A measure of success: Being named on patents and references

The most common question asked of every contract research organization is, ‘What have you produced?’ or, in other words, ‘What evidence is there that you will provide value for our money?’

In industries that produce products to order it’s easy to calculate metrics for total output and time and cost per item. But in the scientific service industry the outcomes are less tangible: knowledge, ideas and computational models that usually form part of a wider discovery pathway.

One important endorsement is the number of returning customers and on that front Cresset Discovery Services has a very strong track record. Indeed, the majority of our customers come back to us for repeat business. An alternative metric is the number of patents and references that Cresset Discovery Services and its employees are named on jointly with customers.

The rightly rare nature of CRO patents

Most CROs, including Cresset Discovery Services, are employed to be anonymous. All of the scientific work and all associated IP is rightly the property of the customer, and there is no obligation whatsoever for a customer to name Cresset on any subsequent patents or scientific papers. It is, therefore, highly unusual for any contract research organization to be included on any patent.

Despite this, we’re proud to say that several customers over the years have chosen to name Cresset employees on their patents. This speaks volumes to the quality of the research and the relationship between Cresset Discovery Services and the customer. The diversity of the targets in these patents also demonstrates the broad spectrum of projects we tackle at Cresset Discovery Services.

Table: Patents naming Cresset or Cresset employees.

A steady track record of references

Cresset Discovery Services has always had strong relationships with the academic community and there is a growing number of scientific papers in which our work is directly referenced. For example, the following references are based on HIV-1 work from Cresset Discovery Services.

• Bioorganic Medicinal Chemistry Letters 2016, 26(3) 824 – 828
• Bioorganic Medicinal Chemistry Letters 2016, 26(1) 228-234
• Bioorganic Medicinal Chemistry Letters 2014, 24(23) 5439 – 5445

A description of work carried out as part of a project with Manchester Fungal Infection Group, Institute of Inflammation and Repair, University of Manchester, published in PNAS 2016 113 (45) 12809-12814 can be found on Wikipedia.

These references show not only the quality of the work from Cresset Discovery services but also the duration of collaborations and the lasting impact that insightful computational chemistry can have on a project.

We do not exclusively use Cresset software. Citations for these applications cover a very wide range of targets and industries, and demonstrate the varied projects that our expertise can help to progress.

At Cresset Discovery Services we are committed to propelling your project forward towards patents. We really don’t mind not been included on them, but we greatly appreciate the repeated business our customers provide.

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