Executive Director. The meeting is held twice a year and as its name implies first thing in the morning over breakfast. Sherer often describes the event as “a dating service for technologies.” How are the technologies picked: “We sit down as a group and ask ourselves ‘What technologies do we have that have a compelling story behind them?’”, adds Sherer. Three technologies were presented at the inaugural meeting: Therapeutic HIF-1 pathway inhibitors for use in cancer and macular degeneration ACE Inhibitors for use in cancer and infections Progesterone for use in traumatic brain injury Since its inception the event has been a wonderful success and become

2015 marks the 30th anniversary for Emory OTT and part of that celebration includes a series of blog posts highlighting important “firsts” for the office. This month we highlight our first start-up to be listed on both the NASDAQ Biotech Index and the Russell 3000 – Pharmasset. All startups share the same beginning – an idea, yet, of the many companies launched on good ideas, only a few experience success. Among these successful startups is Pharmasset, a biotech company founded in 1998 by Emory’s Raymond Schinazi, PhD and Dennis Liotta, PhD with assistance from OTT. Pharmasset was originally set out on developing new compounds for treating viral infections and cancer and more specifically spent considerable time focusing on the Hepatitis C virus. Hepatitis is an inflammation in the liver, and Hepatitis C (HCV) specifically is a contagious viral infection of the liver with symptoms ranging from mild to severe, lasting a few weeks to a lifetime, and being acute or chronic. Transmission is spread primarily through contact with infected blood. While Hepatitis A & B have vaccines, Hepatitis C unfortunately does not, so the focus is currently on treating the infection rather than preventing it. There are an estimated 3.2

2015 marks the 30th anniversary for Emory OTT and part of that celebration includes a series of blog posts highlighting important “firsts” for the office.  This month we highlight Epivir™, Emory’s first anti-HIV approved drug. Developed by Emory faculty, Dennis Liotta, PhD and Raymond Schnazi, PhD, Epivir™ contains a compound called 3TC (lamivudine). This drug is in the class known as nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTIs), this class of drugs interrupts the replication process of double-stranded viral DNA, resulting in the inability of HIV to multiply. In 1995 when this drug was approved OTT and the inventor’s believed this was the validation of the University’s antiviral research program and its role in HIV research. It was also believed that Epivir™ was at the forefront of the fight against HIV and had a bright future. Those predictions came true as Epivir™ was a ground breaking and widely prescribed drug and is currently contained in four FDA approved drugs used for the treatment of HIV. Since Epivir™ was approved and sold as singly 3TC has been approved to be sold in combination with zidovudine as Combivir®, in fixed-dose combination with zidovudine and abacivir sulfate as Trizivir® and, in fixed-dose combination with abacavir

2015 marks the 30th anniversary for Emory OTT and part of that celebration includes a series of blog posts highlighting important “firsts” for the office.  This month we highlight the Emory Patent Group (EPG). The Emory Patent Group, our in-house patent department, was created within OTT in 2010. While there had been cursor consideration in previous years there was now a need to cut costs and this would have to be looked at in detail. “We looked at the numbers much more closely, evaluated them, and ran them by in-house counsel,” says Todd Sherer, Executive Director. “We convinced ourselves that we could save around $375,000 a year.” While the primary driver was budgetary constraints, it also provided the ability to improve the pursuit of promising new technology both with the number of applications and their quality. While the numbers seemed to add up pretty well on paper, it was hardly a sure bet. “We were a little bit reluctant, and a little bit concerned as to whether it would actually work,” acknowledges Sherer. Fortunately, once implemented, the approach exceeded expectations, delivering savings closer to $500,000 per year. “It has just been a raging success,” says Sherer. “On top of the

2015 marks the 30th anniversary for Emory OTT and part of that celebration includes a series of blog posts highlighting important “firsts” for the office.  This month we highlight the first start-up which also happens to be the first start-up with an IPO – CytRx. (Since CytRx, ten more of our start-ups have gone public and seven have been merged or acquired.) In the mid-1980s, Dr. Robert Hunter, then a pathology professor at Emory, and William Ragland at the University of Georgia began studying vaccine adjuvants, substances added to a vaccine to increase the body’s immune response to the vaccine. When venture capitalist Steve Gorlin took an interest in their work in 1985, Hunter started the biopharmaceutical company CytRx to support further research. And so, Emory OTT saw its first start-up. Once CytRx obtained the initial boost of funds from Gorlin, the company held a public offering to raise additional capital in 1986, also making it OTT’s first startup to go public. Following a successful IPO, Hunter and the other researchers began studying a drug named RheothRx, which facilitated blood flow  in damaged tissue and inhibited thrombosis. Hunter and his team saw an untapped potential in RheothRx. A crude form

2015 marks the 30th anniversary for Emory OTT and part of that celebration includes a series of blog posts highlighting important “firsts” for the office.  This month we highlight the Annual Celebration. In April of 2007, OTT held its first Annual Celebration of Technology and Innovation at the Emory Conference Center. At its inaugural award ceremony, Dennis Liotta, Raymond Schinazi, Wayne Alexander, and Ernest Garacia received awards for their innovative technologies many that have reached the market place and improved the outcomes for countless patients. These products included HIV drugs, treatments for atherosclerosis, and cardiac imaging software. (You can find the products featured here http://www.ott.emory.edu/about/success/index.html.) This celebration is held each spring and has evolved to consist of a keynote address and four awards. The awards are innovation of the year, deal of the year, start-up of the year, and significant event of the year. These awards highlight and honor the great work of our Emory researchers as it relates to commercialization. This year’s celebration will be on Wednesday, March 4th, Emory Conference Center, Silverbell Pavilion at 5:00 pm. (Edit: This piece was about the 2015 edition, we advertise and announce each year’s celebration on the front of our website in the spring.) Keynote

2015 marks the 30th anniversary for Emory OTT and part of that celebration includes a series of blog posts highlighting important “firsts” for the office.  This month we highlight the first disclosure received at Emory. When Dave Lambeth, MD, PhD first came to Emory University in 1980, his mind was brimming with ideas about research on stress hormones and then how this might translate into commercially available anti-stress treatments down the road. But when he presented his first idea to the University, he found there were no formal resources for technology transfer. “I had come from Duke, who had a small tech transfer office at the time,” Lambeth remembers. “Since I was familiar with the process, I went to Emory and said, ‘I have this invention that I’d like to develop.’” The rest, as they say, is history. Over the next several months, Lambeth, a consultant from Duke, and a number of Emory staff worked to develop a more formal technology transfer program at Emory. Although his initial proposed invention hit a dead end, Lambeth’s disclosure sparked the process for what has now become Emory’s Office of Technology Transfer. “The invention never came to much, but the program, as you