Climbing the ladder of IP support
- publish258
- Jul 25, 2022
- 3 min read
Updated: Apr 7
An all-woman team of inventors opens up a path through Turkey’s ladders of IP support to put their skin patch on the shop shelf, reports an EPO case study
Robert Klinski
Four female inventors from a Turkish research lab have finally reached the stage where their product is on sale on the shop shelf. To get to this point, they have had to overcome a series of failures and setbacks. Through it all, their IP has given them the foundation they needed to find a way forward.
The four inventors created a Turkish start-up by bringing in their university as an in-kind shareholder in their spin-out. They gained national recognition as entrepreneurs, walking away from a venture capital deal and eventually learning enough about commercialization to land a deal with a pharma major. On the back of all these experiences, they are now building their own commercial R&D company, Dermis Pharma, while continuing in their posts at the university.
The company’s skin patch, Dermalix, helps wounds to heal and then disintegrates when the body’s cells form new tissue. It offers hope to those suffering from chronic wounds, such as the 50 million diabetics whose mobility is at risk from foot ulcers.
This all started when the four researchers were encouraged by the technology transfer office at Ege University to submit an invention disclosure. Because of the costs and the complexity, they opted not to pursue it themselves and instead transferred the technology to the university, who used the EPO’s IPscore tool to assess it. Based on five criteria - technical, legal, market, strategy and finance - the go-ahead was given to file an international patent application under the PCT.
Two initial options were pursued for attracting investment: under licence or as a research collaboration. Neither led any further at this stage and research grants were starting to run low.
Support then arrived from an unexpected quarter. An accelerator awarded the inventors a grant to investigate the potential for an option that had previously been considered too risky: a spin-out. They then received a grant from a national acceleration programme to create a venture, Dermis Pharma, which would enable them to increase the level of technology readiness and further build the commercial case.
By now they were reaching the end of the PCT’s 30/31-month window for filing internationally. After consulting with industry networks, they selected the 36 most promising territories in which to file.
Further clinical trials were funded by a venture capitalist. However, the founders were reluctant to give up too much autonomy for further investment. Instead, they reached agreement with a Turkish pharma company, Abdi Ibrahim, which was attracted by their strong patent portfolio and the close match of their price-benefit ratio to patients’ needs. After two years of negotiation, all patent rights were transferred to Abdi Ibrahim with a view to launching their skin patch, Dermalix, in late 2021.
The four inventors continue to have responsibility for ongoing research into skin patches and have remained at their posts at the university. Their company, Dermis Pharma, is also growing steadily as a commercial lab for pharma and cosmetics companies.
• This text is a summary of ‘From research to lift-off’, a chapter about three EPO case studies by Thomas Bereuter and Ilja Rudyk, which highlights the experiences and insights of becoming a high-growth, high-impact venture. The full version of the text is available as a download via the EPO and it appears in ‘Winning with IP: Managing intellectual property today’, Novaro Publishing, January 2022. See here for details.
