Cancer Research Technology (CRT) and Medical Research Council Technology (MRCT) can offer each other rights to manage, develop and license discoveries from research funded by their parent organizations, Cancer Research UK and the government’s Medical Research Council. The arrangement will explore ways to make the most of each organization’s expertise and speed up the licensing of potential products for patient benefit.

CRT can offer MRCT the opportunity to manage, develop and license certain intellectual property outside the field of cancer. In return, MRCT can offer CRT the opportunity to manage, develop and license certain intellectual property with an application in cancer.

Dr Keith Blundy, CEO of CRT, said: ‘This is in effect a two-way skills transplant between two organizations with expertise in different areas of medical research.

‘It’s a win-win-win – for CRT, for MRCT and also for patients. CRT has a solid expertise in forming global networks with industry partners to turn cancer discoveries into exciting ways to treat cancer with aim to increase survival.

‘In return the arrangement lets us hand over discoveries from our researchers that fall outside of cancer to the technology transfer leaders in specific disease research fields. Both organizations can contribute their skills and knowledge to bring the maximum patient benefit across a range of diseases as efficiently and quickly as possible.’

Dr Blundy added: ‘As well as each organization providing management commercialization skills, each will use drug discovery expertise to translate drug targets into commercial opportunities.’ Both CRT and MRCT will share revenue resulting from the arrangement, agreed on a case-by-case basis.