A story of two technology licensing options
A story of two technology licensing options
by Ana Margarita S. Palma

The year 2017 was a banner year for UPLB with 17 of its technologies for commercialization able to qualify for patent approval, the highest number since 2000.

Two of the 17 were Microbial Rennet, a milk coagulant that can substitute for rennet in cheese making and Nutrio®, a microbial-based foliar biofertilizer.

Both technologies were developed by researchers from the UPLB National Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology (BIOTECH), but took different paths in commercialization.

Commercialization through a private company

Dr. Susan Mercado, developer of Microbial Rennet, chose to commercialize it through a license awarded to Aust-Phil Food Manufacturing Corporation, a food manufacturing company, as according to her, she could not scale up production for lack of human resource, production space, and working equipment.

Negotiations began in 2012, and soon, Dr. Mercado regularly supplied them with small but frequent orders of Microbial Rennet. Eventually, Aust-Phil signified its intent to license the technology so they themselves will be able to manufacture it.

They submitted a Letter of Intent to UPLB in 2014. However, it took three years to finally begin commercialization, facilitated only when the Technology Transfer and Business Development Office (then Center for Technology Transfer and Entrepreneurship) helped with patent application, negotiations with Aust-Phil, and in processing documents required for state-funded technologies to be transferred to a private company.

In 2018, Microbial Rennet was licensed to Aust-Phil for mass production for five years.

Aust-Phil produces Microbial Rennet from a laboratory it built specifically for rennet production and by staff trained by Dr. Mercado. She said that she is happy that she chose this path of commercialization. “I am satisfied with the state of my technology. Something came out of my ideas, my years of research,” she added.

Commercialization through a spin-off

Aside from licensing technologies to private companies, commercialization can also be done through a spin-off with researchers either acting as consultants or marketing the technology themselves.

Dr. Virginia Padilla chose the latter with Nutrio®, a biofertilizer that promotes plant growth and replaces up to 50 percent of the required chemical fertilizer for eggplant and sugarcane. It also works on mahogany, rambutan, lanzones, durian, cucumber, cassava, and palay.

Armed with a trademark and registration papers from the Fertilizer and Pesticide Authority, Dr. Padilla created Fulmight Agricultural Corporation to market and distribute Nutrio®.

Starting a business was no walk in the park, Dr. Padilla said. She particularly lamented the inefficiency in registering a business – the long queues, vague instructions, and the tedious to and fro government offices to secure documents.

Dr. Padilla put up facilities using her own resources as government agencies required at least three years of business operation for businesses to qualify for a loan.

Despite these difficulties, Dr. Padilla is relentless in finishing what she started, buoyed by support from UPLB TTBDO, Department of Science and Technology, and from farmers who are pleased with the promising results of Nutrio®.

These days, she is conducting field trials in various farms to improve Nutrio®. The trials have been effective in promoting her technology to end-users. She remains steadfast in her goal, taking one step at a time to commercialize her technology.

Dr. Padilla applied for patent in 2017 and has been recently granted one.

Supporting tech-generating research

It is challenging to protect and commercialize a technology. Dr. Mercado and Dr. Padilla can both attest to this, but the outcomes of the hard work may all be worth it.

Aust-Phil paid a licensing fee to UPLB; and in the next few years, they will pay royalties that will go to UPLB, BIOTECH, and Dr. Mercado as the inventor.

The money will serve as additional R&D funds and as an incentive to Dr. Mercado for her work. And because Microbial Rennet is cheaper than existing milk coagulants, the cheese that Aust-Phil produces will become more affordable to consumers. Indeed, what more can a researcher ask for now that something has come out of her ideas.

As for Dr. Padilla, we have yet to see the fruits of her labor. But her technology is gradually gaining traction in the market as she conducts field trials. As long as she maintains her resolve, Nutrio® will serve its purpose—to help Filipino farmers and the sugarcane industry.

Dr. Mercado and Dr. Padilla chose two different paths of commercializing their technologies, but both of them delivered the same meaningful contribution to knowledge and social action. And it became possible because their intellectual properties are protected.

[A long version of this article was published in the RDE Digest Vol 11 No. 1 (2019).]

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