The letter, jointly submitted by the Association of American Universities (AAU) and the Council on Governmental Relations (COGR), provides detailed input in response to an NIH workshop on technology transfer and the transformation of research discoveries into commercial products. Representing a broad consortium of leading research universities and affiliated institutions, the authors emphasize the critical importance of maintaining a robust and balanced innovation ecosystem supported by sustained federal investment, productive university-industry partnerships, and effective policy frameworks such as the Bayh-Dole Act. The letter warns against precipitous or disruptive changes to current innovation policy, particularly the imposition of "reasonable pricing" constraints or similar measures that could deter private investment and collaboration, ultimately threatening the commercialization of federally funded research, national competitiveness in biomedical innovation, and regional economic development initiatives.
The correspondence highlights the essential progression from basic NIH-funded research through university-industry technology transfer mechanisms—such as licensing, intellectual property assignment, and collaborative research agreements—demonstrating successful examples of commercialized therapies that originated in academia. The authors advise that enhancing and expanding current NIH initiatives, including NCATS, CAI, REACH, and SBIR/STTR programs, as well as fostering greater cross-agency regulatory collaboration, offers the most effective means of catalyzing technology transfer and accelerating the path from discovery to patient benefit. The longstanding role of the NIH in facilitating pre-competitive research and the demonstrated public health and economic impact of academic-industry partnerships are underscored as central to maintaining U.S. leadership in biomedical innovation. The letter concludes by expressing a willingness to engage further with NIH to strengthen the nation’s discovery and innovation pipeline.
