“The Inside Track on Licensing University IP”: Shane Albright, Liz Alcamo, Corey Goodman, Karin Immergluck
Founders who spin startups out of university labs frequently find themselves negotiating licenses for intellectual property they developed. Sometimes making a deal can be difficult, and it’s not always the financial terms that are the sticking point. What is the person on the other side of the table thinking? What can you do to ensure you end up with a good deal in which everyone benefits? Here’s your chance to learn from the best: Join our June 15 panel with Liz Alcamo of Versant Ventures, Karin Immergluck of Stanford OTL, and Corey Goodman of venBio, moderated by Shane Albright of Goodwin Law.
About the Speakers
Moderator: Shane Albright
Shane Albright is a partner in Goodwin Law’s Life Sciences group. Mr. Albright represents life science and technology companies in a wide range of corporate, financial and commercial matters, with a particular emphasis on complex transactions involving intellectual property. He has extensive experience counseling clients on corporate partnering issues, strategic alliances, technology licenses and key commercial contracts, such as manufacturing and distribution agreements.
Mr. Albright regularly provides advice on licensing and commercial contract issues in connection with mergers and acquisitions, IPOs and other public financings. He also represents emerging growth companies and their investors in venture financings, other funding transactions and general corporate matters. Mr. Albright’s clients include companies in the biopharmaceutical, medical device, diagnostics, hardware, software, medical instrumentation, digital health, vaccine and research reagent spaces, as well as entities that fund or conduct medical research.
Prior to joining Goodwin in 2018, Mr. Albright was a partner at DLA Piper.
Liz Alcamo
Liz is an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Versant and Chief Operating Officer at the firm’s portfolio company, Seawolf Therapeutics.
Prior to becoming an EIR, Liz was SVP of Corporate Development at Versant’s Inception Therapeutics discovery engine, where she drove new company sourcing and played an integral role in operationalizing two Series A companies. Previously, Liz held various leadership roles driving corporate, science and IP strategy and business development at several emerging gene therapy companies including Avalanche Biotechnologies (now Adverum), 4D Molecular Therapeutics and CODA Biotherapeutics.
Liz has a B.S. from Williams College and completed a Ph.D. in immunology at MIT and postdoctoral research in neurobiology at Stanford University. She is also a registered patent agent and brings over 14 years of experience serving as an IP strategy advisor to biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies, six of those while practicing patent law as a member of the boutique life sciences firm Bozicevic, Field and Francis LLP.
Corey Goodman
Corey Goodman is a scientist, educator, and entrepreneur. He spent 25 years as Professor of Biology at Stanford University and Evan Rauch Chair of Neurobiology at U.C. Berkeley (Dept. of Molecular and Cell Biology), where he was a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator, Head of the Neurobiology Division, and co-founder and Director of the Wills Neuroscience Institute. He is currently Adjunct Professor of Neuroscience in the Wills Neuroscience Institute at U.C. Berkeley. Dr. Goodman is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and American Philosophical Society, and recipient of many honors including the Alan T. Waterman Award, Canada Gairdner Biomedical Award, March-of-Dimes Prize in Developmental Biology, Reeve-Irvine Research Medal, and Dawson Prize in Genetics from Trinity College Dublin. Dr. Goodman co-founded seven biotechnology companies (the first being Exelixis), and led one of them (Renovis) as President and CEO from a private to public company until its acquisition. He was recruited to be President and founder of Pfizer’s Biotherapeutics and Bioinnovation Center and a member of Pfizer’s executive leadership team.
Today, Dr. Goodman is a Managing Partner of venBio Partners LLC. He is Chair of the Board of ALX Oncology, Tollnine, and Second Genome. He is a member of the Board of Checkmate and NFlection. He chaired Labrys Biologics until its acquisition by Teva. Amongst his many public policy roles, Dr. Goodman is a member of the University of California Innovation Council, a member of the board of the Pacific Institute, and former Chair of both the California Council on Science and Technology (advising the California governor and state legislature) and the National Research Council’s (NAS) Board on Life Sciences (advising the federal government).
Karin Immergluck
Karin Immergluck is the Associate Vice Provost leading the Office of Technology Licensing (OTL) at Stanford University. The OTL comprises an internationally renowned team of professionals responsible for managing all aspects of Stanford’s intellectual property portfolio, including IP protection, marketing and business development, industry research contracting, strategic alliance management, and licensing to new Stanford startups as well as established companies. The OTL has also launched its new High Impact Technology (HIT) Program to fund and mentor translational and proof of concept projects.
Prior to joining Stanford five years ago, Karin spent 17 years working in technology transfer within the University of California system, ultimately leading the UCSF Office of Technology Management as Executive Director. Karin is also an active participant in TenU, a trans-Atlantic tech transfer consortium, and serves as a non-executive Board member of Edinburgh Innovations. She also serves as a Board member of the non-profit Academic Venture Exchange, which facilitates matchmaking between entrepreneurial university inventors and seasoned entrepreneurs who have experience leading nascent startups. Karin received both her PhD in Developmental Molecular Genetics, under the combined tutelage of Dr. J. Michael Bishop (UCSF) and Dr. Ernst Hafen (now at ETH Zurich), and her MSc in Biochemistry from the University of Zurich in Switzerland.