The 2014 Deals of Distinction Award from the LES Industry-University-Government Interface Sector (IUGI) went to the U. S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), National Institutes of Health (NIH), PATH, and the Serum Institute of India (SII) for MenAfriVac, a low-cost meningitis vaccine designed for use in sub-Saharan Africa.
The NIH Technology Transfer Program was honored with its record 7th “Deal of Distinction Award” at the 2025 Licensing Executives Society Annual Meeting. This award was given to NIH and its licensee Bavarian Nordic for the deal that led to the new chikungunya virus vaccine Vimkunya®. Vimkunya received FDA approval on February 14, 2025, as the first virus-like particle (VLP) single-dose chikungunya vaccine and the first chikungunya vaccine for individuals over the age of 12. .
Meningitis A is a devastating disease afflicting 26 countries in Africa’s meningitis belt across sub-Saharan Africa. Thousands of people would die or be disabled each year, such as the 1996-97 epidemic when 25,000 were killed and a quarter million afflicted. The disease primarily afflicts young adults and children, leaving many wage earners with permanent brain damage. The Meningitis Vaccine Program (MVP) was formed by the health non-profit PATH, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and the World Health Organization to combat this epidemic.
The LES Deal of Distinction award recognizes major business transactions involving licensing, that exemplify best practices and creativity to achieve strategic product development objectives, with a significant impact on advancing innovation in the industry sectors that comprise LES which includes pharmaceutical and biomedical technology. This LES award specifically recognizes two deals that were negotiated by NIAID technology transfer officers with an array of partners in industry and academic institutions, or Industry University Government Interface (IUGI) sector.
Low cost rotavirus vaccine in developing countries, ROTASIIL, a heat stable rotavirus vaccine, was approved by the Drug General Controller of India in 2017. The Government of India subsequently ordered 3.8 million doses of ROTASIIL for its Universal Immunization Program.
The NIH Technology Transfer Program has won the Licensing Executive Society’s Deals of Distinction award for 2022. The Deals of Distinction Award is given to an outstanding licensing deal from the past year. Steve Ferguson, Special Advisor at the NIH Office of Technology Transfer, recently attended the LES award ceremony to accept the award on NIH’s behalf. Continue reading to learn about this award-winning license agreement from Steve himself.
THE PROBLEM: Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is a common virus that typically causes mild, cold-like symptoms — but it can be deadly to older adults, young children and people with chronic heart or lung disease or weakened immune systems. Each year in the U.S., 60,000 to 160,000 adults 65 years and older are hospitalized, and up to 10,000 people die each year from RSV infection, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
NIAID TTIPO’s extraordinary efforts in “COVID-19 Technologies Licensed Globally Through WHO Program” was recognized by the Licensing Executives Society (U.S.A. & Canada) in 2022 with a Deals of Distinction Award in the Industry-University-Government Interface Sector. This award acknowledged the collaborative efforts put forth by the WHO, Medicines Patent Pool (MPP) and the NIH for COVID-19 technologies licensed globally through the WHO program.
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) recognized NIAID TTIPO’s public health-centered patent management efforts with the Patents for Humanity: COVID-19 category award with the USPTO announcing the award on December 15, 2022. NIAID, Scripps Research Institute, and Dartmouth College invented stabilized coronavirus spike proteins, which were essential to the development of the COVID-19 vaccines used today. The vaccines that incorporate these stabilized spike proteins have been instrumental in combating the COVID-19 pandemic.
Rotavirus is a disease that affects nearly every child worldwide. While most cases have mild symptoms, it is responsible for one third of infant hospitalizations for severe diarrhea and kills an estimated 200,000 children a year, mostly in developing countries. Researchers at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) developed vaccine formulations to address the six most common forms of rotavirus.