Yissum — Hebrew University's Technology Transfer Company

Yissum Research Development Company is the technology-transfer company of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, founded in 1964 — one of the world's first university TTOs, pre-dating the US Bayh-Dole Act by 16 years — to patent, license and spin out the university's research.

Yissum evaluates invention disclosures from Hebrew University researchers, files and manages patents, negotiates licences with Israeli and international companies, and creates and holds equity in spin-off companies.

Since its founding, Yissum has created more than 80 spin-off companies, including computer-vision pioneer Mobileye, BriefCam, OrCam, HumanEyes and ExLibris. According to Yissum CEO Aaron Daniely, 2018 was a record year: 623 patent applications were filed (up from 604 in 2017), 329 licensing agreements were signed (a 23% rise on 2017, 76% to Israeli companies and 24% to international ones), and 74 new startups were founded — a six-year high compared with 39 in 2017. Historically, its pharmaceutical licensing income has included royalties from Novartis's Alzheimer's drug Exelon and Johnson & Johnson's cancer drug Doxil (developed by Hebrew University's Prof. Yechezkal Barenholz); Haaretz reported Hebrew University anticipated around $40 million in royalties in 2004, of which some $25 million came from Doxil and Exelon combined.

Yissum's own equity stake in Mobileye illustrates both the model's promise and its limits. A 2004 settlement gave Yissum 1.354% of Mobileye — the computer-vision company founded in 1999 by Hebrew University professor Amnon Shashua — which Yissum later sold for $40 million. But according to Haaretz, eleven days before Intel announced its $15.3 billion acquisition of Mobileye in March 2017, the university's president, rector and director-general signed an agreement giving up all further claims on Mobileye's intellectual property, reportedly over the objections of Yissum's own chairman; the timing let Shashua's roughly $1 billion personal stake proceed unencumbered. The episode shows that even a long-established, prolific technology-transfer company can see its flagship success routed around it by university leadership at the moment of greatest value.

Read the full analysis: https://www.yissum.co.il/

Read the full analysis: https://www.yissum.co.il/