How long does commercialization take?
There are no hard and fast rules to predict how long it takes to advance a discovery to the marketplace. Generally, however, the time to market for physical science and engineering technologies is considerably shorter than that for life sciences technologies, which must undergo considerable regulatory review. For example, software developed within the university may be marketable within a year, while a novel chemical entity being developed as a therapeutic drug may require 10 years and millions of dollars of developmental and regulatory approvals before reaching the market.
