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Research Highlights
VA, Harvard Sign Technology-Transfer Agreement
Taken from the Veterans Health Administration Highlights dated August 30, 2002
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and Harvard Medical School signed a technology transfer agreement recently that defines how the two institutions will cooperate on translating shared research discoveries into commercially available technologies to help patients.
Harvard is the 39th academic affiliate of VA to sign such an agreement, under which VA shares credit and financial interest in new inventions by researchers with VA and academic appointments, and works with its university partners to bring them to market. VA’s goal is to quickly move research advances from the lab to clinical practice, while providing a revenue stream to benefit VA researchers, and ultimately, veterans.
The pact was signed at the West Roxbury division of the VA Boston Healthcare System by Secretary of Veterans Affairs Anthony J. Principi and Harvard Medical School dean Joseph Martin, MD, PhD. The ceremony also marked the completion of negotiations on a licensing agreement between VA and a commercial firm for an invention by VA researchers at the site. The invention, a device for storing and preserving the heart or other organs for transplant, is the first to be developed, patented and licensed strictly by VA, without the aid of a university partner.
"This is an important step for VA because it represents the first time our Technology Transfer Program has brought a VA invention full circle, from bench to bedside, ‘in-house,’" said program director Mindy Aisen, MD.
VA revised its technology transfer policy in 2000 to ensure that the agency receives credit and financial reward for technologies developed by its researchers. Most of VA’s scientific investigators work part-time for VA and part-time for the university affiliated with their VA medical center, so there is no clear delineation on which institution "owns" the intellectual property generated by research.
VA’s new program evaluates new inventions, educates the inventors about their legal rights and obligations, helps obtain patents, coordinates the signing of technology-sharing agreements between VA and its affiliated universities, and helps establish licensing agreements with commercial firms to bring new products to the health care market.
Prior to the new policy, VA had allowed its academic affiliates to pursue full ownership of inventions generated in labs operating under joint VA-university auspices.
According to Secretary Principi, the former policy was a major reason many Americans do not know about VA’s landmark achievements in research and medical science. Under the new policy, he said, "VA is going to get credit for the work our researchers have done, and are doing. If that work results in financial gain, we are going to use that gain on behalf of the veterans we serve."
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