Doing business with the NIH

Young biotech startups can benefit hugely from the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), not least because of the agency's non-dilutive funding, guidance, and opportunities for collaboration. Increasingly, however, there is a fair bit of misunderstanding about what the NIH can and cannot do for a biotech entrepreneur. The NIH licensing landscape has changed significantly during recent years. With increasing industry consolidation, large pharmaceutical firms are no longer looking to directly license early stage technologies for commercialization, and the number of NIH licenses signed with small and medium-sized biotech companies is on the rise. Unlike five to ten years ago, when all or most of the high revenue products based on NIH licenses came from large pharmaceutical firms, a majority of the latest success stories tend to be from biotech or other non-pharma companies. Some examples are Kepivance (palifermin) from Amgen, Velcade (bortezomib) from Millennium, Synagis (palivizumab) from Medimmune and Taxus Express (paclitaxel-eluting coronary stent system) from Angiotech1. Several other products are being developed by younger firms with the help of the NIH. Th