One Step Closer: Novel Opioid Receptor Compound in Phase I Clini...(orld's most challenging scientific probl...),Health

"There are few medications available to help patients struggling to overcome addictions, and new treatment options are desperately needed," said Elliot Ehrich, M.D., chief medical officer of Alkermes. "We believe that the addiction field will evolve in a similar way to other CNS markets, such as mental illnesses, where treatments include both oral and injectable medications. This flexible approach offers patients and doctors the option to build the most appropriate therapies into treatment programs and fit the needs of individual patients."

Linking discoveries of the lab and classroom to the marketplace

Historically, American research universities, responsible for so many groundbreaking discoveries and life-saving innovations, did not provide their professors a direct route to move their work to store shelves, medical offices, and industry. Promising discoveries were introduced in the scholarly press, in hopes of drawing bigger grant awards and perhaps the interest of a company willing to spend the money to convert concept into product. Researchers sometimes took their work off campus, establishing their own companies on the side.

But the Bayh-Dole Act passed in 1980 opened up new avenues by allowing universities to keep discoveries disclosed using federal grants instead of returning them to the government, often to languish. The law brought new incentives to commercialize discoveries, along with bragging rights and, in a few cases, big money. University discoveries -- in the United States, Canada, and abroad -- have had an impact on everything from health care (the pacemaker from the University of Minnesota, the CAT scan from Georgetown, laser cataract surgery from the University of California-Los Angeles) to better living at home (plex
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