Commercial Section 

Contemporary medical research often seeks technology transfer as an outcome of what has been undertaken. The argument is that such transfer provides the opportunity for more rapid movement of research findings to the clinical areas in which they can be applied. There are problems in that the infrastructure for the requisite transfer in not always in place and research is often judged simply by the publications that arise from it rather than the applications it leads to. Until recently academic organisations and the academics themselves in most instances have been indifferent to for example patenting or driving towards commercial application of findings. In the United Kingdom the main review system for University research has actively discouraged declaration of any commercial applications as  part of the assessment process. Things are changing but slowly.

To an increasing extent there exist mechanisms within the Academic framework to expedite the transfer process often involving the possibility of recognizing and where appropriate capturing intellectual property arising from research. Medical research workers are beginning to recognize that there is not necessarily a conflict of interest in attempting to make a profit for themselves and the organisation for which they work. It is important that commercial gain shall not become a main driving force in initiating research but it is equally important for academics and academic institutions alike to have a sharp eye to what is called colloquially the main chance.

Professor Habib is well aware of the advantages and disadvantages of commercial backing but he is also convinced that the profit motive can often drive things forward towards clinical practice that would otherwise languish in professional journals despite the clear advantage of taking them forward to clinical practice.

Working with Imperial College of which he is a faculty member he had created a number of Spin-off companies that are to various extents acting as the present vehicles of driving a number of facets of his research. These companies at present are:

• Emcision
• Hydrodynamic Gene Delivery
• Liver-Cytes
• Omni-Cytes

Each will have in time a dedicated web site which should be viewed for details.