Low-risk, low-value: iPS cells - Commercializing the Stem Cell Sciences - page 176

agreement, BD Bioscience will have exclusive access to licences on
patents developed by Fate Therapeutics (Press Release, http://www.
fatetherapuetics.com , October 2010). While three years is a very
short amount of time in biotechnology development, it might be
presumed that the collaboration would continue should it prove to
be a successful strategy for both partners.
This kind of collaborative agreement draws on the strengths of
both companies, allowing Fate Therapeutics to concentrate on the
technical and scientific side of product development and BD to
provide the market expertise and sales force that a lot of smaller
biotechnology companies do not always have access to. As a quite
typical spin-out company established by entrepreneurial scientists
located in academic research institutes, Fate Therapeutics is strong
on science. Yet many of these kinds of companies lack the managerial
experience and capacity to scale up that is crucial to developing
further. Strategic partnering with larger companies is a crucial part
of the next stage.
StemGent has a number of collaborative agreements like these in
place (Prescott, 2011). So far it has developed partnerships with
Pfizer and Miltenyi Biotec that together will give it access to
significant resources in the form of research materials and access to
markets without any significant additions to the operating costs of
the company (Prescott, 2011). In addition to these key deals,
StemGent also has a deal with ATCC ( http://www.atcc.org ) to
supply iPSCs for a dedicated biobank under development ( http://
www.stemgent.com ). ATCC calls itself 'The Global Bioresource
Centre' and is a not-for-profit organization established to provide
materials to researchers in the biosciences ( http://www.atcc.org ).
StemGent's agreement with ATCC could be interpreted as an attempt
to broach the issues about standardization for iPSCs that have
emerged with the multiple techniques for inducing pluripotency and
ongoing issues with characterization of pluripotent cells.
Cellular Dynamics International ( http://www.cellulardynamics.
com ) and the large pharmaceutical company Roche have recently
completed a collaborative development agreement that has now
moved into a standard supply agreement between the two companies
(CDI Press Release, http://www.cellulardynamics.com , 2011). The

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