Licenses

Positioning UMB technology across industry, license and option agreements confer rights to intellectual property for commercial or research use.  Following are a few recent examples:

Ortho Clinical Diagnostics, a division of Johnson & Johnson, licensed rights to “A Novel Antiproliferative Factor From Patients with Interstitial Cystitis”, as well as a related patent application jointly owned with the National Cancer Institute.  Ortho will be funding developmental research in the lab of Dr. Susan Keay in the Department of Infectious Diseases, and commercializing a diagnostic test for the bladder disease interstitial cystitis (IC).
 
A novel method for improving bioavailability of drugs is exclusively licensed to Xenoport. Xenoport is a biotechnology company located in California that specializes in conjugating drugs to molecules that are actively transported across the intestinal wall in order to improve drug absorption.  The patent, “Bile Acid Containing Prodrugs With Enhanced Bioavailability”, is currently pending, and covers the invention by Dr. James Polli and his colleagues in Pharmaceutical Sciences.
 
“Engineered Proteins for Analyte Sensing” was invented by members of the Center for Fluorescence Spectroscopy and in collaboration with UMBC and UMBI.  It is licensed to Becton Dickinson and Company. Commercial applications for this very broad patent will range from clinical diagnostics such as hospital-based blood testing to research applications sold through BD Biosciences Clontech.
 
ORD continues to execute electronic “click-wrap” license agreements that allow licensees to access software via the internet, register, and execute a non-exclusive, royalty-free, limited duration license with one mouse click. This has allowed sixteen hospitals to license electronically the “Drug Concentration Optimizer” software to calculate drug doses for pediatric patients, created by Dr. Vinay Vaidya and colleagues in the Department of Pediatrics.

Alba Therapeutics is a startup company that has exclusively licensed a portfolio of over 100 patents and applications related to zonulin, a protein discovered by Dr. Alessio Fasano and colleagues.  Alba is sponsoring research in Dr. Fasano’s lab and developing antagonists of zonulin that will treat celiac disease and new onset type 1 diabetes by reducing intestinal permeability.  Alba is based in Baltimore city and has won multiple competitive funding awards from the Maryland Department of Economic Development.

Prowess Inc.,  an international radiation cancer treatment planning software developer, licensed “Novel Method for the Planning and Delivery of Radiation Therapy”, developed by Drs. Earl, Yu, and Shepard of the Department of Radiation Oncology.  Prowess has successfully developed and commercialized the Prowess Panther™ Direct Aperture Optimization IMRT, a radiation technology that improves the accuracy and time of delivery of cancer radiation treatment, particularly for breast cancer patients. 

UM smiling over potential millions from tooth technology
Baltimore Business Journal
February 21, 2005

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