MRC Technology
The MRC owns the intellectual property rights on discoveries made by the scientists employed in our units and institutes. We commercialise these findings by licensing them to industry through MRC Technology, our affiliated technology transfer company. This has two major benefits: our scientists’ findings are translated into new treatments and technologies as swiftly as possible, and the licensing income can be ploughed back into further medical research.
MRCT carries out a range of commercialisation activities, including filing patents on MRC scientists’ discoveries and inventions, managing our patent portfolio and negotiating licensing agreements with industrial partners. But unlike many other technology transfer companies, its work extends beyond office-based patenting and licensing operations. MRCT has its own state-of-the-art laboratories based at our National Institute for Medical Research in north London. There MRCT scientists carry out applied research, including drug discovery work, to take forward findings made by scientists working at the molecular level in our units. MRCT also works with pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies on collaborative research programmes.
In 2008/09 our income from technology transfer through MRCT was £54.98 million.