23rd August 2017
Expert Advice from Tybio: Can I sell my assay as a commercial product?
Those of us who do assay development for life science or medical diagnostics are all guilty of thinking our assay is the best ever and everyone else is going to buy it but sadly, of course, this is not always the case and some realism is needed!
Here are some important points to remember –
- If you want to sell your assay, the goal is to develop a robust and reproducible test that can be routinely manufactured and will give a similar result every time it is used. This means that even if the assay works beautifully in your hands, if it doesn’t work as well for other users then it is not robust enough. Assay development is not a black art that requires some ‘tweaking’ every time the assay is used but the result of a careful and organised plan of work in which the reasons for every choice you have made can be properly demonstrated and, importantly, have been properly recorded.
- If your assay is for detecting an analyte which has not been measured before then customers may accept a labour-intensive method with a long time-to-result. However, if there are other assays out there already, yours needs to be better in some way (eg more sensitive) or there will be no market for it.
- Make sure that you have’ freedom to practice’ and you are not infringing anyone else’s patents; the fact that no one is exploiting intellectual property does not mean that it does not exist.
- Be realistic and think if you have the resources to manufacture your assay or if it would be better to work with a contract manufacturing partner.
There is an enormous buzz in seeing your assay being sold as a kit, or knowing that it has been used to screen thousands of novel compounds for their potential as therapeutic drugs, but it is always advisable to speak to someone who has travelled this path before so you can avoid the pitfalls.
View Tybio’s profile here and get in touch for further details.