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Technology Developed at Penn State Licensed to Pharmaceutical
Company 8 January 2003 - A collaboration among Penn State
faculty, staff, students, and alumni has resulted in a licensing agreement
based on the research of an Eberly College of Science professor. Davis
Ng, assistant professor of biochemistry and molecular biology, has
developed technology that has the potential to revolutionize the production
of drugs to make them more affordable and available to the consumer. Yeast Protein Sciences, Inc., of Burlingame, California, has entered
into a licensing agreement with the University. Robert Leach, '65
B.S. Chem and '66 MBA Mktg, who is president, chief operating officer,
and managing partner of Tenex Greenhouse Ventures, LLC, is acting CEO. Ng's research centers on making yeast a more useful "protein factory."
For years, pharmaceutical companies have relied on a much more expensive
process involving Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cell cultures to produce
proteins from which to manufacture drugs. Experiments with producing this
class of proteins in yeast have been complicated because these proteins
often would not fold properly in yeast. Ng's team believes it has solved
that problem. "The advantages of using yeast instead of CHO cells is primarily
safety, cost, and capacity," Ng said. "This technology has the
potential to revolutionize the production of drugs to make them more affordable
and available to the consumer." Once Ng made his research breakthrough and recognized its potential,
he submitted an invention disclosure to the University's Intellectual
Property Office (IPO), where it was assigned to technology licensing officer
Matthew D. Smith. Smith, in turn, asked Matthew S. Hales,
a Science BS/MBA Program graduate who was undertaking an internship with
the IPO, to explore potential marketing and licensing opportunities and
to begin writing a business plan that might be used for a company specially
incorporated to develop Ng's unique technology. While Hales drafted the business plan, the invention went for consideration
before the University's Patent Review Committee. The committee, after
deciding Ng's technology should be patented, authorized the IPO to have
a patent application prepared. After the patent application had been filed
with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, Hales finished the business
plan, which he marketed to various venture capitalists, including Leach. "This license agreement resulted from the valuable contribution
of second-year MBA student-intern Matthew S. Hales," Smith said.
"He wrote an excellent business plan, which gained the interest of
Robert Leach." Once Leach obtained a copy of Hales' plan, it piqued
the venture capitalist's interest. "Most plans come to us with at least part of a management team,"
Leach said."In this case, there was none, but the idea for the business
was right." Leach initiated licensing discussions with Penn State
and ultimately licensed the technology. Leach utilized Hales' business
plan as the framework from which to form Yeast Protein Sciences, Inc.'s
initial business plan and Leach has since raised capital from other investors.
This capital will support the further development of Ng's technology. Hales -- who now works as an associate manager of business analytics
for Ortho Biotech Products, L.P., a Johnson & Johnson company -- said
his ability to understand Ng's invention and then incorporate that knowledge
into a market-ready business plan stemmed directly from the Science BS/MBA
Program. "The combination of skills -- being able to understand the
science and being able to create a business case for the science -- is
essential to market such technical products to industry," Hales said. The Science BS/MBA Program is the result of collaboration between Penn
State's Eberly College of Science and the Smeal College of Business Administration.
In this accelerated program, students can earn a B.S. in science and an
M.B.A. in five calendar years after graduation from high school. Typically
during the first four years, including the first year of the M.B.A. curriculum,
students are enrolled as undergraduates in the Eberly College of Science.
For the remaining year, participants are formally enrolled as graduate
students in the Smeal College of Business Administration MBA program.
Successful completion of this program results in a B.S. in Science being
awarded by the Eberly College of Science at the end of year four and the
M.B.A. from the Smeal College of Business Administration at the end of
year five. [ A W E ] CONTACTS: Davis Ng, 814-863-5686 / dtn1@psu.edu
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| This page is maintained by Barbara K. Kennedy: science@psu.edu, (814) 863-4682 and Leta A. Krumrine: LAK15@psu.edu, (814) 863-8453 Eberly College of Science, Office of Public Information, 427 Thomas Building, University Park, PA 16802-2112 This page was last updated on 8 January 2003 If you would like
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