Update On The Medical Research Council Commercial Fund, UK

Main Category: Public Health
Article Date: 18 Dec 2007 - 4:00 PDT

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The Medical Research Council and Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills have reached agreement over money resulting from the exploitation of the Council's commercial property.

Following discussions with the the Department of Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS) and HM Treasury it has been decided that the MRC Commercial Fund - money resulting from the exploitation of MRC's intellectual property - can no longer sit outside the MRC's Departmental Expenditure Limit (DEL) or resource accounting and budgeting framework. It has been agreed that the MRC will retain the majority of the Commercial Fund balance as at the 31 March 2007, (£106.9m out of £198.9m). The balance of £92m will be paid into the government's Consolidated Fund. The £106.9m will now be part of MRC's budgetary resources which MRC can draw down when needed, subject to Treasury approval. The £92m paid into the Government's Consolidated Fund will be available to Treasury as part of Government's overall funding.

The MRC will keep all the Commercial Fund income earned in 2007-2008 but for the three years of the Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR) period 2009-2011 an upper limit has been set to the amount the MRC can retain. The MRC understands that it will be able to retain all of its forecast Commercial Fund income in future spending reviews.

This change to the MRC's commercial fund is set against a backdrop of increased funding for the MRC from the recent CSR 2007. The extra funding, which is one of the biggest commitments of support ever given to a research organisation will allow the MRC to speed up translation of research into health benefits.

The government has reaffirmed its support for major national projects, the new UK Centre for Medical Research and Innovation and the rebuilding of the world renowned MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology. These new facilities will provide the vital infrastructure and environment for MRC scientists to continue to turn their discoveries into health and economic benefits for the UK.

The MRC has a strong record, through its commercial arm, MRC Technology (MRCT), of exploiting the intellectual property (IP) created by the scientists who work in our units and institutes. The results have helped hundreds of thousands of people around the world: Monoclonal antibodies for example now make up a third of all new drug treatments for a variety of major diseases. The invention of methods for producing therapeutic monoclonal antibodies has revolutionised biomedical research and sparked an international multi-billion pound biotechnology industry. It has given rise to a new class of drugs for treating a variety of diseases, including cancer, arthritis and asthma.

Medical Research Council