IU tech breaks revenue record for 2010 fiscal year

IU’s Research and Technology Corporation nearly doubled their licensing revenues for the 2010 fiscal year.

 The corporation had $14.2 million in revenue in the 2010 fiscal year,  which nearly doubled the $6 million in licensing revenues the previous year.
The organization works to help companies bring new technology to the marketplace and support technology-based economic development throughout Indiana and the nation.

“We are an organization that was created by the University in 1997 that manages intellectual property generated by all researchers at IU,” said RTC President and CEO Tony Armstrong.

RTC takes technological development at IU and works to commercialize and
license the products around the world,  Armstrong said.

As a result of these sales, RTC receives royalties and up-front fees as well as other forms of revenue in return.

“We have intellectual property policy that help faculty, the president and IU Board of Trustees distribute funds back to inventors, the school where the work was done, campus and University, which leads to more research and more commercialization,” Armstrong said. “It has built a cycle to have good work done to fund further work in the future.”

The current policy, he said, distributes 35 percent of the licensing revenue to researchers, 15 percent to the lab of the researcher, 15 percent to the campus and 35 percent to the University and to the RTC to cover the cost of the expenses, Armstrong said.

For an invention to go through the technology commercialization process, a faculty member at IU must come up with an idea and describe it to the RTC, who works with faculty to ensure that a patent can be obtained and that there is a market for the product.

RTC staff members contact companies and negotiate a contract using the IU patents. In exchange, IU receives royalty payment on product sales, Vice President for Technology Commercialization Margie Kerbeshian said.

There are more than 150 inventions created on average per year, and between 20 and 40 get an agreement, Kerbeshian said.

“The number of products that make it is much smaller,” she said. “We are the facilitators between faculty and company to make sure intellectual property is protected.”

Cardiomyozytes — heart cells made from stem cells that actually beat in heart muscle — is the newest product from IU that has recently entered the market.

Brad Fravel, senior technology manager, said the product is currently being tested by pharmaceuticals to see if different medications have a negative effect on the heart tissue.

“Our technology is a way of purifying them in the large amount and pure form that is needed for drug testing,” he said.

Overall, Armstrong said he hopes to continue to work with faculty, start companies around technology and have more success in the future.

“We’ve done a great job this year,” he said. “I am proud of what they did and hope to continue in the future. Researchers know that the fruits of their labor affect the lives of people around the world in such a positive way.”