Page 27 - Mass General Brigham - Innovators Guide 1.2

27 INNO V AT O RS GUIDE | M ASS GENERAL BRIGH AM

3
Enabling

3 collaboration

Material Transfer Agreements continued Confidentiality Agreements
MTA Review by IRB. The external transfer of any human tissue – i.e., Maintaining confidentiality is key to protecting intellectual property rights
clinical specimens, research specimens, and/or patient data – always and business opportunity. Confidentiality Agreements are ubiquitous
requires Institutional Review Board (IRB) review, but not necessarily an in the life sciences business sector. Among the areas they are needed
MTA. As a matter of course, the transfer of human tissue to an external for are meetings and other exchanges involving potential pre-clinical
academic institution or academic collaborator will not require an MTA if: research collaborations, discussions about inventions/intellectual property,
and meetings that have multiple topics that could reveal undisclosed
(1) there is no compensation other than the costs of preparing and information, research outcomes, etc.
shipping the material;
(2) the specimens or data were not collected in a protocol or study funded
by a company;
(3) the recipient does not plan to use the human tissue in industry-
supported research; and
(4) the human tissue has not been previously transferred to a
for-profit company.

Under these circumstances, a letter prepared by IRB is sufficient. If the
answer to any of the above questions is yes, an MTA may be necessary.
For transfers that do not meet the criteria for use of the investigator
template, please submit a Request for a Material Transfer Agreement, via
Insight as described above.
For further guidance, please refer to the IRB website at: https://www.
massgeneralbrigham.org/researcher-support-and-resources/resources-
collaborators-and-sponsors

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