Shipping Innovation Overseas

... might help some university hospitals get a jump on the competition, courtesy of an NIH grant:

Aided by a $4.5 million grant from the National Institutes of Health, the two universities are expected to immediately launch joint clinical programs to treat heart disease, based at both Yale-New Haven Hospital and (University College-London) UCL-affiliated hospitals.

While Yale has thousands of international partnerships, the scale of the new collaboration and the linking of two extensive hospital complexes is unique, Yale President Richard C. Levin said Thursday.

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The joint effort is expected to create a “test bed for analysis of various clinical procedures,” Levin said, noting the partnership could eventually extend beyond cardiology, and would give Yale access to extensive British data systems.

Medical devices often receive approval in the United Kingdom before they are approved in the U.S. The partnership will enable Yale to study innovative drugs before they are available in the U.S., Levin noted.

“We can be immediate adapters on the frontier of medical innovation,” he said.

Look for increased pressure on universities to forge such collaborations in Europe as the regulatory environment in the U.S. becomes increasingly hostile to researchers.

-Wes