TECHNOLOGY - May 31, 1993

UC Backs Away From For-Profit Technology Corporation: Facing intense opposition from a number of prominent faculty members, the University of California has shelved a proposal to establish a for-profit corporation to help develop commercial inventions from university laboratories. The California Technology Ventures Corp., outlined in November, would have funded discoveries in biotechnology and other areas that had moved beyond the basic science stage but were not yet ready to be licensed to industry. It was part of a plan to boost UC’s income from its inventions--from less than $30 million a year to nearly $200 million. But many UC scientists fear that a for-profit venture would compromise academic research and pose conflicts of interest.