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Army commercialization officer: 'We don't call our licensees licensees' — partners drive medical tech to market
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Summary
Edward Diehl, commercialization officer for USAMRDC, tells the Transfer Files podcast his office treats companies as long-term partners rather than mere licensees, highlighting recent successes — including an FLC-awarded ECtemp/IHAT heat‑stress tool — and saying the office helps partners with funding and development to ensure military and civilian use.
Edward Diehl, commercialization officer in the Office of Medical Technology Transfer at the U.S. Army Medical Research and Development Command (USAMRDC), said his office treats companies that take Army technologies not as "licensees" but as "partners" who must develop products the Army can buy back and use for warfighters and civilians.
"We don't call our licensees licensees. We call them partners because we need products developed for us," Diehl said. He described a licensing process that asks prospective partners for financing and development plans and that pairs them with federal and local funding resources, including SBIR opportunities.
The distinction, he said, reflects the DOD’s operational needs. "Our research ... is directed towards things that affect the warfighter," Diehl said, listing priorities such as blood products, burn and trauma care, and medical countermeasures for infectious and chemical threats. He added that many of those technologies are "dual use" and suited to civilian markets as well.
Diehl offered examples of recent transfers. He said a product he named "Artesenate" was licensed to a small company and "the FDA just approved that," calling it an antimalarial that will be available to DOD personnel and civilians. He also cited Ixiaro, a Japanese encephalitis vaccine now available to deployed troops and civilians in affected regions.
He described software and device successes as well, including a smartphone alertness app developed at the Telemedicine and Advanced Research Center (TATRIC) that uses AI to customize recommendations for sleep-deprived individuals, and DNA-deconvolution software for forensic use.
Diehl highlighted a project that won a 2023 Federal Laboratory Consortium for Technology Transfer (FLC) award: ECtemp, an estimated-core-temperature monitoring algorithm, paired with an Individual Heat Acclimation Training tool (IHAT). ECtemp and IHAT use wearable sensors and a smartphone interface to monitor and provide personalized feedback to reduce heat-injury risk. "It's very available, not only to DOD personnel, but also to civilians," Diehl said, and he noted partner interest in the Netherlands and planned field tests.
About the effect of the FLC recognition, Diehl said awards "are motivation for the inventors" but stressed that DOD researchers already work hard; he noted that licensing revenue in federal practice flows first to inventors, a contrast with typical university models.
On workforce and process, Diehl described an invention evaluation committee that meets monthly, including tech-transfer staff, judge advocate general counsel, IP experts, subject-matter scientists and military end users. He said that cross-disciplinary review helps determine when to file patents and how to structure business decisions.
Diehl also pointed to genomics work that could scale testing. He described a next-generation sequencing approach developed at the Army that, he said, could test large populations (he used an aircraft-carrier example) in a day at an estimated cost of "$3 to $5 per test," and suggested civilian applications such as cruise-ship screening or border testing.
He described an early-stage research effort to predict sepsis in burn patients using biomarkers and an algorithm to provide "prediagnosis" days before onset; that work, too, is seeking an industry partner to commercialize the capability.
Diehl said data security and funding remain persistent challenges: federal and university tech-transfer offices alike must get early-stage technologies far enough along that industry partners will license them, and available funds are limited. "We just always need more money," he said, while adding that the office works to be efficient and to help partners access available funding.
Nelson closed the episode by thanking Diehl and inviting him to return for a follow-up on the office’s ongoing partner-matching project and planned field tests.
