July 31, 2021 — The online celebrations of the 2020 Science and Technology Week from Nov. 24 to Dec. 4, 2020 were opportunities to showcase UP Manila’s health technologies and innovations and compliment its funding agencies and partners.

In turn, representatives of partner entities reaffirmed support for the UPM researchers who develop new technologies that benefit the people and the need for tie ups in scaling up their innovations. Speakers also shared insights on technology translation, commercialization, and intellectual property protection.

“We look forward to more fruitful years of collaboration with each of you amidst this pandemic. Let us become partners towards ensuring the Filipinos’ optimal health by making these technologies accessible and available to all Filipinos,” UP Manila Chancellor Carmencita Padilla stated in all the events.

Presenting the landscape of health research in the country during the Teknolusugan 1 that showcased UPM’s herbal technologies, Dr. Jaime C. Montoya, Executive Director, Philippine Council for Health Research and Development (PCHRD), stated that funding for research and development has significantly grown from 2014 to 2019. He cited that funds allocated for Research and Development, capacity building, research dissemination and utilization have expanded to include drug discovery and development through diagnostics, biomedical engineering and other health technologies. These include Omic technologies for health, functional foods, nutrition and food safety, information and communication technologies for health disaster risk reduction, climate change adaptation for health, and mental health. 

The PCHRD also granted scholarships for the MD PhD, a program pioneered in the Philippines by the UP College of Medicine. Montoya enumerated recent R and D projects that DOST supported, such as the Biotech-M Dengue Aqua kit, Axis Knee System, and GenAmplify COVID-19 Test Kit.

Representing the industry sector, Dr. Francis Wade Z. Gomez, President and CEO of New Marketlink Pharmaceutical Corporations, shared his experiences in the technology transfer of Lagundi, one of several herbal medicinal plants studied by NIRPROMP researchers and commercialized into cures for common ailments. 

“It was not as simple as buying the raw materials from international market suppliers. We had to buy the seedlings and make sure they are the correct variety. After propagating the seedlings, we plant them in large hectarage that will entail 9 to 12 months to harvest significant volumes per plant,” recounted Dr. Gomez. After producing the pilot product, it must go through a stability study for six months, accelerated stability studies, and other quality assurance tests in the next months before submission to the Food and Drug Administration. 

He mentioned the challenges in commercializing herbal medicines, such as some specialty societies not viewing medicinal plants in the same level as synthetic drugs. Understanding the target market, finalizing the pricing before finalizing the marketing plan, understanding the distribution, and continuing research should be part of the marketing study.
Intellectual Property Protection
During the Teknolusugan 2 that showcased UP Manila’s biomedical and COVID-19 technologies, Atty. Rowel Barba, Intellectual Property Office Philippines Director General, highlighted the need at this time of the pandemic to invest in health that is relevant and impactful to spark change. “We need to scale up our quality of living and lead healthier and better lives,” citing some devices produced by UP Manila, such as the test kits that contributed enormously to prevent the spread of the virus.

He lauded the technology presentation event for generating interest in emerging areas of research with consequent gains in research funding, job creation, scope and quality of innovations and creation and growth of industries and economic sustainability of universities.

“Protecting intellectual assets will pave the way for a stronger regime that will attract more investors and researchers to develop more IPs and open up more markets and more IP assets, where our industries can invest. Protection of truly useful technologies will definitely help our Filipino inventors secure a steady source of livelihood, especially in this time of global crisis when we have seen a wealth of innovations on health,” he declared. 

For his part, Engr. Edgar Garcia, Technology Application and Promotion Institute (TAPI) Director, discussed briefly the legal frameworks of technology commercialization as basis for the functions of TAPI. The Institute safeguards the implementation of Republic Act 10055 or the Technology Transfer Act of 2009. Under this Act, the DOST regional offices create a Fairness Opinion Board (FOB) to evaluate technologies for commercialization. Based on this evaluation, a Fairness Opinion Report (FOR) is prepared and forwarded to TAPI for the drafting of the written recommendation to be signed by the DOST Secretary. In 2020, TAPI issued 38 recommendations from 38 FORs endorsed by the FOB.  

Cynthia Villamor & Charmaine Lingdas

Published in UP Manila Healthscape Special COVID-19 Issue No. 22