The Centers for Disease Control, a Public Health Service agency, is responsible for the prevention and control of disease and injury. Programs range from surveillance and prevention of chronic and infectious diseases to occupational health and injury control. These programs have produced technologies in a variety of fields, including vaccine development, new methods of disease diagnosis, and new tools to ensure a safer work environment

Greene, R. Eric

Malvitz, Dolores M.

Reid-Sanden, Frances L.

English

NASA Technical Reports Server

N92-22429
TECHNOLOGIES FOR THE MARKETPLACE FROM
THE CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL
Frances L. Reid-Sanden
Science Program Coordinator
Technology Transfer Office
Centers for Disease Control
1600 Clifton Rd., N.E.
Mailstop A20
Atlanta, Georgia 30333
R. Eric Greene
Technology Transfer Coordinator
Technology Transfer Office
Centers for Disease Control
1600 Clifton Rd., N.E.
Mailstop A20
Atlanta, Georgia 30333
Doh)res M. Malvitz, DrPit
Program Analyst
Technology Transfer Office
Centers for Disease Control
1600 Clifton Rd., N.E.
Mailstop A20
Atlanta, Georgia 30333
ABSTRACT
The Centers for Disease Control, a Public Health Service agency, is rcsponsiblc for the prcvcntion
and control of disease and injury. Programs range from surveillance and prevention of chronic and infectious
diseases to occupational health and injury control. These programs have produced tcchnologics in a variety
of fields, including vaccine development, new mcthods of disease diagnosis, and new tools to ensure a safer
work environment.
Development of a vaccine against hepatitis A, a common viral illness in day-care ccntcrs, is now
possible due to techniques that produce large quantities of the viral agcnt. A recombinant rabics vaccine
may assist in eradicating wildlife rabies. This vaccine is gcneratcd by inserting the rabies gcne that elicits
protective antibodies into a mammalian virus that does not produce disease in human beings. Similar
technology has also produced the protein critical to the laboratory diagnosis of rabics, climinating the currcnt
need for using infectious virus. Legionclla species-specific monoclonal antibodies for the dctcction of
legionellae in environmental samples and clinical specimens have been dcvclopcd. A rapid mclhod to
diagnose human cysticercosis, a disease caused by consuming contaminatcd pork, is also available for
commercial application. Finally, concern over worker safety has stimulated development of dcviccs such as
one that controls waste anesthetic gases in veterinary surgical units.
Consistent with the objectives of the Fcdcral Tcchnology Transfer Act, CDC is committed to
transfer these and other technological innovations from the laboratory to the marketplace, so new products
can be available to augment the control and prevention of discase and injury.
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https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=19920013186 2020-03-17T12:03:35+00:00Z
INTRODUCTION
The C enters for Disease Control (CDC) is one of seven Public Health Service agencies.
Established in 1946, the Communicable Disease Center, as it was known then, grew out of the Office of
Malaria Control in War Areas (MCWA) headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. From its early work with state
and local health officials to fight infectious diseases, CDC has grown into five centers/institutes. CDC has
become a leader in:
1. prevention of disease, disability, and premature death
caused by infectious and chronic diseases;
2. injury or disease associated with environmental, home,
and workplace hazards; and
, controllable risk factors such as poor nutrition,
smoking, lack of exercise, high blood pressure, stress,
and drug misuse.
As you know, in 1986, congress passed the Federal Technology Transfer Act of 1986 (_A-86) to
improve the link between the Federal laboratories' technology base and U.S. businesses. This law and
related legislation authorized Federal laboratories to patent and exclusively license inventions to, and
collaborate with, businesses on research and development. Until 1986, the principal methods used by CDC
to transfer technology outside the Government were training, education, and information dissemination; CDC
scientists presented information about technological developments in papers and at professional meetings and
trained other scientists in new technologies.
In 1988 CDC established the Technology Transfer Office (Tro). "lifO staff are responsible for the
patenting and licensing of CDC inventions and, with CDC's Office of General Counsel (OGC), negotiating
the language and licenses of the Center's Cooperative Research and Development Agreements (CRADAs),
Biological Materials Licensing Agreements (BMLAs), and Materials Transfer Agreements (MTAs).
Additionally, the TTO staff develop technology transfer training material, and conduct and sportsot seminars
to educate and update CDC's scientific community on technology transfer issues. We also actively participate
in the local biomedical/biotechnical community through our membership in the Clifton Corridor Council
(ccc). The CCC, a Georgia-based non-profit organization, was founded in 1989 to promote Georgia's
biomedical research institutions and to attract biotech companies to our state. Some of CC(Ys 34
institutional members are the American Cancer Society, Emory University School of Medicine, Georgia
Institute of Technology, Morehouse School of Medicine, and the Medical College of Georgia. In addition,
the CCC has more than 100 corporate and numerous individual members.
CDC's TI'O staff have developed a technology licensing document highlighting our patented and
patent-pending licensable technologies. This document is updated frequently and includes a statement on
CDC's CRADA policy, as well as a model BMLA. Additionally, the CCC has put together a licensable
technologies document, featuring available technologies from its member institutions. Both documents are
available at our exhibit booth.
The Office of Technology Transfer (OTT), National Institutes of Health (NIH), coordinates the
technology transfer activity for the PHS agencies, including NIH; the Alcohol, Drug, and Mental Health
Administration (ADAMHA); the Food and Drug Administration (FDA); and CDC. As a part of their PHS-
wide effort to offer "one-stop-shopping," OTT packages related groups of patented and patent-pending
inventions from PHS laboratories, thus allowing licensing of complementary or interrelated technologies.
OTT's profiles database is a mechanism whereby companies desiring to be contacted about new PHS
inventions as they become available can share information about their corporate interests. Additionally,
PHS-OTrO (Office of Technology Transfer On-Line) is a computer database providing modem access to
data that can be copied into the user's own computer files. This electronic bulletin board includes
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descriptions of patents and patent applications available for licensing and brief descriptions of existing
CRADAs. Names and telephone numbers of PHS scientists interested in CRADAs and their individual
areas of expertise are highlighted. Also included are directories of PHS resource people, forum and
conference announcements, model technology transfer agreements, and technology transfer guidelines.
Standardization of documents used by PHS agencies has further contributed to the one-stop-shopping
concept. By easing the transfer of technology into the marketplace, o'Vr's efforts benefit not only public
health, but the U.S. economy as well.
From implementation of FVrA-86 through September 1991, CDC has processed more than 100
employee invention disclosures resulting in 44 filed patent applications and 3 issued patents. CDC currently
has 27 active CRADAs and has negotiated 24 BMLAs. Combined income from these activities has been
significant.
A sample of the technologies developed by CDC and available for licensing follow; they span the
realm of infectious disease diagnostics and vaccine candidates to worker health and safety devices. Many
other technologies are available or are in development; these eight examples have been selected to show the
range and variety available from CDC.
1. A number of promising technologies associated with hepatitis A (HAV) vaccine development and
diagnosis have been generated at CDC. Among other qualities, efficient yields of large quantities of
hepatitis A virus are needed for the commercial development of vaccines and diagnostic tests for the
disease. A vaccine candidate HAV strain can now be collected in appropriately large volumes.
2. An hepatitis A virus found in cynomolgus monkeys appears to be nonpathogenic for humans.
Studies with this strain indicate that low-level infections characterized by minimal virus shedding may
occur. Thus, this virus could be used for an "infection permissive" vaccine, resulting in the induction
of lifelong immunity, no clinical illness, and very little shedding of virus into the environment.
3. A new, rapid, and sensitive diagnostic test to detect hepatitis A is now available. The test uses
specific primers and the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to detect hepatitis A in serum, food, or
environmental samples.
4. An oral rabies recombinant vaccine has been developed using raccoon poxvirus as the expression
vector. The vaccine confers protection against rabies to a number of wild and domestic animals.
Because humans are not a natural host for raccoon poxvirus, other veterinary vaccines have been
produced using this expression vector system.
5. Recombinant rabies N protein produced by the baculovirus expression vector system offers a safe
substitute for infectious rabies virus now used in the direct immunofluorescent test to diagnose
rabies. The protein can be used as an immunogen to produce antisera and as adsorbent material for
a specificity control reagent. It may also have value in the development of rabies vaccines.
6. A set of three monoclonal antibodies has been developed that, alone or in combination, react
specifically with a protein found in all Legionella. These antibodies do not react with bacteria from
other genera and can be used as reagents to detect Legionella in environmental samples and clinical
specimens.
7. Antibodies to Taenia solium directed against one of seven diagnostic larval antigens can be
detected in serum or cerebrospinal fluid by an immunoblot assay. This test is useful in the diagnosis
of active cases of neurological disease caused by the organism.
8. An example of a device available for licensing is one that enables removal of 95% of the waste
anesthetic gases associated with small veterinary surgical units. These harmful substances are
49
removed by a relatively compact cartridge containing activated charcoal connected to a conventional
anesthetic administration system. Gases of vaporized anesthetic substances are selectively directed
through the activated charcoal without the need for motors, blowers, or other powered devices.
SUMMARY
CDC has made substantial, rapid progress in implementing provisions of the technology transfer
legislation. CDC's achievement in this regard is significant, both because of what has been accomplished,
and because of the opportunities offered by future activity. Three of CDC's five centers/institutes are active
participants in technology transfer. Continuing education of CDC investigators in the technology transfer
process, combined with their desire to control and prevent disease and injury offer fertile ground for
additional collaborative research and the development of patentable technologies. NIH experts in the areas
of patent and license execution have made CDC's task easier with a staff of patent and licensing portfolio
managers who coordinate like technologies from participating PHS laboratories for licensing purposes.
Electronic bulletin boards, computerized databases, licensing documents, and conferences, both at CDC and
O'Iq', are additional tools being used to expedite the transfer of technology.
The technologies presented today represent a growing commitment by CDC to put into practical use
those inventions developed by its scientific and engineering staff to help ensure a better quality of life
through more accessible health care products and processes.
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Technologies for the marketplace from the Centers for Disease Control

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