Issues in the entrepreneurization and commercialization of academic research-based DDS technology

Abstract

In 2001, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), Japan announced the "1000 University-Originated Ventures Plan”. A cumulative total of 1,000 companies at the end of 2004 and a total of 1,500 companies at the end of 2005 were established. Among them, there were many drug-discovery ventures including DDS technology-specialized ventures, but very few ventures have survived so far, which often quitted drug discovery unfortunately even if they still exist. Also, since 2011, the establishment of a university-originated venture is rekindling, but IT-based venture is the main, and drug discovery-based venture including DDS-specialized venture remains small. In this review, I will describe an account of the DDS technology-specialized drug-discovery venture established by us in 2002, point out the issues in entrepreneurization and commercialization of academic research-based DDS technology, and would like to make proposals leading to the success of forthcoming DDS technology-specialized drug-discovery ventures.