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26 June 2014Biotechnology

BIO 2014: Open innovation a threat to research institutes

An increasing trend among scientists to want to put their new ideas into the public domain to be shared for the benefit of all is putting research bodies that rely on partnerships with industry for a substantial proportion of their income at risk, according to Jean Derégnaucourt, executive vice-president for business development at the Institut Pasteur in Paris.

“Open innovation and open data is a problem,” he said. “What it means is if we're not able to patent innovation coming out of the institute we lose a third of our revenues, we have to shut down a third of our labs and we may have to lay off a third of our scientists. That's because a third of our revenue from research and development comes from industrial partnering.”

Speaking to LSIPR on the fringes of the 2014 BIO International Convention in San Diego, California, yesterday, June 25, he said: “What should we do about it? That's the question we put to lawyers. And we get the same answer: that's an interesting question.”

This is a problem for other institutes too, according to Jean-Philippe Arié, operations coordinator at Global Care Initiative, a consortium of five French research centres that combined to develop their collaborative and partnership research in human health.

“What we're doing is we're trying to work with industry very early, before the patents, to build the patents together. That shares the cost of the research. But we still have a problem because if the patent is of no value there's no money coming back into the institutes so there's no more research,” he said.

Derégnaucourt explained that some 30 percent of Institut Pasteur's revenue comes from industrial partnerships, with the rest coming from sources such as European and French grants, donations and legacies. If that revenue is lost, fewer new companies will be created.

“It's their first asset; the patent portfolio. If we generate fewer patents, we'll create fewer start-ups,” he said. “The landscape is changing. How are we going to generate value from open innovation?”

The position is exactly the same in all five Global Care Initiative institutes because they all have their own incubators, added Arié. Moreover, “it's a world-wide problem for public institutions. We have to get money to pay for researchers' equipment. That's very important to make good science. Without patents it will be very hard.”

As a result “we are dedicated to identifying resource diversification,” he said. “We're seeking new sources of funding. There can be alternatives to patents but patents are still very important.”

The 2014 BIO International Convention runs from June 23 to June 26 in San Diego