Advances in medicine and pharmaceuticals helped Ohio University earn more than $8.2 million in licensing income during fiscal year 2010, a $1.3 million increase compared to the previous year, according to the Office of Research Communications.
Licensing revenue has steadily increased during recent years, making OU one of the top public universities in the country and the top public university in the state in terms of income from patents, according to Research Communications. Since fiscal year 2005, income from technology licensing has more than tripled.
There are exciting projects that are looking very good
Vice President for Research and Dean of Graduate College Rathindra Bose said.
This source of revenue comes from private companies who buy the rights to manufacture, use or sell technology discovered or developed by researchers at the university. These companies also pay a portion of the profits back to the university.
Some of this money goes to the inventor of the technology, and the rest goes to the university, where it is used to cover costs and reinvested in research, according to a previous Post article.
Bose said the three most promising areas of research are biotechnology, energy and information technology.
A 1988 license to the pharmaceutical company Pfizer earns the university most of its licensing income. Pfizer licensed a growth hormone antagonist for use in its drug Somavert, which is used to treat acromegaly, a type of gigantism. OU earns a 5 percent royalty on Somavert sales, according to Bose.
Another development led to a test for Grave's disease, a form of hyperthyroidism, created by Athens company Interthyr Corporation. More recently, an ammonia hydrolytic cell developed by chemical and biomolecular engineering professor Gerardine Botte was licensed for use in a device that will use ammonia to produce electricity. 1
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