For our 10th anniversary, we interviewed Dr. Steven Goldman, a professor in the division of cardiology at the College of Medicine - Tucson. Dr. Goldman, along with his collaborators Jordan Lancaster and Jen Koevary, worked with TLA to launch Avery Therapeutics to bring to the world tissue-engineered therapeutics for the treatment of diseased and damaged muscle developed in the Goldman lab.
"Since I've become involved in all these issues of intellectual property, it's crystal clear to me that the University of Arizona does a much better job allowing scientists, investigators, faculty students, (and) anybody that works at the university to commercialize their intellectual property. No question about it. And I would argue that the University of Arizona is better than Harvard and better than Stanford in terms of supporting their faculty." –Dr. Steven Goldman
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Transcript
So TLA got us an attorney and the attorney (and) helped us develop the company in terms of writing the bylaws, getting us incorporated, getting the stock options solved, all that sort of thing. I had no experience with that. I clearly could not have done that so I credit TLA 100% with that.
When you're talking about the commercialization project process from TLA's perspective, my impression is that TLA wants us to focus on intellectual property, getting patents, and then TLA licensing those patents.
Their relationship – that communication, the interaction with TLA and us – is ideal in terms of straightforward communication. No problems. If you're not happy, you tell them you're not happy, and I would presume if they're not happy with us, they'll tell us that, too.
Having said that, when you start a company, the intellectual property and the patents are one thing. But that doesn't solve the problem of getting money. And everybody needs to understand: if they're going to form a company, you need money. Since I had no experience with this to start with, essentially I had no expectations one way or the other. I will say as an individual, I have led my whole life by doing what I want to do, so I'm not driven by fear of failure, so to speak. That doesn't really enter into an equation for me. Having said that, and obviously as a successful investigator, I was comfortable with that.
What I wasn't comfortable with was raising money and my role in raising money is interesting. For Avery Therapeutics, I'm called upon to discuss the science with the money people, and I didn't realize that was going to happen that way. The other thing I didn't realize is, because I've been in this business so long, I have contacts all over the country and the world in terms of scientists who do this kind of research. So the scientists are consultants for investment groups just like I'm a consultant for Avery. So the scientists (and I), we talk to each other, and that's become a very valuable asset from my perspective to Avery.
Since I've become involved in all these issues of intellectual property, it's crystal clear to me that the University of Arizona does a much better job allowing scientists, investigators, faculty students, (and) anybody that works at the university to commercialize their intellectual property. No question about it. And I would argue that the University of Arizona is better than Harvard and better than Stanford in terms of supporting their faculty.