Issues (Archived 11/27/2006)

Coming Soon! Licensing Opportunities for Rare Diseases.

Did you know that there are more than 18,000 people in the U.S. infected with active tuberculosis (TB)? In recent years, strains of the bacteria that cause TB (M. tuberculosis) have developed resistance to two or more drugs used in the treatment of TB. This is called multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR TB).  MDR TB is a major health concern given that existing drug therapies are ineffective against these resistant strains. Rapid diagnosis and new drugs are necessary to combat outbreaks of MDR TB.

Scientists at NIH as well as in other institutions are working on various technologies to detect and treat MDR TB. For example, NIH scientist Dr. Clifton Barry from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) has invented a technology that helps in the early detection of MDR TB.  (click here for licensing information)

To take such discoveries and translate them into products, pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies need to be made aware of the myriad of discoveries and inventions that are taking place around the world.  In order to help the fight against TB and other “Rare Diseases” (those that affect fewer than 200,000 persons in the U.S.), the NIH Office of Technology Transfer (OTT), the NIH Office of Rare Diseases (ORD) and the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), are preparing a compilation of technologies available for licensing that implicate such diseases.

In the near future, we anticipate adding technologies from nonprofit institutions to this list to facilitate access to licensing information!

Look for this new service to be available at this website (in the "Licensing and Royalties" page) within the next few months. Nonprofit institutions are invited to add their technologies and should contact Ajoy Prabhu at aprabhu@od.nih.gov for more information.

A complete listing of Rare Diseases is available from the ORD by clicking here.