Seeing Promise At UF, Dupont Donates Rights To New Technology

March 1, 2001

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — An unusual donation from DuPont to the University of Florida could turn a bright idea into a better way to make a crucial ingredient in drugs and agricultural products.

In what officials describe as the first donation of its kind to UF, DuPont has given the university the patent rights to a promising technology for a cleaner, more efficient way to make a class of chemicals known as fluoroaromatics. The university intends to develop and license the technology, for which there is a potential market in the production of fluoroaromatics used in disease-fighting drugs and agricultural chemicals.

DuPont scientists developed the experimental technology as part of their research into a manufacturing process for a new product, but the company decided instead to purchase — rather than make — the product and focus company resources in other areas, said Robin Kump, licensing director for DuPont.

Instead of shelving the fledgling technology, DuPont sought a university capable of perfecting it and commercializing the results. Such intellectual property donations are an increasingly common trend in corporate philanthropy.

“We are extremely pleased that DuPont has selected the University of Florida from among a number of high-quality institutions to carry forward the fluoroaromatics technology,” said Win Phillips, UF vice president for research and dean of The Graduate School. “We are grateful not only for the value of this gift, but also for the opportunity for faculty and students to participate directly in the development of a prototype manufacturing process.”

After considering several national research universities, DuPont chose UF and a group of researchers headed by Bill Dolbier, a professor of chemistry and a highly regarded specialist in organo-fluorine chemistry.

“We felt that UF had an excellent track record in technology transfer and commercialization,” said Tom Connelly, senior vice president and chief technology officer at DuPont.

Dolbier described the technology as in its early stages but unique and promising.

“It is an extremely novel process for making fluoroaromatics,” he said. “It’s virtually unprecedented and it should open up a whole new field of synthetic methodology for fluoroaromatics. That means there’s a sense of urgency about it — you want to move this technology forward quickly to realize its potential and get it to the marketplace as quickly as possible.”

Fluoroaromatics are used in drugs and agricultural chemicals to make them more effective, Dolbier said. For example, fluoroaromatics increase the lifetimes of some drugs while helping others reach their target in the body, he said.

“There are all kinds of ways that fluoroaromatics help a drug or an agricultural chemical be active and successful,” he said. “The need for these kinds of chemicals, and therefore the market, is growing all the time.”

The traditional manufacturing process for fluoroaromatics uses a significant number of costly ingredients and produces considerable waste, including hazardous waste, Kump said. The new technology appears to be both more efficient and produce far less waste. The end result could be cheaper drugs and food for consumers, he said.

Founded in 1802, DuPont operates in 70 countries and has 94,000 employees.