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The BRDC Story
The Beginning
Until recently, American corporations and consumers did not greatly benefit from the $23 billion spent annually on federal research. Why? Because new federally-funded technology—developed in federal and academic labs—was automatically deemed public property.
This arrangement had been largely discouraging to corporate investment and development. After all, why would corporations invest valuable research and development dollars when the results will never be their own exclusive property?
An Alternative
In Peoria, Illinois, a group of business leaders developed a bold alternative. Located near the USDA's Northern Regional Research Lab, these leaders knew of the valuable research conducted at the lab. And that a considerable amount of that research never reached the actual marketplace.
So they began working on a unique biotechnology consortium to bring federal, state, and private sectors together in a close working relationship.
With ties to the USDA—and a focus on the agricultural applications of biotechnology—their concept generated immediate interest from several private research-oriented companies.
Licensing Issues
To overcome the hurdles of public domain, the group worked with then U.S. House Minority Leader Robert H. Michel (Peoria), Congressman Richard J. Durbin and U.S. Senator Robert Dole (Kansas)—then the Majority Leader—to introduce landmark legislation allowing private companies to enter into research and development agreements with federal labs. These agreements would also allow companies to gain exclusive licensing rights to the resulting technologies.
With Michel leading the initiative, the resulting Technology Transfer Act was signed into law by President Reagan in 1986. With the private companies pledging specific dollars for financial research support to the project, Congress appropriated research funds for the new consortium—as did The State of Illinois.
The stage was set. The new Biotechnology Research and Development Corporation (BRDC), a for-profit corporation, was organized in 1988, and almost immediately began selecting and funding research projects.
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