HARVARD MEDICAL SCHOOL TO SET UP $ 30 MIL. MARKETING COMPANY

HARVARD MEDICAL SCHOOL TO SET UP $ 30 MIL. MARKETING COMPANY for new technologies created at university labs. Medical Science Partners (MSP) is being established as a venture firm to commercialize products derived from research conducted at Harvard. Day-to-day control over MSP, including responsibility for "voting and other ownership rights with respect to the partnership's investments," will be in the hands of a managing general partner, Andre Lamotte. Lamotte was formerly an executive for the U.S. subsidiary of the French drug company, Institut Merieux. MSP will be organized as an independent limited partnership that will serve as a "bridge to the commercialization of new technologies," according to a statement prepared by the Harvard Medical School Office of Technology Licensing. As a "bridge to commercialization," MSP will provide late-stage research funding for technologies with possible commercial use. The firm will also fund clinical trials and arrange the most effective means to exploit acquired technologies, the university asserted. Harvard is planning to raise an initial $ 30 mil. for MSP from outside investors. The term of the partnership is 12 years. Thus, the pool of potential investors will be drawn from those with the "ability to accept the long term investment horizon necessary for the development of health care businesses," according to the Harvard statement. Harvard's decision to proceed with a commercial venture utilizing technologies developed by its faculty researchers is the culmination of an eight-year long internal review process that began in 1980 when the university decided against participation in such ventures. MSP will be established as an "independent, arms-length, third-party entity . . . that Harvard will have no present ownership interest in, or control over portfolio investments of the fund," the university notes. In its role as a limited partner in the fund, Harvard's economic interest will be restricted to a cash return from the realization of profits from successful investments, the university claims.