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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowBill Cook, one of the state’s most successful businessmen, was in fine form May 14 when he spoke as part of the 2008-2009 Indiana Life Science Collaboration Conference Series at IUPUI.
The gist of his message: Taking science from the laboratory to the commercial market takes too much time and is littered with potential pitfalls along the way.
Cook founded Bloomington-based Cook Group Inc. in 1963. The supplier of medical devices since has grown into a $11 billion company. However, in the meantime, the patent process has become increasingly difficult, he said.
"It is almost an impossible task we have been given to prove the validity of o a design," the often outspoken Cook said.
To bolster his argument, he told attendees that it i took 24 years for one of Cook’s stents to receive approval while an in vitro-fertilization product took nearly as long. Cook said he cannot blame the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for being overly cautious, but is convinced the process can be more efficient.
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