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Related glossaries include Intellectual Property glossary, Drug discovery & development, Research.  Technologies and instrumentation overview. In addition, almost any of the genomic glossaries  could also be useful.  Additional definitions appear in the In-depth glossary, after the Bibliography.

accredited investors: Under the Securities Act of 1933, a company that offers or sells its securities must register the securities with the SEC or find an exemption from the registration requirements. The Act provides companies with a number of exemptions. For some of the exemptions, such as rules 505 and 506 of Regulation D, a company may sell its securities to what are known as "accredited investors." The federal securities laws define the term accredited investor in Rule 501 of Regulation D [Securities and Exchange Commission, "Accredited Investors"] http://www.sec.gov/answers/accred.htm

alliances: Agreements between two or more companies to cooperate in some way. Originally a military and legal term for treaties between sovereign states, could be offensive, defensive or both. Narrower terms In-depth: alliance networks, strategic alliances.

angel investor: A wealthy individual who provides startup capital to very young companies to help them grow, taking a large risk in exchange for a potentially large return on investment. Many are successful former entrepreneurs who want to help other entrepreneurs grow their businesses. [Investorwords.com] http://www.investorwords.com/

Angel Capital Electronic Network https://ace-net.sr.unh.edu/pub/

anti-trust guidelines: The [US] Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) today [Apr. 7, 2000] issued "Antitrust Guidelines for Collaborations Among Competitors." They are the first set of guidelines issued jointly by both federal antitrust agencies that address a broad range of  horizontal agreements among competitors, including joint ventures, strategic alliances, and other competitor collaborations. The guidelines describe an analytical framework to assist businesses in assessing the likelihood of an antitrust challenge to a collaboration with one or more competitors. http://www.ftc.gov:80/opa/2000/04/collguidelines.htm  Related term In-depth competitor collaboration, NCRA National Cooperative Research Act, pre- competitive R&D 

Antitrust Guidelines for Collaborations Among Competitors, Federal Trade Commission,   April  2000 http://www.ftc.gov/os/2000/04/ftcdojguidelines.pdf

applied research: Research genomics glossary

benchmarking: The first step in process optimization is benchmarking. By measuring performance at various stages of drug discovery and development, from individual tasks to programs, benchmarking can help identify processes that are not functioning as intended. It enables companies to pinpoint unwanted delays between processes and evaluate the effectiveness of newly implemented technologies and strategies. [CHI Summit Report Transforming the Pharmaceutical Industry  2001]

best practices: 

big pharma: It is possible to find various lists of "big pharma" companies.  A McKinsey Quarterly article  [No. 2, 2001] cites Pfizer and GlaxoSmithKline (with ethical drug revenue of more than $20 billion, Merck, AstraZeneca, Bristol Myers Squibb, Novartis, Aventis and Johnson & Johnson ($10- 20 billion) and American Home Products, Pharmacia, Roche, Eli Lilly, Abbott Laboratories, Schering- Plough and Bayer ($7- 10 billion). MedAdNews publishes a list of the top 50 pharmaceutical companies each September. 

biotechnology industry: The rapid rate with which sequencing efforts succeeded has forced almost every major pharmaceutical company to reassess its level of investment in genomics. Some experts believe that applying genomic technology to pharmaceutical research could save on the billions of dollars spent each year to develop drugs. And the ability to deliver a new or better product in this market can bring years of multi- million dollar (and, for a few companies, billion- dollar) profits. On the downside, companies that do not find ways to fill their pipelines as quickly will see their corporate value drop, making them a ready target for acquisition. The genomic companies that best meet the industry's growing needs for data, analysis, and technologies could therefore achieve tremendous success.

Even those pharmaceutical companies that have limited their commitment to genomics will find themselves dragged into the genomic era as a result of this competition. The keys to drug and diagnostic developers' success will be not just collecting the data they need as fast as possible, but, more important, understanding what those data mean and being able to piece them all together so as to quickly and efficiently find new products. As leading pharmaceutical industry executives like to say, "It's not the data, it's what you do with it."

Doing "something" with genomic data will indeed require a complex platform of technologies, the right experimental designs, and a significant supporting infrastructure. And these demands have made some in major pharmaceutical companies feel that their size provides an advantage. But the extremely specialized nature of many genomic techniques has given smaller companies the edge in certain areas, and now a growing number of genomic companies are aiming to imitate Millennium Pharmaceuticals by capitalizing on their technical expertise to become drug developers themselves. As a result, there could be some big surprises in store: Just as the biotechnology revolution led to the success of companies like Amgen, Genzyme, and Genentech, genomics will allow some much younger companies to surge ahead of any lumbering pharmaceutical giants. [Beyond Sequencing, CHI staff, 2000] http://www.chireports.com/content/reports/beyond.asp

Biotechnology & Pharmaceuticals Baker Library Industry Guide, Andrea Schulman, Harvard Business School, 2000 http://www.library.hbs.edu/industry/biotech.htm  Annotated bibliography

blockbuster drugs: Drug discovery & development glossary Related terms FIPCO,  market fragmentation, pharmaceutical industry.

burn rate: The rate at which a company (not yet making a profit) is going through its available money (which may come from angel investors, venture capital and other sources).. Generally expressed in cash spent per month.

business plan: Tutorial and outline from the Small Business Administration (US) http://www.sba.gov/starting/indexbusplans.html

MIT's Enterprise Forum Business Plan Resources http://web.mit.edu/entforum/www/Business_Plans/bplans.html

Inc. Magazine, Writing a business plan http://www2.inc.com/writing_a_business_plan/

collaboration: Collaboration allows individual partners to leverage their resources, reducing costs and risks and enabling research ventures that might not have been undertaken otherwise. In the case of intra- sector collaboration, the underlying theme is that more can be accomplished at lower cost when resources are pooled, especially if organizations can complement each other in terms of expertise and/or research facilities. ...With regard to university- industry alliances, companies can benefit from the extensive research infrastructure (including the students), as well as the store of basic scientific knowledge, that exists at universities - which those firms would not be able afford on their own. Universities, on the other hand, benefit from alliances with firms by  being better able to channel academic research toward practical applications"  Jankowski 1999).  [National Science Foundation Science and Engineering Indicators, 2000] http://www.nsf.gov/sbe/srs/seind00/access/toc.htm#chapter2

Collaboration can be horizontal (a group of small companies), vertical (suppliers and customers), sectoral (same industry sector) or lateral (complementary but different sectors). From the Latin, meaning to work with. Related terms anti- trust; In-depth alliances, alliance networks, competitor collaboration, consortium, joint venture, partnering, research joint venture, strategic alliance, technology transfer, technology web. 

competitive advantage: 

compound annual growth rate: Forecasting.

consolidation: See under mergers & acquisitions.

convertibles: Securities (usually bonds or preferred shares) that can be converted into common stock. Convertibles are great for investors demanding greater potential for appreciation than bonds give, and higher income than common stocks offer. [Investopedia.com]  http://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/convertibles.asp Related terms PIPES, warrants

core competencies: A harmonious blend of capabilities which are difficult for competitors to imitate. Traditionally, core competencies have been directly linked to the competitive attributes of price and performance of products and services. But as techniques and standards for achieving low cost and high quality are increasingly simple to imitate, core competencies must be continuously refined as the source of differential advantage. This implies that today and in the future, the real source of competitive advantage lies within the ability to optimize the blend of technology, procedures, and human skills, all with attributes of flexibility and the ability to optimize the changing opportunities in environment and marketplace. [American Institute of Certified Public Accountants "CPA Vision Process Glossary"  http://www.cpavision.org/poll/glossary.cfm

cross-licensing: A legal agreement in which two or more parties which have potentially conflicting patent claims strike a deal to share rights to the product or process in question. [PhRMA]

deals, drug discovery and development:  Related terms drug discovery and development deals, genomic deals.

development: Research genomics glossary

dilution, antidilution: VCexperts.com http://www.vcexperts.com/Library/Articles/c8a9.asp#antidil

discovery rights: Selling only research findings in the agreement while keeping rights to all the knowledge that is uncovered along the way. (Millennium Pharmaceuticals has been cited as an example of this model.)

disintermediation: An Internet term referring to the removal of intermediaries in a commercial transaction. The trend toward disintermediation in healthcare will actually arise from the application of the Internet to healthcare.  In one example, Orchid Bioscience announced GeneShield.com an Internet- based genetic testing service to identify people with mutations that could trigger side effects or reduce the efficacy of certain widely- prescribed drugs. Use of this service can potentially place more knowledge and decision power in the hands of the consumer.  Another website launched at the American Society of Human Genetics is http://www.GeneticHealth.com. They have a very similar business model. In fact, there are at least a half dozen of these websites with business models similar to GeneShield.com, all directed to the consumer. [CHI Summit Report Transforming the Pharmaceutical Industry  2001]

disruptive technologies: Some technology improvements are linear or incremental.  Others truly change the paradigm.  Harvard Business School faculty member Clayton Christensen's Innovator's Dilemma is about the nonlinear. What is particularly interesting about his analysis (based on data from the disk drive industry) is that he found disruptive technologies tended to be much cheaper than existing technologies. Existing companies were quite capable of developing the technologies (and had). What they couldn't do was figure out how to market them, and whether it made sense to devote sufficient resources to them (which in many cases would not have been the responsible thing to do.)  He mentions the pharmaceutical industry only in passing, but his suggestions that larger established companies either partner with smaller less established companies (as is clearly happening in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology sectors) or that larger companies spin- off promising developments (and cites Johnson & Johnson as being particularly good at this) make a lot of sense. Related term nonlinear

drag along rights:

drug discovery pipeline: Drug discovery & development

drug discovery and development deals: CHI has been tracking drug discovery and development deals, with a particular focus on deals involving innovative drug discovery technologies, such as genomics, functional genomics, proteomics, bioinformatics, data mining, computer modeling, and more. These deals have been rigorously coded  ... As major pharmaceutical and genomic companies scramble to claim lead positions in the genomic revolution, deal activity in this field has increased dramatically. The number of announced genomic deals rose from 165 in the first six months of 1999 to 216 in the second half, an increase of 31%. This trend continued in the first quarter of 2000, when the number of deals nearly doubled over the comparable quarter in 1999. Genomic Deals Review, January 1999- March 2000, is based on information from CHI's proprietary Drug Discovery and Development Deals Database, launched in January 2001, is designed to improve the speed, accuracy, and cost- effectiveness of  next generation drug discovery. Related term genomic deals.

due diligence: The process undertaken by venture capitalists, investment bankers, or others to thoroughly investigate a company before financing; required by law before offering securities for sale [Deloitte & Touche Growth Companies Glossary]  http://www.dttus.com/growth/glossary.htm

ebXML: Sponsored by UN/CEFACT and OASIS, is a modular suite of specifications that enables enterprises of any size and in any geographical location to conduct business over the Internet. Using ebXML, companies now have a standard method to exchange business messages, conduct trading relationships, communicate data in common terms and define and register business processes. [ebXML.org "About ebXML" 2001] http://ebxml.org/ Broader term: Computers & computing XML

elevator pitch: Sound bite version of your business plan. 
Advice on from the MIT Enterprise Forum http://www.mitforumcambridge.org/archive/r_apr00.html#editor

emerging companies: Often small, newly formed companies with interesting technologies. In some contexts emerging companies refers to companies in Second and Third world countries. CHI's Emerging companies database

equity investment: Equity investments by pharmaceutical companies are usually motivated by interest and willingness to enter into a collaboration. Biotechnology companies wanting to approach pharmaceutical companies looking for investors should probably be prepared to enter into one.

ethical issues: See Basic genetics (& genomics) Ethical, legal and social issues ELSI.

exit strategies: Ways for investors to cash in on their investments in a company. Related terms IPO Initial Public Offering, Mergers & Acquisitions M&A

extension of agreement: Agreement coming out of a previous association, may depend upon the achievement of specific milestones.

FIPCO Fully Integrated Pharmaceutical Company: In the 1991–1992 cycle, people were obviously drawn to the FIPCO model, which is the fully integrated pharmaceutical model. This is based on the idea that it is reasonable for a life sciences startup company to pursue a strategy that involves development of all the downstream capabilities - basic R&D through clinical development, manufacturing, and, ultimately, marketing - under one roof. That philosophy was debunked as a viable business strategy for many of the companies from the 1991– 1992 class that tried to expend substantial resources to build those kinds of capabilities over a product portfolio that was quite narrow and limited in its maturity.

In the last cycle of the mid-1990s, the business model that people came full circle to accept was more of an outsourcing model. In this we see companies focusing on what they do best and partnering with bigger companies for clinical trials, marketing and manufacturing.

The business model question is particularly meaningful in the genomic space. Are you going to be a genomics provider of data to third parties that then use that information for their own drug discovery? Or are you going to be a fully integrated company that uses that basic functional genomics information to develop your own proprietary therapeutic product portfolio?  Russell Ray (Credit Suisse First Boston Health Care Group) Roundtable Discussion, Trends in Capital Markets From Convergence: Ernst & Young's Biotechnology Industry Report, Millennium Edition, 2001]  http://www.ey.com/GLOBAL/gcr.nsf/US/Trends_in_Capital_Markets_-_Biotech_Convergence_-_Health_Care_-_Ernst_&_Young_LLP

Related terms biotechnology industry, pharmaceutical industry.

financing: See angel investors, collaborations, convertibles, PIPES, warrants.

for-profit genomics: A loosely defined collection of commercial ventures that range from selling technologies, tools and information to delivering new drugs. [David Malakoff, Robert F. Service "Genomania meets the bottom line" Science 291: 1193-1203, 16 Feb. 2001]

funding of genomic research: In May 2000 we [Stanford group] initiated a survey of organizations that fund genomics research throughout the world, funded by a grant from Burroughs Wellcome Fund to the Stanford [University]- in- Washington program. The purpose was to do a one- time cross- sectional analysis of funding, and to couple that to an analysis of trends, based on analysis of publicly available data. The trends include data on private R&D funding, on patent ownership, and on market value of publicly traded firms, which give a glimpse of some underlying trends in the financial inputs and scientific outputs of genomics. Main Conclusions and Inferences from the Data include the finding that the private sector (pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and genomic startup firms) is a bigger funder of genomics than the public sector (government agencies and nonprofit organizations). [Robert Cooke- Deegan et. al., World Survey of Funding for Genomics Research: Final Report to the Global Forum for Health Research and the World Health Organization,  September 2000]  http://www.stanford.edu/class/siw198q/websites/genomics/finalrpt.htm

genomic deals: Almost 400 genomic deals - covering areas such as bioinformatics, gene expression monitoring, and functional genomics - were announced in 1999, with activity increasing steadily from quarter to quarter. This report, based on Cambridge Healthtech Institute's extensive Drug Discovery and Development Deals Database, reviews the activity of major dealmakers and examines key trends in 1999 (e.g., deal participation by geographic region, activity by large pharmaceutical companies versus smaller firms, types of deals, and types of technologies). The report also reviews first quarter 2000 activity and trends. CHI's Genomic Deals Review, January 1999-> March 2000  Genomic Outlook/ Overview 2001, CHI, Sept. 2001.  Related terms drug discovery and development deals. 

genomic partnering: Genomic Partnering: Emerging and Early Stage Companies
Feb. 23-24  2002 San Francisco CA

high tech industry: The traditional perception of high tech - still reflected in our indicators - has been research- intensive manufacturing industries, like computers and aircraft. The penetration of technologies like information technology, biotechnology, and advanced materials throughout the economy has, however, changed the basic meaning of high tech. Rather than referring to the output of R&D intensive industries, high tech now refers to a style of work applicable to just about every business ...

This change is said to have revolutionized the features of a successful technology policy. Distributed knowledge, skill, entrepreneurship, together with new forms of collaboration between firms, universities and the government, can now result in more effective products and services.  Importantly for both firm and worker income, they can result in significantly differentiated products and services. In other words, technology policy must be more user- centered and demand- based than ever before. [Nicholas S. Vonortas "US Policy towards Research Joint Ventures" Nov. 1999]  http://www.feem.it/web/activ/wp/abs00/14-00.pdf

hype: In the long run, not a useful contribution to awareness of and debate about 21st century science. Related terms marketing; Clinical genomics glossary "good genes, bad genes"

hypercompetitive:  In Richard A. D'Aveni's Hypercompetitive Rivalries: Competing in Highly Dynamic Environments, (1995) he describes situations in which competitive advantages are not sustainable. Companies must be willing to cannibalize their own customers and positions, making all products obsolete including their own. The pharmaceutical industry is sometimes described as hypercompetitive.

IPO Initial Public Offering: Occurs when a company first sells its shares to the public. [Securities and Exchange Commission, US "Initial Public Offerings" 2000] http://www.sec.gov/answers/ipo.htm

incubator: 

intellectual capital: 

Intellectual Property IP: Intellectual Property glossary

knowledge management: Algorithms & data management glossary

legal issues: Related terms anti- trust, Intellectual property glossary, harmonization of pharmaceutical regulations intellectual property IP ; In-depth royalty stacking; Basic genetics & genomics ELSI

license: A contract between the owner(s) of the subject matter of the license and one or more parties that seeks the right to make, use, sell, or import the subject mater of the license. Commonly, a license conveys rights to patented subject matter, but it may also convey rights to tangible subject matter that is not unpatented. Licenses are negotiated agreements that become binding contracts when signed by the parties. In the United States, only one owner need to sign a license if the subject matter is patented. Thus, a patented technology co-owned by three parties can be licensed by one of the parties without the other owners' knowledge or consent. This is not so in most European countries, which require that all owners join in any licenses. Although licenses generally address a standard set of legal issues, there is no standard license or license term. The terms negotiated into licenses by the parties are as varied as the circumstances driving the agreement. [Appendix B Definitions related to Technology Transfer,  Report of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Working Group on Research Tools, US June 4, 1998] http://www.nih.gov/news/researchtools/appendb.htm

licensing: Contractual agreement granting permission to use intellectual property under specific conditions. Licensing agreements, in which one company contracts to buy technology from another company, can be much faster, easier and cheaper to arrange than trying to challenge an intellectual property claim in court. Related terms patent pooling, research joint venture, technology transfer.

market fragmentation (pharmaceutical industry): Likely to occur as drugs are developed for specific population subsets with optimized safety and efficacy. Of the perils listed, this is perhaps the least founded. Currently, the percentage of patients that react favorably to a drug ranges from 20-80%. The market segments itself as patients and doctors switch between medications in order to find the one that works. In fact, market share may erode further even in the absence of significant competition as physicians avoid prescribing a drug if a subset of patients suffer toxic side effects. By defining the population that responds well to a drug, pharmacogenomics can help secure market share. Blockbusters are still possible if the defined population is large. [CHI Summit Pharmacogenomics]

market research: Can be difficult to find data in emerging sectors and for disruptive technology. Business plans 

Mergers and Acquisitions M & A: In general a merger involves the combination of two companies in which one acquires the other. A merger can be distinguished from consolidation, in which a new separate entity is created.

mezzanine financing: Often just prior to an IPO, late stage venture capital.

milestones: Specific business accomplishments, often tied to funding sources.

Net Present Value (NPV) and Internal Rate of Return (IRR) Used primarily at capital intensive and mature companies, NPV and IRR measures are more thorough than traditional ROI calculations, because they take into account the expected life of an investment, depreciation and the cost of capital. Complex approaches to quantifying these measures include accounting for varying discount rates with the changes in risk of an investment and the reinvestment of cash flow from an investment. [Ian Springsteel "Money Talk: Financial Glossary" CIO Magazine Dec. 15, 2000/Jan. 1, 2001] http://www.cio.com/archive/010101/money_content.html

opportunity costs: Opportunity costs refer to alternatives or opportunities that are sacrificed in favor of the chosen solution. Because resources are limited, any decision in favor of one project (service, good, upgrade, etc.) means doing without something else. This should not be confused with assessing alternatives where different solutions for the same project are compared, rather opportunity costs identify other alternative projects that will not be realized due to resources being allocated to addressing the chosen solution. Also known as "alternative cost", "social cost". [CIO Office, Government of Alberta, Canada "Business Case Development Glossary" 2000] http://www.gov.ab.ca/cio/costbenefit/glossary.htm

outsourcing, research and development: According to 1997 National Science Foundation (NSF) data, about 9.5% of all U.S. companies outsource some portion of their R&D. For all the companies in the C&AP industries, almost 22% outsource some R&D work. Considering only the pharmaceutical industry, almost 37% of the firms outsource some of their R&D. According to James Petrocelli, a healthcare services research analyst with the investment banking firm Dain Rauscher Wessels (Minneapolis, MN), about 20% of drug development is outsourced to contract research organizations (CROs). [John Borchart "Playing the economics game with outsourcing" Modern Drug Discovery 3 (2): 28-29, 31-32, 34. Mar. 2000]  http://pubs.acs.org/hotartcl/mdd/00/mar/borch.html

PIPEs Private Investments in Public Equity: An increasingly popular form of biotech financing ($4 billion in 2000, more than double 1999).  PIPEs are private placements, used to obtain money from a small group of investors relatively quickly (often no more than a week or two).  [Heidi Nasr "PIPEs, not pipelines, brought biotechs cash" TheDeal.com Jan 3, 2001]  Related terms convertibles, warrants

partial acquisition: Equity investment in a company.

patent: Intellectual property glossary

patient relationship management: In general, consumers use the Internet as a communication forum, and patients are no different from any other consumers in this respect. Consequently a tremendous opportunity exists for both caregivers and pharmaceutical companies to use the mechanism of the internet for patient relationship management (the equivalent expression in the online retail world is "customer relationship management").  In the future, patient relationship management appears poised to develop into an industry just as significant as the customer relationship management industry.  [CHI Summit Report Transforming the Pharmaceutical Industry  2001]

"pay to play":

pharmaceutical industry: Attendance at this forum is by invitation or qualification only to ensure that the audience consists of senior level executives (director level or above) from pharmaceutical and biotechnology firms. Some of the strategic and operational questions that will be addressed include: What major factors affect R&D productivity and how can it be improved? How can people be managed, motivated and inspired more effectively? What are the implications of the genomic and informatic revolutions on the industry?  How can knowledge be created, shared and utilized more productively? What experiences will produce better integration of all these factors? Pharmaceutical Executive Forum: The rules are changing Apr. 24-26, 2002, Hamilton Bermuda

Transforming the Pharmaceutical Industry – The Industrialization of Research and New Market Realities, CHI Report, August 2001. Drug discovery has moved from benchtop research to automation and process optimization more familiar to a manufacturing operation. At the same time, the industry is trying to understand what the market landscape is going to look like as it shifts toward serving smaller, genetically well- defined populations. 

I have said for a number of years that I hoped drug companies which encouraged open sharing of scientific information would prosper in the long run, but without finding much evidence (even anecdotal) to validate this.  I was delighted to find the following report which quantified the positive correlation between companies encouraging peer reviewed scientific publication and productivity ( correlating patents issued to company scientists with articles published in peer- reviewed journals by company scientists). Diffusion of Science Driven Drug Discovery Organizational Change in Pharmaceutical Research,  Iaim M. Cockburn, Rebecca Henderson and Scott Stern, NBER, Sept. 1999  http://www.cid.harvard.edu/cidbiotech/events/henderson.htm  Related terms biotechnology industry, blockbuster drugs, market fragmentation. 

Biotechnology & Pharmaceuticals Baker Library Industry Guide, Andrea Schulman, Harvard Business School, 2000 http://www.library.hbs.edu/industry/biotech.htm  Annotated bibliography

platform companies: Also referred to as "technology platform companies", the ones developing and marketing the instrumentation and informatics needed to make use of genomic data - the 21st century equivalent of the pick and shovel manufacturers of the 19th century Gold Rush.

platform technology: A type of corporate partnering that first gained favor in 1996 - “platform technology” deals -  in the fields of combinatorial chemistry, gene therapy and genomics. In each of these areas, companies have developed innovative partnering strategies for granting non- exclusive licenses to several pharmaceutical companies simultaneously, thus permitting varying degrees of access to their early- stage technologies.

By contrast, during the first two decades of the biotech industry, the goal of every biotech company was to bring a therapeutic product through as late a stage of clinical development as possible (i.e., until the money ran out), and then deliver an exclusive license on this product to a large pharmaceutical company, which would then market it directly. If funds permitted, manufacturing rights were jealously guarded by the biotech company, and perhaps some co- marketing rights as well. A platform technology involves the use of biological or chemical materials to speed up the drug discovery process. [Michael Lytton "Platform- Technology Deals Increasingly Will Drive Genomics and Gene Therapy Alliances" Palmer & Dodge] http://www.palmerdodge.com/about/publicationoutput.cfm?fileID=36  Related terms  FIPCO, target technologies, tool technologies.

process optimization: Rather than focusing on technology alone, companies must closely examine workflow, capacity and communication to optimize discovery much as one might optimize a manufacturing process. Benchmarking performance at multiple points within drug discovery and development is an essential pre- requisite to process optimization. [CHI Summit Report Transforming the Pharmaceutical Industry  2001]

R&D research & development: Related terms In-depth pre-competitive R&D; Research genomics glossary applied research, basic research, development

R&D productivity: Pharmaceutical R&D has been fully transformed during the past few decades. In the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s, companies centered around reengineering, chemistry, and genetics work. Later, in the 1990s, applying technology became the focal point, with companies developing discovery simulations and virtual R&D. Now, we face perhaps the most complex and least quantifiable challenge for R&D: managing human dynamics. Companies must coordinate teams, manage workflow, integrate groups, and discover ways to work more effectively and efficiently on an increasingly global scale. This talk will present the varied history of the R&D function and discuss what we can expect for the future based on experiences of the past and present. I will address which factors driving our work today will set the stage for companies' performance down the road and how they can create a path for performance improvement in R&D in an ever- changing and increasingly competitive market.  Jim Hall, PA Consulting "R&D Productivity Trends, Issues, and Prospects"  Pharmaceutical Executive Forum: The rules are changing Apr. 24-26, 2002, Hamilton Bermuda 

redemption rights:

Return On Investment ROI: Profit (or loss) on an investment, often expressed as a percentage.

risk capital: See venture capital.

risk management: Can be loosely defined as a systematic process for the identification, analysis, control, and communication of risks ...  Risk management should be integrated into the life cycle of any process or project that's important to a business. The use of a risk- management methodology lets a company make informed decisions about the allocation of scarce resources to areas that are most at risk. [B. Paul "How much risk is too much?" Informationweek.com: 116-124, Nov. 6, 2000]

seed funds/seed rounds: Initial funding. may be supplied by family, friends, angel investors and/ or venture capital.

sexy technologies: What makes technologies sexy? It seems to be a combination of being new, innovative and challenging, affording clever people a chance to learn new skills (and demonstrate how competitive and bright they are) and expensive (or otherwise not available to just anyone). A quick search of the web identifies high- speed computers, robotics, nanotechnology, HDTV, Java, wireless communications and biomaterials as "sexy" by some criteria. I'd be interested to hear other interpretations and nuances of this class of technologies. Are there significant differences in what biologists, businesspeople, chemists, computer scientists and others consider "sexy technologies"? 

spin-offs: Large(r) companies may find spinning off smaller divisions (or newly acquired ones outside their core competencies) makes more sense than trying to integrate different companies and cultures. Some spin- offs eventually become larger than the parent.  Johnson & Johnson is noted by Clayton Christensen in his Innovator's Dilemma as being particularly good as spinning off a number of successful enterprises. Related terms disruptive technologies

Learn how to justify and present a case for spin- off to a parent company. This presentation also covers the key contractual considerations in forming a spin- off company, options for financing the new entity, and successful models for defining the relationship between the parent company and its offspring.   Biotech Start-up Funding A-Z    Oct. 29-30, 2001 Boston MA

start-ups: New businesses, often one looking for funding. Examples of start- ups that eventually achieved capitalization and revenue greater than its parent include: Affymetrix, Abgenix and Guilford Pharmaceuticals. Merriam-Webster dates the use of "start-up" to 1845.  Biotech Start-up Funding A-Z    Oct. 29-30, 2001 Boston MA

standards: A challenge to develop for disruptive technologies. See standards in Expression glossary Microarrays glossary; 

technology audit:

term sheet: A funding offer from a capital provider. It lays out the amount of an investment and the conditions under which the investors expect you to work using their money. [David Newton "Translating the Term Sheet" Entrepreneur's Start-ups Magazine  Sept. 2001 http://www.entrepreneur.com/Your_Business/YB_SegArticle/0,4621,292292-----,00.html

tool technologies: Combinatorial chemistry libraries, cDNA libraries or drug delivery mechanisms like gene therapy [Michael Lytton "Platform- Technology Deals Increasingly Will Drive Genomics and Gene Therapy Alliances" Palmer & Dodge] http://www.palmerdodge.com/about/publicationoutput.cfm?fileID=36

valuation: Joe Hadzima "Thinking about valuation" http://web.mit.edu/entforum/www/hadzima/valuation.htm

"Valuing Biotechnology Companies", Yali Friedman http://biotech.about.com/library/weekly/aa_valuingbiotechs.htm

venture capital:  Venture capital is money provided by professionals who invest alongside management in young, rapidly growing companies that have the potential to develop into significant economic contributors. Venture capital is an important source of equity for start-up companies. Professionally managed venture capital firms generally are private partnerships or closely-held corporations funded by private and public pension funds, endowment funds, foundations, corporations, wealthy individuals, foreign investors, and the venture capitalists themselves. Venture capitalists generally:  Finance new and rapidly growing companies; Purchase equity securities; Assist in the development of new products or services; Add value to the company through active participation; Take higher risks with the expectation of higher rewards; Have a long-term orientation [National Venture Capital Association website] http://www.nvca.org/

venture leasing: Venture leasing firms specialize in leasing of equipment to companies at discounted rates in exchange for equity.  For example, a start-up may be able to obtain an inexpensive lease on $1 million worth of laboratory equipment for only $100,000 worth of warrants (like options).  This can be an effective means of leveraging small amounts of equity and conserving cash. [Harvard Biotechnology Club, Startup Resources, 2001] http://www.thebiotechclub.org/startup/Links_Leasing.html

warrant:  A security entitling the holder to buy a proportionate amount of stock at some specified future date at a specified price, usually one higher than current market. This "warrant" is then traded as a security, the price of which reflects the value of the underlying stock. Warrants are usually issued as a "sweetener" bundled with another class of security to enhance the marketability of the latter. Warrants are like call options, but with much longer time spans -- sometimes years.  [Washington Post.com]  http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/business/longterm/glossary/n_z/warrant.htm Related terms convertibles, PIPES

Bibliography

[CHI report Transforming the Pharmaceutical Industry: Adapting to Change in Technologies and Markets Mike Silver, Aug. 2001 http://www.chireports.com/content/reports/srtransforming.asp

Among the most useful business glossaries I’ve found are
Investor words Investor Guide.com Inc., 2001, 5000 + terms http://www.investorwords.com/directory.htm

Investopedia http://www.investopedia.com/dictionary/  2001, 3000 + terms

Alpha glossary index

In-depth Business of the life sciences glossary

alliance networks: Alliance networks offer many potential advantages. ...  But alliance networks are inherently difficult to manage. As Booz Allen consultant  John Harbison says, adding one new member to a group adds ten new issues. “It is as if there is an alliance Richter Scale. Problems increase by a magnitude of ten,” he says. ["Teaching alliances: What you can learn from the top business schools" Alliance Analyst, Nov. 11, 1994] http://www.allianceanalyst.com/Article1Nov11-94.html

Major forces driving alliances networks are globalization and the increasing complexity of research and development.  Alliance networks can be particularly useful in implementing technical standards, in increasing companies' access to global markets and when new technologies are intersecting sectors which were previously quite separate (such as happened in the 1990's with information technology and telecommunications).

Bayh-Dole Act:, 35 U.S.C. §§ 200-211, provides the statutory basis and framework for federal technology transfer activities, including the patenting and licensing of federally funded inventions by recipient organizations. The Act permits recipients of federal grants and contracts to elect title to patentable "subject inventions" that arise with the use of federal funds. If recipients elect title, the Act requires them to file patent applications, seek commercialization opportunities, and report back to the funding agency on efforts to obtain utilization of their inventions. The Act also retains for the funding agency certain residual rights in subject inventions. [Appendix B Definitions related to Technology Transfer,  Report of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Working Group on Research Tools, US June 4, 1998] http://www.nih.gov/news/researchtools/appendb.htm

business intelligence: See competitive intelligence

CORDIS Community Research and Development Information Service: An important source on EU [European Union] R&D programmes and relevant matters ... distributed: via the CORDIS World Wide Web service, which includes access to the CORDIS databases. http://www.cordis.lu/en/home.html

CRADA Cooperative Research and Development Agreement: A written agreement between a private company and a government agency to work together on a project. By entering into a CRADA, the [US] Federal government and non- Federal partners can optimize their resources and cost effectively perform research by sharing the costs of this research. The collaborating partner agrees to provide funds, personnel, services, facilities, equipment or other resources needed to conduct a specific research or development effort while the Federal government agrees to provide similar resources but not funds directly to the partner.  http://www.usgs.gov/tech-transfer/what-crada.html

The main reason for the creation of CRADAs was that industry would benefit from increased access to government scientists, research facilities, and the technology they developed. Government, in turn, would benefit from a reduction in the costs of items it needs to carry out its objectives (Lesko and Irish 1995, 67). Both would benefit from technology transfer, and Federal R&D in national labs would be more useful to U.S. industry. [National Science Foundation Science and Engineering Indicators, 2000]  http://www.nsf.gov/sbe/srs/seind00/access/toc.htm#chapter2

Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services: Was HCFA Health Care Financing Administration, name changed in June 2001. http://cms.hhs.gov/

competitive intelligence CI: The process by which a company analyses information available about its competitors, its market and its customers to be able to anticipate changes in the industry and make the right strategic decisions. Companies have been doing Competitive Intelligence for years, and it was usually part of a  "market analysis", a "strategic planning" or a "marketing" function. There are a number of formal definitions of Competitive Intelligence (CI). The Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals (SCIP) defines CI as "the legal collection and analysis of information regarding the capabilities, vulnerabilities, and intentions of business competitors, conducted by using 'open sources' and ethical inquiry." There is also  a broader definition: CI is the team process of discovering, analyzing, and delivering intelligence from publicly available, non- proprietary information sources for the purpose of becoming more competitive in the marketplace. {CI Primer: Introduction to Competitive Intelligence, Industry Canada ] http://strategis.ic.gc.ca/sc_mangb/cip/engdoc/ci_intro.html

competitor collaboration: The competitive effects from competitor collaborations may differ from those of mergers due to a number of factors. Mergers completely end competition between the merging parties in the relevant market(s). By contrast, most competitor collaborations preserve some form of  competition among the participants. This remaining competition may reduce competitive concerns, but also may raise questions about whether participants have agreed to anticompetitive restraints on the remaining competition.

Mergers are designed to be permanent, while competitor collaborations are more typically of  limited duration. Thus, participants in a collaboration typically remain potential competitors, even if they are not actual competitors for certain purposes (e.g., R&D) during the collaboration. The potential for future competition between participants in a collaboration requires antitrust scrutiny different from that required for mergers. Nonetheless, in some cases, competitor collaborations have competitive effects identical to those that would arise if the participants merged in whole or in part. [Federal Trade Commission [US]  "Antitrust guidelines for collaborations among competitors" 1999] Related term RJV Research joint venture.  http://www.ftc.gov/os/1999/9910/jointventureguidelines.htm#1.3

consortium, consortia: A consortium is typically a loose, long-term alliance between competitors in a given industry. Research and development consortia are a specific type of consortia that focus on basic research and sometimes applied research, rather than downstream activities such as production.  While joint ventures and licensing partnerships are relatively traditional forms of inter-firm collaboration, R&D consortia are new to the scene.  Under the National Cooperative Research Act (NCRA) of 1984, these sorts of industry- based consortia became immune to anti- trust legislation in the United States.  The NCRA emphasizes the pre- competitive aspect of R & D ... To date, no U.S. consortium has been prosecuted under any anti- trust legislation.  The collaboration of competitors in early phases of the innovation process can yield great advances for the entire industry involved in the consortia.  ["Collaboration between Firms in Information Technology" Chris Rigatuso, Takeshi Tachi, Dennis Sylvester, Mark Soper; Strategic Computing and Communications  Technology course, Department of  Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences, Univ. of California- Berkeley, US, Spring 1997]  Related terms anti- trust,  In-depth technology consortia.  http://www-inst.eecs.berkeley.edu/~eecsba1/s97/reports/eecsba1g/report/report.html

database subscription: The subject of much debate about intellectual property and patenting issues. Companies such as Incyte or TIGR may have different subscription fees for non- profits and commercial subscribers.  Related term proprietary databases. Bioinformatics glossary.

deal types: In CHI's Genomic Deals Database deal types include database subscription, extension of agreement, funding of research, joint  venture/ development/ strategic alliance, licensing of drug target, licensing of product,  licensing of technology, manufacturing,  marketing, merger/ acquisition, partial acquisition, patent acquisition, spin- offs, technology service agreement.

Framework Programme on Cooperative Research & Technological Development & Demonstration, Fifth: European Union science and technology  programme "which sets out the objectives of the EU research, technological development and demonstration (RTD) activities for the period 1998- 2002. With a budget of 14.960 million Euro, it consists of four thematic programmes (tackling the areas of research identified within the key actions) and three horizontal programmes (activities involving all areas). The main objectives of this programme are to increase the industrial competitiveness and the quality of life for European citizens".  http://www.cordis.lu/fp5/  The first Framework Programme started in July 1983. The sixth will start in 2002-2003.

Global Industry Classification Standard GICS: On August 2, 1999 MSCI and Standard & Poor's jointly launched the new Global Industry Classification Standard which is aimed at easing the investment research and management process for financial professionals worldwide. The Global Industry Classification Standard consists of 10 economic sectors aggregated from 23 industry groups, 59 industries, and 123 sub-industries covering over 10,000 companies globally. [Standard & Poor's "Global Industry Classification Standard", 2001]  http://www.spglobal.com/gics.html 

genomic technologies: Includes bioinformatics, cloning, combinatorial chemistry, functional genomics, gene delivery, gene expression monitoring, gene identification, genetic variations/ SNPs, high performance computing, microarrays, protein arrays, protein function, protein interactions,  proteomics, sample prep, sequencing, target identification,  target validation.  Used to index CHI's Drug Discovery & Development Deals Database.

harmonization of pharmaceutical regulations: Clinical trials & drug approvals glossary

Health Care Financing Administration HCFA (US): Now Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services http://cms.hhs.gov/

joint venture: An association formed for a specific purpose (and duration) between two or more parties. Originally a real estate term, now use much more widely. Unlike most partnerships, a joint venture anticipates eventual termination of the arrangement. Related terms In-depth NCRPA definition of  "joint venture", pre- competitive R&D, RJV Research joint venture.

keiretsu: A Japanese term that describes the set of interlocking relationships among Japanese suppliers and manufacturers.  [Alex Grove "American Keiretsu" Red Herring Feb. 1, 1998]  http://www.redherring.com/index.asp?layout=story&channel=70000007&doc_id=1610016561

licensing of a drug target. See also target. Drug discovery and development glossary.

METI Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry: In January [2001] the Ministry of International Trade and Industry was transformed into the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI).   http://www.meti.go.jp/english/

Previously known at MITI, Japan. Described as "an ambitious effort to restructure the research arm of Japan's industry ministry", made up of 45 institutes and centres with a structure "designed to combine application-orientated goals with considerable operational autonomy for the institutes". [D Cyranoski "Goal-directed revamp for Japanese research" Nature 401:7, 1 Mar. 2001]
Related term TRAs Technology Research Associations.

MITI Ministry of International Trade and Industry (Japan): Now METI

MTA Material Transfer Agreement: A negotiated contract between the owner of a tangible material and a party seeking the material and the right to use the material for research purposes. The material may be either patented or unpatented. Material transfer agreements tend to be shorter than license agreements, and they are generally/ considered to be more informal than licenses agreements, although both are enforceable contracts. The purpose of an MTA is to document the transfer and outline the terms of use, including identification of the research project, terms of confidentiality, publication, and liability. As with licenses, there are no standard MTAs, although the academic community and NIH developed an under used model MTA for biological materials called the Uniform Biological Material Transfer Agreement (UBMTA). MTAs do not usually require financial payments at the time of the transfer, but many MTAs allow the provider to either own, or license exclusively, or obtain payments upon the sale of, developments that the recipient makes with the provider's materials. These are loosely called "reach- through" provisions, and are considered by many providers to be desirable because they allow the provider to obtain rights in subject matter that the provider would not otherwise have rights to through its ownership or patent coverage of the material alone. Reach- through provisions are considered undesirable by many recipients because they burden all the developments created after the use of the material, and because they are seen as providing an unfairly high level of compensation to the provider for use of the material. [Appendix B Definitions related to Technology Transfer,  Report of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Working Group on Research Tools, US June 4, 1998] http://www.nih.gov/news/researchtools/appendb.htm

A contract governing the exchange transfer of biological materials between all sectors of the scientific community, including universities and industrial labs, for research purposes. The types of materials transferred under MTA's include cell lines, [cell] cultures, plasmids, nucleotides, proteins and bacteria. ... They govern such issues as: ownership of the materials and of any modifications or derivatives made by the recipient * limits on the use of the materials by the recipient and related liability * rights to inventions resulting from the use of the materials * rights to publish research results obtained through the use of the materials [Office of Technology Licensing & Industry Sponsored Research, Harvard Medical School "A quick guide for investigators" Jan. 2001] http://www.hms.harvard.edu/otl/111063_HMS_OTL_Web_Text.pdf

NAICS North American Industry Classification System: Replaces US SIC codes. Developed jointly by the U.S., Canada, and Mexico to provide new comparability in statistics about business activity across North America. http://www.census.gov/epcd/www/naics.html   An industry taxonomy. Related term SIC codes

NAPCS North American Product Classification System: On February 2, 1999, in partnership with its counterparts in Mexico and Canada, the Economic Classification Policy Committee (ECPC) of the [US] Office of  Management and the Budget launched a three country initiative to create a product classification system for NAICS industries. We will use this classification system to coordinate the collection, tabulation, and analysis of output and price data for the products. http://www.census.gov/epcd/products/

NCRA National Cooperative Research Act: Restrictions on multi- firm cooperative research relationships were lifted with the passage of NCRA in 1984. This law was enacted to encourage U.S. firms to collaborate on generic, precompetitive research. To gain protection from antitrust litigation, NCRA requires firms engaging in RJVs [Research Joint Ventures] to register them with [the US] DOJ [Department of Justice.] [National Science Foundation "Science and Engineering Indicators 2000"]  http://www.nsf.gov/sbe/srs/seind00/access/c2/c2s6.htm

NCRPA National Cooperative Research and Production Act: 1993 amendment to the National Cooperative Research Act (NCRA), encouraging corporations to engage in joint ventures for purposes of research and development and/or production

non-genomic technologies: Categories used to index CHI's Drug discovery and development deals database include animal models, bioproduction,  cell based screening,  cell culture, combinatorial chemistry, diagnostic, drug delivery, lab automation,  labels, signaling & detection, lead discovery, lead optimization, medicinal chemistry, sample prep, separations, therapeutics.

partnership: A business enterprise entered into for profit which is owned by more than one person, each of whom is a "partner." A partnership may be created by a formal written agreement, but may be based on an oral agreement or just a handshake. Each partner invests a certain amount (money, assets and/ or effort) which establishes an agreed upon percentage of ownership, is responsible for all the debts and contracts of the partnership even though another partner created the debt or entered into the contract, has a share in management decisions, and shares in profits and losses according to the percentage of the total investment. ... A "limited partnership" limits the responsibility for debts beyond the investment to the managing "general partners." The investing "limited partners" cannot participate in management and are limited to specific percentages of profit. A partnership differs from a "joint venture," which involves more than one investor for only a specific short term project and prompt division of profits. [law.com] http://dictionary.law.com/definition2.asp?selected=1460&bold=|||

patent acquisition: How is this different from licensing?

pre-competitive R&D: Research & Development performed typically in a joint venture formed by  private organizations or by one or more private organizations and a government for the purpose of developing generic technologies that would not have specific market application, but that may have near- term application. Precompetitive R&D precludes: (a) exchanging information among competitors relating to costs, sales, profitability, prices, marketing, or distribution of any product, process, or service that is not reasonably required to conduct the research and development that is the purpose of such venture; (b) entering into any agreement or engaging in any other conduct restricting, requiring, or otherwise involving the production or marketing by any person who is a party to such venture of any product, process, or service, other than the production or marketing of proprietary information developed through such venture; and (c) entering into any agreement or engaging in any other conduct that is not reasonably required to prevent misappropriation of proprietary information contributed by any person who is a party to such venture or its results. [David. Hahn, Thomas. Sporleder, ADE 601 Glossary Technical Terms for Agribusiness Managers, Ohio State Univ. US*]

RJV Research Joint Venture: Any group of activities, including attempting to make, making, or performing a contract, by two or more persons for the purpose of (a) theoretical analysis, experimentation, or systematic study of phenomena or observable facts, (b) the development or testing of basic engineering techniques, (c) the extension of  investigative findings or theory of a scientific or technical nature into practical application for experimental and demonstration purposes … (d) the collection, exchange, and analysis of research information, or (e) any combination of the [above].” RJV members can be from different sectors as well as from different countries. [NCRA quoted in National Science Foundation's Science & Engineering Indicators 1998] Broader term joint venture.   http://www.nsf.gov/sbe/srs/seind98/access/c4/c4s3.htm

SBIR Small Business Innovation Research: A highly competitive [US] program that encourages small business to explore their technological potential and provides the incentive to profit from its commercialization. http://www.sba.gov/SBIR/sbir.html

STTR Small Business Technology Transfer: A [US] small business program that expands funding opportunities in the federal innovation research and development arena. Central to the program is expansion of the public/private sector partnership to include the joint venture opportunities for small business and the nation's premier nonprofit research institutions. http://www.sba.gov/SBIR/sttr.html

SIC Standard Industrial Classification codes: The 1997 Economic Census demonstrates the relationship between NAICS and SIC by showing data for the lowest common denominators between the two systems. 1997 census records were assigned both SIC and NAICS codes.   http://www.census.gov/epcd/ec97brdg/ Related term NAICS (replacing SIC codes).

SME (SMALL AND MEDIUM SIZED ENTERPRISE: An SME is an enterprise which: has fewer than 250 employees, and has either an annual turnover not exceeding 40 million euro, or an annual balance- sheet total not exceeding 27 million euro, and conforms to the criteria of independence. as defined in the work programme of the horizontal programme "Innovation and the Participation of SMEs", in the context of the SME Specific Measures, an SME is considered eligible if, in addition, it: is not a research centre, research institute, contract research organisation or consultant,  in one of the Member States or in a State associated to the [European Union's] Fifth Framework Programme. SMEs from third States may be involved under the conditions explained in the sheet "Participation from non-EU countries in FP5". [Glossary Cordis, European Union] http://www.cordis.lu/sme/src/glossary.htm

strategic alliance: May refer to a joint venture or an alliance network.  Strategic implies that one (or each) companies have something unique to bring to the agreement. (Not all alliances are as strategic as their participants initially hoped for.) May well involve more than two entities.

TRAs Technology Research Associations: Japanese groups working through MITI (now METI).

target technologies: Genomics, signal transduction, antisense.  [Michael Lytton "Platform-Technology Deals Increasingly Will Drive Genomics and Gene Therapy Alliances" Palmer & Dodge]  http://www.palmerdodge.com/about/publicationoutput.cfm?fileID=36

technology consortia: Technology alliances among business firms, universities and governments. They are formed to share increasingly rising costs and risks associated with undertaking basic or precompetitive research and development (R&D). The alliances are both vertical and horizontal and can include both domestic and foreign companies. In most cases, they are found across such high- tech industries as electronics, computer, aerospace and pharmaceutical sectors. Technical alliances have become an important part of the corporate competitive strategies of high- tech industry leaders. Related term alliance network.  [Vinod Kumar, Sunder Magun "No. 3 - The Role of R&D Consortia in Technology Development" Industry Canada, Feb. 1995]  http://strategis.ic.gc.ca/SSG/ra00004e_pr002.sgml

The era of companies doing everything in- house has passed. Collaboration of competitors in the early phases of the innovation process can result in great benefits for the entire industry.  In the US pre- competitive R&D consortia have flourished since passage of the National Cooperative Research Act (NCRA) in 1984. Japan had Technology Research Associations (TRAs)  even earlier.  The development of standards by consortia can play a useful role in emerging and disruptive technologies.  Consortia can share R&D costs and risks, particularly when existing technologies are in flux.  They can work against short product life cycles requiring high frequency of innovations. But new and truly disruptive technologies are a potential minefield.  Shared and complementary visions, governance, finance, communication and trust can be difficult to maintain. Intellectual property rights can be problematic.  

technology service agreement: Often refers to information technology, including agreements to maintain, service, customize and update information technology.

technology transfer: Can cover a wide spectrum of activities, from informal exchanges of ideas between visiting researchers to contractually structured research collaboration involving the joint use of facilities and equipment. Only since the late 1980s, however, has technology transfer become an important mission component of  most Federal labs. Some agencies, however, have long shared their research with the private sector (e.g., USDA’s Agricultural Research Experiment Stations and NASA’s civilian aeronautics programs), and several laws passed in the early 1980s encouraged such sharing — notably, the Stevenson-Wydler Technology Innovation Act of  1980. [National Science Foundation Science and Engineering Indicators, 2000]  http://www.nsf.gov/sbe/srs/seind00/access/toc.htm#chapter2

The Bayh-Dole Act (1980) is also frequently cited as having a major impact on university technology transfer.

tender offer: A takeover bid which offers to buy stockholders shares at a higher than market price to encourage them to sell.

termination of agreement: Implications for participants? Anticipated conclusion in some instances?