Public Research/Private Alignments

As some private firms have restructured themselves as life science companies, their culture and values have become a bit more like those of a research university. Similarly, as research universities have responded to the Bayh-Doyle Act of 1982, expanding their technology transfer activities, they too have become a bit more like private companies. The fundamental science conducted at research universities stretches over very long run planning horizons. Now that a number of companies have moved forcefully into long term research and development in the field of life science, their planning horizons have become more aligned with those of research universities. With few exceptions, this alignment is enhanced by research universities having little if any expertise in capturing the market value of their discoveries. Hence, at some stage in the research and development process, research universities must turn to private companies who have greater expertise in the commercialization process. Still another layer of incentive alignment arises because of the complementarities in intellectual capital; the similarities but yet the distinct and differentiated culture and values that exist at research universities versus private companies provide the opportunity for pursuing synergies in the discovery process, especially in functional genomics. Moreover, the incentives that both organizations are prone to offer to their creative researches are another source of alignment.