| Abstract: | There are many points of interaction and eross-fertilisation between the pharmaceutical industry and academic research into biology, chemistry and pharmacology. In the last 20 years this process of technology transfer has become a small industry, harnessing skills from science, contract law, patent law and business. Today, the major academic institutions in the west actively protect their intellectual property and license it to industry; this benefits the institutions and their scientists financially, creates economic development where the technologies are exploited and provides the protection of new inventions that most companies desire. |
