The Weizmann Institute reveals after 45 years its revenues from patent commercialization - 83 million dollars in 2003 * NIS 2001 billion in revenues from patent commercialization since XNUMX
For 45 years, the management of the Weizmann Institute, one of the most prominent research institutions in Israel and in the world, has been trying to keep secret the institute's income from royalties on patents commercialized from the scientific inventions of the faculty members. Not for reasons of shame, but for fear of envying other bodies in academia and government - precisely the smallest academic institution in Israel, which receives the least support, succeeds through its patent trading company, Yeda, to register the highest revenues in Israel and to be among the five leading institutions in the world in patent trading.
Now, for the first time, the heads of the Institute, led by President Prof. Ilan Hat, have decided to lift the veil of secrecy and reveal the Institute's extraordinary income from royalties from academic research that has become commercial - $93 million in 2003 and approximately $72 million in 2002 (third place in the world of all academic institutions). These are higher than maximum incomes
The commercial companies in Israel and most of the prominent academic institutions in the US, whose research budget is several times higher than that of the Weizmann Institute, and twice the income of the Hebrew University, whose faculty is four times larger.
Since 2001, the Weizmann Institute has recorded revenues of approximately one billion shekels from the commercialization of its research, with some of it coming from royalties from the revenues of the world's leading drugs for the treatment of multiple sclerosis, Copaxone produced by Teva (sold in 2003 for $720 million) and Pron Verbif, produced by Serono (sales of 819 million dollars in 2003) as well as from the NDS coding solution for encrypting satellite transmissions which was developed on the basis of the Institute's research and reached in 2001 revenues of 200 million dollars. The institute also has minority holdings in about 30 private and public hi-tech companies.
The Yade company transfers 40% of its revenue from royalties to the faculty members involved in the discovery on which the patent is based - approximately $100 million since 2001. This is the smallest portion given to a researcher in Israel, along with the Hebrew University. "Regarding the relative portion to the researcher - there are academic institutions that give higher percentages, but this is not expressed in money because they do not have revenues like ours from patents" - says Yeda CEO Dr. Tzachi Shariv.
The institute's income through knowledge is exempt from tax, since the institute is a non-profit public institution, and it transfers the funds it receives back to research. Through the information income, the institute manages to increase the limited budget it receives from the state and grants for research by about 15% per year. The institute's research budget is about 50 million dollars a year, 37% of which is funded by the state.
The institute has about 1500 patent families, the highest number of patents held by a single body in Israel; The cost of their maintenance reaches millions of dollars a year. According to Shariv, the ratio between registering a patent and its successful commercialization is 1:300, but as time passes, the ratio has become better. "After 5 years from the date of registration, the chance of a patent becoming commercial reaches 45%".
The Weizmann Institute is currently a research center in which several studies are conducted that are considered groundbreaking in their field. The institute engages in research in the life sciences, physics, chemistry and computers and its researchers publish hundreds of scientific publications in professional journals. At the same time, the institute also tries to commercialize some of those studies by anchoring them in patents, and about 80-70 new patent families are registered per year by Yeda.
"The quality of science at the Weizmann Institute is one of the best in the world, and this is our first commitment. We see commercialization and the relationship with industry as an important factor and are committed to it, but this does not come at the expense of basic scientific research. In any situation of possible conflict of interest, such as publishing or registering a patent, the academic considerations of the institution will always prevail. We have never reasonably denied a scientific publication due to a commercial consideration, and more than once we have lost commercial agreements with companies and a lot of money because of their demand to delay a scientific publication. The research at the institute is not directed from above and it is unthinkable that a scientific field will be opened because it is a source of income," emphasizes Prof. Haim Gerti, vice president of the Weizmann Institute for Technological Applications and chairman of Yada, who admits, "I would prefer a researcher from the institute to win a Nobel Prize, instead of another patent." .
According to Gerty, the institute chose a model of royalties rather than ownership by companies: "In our opinion, this is the right way for the academy. We don't need to make a fortune from stocks. The perception is that if there are sales based on our research, it can be turned into money by another body and returned to us and the public for further research."
The comparison with other academic institutions in Israel places the Weizmann Institute in a clear superior position in the field. In Tel Aviv, the Technion, Bar-Ilan and Ben Gurion, the largest of the Weizmann Institute, the revenues amount to only a few million dollars. Some of these institutions believe in models of cooperation with incubators or the establishment of venture capital funds. Shariv and Garti reject these models because they do not want the institute to participate in an intermediary body, but to remain a completely academic entity.
"We have to ask why other institutions in Israel do not reach such revenues. We only have 250 researchers," says Gerty, who is the only faculty member in Israel whose entire occupation is in the field of commercialization. Shariv believes that the other universities in Israel are on the way to making commercialization a more important issue: "If Ben Gurion University, for example, invests appropriate resources, it can also achieve high revenues from royalties; The universities will be able to benefit from additional research budgets."
