Licensing Fee:
You mentioned lab testing licensing fees, and I believe you were referring to CTT. They REPRESENT the patent, and do not own it. Perhaps that is why they only get 2.5%. It is more like an agent's fee.
For your reference:
Wednesday March 4, 4:20 pm Eastern Time
Company Press Release
SOURCE: Competitive Technologies, Inc.
Competitive Technologies, Inc. Reports Agreement With Specialty
Laboratories
Non-Exclusive License for Important Cardio-Vascular Disease Test; License
covers performance of Homocysteine Assays
FAIRFIELD, Conn., March 4 /PRNewswire/ -- Competitive Technologies, Inc.,
(Amex: CTT - news), today announced that CTT has granted Specialty
Laboratories of Santa Monica, California, a non-exclusive license under
patents 4,940,658 and 5,374,560 which covers performance of certain assays,
including those for homocysteine. The presence of high blood levels of
homocysteine, an amino acid, has recently received wide recognition in the
medical community and broad publicity in the media for being a primary risk
factor for coronary artery disease, which caused 42% of all deaths in the
United States in 1994. Many insurance providers and Medicare are currently
covering the cost of the homocysteine assays, which generally range between
$75 and $150.
The market size for homocysteine assays could reach the same level as that
of cholesterol tests, which is approximately 100 - 125 million tests per
year (source: an independent report of the number of cholesterol tests
prepared by Market Data Enterprises, in September, 1997). With the
Specialty Laboratories agreement, CTT believes that it will be collecting
royalties from four of the five largest laboratories currently performing
homocysteine assays in the U.S. CTT reports that, based on currently
available information, CTT anticipates that these four laboratories could
perform approximately 35% to 50% of all homocysteine assays performed in
commercial clinical laboratories in the U.S. in 1998.
That homocysteine plays a central role in cardiovascular disease is the
conclusion of a number of studies, including a 14-year study at the Harvard
School of Public Health of 80,000 women, recently publicized in, among
others, Time, Aug. 4, 1997, Wall Street Journal, p. 1-Sec B, November 17,
1997; New York Times, p. 1, February 4, 1998; Investors Business Daily, p.
1, February 23, 1998; and, Journal of the American Medical Association
(JAMA), pp. 359-4, 392-3, February 4, 1998.
In explaining the role of homocysteine, CTT said that at normal levels, the
human body uses homocysteine to build and maintain tissues, but at elevated
levels it is believed to contribute to injuring arterial walls. In an ABC
News 20/20 segment, entitled ''Your Heart and Vitamin B'' which aired on
December 18, 1997, Dr. Thomas James, past President of the American Heart
Association, made the point that an elevated level of homocysteine is a
risk factor for heart disease and strokes ''right up there with smoking and
high cholesterol.'' Elevated levels of homocysteine are inexpensively
treatable with folic acid, B12 and B6, and it is expected that physicians
will increasingly encourage their patients who are at risk for vascular
disease to have their homocysteine levels checked.
''We are very pleased that CTT has chosen Specialty as a licensee for such
an important technology'', commented James B. Peter, M.D., Ph.D., founder
and Chairman of Specialty Laboratories. Specialty is a privately held
clinical reference laboratory dedicated to ''helping doctors help
patients.'' Founded in 1977, Specialty directly offers more than 2,500
state of the art diagnostic and prognostic testing services to more than
8,000 medical providers across the U.S. and 15 foreign countries.''
George M. Stadler, President and CEO of CTT, said ''CTT will continue its
aggressive efforts to license other laboratories and hospitals that are
already using or who will in the future perform homocysteine assays. The
technology which underlies our patent position was developed at the
University of Colorado and Columbia University by Drs. Robert Allen and
Sally Stabler and the late Dr. John Lindenbaum. Incidentally, the scope of
our patent covers any assay used to determine if an individual has an
elevated level of homocysteine and a correlating deficiency in folate or
cobalamin (B12). When we first announced the launch of our licensing
program for a homocysteine assay technology in our October 14, 1997
release, we said that we would implement an aggressive licensing program
for the homocysteine assay over the next several months. Our initial effort
to do so has shown demonstrable progress in creating a potential royalty
stream from this commercially exciting opportunity but we realize that much
work remains.'' Mr. Stadler also said ''we intend to issue periodic updates
on the status of our overall intellectual property portfolio and licensing
efforts for this and other technologies in our portfolio.''
Competitive Technologies, Inc. (Amex: CTT - news) -- based in Fairfield,
CT, with offices in Bethlehem, PA; Osaka, Japan and London, England -- is
in the technology transfer business concentrating primarily on the
commercialization and licensing of high-tech company and university
research and technology. CTT has evaluated more than 25,000 technologies,
been responsible for closing several hundred license agreements, and helped
launch 15 new start-up companies. Important CTT clients include: IBM, Bell
Atlantic, Lucent Technologies and Matsushita Electric Industrial. CTT also
has been awarded a number of collaborative R&D contracts and consulting
projects involving partnerships between university, industry and
federal/state governments. CTT's web page is at: www.cti.lehigh.edu
Statements about the Company's future expectations, including development
and regulatory plans, and all other statements in this document other than
historical facts are ''forward-looking statements'' within the meaning of
applicable Federal Securities Laws and are not guarantees of future
performance. These statements involve risks and uncertainties related to
the market acceptance of and competition for the Company's licensed
homocysteine assay and other risks and uncertainties inherent in CTT's
business, including those set forth in Item 1 of the Company's Form 10-K
for the year ended July 31, 1997 and other factors that may be described in
CTT's filings with the SEC, and are subject to change at any time. The
Company's actual results could differ materially from these forward looking
statements. |
