OTL: Love 'em or leave 'em?

A recent article in Forbes described why a promising academic doctor at Stanford left to start his own company. This is not the first time, by any means, that we have heard about doctors or doctors-to-be  leaving clinical medicine for "all-in" entrepreneurship and whether that is a good idea or not.

One reason I've heard more than once from both faculty and community stakeholders is the difficulties working with a university technology transfer (OTT) or Office of Technology Licensing (OTL), like at Stanford.

University technology licensing is big business and growing. Here is how much in 2015. Yet, the barriers and disadvantages of working with a university TLO/TTO can sometimes lead faculty to conclude that it would be better to work without them, and , sometimes that requires adjusting their university employment arrangement or leaving all together. Here are some pros and cons to consider:

1. Who owns the IP. In most instances, it will be the university if faculty used substantial resources to discover and/or develop the idea, invention of discovery.

2. Whether the TTO is interested in moving your idea forward or relinquishes the  IP rights to back to the inventor

3. Whether your idea is patentable, whether you have freedom to operate and whether you have made public disclosures

4. The technical feasibility of your idea and how far you have come in developing it

5. The funding requirements for your idea and whether continued affiliation with the university is an asset or liability, e.g. access to NIH grants or SBIR/STTR grants and contracts

6. Whether you have the personal motivation to continue on the faculty or the ability to adjust your employment status to your satisfaction

7. The amount of TTO hassle factor and pain or satisfaction working with them.

8. The revenue share and downstream licensing split and whether that is enough to justify working with the TTO 

9. Whether your university is savvy in dealing with biopharma, medtech and digital health research, development and deployment

10. Whether you need clinical colleagues and access to existing clinical networks to test and validate your idea

11. Whether it is beneficial to have access to student and trainee talent for little or no money

12. Whether you have assembled an entrepreneurial team wth a sense of urgency that can move your idea forward

12. Whether other academic partners are a help or hindrance

13. Whether university and practice plan policies and procedures are more anti-entrepreneurial than supportive

14. Whether your boss, department chairman or dean are supportive of your entrepreneurial efforts

15  Whether you are early or late in your academic career and risks and opportunity costs of leaving or staying.

Academic technology transfer offices, like all things sickcare, are undergoing change and reforming themselves to be more responsive to technology commercialization and licensing stakeholders. Some don't think they are moving fast enough and want to reform the Bayh-Dole Act. They argue that "Bayh-Dole shifted the incentive structure that governed the research and development path of federally funded inventions by allowing institutions to own inventions resulting from federally sponsored research and to exclusively license those inventions. The Act also requires the institution to establish patent policies for its employees, to actively seek patent protection and to encourage the development of their inventions. Beyond these basic requirements, the legislation leaves a great deal of discretion to the institutions. This flexibility has been both a source of strength for Bayh-Dole and a weakness. Many of the issues that are identified today as negative consequences of Bayh-Dole can be traced to the institutional policies structured to optimize institutional benefits and income, rather than to the Act itself."

University faculty entrepreneurs have to consider many factors when they are deciding to love the OTL or leave them and the university and no one situation is the same as another. Either way, the challenges of bringing an idea to patients are substantial and , consequently, requires careful thought before jumping ship.

Arlen Meyers, MD, MBA is the President and CEO of the Society of Physician Entrepreneurs at www.sopenet.org and contributes to www.hcplive.com/contributor/arlen-meyers-md-mba