By Jason Derry —

As reported by the San Diego Union Tribune, the Scripps Research Institute and Pfizer
Inc. have agreed on a 5 year, $100
million partnership.  The arrangement
provides Pfizer the option of licensing up to 47% of the discoveries made at
Scripps over the next 5 years, while Scripps receives $20 million per year from
Pfizer.  Any of the discoveries Pfizer
chooses not to license will then be open for licensing to others.  In addition to the $100 million, Pfizer will
pay royalties to Scripps from any profits made through the exercised
licenses.  The deal replaces the current
partnership between Scripps and Novartis
, which
continues through 2006.  Final approval
of the Scripps-Pfizer agreement is subject to the review of the National
Institutes of Health, which provides a majority of Scripps' funding.

Jason Derry, Ph.D., who graduated with honors from DePaul University College of Law, is a molecular biologist and founding author of Patent Docs.