Efforts to promote venture businesses by forming closer ties between industry and academia are gathering momentum in Asia, most recently with the September introduction of a new legal framework to encourage technology transfer in Japan (Nature 401, 3, 1999). However, efforts to commercialize biotechnology vary widely across the continent, and even the most active countries like Singapore and South Korea cannot compete with the US or Europe. In an effort to remedy this, a consortium has been proposed with the aim of uniting all regions, pooling resources, and promoting the development of biotechnology across Asia. This effort to persuade industry and regional governments to develop biotechnology is 20 years behind the West, but is expected to benefit from Europe's precedent.
Japan's new technology transfer bill is based on the 20-year-old US Bayh–Dole legislation, which allows industrial partners in collaborative R&D projects to retain title to inventions made from government-funded research. Because companies in Japan were previously denied rights to patents resulting from government-funded research, and researchers from national universities were prohibited from taking part in commercial activities, true links between industry and academia have been rare in Japan .
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution