On Tuesday June 4, 2024, Knowledge Ecology International (KEI) submitted comments to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) regarding “Prospective Grant of an Exclusive Patent License: T Cell Receptor Fusion Proteins for the Treatment of Cancer” (89 FR 43859) to INTcRON LLC (“INTcRON”), based in Memphis, TN but incorporated in Delaware.
From the comments:
“While there appears to be no internet presence for INTcRON outside of results related to the instant Federal Register notice, the Google Scholar page for Scott Strome lists him as being associated with INTcRON. Scott Strome appears to be a qualified researcher, as a head and neck surgeon who was previously the executive dean of the college of medicine at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center.
Strome previously founded Gliknik Inc., a company that received rights to technology developed by Strome through the University of Maryland Technology Transfer Office. Strome and his partner David Block then licensed the technology to Pfizer for an initial payment of $25 million. Considering his history of sublicensing technologies to large corporations, the NIH must ensure that the terms of the exclusive license to INTcRON include safeguards to guarantee that any resultant treatment is affordable and accessible to the public.”
In our comments, KEI urges the NIH to include terms that will protect patients’ access to treatments related to the technology to be licensed.
KEI’s full comments are available here: KEI-Comments-NIH-License-INTcRON-4June2024