BSE research royalties net UCD €1.3m

A BSE test which to date has earned more than €1.3m in royalty income for University College Dublin has won the inaugural NovaUCD Innovation Award.

The diagnostic technology - TSE - was licensed to Enfer Scientific Ltd in 1996 - who subsequently developed a rapid test for BSE using this technology.

Enfer now sells almost one million BSE test-kits annually, one-third of them in Ireland, and UCD has earned over €1.3m in royalty income to date.

The initial research and development was carried out by Dr Mark Rogers in UCD.

Following these trials, in 1993, UCD formed a joint venture company, Pharmapro Ltd, with a UK firm now called Protherics plc, to develop commercial diagnostic tests and vaccines for animal diseases including bovine TB and the then-emerging BSE.

NovaUCD is University College Dublin's €10m Innovation and Technology Transfer Centre.

This purpose-built centre, which has been funded through a unique public-private partnership, nurtures new technology and knowledge-intensive enterprises.

The NovaUCD Innovation Award has been established to celebrate outstanding achievement in the successful commercialisation of intellectual property arising from UCD research.