A UK-based patent attorney will travel to Serbia next week to assist medical researchers in the country in bringing their findings out of the lab and into use on hospital wards around the world.
Dr Adrian Bradley, a Partner and Chartered Patent Attorney at Cleveland Scott York, will take part in an oval table workshop on Monday 11 June 2018 in Belgrade on technology transfer for research institutes.
Dr Bradley specialises in advising medical researchers on putting in place the appropriate protection for their innovations to secure the investment necessary to develop them into widely-used treatments – a process known as ‘technology transfer’.
“While taking research findings from the lab and delivering them to patients in hospital wards or the doctor’s surgery might sound routine and straightforward, the reality is far from it,” said Dr Bradley.
“Turning lab-based innovations into widely-distributed products that can actually benefit patients is hugely expensive and demands considerable levels of investment to meet regulatory requirements and the costs of manufacture, distribution and marketing.
“However, investors will need to be confident of securing a return, and this will only be possible where effective protection against unauthorised copying by competitors is in place, meaning that researchers should secure patent protection as soon as possible.”
He said that while raising awareness of the significance of securing patent protection amongst individual researchers is important, the real task is to create an effective culture and infrastructure within research institutions.
“The products of research findings need to be systematically protected to secure the investment needed,” he added.
“I am looking forward to helping Serbian researchers to realise the full potential of their research to make a difference to people’s lives.”
Dr Bradley will speak alongside Dr John Normanton, Managing Director of Oxford University spin-out, Oxandia Limited, and Tomas Novotny, Founder of chemical consultancy, EcoMole. The trio have worked together over the last three years to improve the commercialisation of research in the Czech Republic.
Cleveland Scott York has offices in the City of London, Hertfordshire, the Thames Valley and Brussels.[:]