The BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT GROUP created within the CENTER FOR GENETIC ENGINEERING AND BIOTECHNOLOGY (CIGB), Havana, Cuba, has the mission to speed-up its Portfolio of R&D projects through alliances with potential partners, under different business structures, thereby allowing to complete the idea-product cycle and to continue developing new biotechnology products.

• After statement of willingness of a potential partner to start discussions; a secrecy agreement will be signed and then additional information could be disclosed about the product.
• A negotiation team will be set up in order to discuss in detail the status of the technology, the patent situation, the financial requirements, the competition, the market estimations, the time schedule and the risks.
• In general, the partner will share development costs according to a structure of up-front fees, R&D funding and milestone payments to be discussed, and will receive in exchange marketing rights for a given territory and period of time.
• Neither equity purchase nor sharing of Cuban tangible asset property will be included in the agreement.
• Except for the above-mentioned statement, negotiations should be flexible and innovative enough to accommodate very diverse business structures.