Page 23 - Mass General Brigham - Innovators Guide 1.0

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

3
Enabling

3 collaboration

Sponsored Research Agreements continued Common contract terms for sponsors to be aware of include protecting
the investigator’s ability to publish; Mass General Brigham ownership of
• Investigator and Mass General Brigham have rights to use any any IP created by the investigator during the project; sponsor’s payment
third-party material in the performance of the research (due diligence of the budget on an appropriate timeline; and no unauthorized use of the
on pre-existing MTAs); investigator, hospital or system name by the sponsor. The sponsor is
• Any proposed patient tissue/data use complies with the system’s Data typically given an exclusive option to license any IP created under the SRA.
Tissue Sharing Committee guidelines; If the sponsor decides to license the IP, a license is separately negotiated.
• If any use of human material or data is contemplated, IRB protocol and Like all Mass General Brigham transactions, it must provide for fair market
value of the IP. If the IP is licensed, the system retains the right to continue
determination letter confirming that any use of human material is Not using the IP for research and educational purposes.
Human Subjects Research, or protocol and approval letter for non-clinical
research use of human material, or confirmation that protocol has been
submitted for any use of human material;
• Budget has full overhead, or hospital Senior Vice President approval that
appropriate overhead was used; and
• There are no conflicts of interest per system conflict of interest policies
(See Chapter 13 for more information).
If the above conditions have been met, Innovation negotiates the SRA to
ensure that the terms of the contract comply with hospital and federal
policies. It takes time, even up to several months, to complete the
negotiation of a complex agreement based often driven by turnaround
times at the sponsoring corporations. Innovation works to minimize the
time. This can be facilitated by an up front understanding between the
company and the investigator on organizational requirements. The clearer
the dialogue, the more misunderstandings and consequent delays can
be avoided.