WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — A report covering an 11-year period of technology commercialization activities lists Purdue University as third in the U.S. for startup creation. Purdue also is in the top 20 for patents issued compared with legal expenditures and for the most invention disclosure forms when compared with published research.

The report, compiled and reported by the respected IPWatchdog Institute, covers data collected by AUTM over the period of 2008-18. The information is reported annually by members to AUTM, a nonprofit organization that collects technology transfer data, among other things, from more than 800 universities, research centers, hospitals and government organizations around the globe. IPWatchdog excluded the University of Texas System and the University of California System from its study because those schools report startup data that includes the state’s collective results and not individual university results.

“What this means is that Purdue is being extremely efficient in its patent-filing strategy and that when faculty scientists publish peer-reviewed articles, their research is highly likely to be disclosed, patented and become a product to help people,” said Brooke Beier, vice president of the Purdue Research Foundation Office of Technology Commercialization. “As a land-grant university, Purdue’s greatest mission is to improve lives around the world and educate tomorrow’s leaders, and moving innovation to the market is an important part of that mission.”

Beier talks about the technology transfer process at Purdue at this video link.

The IPWatchdog report also recognized Purdue for its leadership and support for startups and for its societal impact through biotechnology innovations and economic development. In 2013, the Purdue Research Foundation created the Purdue Foundry, an entrepreneurship and commercialization hub whose professionals have helped more than 300 entrepreneurs create startups.

“We are doing something that matters. Not just for Purdue but for all universities that strive to turn technologies into products with impact,” said Greg Deason, senior vice president of entrepreneurship and place making for Purdue

Research Foundation. “In startup creation we are converting life-changing technologies to the market that create new jobs, new opportunities and new ways to positively impact our global society.”

Deason talks about the startup creation process at Purdue at this video link.

The Purdue Foundry has worked with nearly 300 startups that generated around $400 million in funding and investments generated and more than 350 new jobs since 2013.

 

Purdue also is recognized in the report for the number of startups that have been acquired by larger companies. Ten Purdue startups have been acquired by major national or international companies, including Endocyte Inc., which was acquired in 2018 for $2.1 billion by Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis AG.

Philip S. Low, the Purdue Ralph C. Corley Distinguished Professor of Chemistry, is a co-founder of Endocyte and several other promising startups based on Purdue innovations. Among these startups are On Target Laboratories Inc., a company developing tumor-targeted fluorescent dyes to help surgeons “see” cancer cells during surgeries. Endocyte has raised more than $90 million and completed phase 3 clinical trials on its lead candidate in preparation for submission of an NDA to the FDA for drug approval. Another startup founded by Low and son Stewart Low is Novosteo Inc. Novosteo is developing an injectable drug to accelerate bone fracture repair and strengthen weak bones. It has raised more than $3 million. A fourth company co-founded by Low, Umoja Biopharma, has recently raised $8 million in startup funds to develop a promising immunotherapy for cancer.

“Like many researchers at Purdue and elsewhere, our strongest desire is to improve lives, and the best way we can do that is by moving our inventions to the public,” Low said. “It’s not an easy process, but it’s highly rewarding to know at the end of the day you are helping people live longer, healthier and happier lives.”

More than 100 countries around the globe use Purdue-patented technologies.

In other rankings, Purdue was 12th in the world among universities granted U.S. utility patents in 2018, in the annual rankings put out by the National Academy of Inventors and the Intellectual Property Owners Association.

To support continued growth, Purdue is undertaking Discovery Park District, a $1 billion-plus transformation of the west side of its campus that includes strong support to advance research, partnerships with global companies and startup creation. In the past two years, the district has been actively involved with long-term research and development collaborations with Rolls-Royce, Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories and Saab Global Defense and Security.