The anti-AIDS drug Ziagen has been good to the University of Minnesota. Maybe a little too good, comments the Star Tribune. Since 1999, Ziagen, manufactured by GlaxoSmithKline, has generated $290 million in royalties for the university. But take away Ziagen and the university is left with very little else to show for its recent intellectual property investments.

The drug generates 95% of the school's annual licensing income. To make matters worse, Ziagen's patents expire overseas next year and in the United States in 2013. That leaves the university scrambling to replace the more than $50 million in annual royalty payments that Ziagen now generates.

Judging from the university's recent track record of converting its vast reservoir of research into cash, the Minnesota faces an uphill climb. The school that's known for inventing the pacemaker, the heart valve and one of the Web's first Internet browsers is desperate for a hit.
Full report on the Star Tribune site


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