Steven M. FERGUSONDeputy Director, Licensing & Entrepreneurship, Office of Tech. Transfer, Nat'l Institutes of
Health (U.S.)

Access to state-of-the art research tools remains is a key element of medical research, drug discovery and knowledge exchange whether such research is conducted at corporate or academic facilities. Unreasonable restrictions on use or high transactional costs for such tools may delay or limit the development of future biomedical products. As a both a research institution and research sponsor, NIH has used its 1999 Research Tool Guideline to facilitate the exchange of research tools for its laboratories and funded research programs to accelerate biomedical research and product development through non-exclusive licensing and distribution.

Although less common in Asia, this approach to the exchange between non-profit institutions and the licensing by for-profit institutions of both patented and non-patented research tools is becoming more widespread in the United States and Europe. With the help of newly-developed resources such as Research Tool Web (www.research-tool.info), policy makers and universities can now focus on non-exclusive licensing of research materials for corporate use to a greater degree, as a way to stimulate greater collaboration between academia and industrial institutions both in Korea, Asia and throughout the world.