UCSF Hires Vice Chancellor to Nurture Inventions, Bring Products to Market at More Advanced Stage

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In a bold move to bring its life science inventions to market with higher value, so they are more likely to reach patients and better support the university’s mission, UC San Francisco has hired Harold E. “Barry” Selick, PhD, as its first vice chancellor for business development, innovation and partnerships.

Selick will oversee proof-of-concept studies of promising UCSF life science inventions – which encompass drug molecules, device prototypes, digital health applications, and more – to gather evidence on which inventions are most likely to help patients as new therapies, diagnostics or software.

One aim is to keep inventions from languishing on companies’ shelves, which often occurs when firms license early-stage inventions but do not invest the necessary resources to develop them. Another is to increase the licensing revenues earned by UCSF inventions: companies are likely to pay more for innovations with more proven value, Selick said.

“It’s high-risk, high-reward,” Selick said. “But we’re going to bias the odds of success in our favor by working with the smartest people in the world: scientists from UCSF and, on our advisory board, some of the most accomplished investors from Silicon Valley, who will be helping us cherry-pick the most promising programs. With this strategy, UCSF can begin to invest more fully in itself and develop even more technologies to benefit patients.”

For drug candidates or devices, proof-of-concept studies could take the form of small-scale clinical trials to demonstrate that they have adequate safety and efficacy in patients for a licensing company to launch larger, more definitive clinical trials. Similarly, digital health applications and diagnostic technologies could be advanced to the point where they could be evaluated in real-world scenarios prior to undergoing the more rigorous development required for commercialization.

Deep Industry Knowledge, Longstanding UCSF Ties

A former pharmaceutical company CEO with broad biotech experience, Selick has deep industry knowledge and longstanding ...

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