In an exciting development, The Philadelphia Business Journal featured PCI’s Managing Director John Swartley, MBA, PhD, as their cover story. The in-depth interview with Swartley provides a comprehensive history about technology transfer at Penn as well as his unique perspectives on the establishment and current success of PCI.
As Managing Director of PCI, Swartley’s leadership has helped Penn rank first in gross annual licensing income among U.S. universities and research organizations, according to AUTM’s 2021 report. More importantly, PCI facilitated licenses and partnership agreements with the private sector have contributed to the approval and launch of many important products, including therapeutic drugs that have benefited billions of patients world-wide such as mRNA-based Covid-19 vaccines that rely on technology developed at Penn by Dr. Drew Weissman and Dr. Katalin Kariko.
In terms of what’s next for PCI, Swartley points to a future full of further technological development and innovation. “There are multiple hundreds of invention disclosures per year, on top of the thousands of other technologies that we’re working on,” he said. “The volume is tremendous and we have to be able to react quickly to areas of opportunity. You can’t get static. … I think our world is going to change pretty quickly and we’re going to need to adapt with it.” Read the full article here.