program is to advance UW-Madison innovations in drugs and biologics—which Iverson said represent more than two-thirds of WARF’s patent portfolio—toward commercialization.
Iverson said the program will involve forging (or expanding) relationships with large pharma companies, some of which have shifted resources away from the earliest work in the drug development process.
“What has happened over the past decade is many of the big pharmaceutical companies, whether it’s GlaxoSmithKline (NYSE: [[ticker:GSK]]) or Sanofi (NYSE: [[ticker:SNY]]) or Pfizer (NYSE: [[ticker:PFE]]) or others, have [outsourced or] shed big portions of their discovery and their research,” he said. “They all need research. They all want products developed,” and WARF believes it can help with that.
Iverson said WARF plans to hire two or three veterans of the pharmaceuticals industry who might help the tech transfer organization capitalize on the trend of drug developers turning to universities to provide research and technologies that will allow the companies to progress more quickly toward filing for the FDA’s approval to start clinical trials.
“Where we’re focusing our time and energy is [the] pre-clinical [stage],” he said. “We’re going to use advice from advisory groups across venture capital, pharmaceuticals, biotech, as well as leaders on campus, to advise us on our portfolio of drugs and vaccines and biologics candidates. We’re going to pick across a spectrum of those and put money behind [them]. That, in the end, should yield a couple victories.”
Iverson also emphasized that the organization he leads is independent from UW-Madison, and does not rely on funding from the state government. “WARF, despite being around for 90-odd years, [has] never taken a single dime from taxpayers,” he said.
Despite its autonomy, WARF can only thrive if UW-Madison is financially sound and viewed as a magnet for talented students and researchers.
Iverson did at one point say that the University of Wisconsin System “has taken a beating over the past few years”—presumably a reference to cuts to higher education funding in state budgets passed under Gov. Scott Walker.
But overall, Iverson seemed to want to go out of his way to appear politically neutral. He noted that Washington state had both Republican and Democratic governors during the time he lived there, and that the state waged some of the same battles that legislators in Wisconsin are fighting today.
“We talked about the same issues,” he said. “All I want to say about it is the folks within the legislature and the governor’s office have to work hand-in-hand with the university, which has to work hand-in-hand with industry. We’re all in this together.”
