ABSTRACT
The authors, including an academic-inventor, the director of the University's tech-transfer office, and the CEO of a "start-up" pharmaceutical company based on the professor's (and his colleague's) inventions, relate the history and current status of their interactions. To start, the basic research leading to the "eureka" experiment (such things really do happen) is summarized: namely, the discovery of (i) the surprising ability of the tetracycline antibiotics to inhibit mammalian tissue-destructive proteinases (collagenase, gelatinase) during a variety of disease processes, e.g., periodontitis, the arthritides, osteopenia/osteoporosis, sterile corneal ulcers, tumor invasion/metastasis/angiogenesis, and (ii) a series of chemically-modified, non-antibacterial analogs of tetracyclines to inhibit these enzymes without producing typical antibiotic side effects. The role of the University in obtaining the services of patent attorneys, and its assistance in developing the strategy to deal with an industrial partner, is addressed. Above all, the authors stress the need for close cooperation and collegial interactions between all three groups in this high-risk (but potentially high-benefit-to-the-public) enterprise.
