As the technology licensing office for the University of Southern California (USC), the Stevens Center for Innovation is committed to fostering and upholding the innovation ecosystem for the university and the broader region. USC strives to actively promote a culture of collaboration and entrepreneurship and encourage our faculty to translate their discoveries through the commercialization pipeline to develop innovative research into products and services that improve human lives, solve problems, and fuel economic growth. As such, we are thrilled to announce that NeOnc Technologies Holdings, Inc., a clinical-stage medical biotechnology company, has formally secured exclusive worldwide rights from USC to an extensive intellectual property portfolio of proprietary and patented chemotherapy agents and methodologies.
The IP licensing transaction was facilitated by the USC Stevens Center for Innovation, in tandem with NeOnc’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and USC faculty member, Dr. Thomas Chen, Professor of Neurological Surgery, Director of the Brain Tumor Center at Keck Hospital of USC, Director of Neurosurgery at the Good Samaritan Hospital and Director of the USC Neurological Surgery Satellite Operations.
Of the agreement, Dr. Chen said: “This historic licensing agreement formalizes and further expands upon an extraordinarily productive partnership with USC that has spanned well over a decade and has helped advance promising new treatments for malignant gliomas. We’re looking forward to continuing to work with USC in developing these important therapeutics and bringing them to market.” Dr. Chen is the CEO of NeOnc Technologies Holdings Inc., a privately held biotechnology company that focuses on creating novel drugs and delivery methods for pharma-based therapeutics that target brain and central nervous system (CNS) diseases. The Phase One clinical trials were completed in April 2019 and used the company’s first therapeutic, NEO100™. Several proprietary chemotherapy agents have since been developed, demonstrating positive effects in laboratory tests on various cancers. Phase II clinical trials of NEO100™ are currently underway, one of the several proprietary agents included in the licensing agreement.
“USC is proud of its long and esteemed history of supporting innovation that translates new ideas into tangible positive societal impact,” commented Dr. Steven Moldin, Interim Executive Director of the USC Stevens Center for Innovation. “In further partnership with NeOnc, we hope to bring the benefits of Dr. Chen’s breakthrough research on treating the most challenging of cancers out of the lab and into the hands of physicians where it can have a meaningful impact on people’s health and quality of life.”
The University of Southern California Research & Innovation (R&I) Office and the Stevens Center for Innovation strive to foster innovation, translational research, and commercialization efforts amongst faculty supported through awards and seed grants. For additional information on R&I awards and funding opportunities, visit: https://rii.usc.edu/funding/funding-programs-at-a-glance/.