OIP Sees Record Numbers of Disclosures and Inventions, Driven in part by COVID-19
Patrick Reed,
Assistant Vice Chancellor of Innovation and Partnerships
Since March 1, 2020, the date the first case of COVID-19 was diagnosed in New Orleans, the Office of Innovation and Partnerships has set records in just about every metric the office tracks:
- 47 disclosures (the highest number of disclosures ever in an eight-month period), 22 of which were COVID-related disclosures
- 87 Material Transfer Agreements
- 1 COVID-related license
- 8 MIDS consults
- 3 MIDS projects moving forward.
“Our healthcare professionals and investigators are on the front lines during this pandemic, with a front row seat to the challenges that COVID-19 presents in terms of diagnostics, therapeutics, treatments and prevention,” said Patrick Reed, Assistant Vice Chancellor of Innovation and Partnerships. “This unique perspective provides them with the ability to also solve those challenges and the numbers described above certainly demonstrate that LSU Health New Orleans is meeting the need to innovate head on.”
Reed said that innovation disclosed in the past few months includes new methods to diagnose both COVID infection and potential severity of disease, medical devices intended to reduce medical professionals' exposure to active virus, new therapeutics to mitigate severity of COVID-related symptoms, potential COVID vaccine candidates, and more effective and reusable face masks.