About us

IOCB Tech is the leading Czech technology transfer office and is a subsidiary company of IOCB (the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry CAS) – a member of the Czech Academy of Sciences. We help to transform the inventions and scientific outcomes coming from research performed at IOCB by scientists in medicinal chemistry, material sciences, biology, and other chemistry-related fields. The main goal is to make these inventions available to ultimately benefit society.

The IOCB Tech team supports management and decision-making processes in multiple projects targeted at novel drugs and scientific tools. As IOCB Tech, we provide services to the scientists at IOCB in the areas of due diligence analyses, market potential studies, and project feasibility.

One integral part of our work is the protection of intellectual property and know-how, and therefore our team has an in-house Czech and European patent attorney.

IOCB Tech additionally engages in business development activities – identifying collaboration, licensing, and co-development partners, negotiating contracts and agreements. We foster a bridge between academia and industry.

We are also tasked with finding networking and industry partners for IOCB, and in this we are among the most successful businesses of our kind in the Czech Republic.

Our International Business Advisory Board advises us in our strategic decision making. The IBA’s members combine deep knowledge in IP issues and international and local business, and they have an inside knowledge of unmet medical needs, as well as Big Pharma experience.

What do we do?

Our main goal is to connect science and business to make the results of scientific research available to society. At IOCB Tech, help to bring projects from their beginnings to a successful start in practice. We actively seek out the best results of scientific and research activities and assess their market potential. In addition to consulting, we provide project management, legal work, and IP protection, as well as contractual work and presentations.

At IOCB we transform research results into successful products

Project analysis and management

Our office provides services connected to a project’s process beginning from the moment of its disclosure. These include the market analysis, the freedom-to-operate analysis, and the analysis of patentability. Once the project is found to be commercially viable, we participate in the design of the project development plan, help to secure the financing, and then take on responsibility for the management of process evolution. An important part of this work is also a constantly growing network of CROs that can provide project development services.

Legal and IPR work

A project’s legal and intellectual property work begins from the moment of the technology disclosure and evolves alongside the project over many years. If the project leads to a patent application, we take responsibility for the intellectual property’s future life cycle and are also fully involved in the legal work connected to licensing and other steps. Very often an invention will be the result of inter-institutional collaboration, in which case we also take care of all agreements related to this.

Business development

Once a project reaches maturity, we present it at different international conferences including BIO Europe, BIO International (US), Bio Japan, BioVaria, and others. We also have a network of company contacts which we include in the process of business development.

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Our team

Milan Prášil

CEO

Before joining IOCB Tech, Milan served as chairman of the board of the life science incubator i&i Prague. Before that, he had served for eight years at Charles University as chancellor and a member of rector’s collegium responsible for tech transfer. Milan had also previously worked for Czech subsidiaries of research-oriented pharmaceutical manufacturers (Novo Nordisk, Bayer) in various sales and marketing positions. Later he gained international experience in senior management while working for a multinational biotech company (Genzyme Therapeutics).

milan.prasil@iocbtech.cz

Julie Proft

Head of Project team and Business development

Julie, a Biochemistry graduate from the University of Greifswald, Germany, embarked on a remarkable academic journey. She earned her Ph.D. at the Friedrich Loeffler Institute (FLI) Riems, specialising in Mad Cow Disease. After gaining valuable experience as a postdoctoral fellow at the Hotchkiss Brain Institute (HBI) in Calgary, Canada, Julie returned to Europe for another postdoc at IOCB in Prague. Since January 2016, she has been an integral part of the IOCB Tech team, contributing her expertise to cutting-edge research and technological advancements.

juliane.proft@uochb.cas.cz

Jana Kenney

Analyst and Project manager

Jana holds a Ph.D. in Neuroscience, which she obtained from Ruhr University Bochum, Germany. She followed with a post-doc in a CNRS-affiliated laboratory in Lyon, France. Finally, she gained experience in pharmaceutical industry (regulatory affairs) as a scientific consultant and medical writer, before joining the IOCB Tech team in September 2017.

jana.kenney@uochb.cas.cz

Matěj Malý

Project Manager

Matej is set to defend his Ph.D. in analytical chemistry from the University of Chemistry and Technology in Prague in November, focusing on UHPLC-HRMS analysis of bioactive plant metabolites. During his studies, he gained international research experience through internships in France, Austria, and Italy, where he was introduced to technology transfer and the interface between cutting-edge science and business. He joined IOCB Tech in September 2025.

Vijay Madhav Miriyala

Project Manager

Vijay earned his PhD in Quantum Mechanics from IIT Kanpur, completing part of his research at POSTECH, South Korea. He continued with postdoctoral work at POSTECH and the University of Johannesburg, South Africa before joining IOCB in 2016, where he advanced to the position of Scientist. His research was on method development, benchmark datasets, and their applications in materials and computer-aided drug design. He is also part of the High Performance Computing Scientific Support Group, advising on molecular modelling. Vijay complemented his scientific career with formal training in Project Management from the Technical Institute of America.

Sofiia Svirska

Project Manager

In 2007, Sofiia graduated with a degree in Pharmacy from the Ivano-Frankivsk National Medical University, Ukraine. In 2019, she received her PhD in Pharmacy. She gained experience as a researcher and university teacher at the Ivano-Frankivsk National Medical University. Sofiia joined the IOCB Tech team in 2022.

sofiia.svirska@uochb.cas.cz

Martin Fusek

Senior Advisor

Martin has studied Organic Chemistry and finished his Ph.D. in Biochemistry in 1988. After spending 6 years as a postdoctoral fellow in laboratories in the USA and Germany he started to work in the industry sector, specifically for Sigma-Aldrich and Merck. Since 2007 he focused on the development of the technology transfer office at the IOCB in Prague and is the CEO of IOCB Tech since 2009.

martin.fusek@uochb.cas.cz

Ladislava Součková

Czech and European Patent Attorney

Ladislava, a Biochemistry graduate from Charles University in Prague, has a diverse background in research and intellectual property protection. With 9 years of experience as a research assistant at the Institute of Pharmacology, she concurrently pursued and successfully obtained her Ph.D. degree from Charles University in 1993. Ladislava furthered her expertise with a one-year fellowship at the Institute of Chemistry of Natural Compounds in Gif-sur-Yvette, France. She then expanded her education to become a patent attorney, passing the exam in 1997. Since then, Ladislava has been dedicated to the field of IP protection in chemistry, working in specialized patent offices, commercial companies, and academic institutes.

ladislava.souckova@uochb.cas.cz

Kateřina Habelová

IP Associate

After graduating with a degree in biochemistry from Charles University in 2003, Katerina worked in the clinical laboratory AeskuLab. In 2005, she sought a new opportunity with Sigma-Aldrich as a Life Science Specialist in the sales department and joined the IOCB Tech team in 2012. From 2019 to 2021 Kateřina studied at the Industrial Property Training Institute of the Industrial Property Office of the Czech Republic.

katerina.habelova@uochb.cas.cz

Jana Schimmerová

HR and Finance manager

After graduating with a degree in Economics from the University of Economics in Prague, Jana served as the Head of the support team in the sales department at eBANKA, the first internet bank. She gained valuable expertise while working in various companies. In 2015, she had the opportunity to work for the Research Board at the Technology Agency of the Czech Republic. In May 2023, Jana joined the IOCB Tech team.

jana.schimmerova@iocbtech.cz

Barbara Eignerová

Lawyer

Barbara graduated with an MSc degree in Organic Chemistry from Charles University in Prague and obtained her Ph.D. from IOCB in Prague. During her Ph.D. studies, Barbara proceeded with her education at the Industrial Property Office and decided to pursue a new career in law. After graduating with the MSc in Law from Charles University in Prague, she worked as a lawyer at the State Institute for Drug Control. She joined the IOCB Tech team in 2019.

barbara.eignerova@uochb.cas.cz

Hana Kosová

Public Affairs and Strategic Partnerships Management

Hana combines a legal background with international experience in diplomacy, innovation management, and knowledge valorisation. She spent ten years leading the Centre for Knowledge and Technology Transfer at Charles University and co-founded the Czech association Transfera.cz. She served as vice-president of ASTP and continues to be active in its EU Committee. Hana has also worked with the European Commission as rapporteur for knowledge valorisation and expert in intellectual assets management. She now supports the company in Public Affairs and Strategic Partnerships

Jan Skácel

Pharmtheon Project Manager

Jan started his medicinal chemistry trajectory in high school, studying chemical and pharmaceutical technology from 2005. He received his undergraduate degree in medicinal chemistry from The University of Chemistry and Technology, Prague, and continued to earn his Ph.D. in the same field at the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry of the Czech Academy of Sciences. Following his doctoral studies, Jan spent his postdoctoral period at the Johns Hopkins Drug Discovery Center in Baltimore. He then returned to Czechia and started a collaboration with IOCB Tech, ultimately joining the team officially in 2023.

jan.skacel@uochb.cas.cz

William Lee

Dr. William “Bill” Lee served as the Executive Vice President of Research at Gilead Sciences. He received his BS in Chemistry from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from the University of California San Diego. He did postdoctoral work at the EPFL in Switzerland and at the University of California Santa Barbara. He began his industry career at Syntex Research in Palo Alto in the Preformulation Department and then moved to California Biotechnology where he was head of Drug Delivery. He came to Gilead Sciences as Director of Pharmaceutical Development in 1991.  Dr. Lee is a co-inventor of Cellcept®, Viread® and tenofovir alafenamide, a lymphatic targeting prodrug of tenofovir which was recently approved for the treatment of HIV in the combination product, Genvoya®.

James Lorens

Professor James Lorens, Ph.D. is an academic entrepreneur with over 35 years research and industry experience from the US and Europe. Head of Oncology and a founding scientist at Rigel Pharmaceuticals Inc (RIGL). Founder and CSO of BerGenBio ASA (BGBIO). Developed the first AXL targeting agent (bemcentinib) into the clinic. Member of the Norwegian National Academy of Sciences and Letters, Principal Investigator in the Norwegian Centre of Excellence in Cancer Biomarkers and Professor in the University of Bergen Medical Faculty.

Jiří Michal

Jiri Michal is a highly experienced professional in the pharmaceutical industry. He has been with Zentiva for 36 years and served as its CEO from 1993-2010.

Vít Perlík

Vit Perlik, M.D., PhD. has an extensive expertise in clinical development, non-clinical and clinical study design, data mining, data evaluation and interpretation. Vit has built his expertise by working as a basic research scientist in the USA and in pharmaceutical companies such as Sanofi, Zentiva Inhalationprodukte and Zentiva with more than 20 years’ experience in research, clinical pharmacology, inhalation drug development, locally applied and acting products, long-acting injectables, generics and drug candidates for pain management. Currently, he is a consultant and partner at Cadore INV and Synavia, and contributing to spin-off initiatives e.g. LAM-X. Vit and his colleagues built and successfully divested PharmInvent (now part of PrimeVigilance). Additionally, he is the founder of BioBridges, a conference for professionals from pharmaceutical industry, academia and regulatory agencies.

Ursula Vogel

Ursula Vogel, a biopharmaceutical industry veteran, started her career at Merck & Co (MSD) in West Point, PA, USA, where her research led to significant discoveries in the field of oncology. After another R&D position at Rhone-Poulenc (Sanofi), she was recruited to launch the European operation of the pioneering US biotech Genetics Institute (Pfizer) where she was responsible for managing key product development and business development activities for several programs, including InductOs(R), BeneFIX(R)and DiscoverEaseTM. She then joined ZS Associates where she co-managed the newly established European headquarters.

In 1999 she started her own independent consulting practice, specializing in providing C-level business development support to companies in all stages of the deal-making process. In this capacity, she has led in /out licensing and other partnering efforts for large pharmaceutical companies, publicly traded biotech companies, and VC backed companies (USA, Europe, and China), resulting in an extensive list of transactions. She has also served as an Advisor to top tier venture capital and private equity firms, not-for-profit entities, foundations, and universities and has a broad experience across various therapeutic areas and modalities.

Ursula holds a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Cambridge University, a B.Sc. from Imperial College and an MBA from INSEAD.

Štěpán Vyskočil

Stepan has more than 19 years of experience in preclinical drug discovery and medicinal chemistry. He is co-inventor of Pevonedistat (Ph3), directly contributed to advancement of 3 molecules into clinic, 5 into IND-enabling studies and authored over 60 publications and patents. Prior to starting his independent consultancy, he worked at Millennium/Takeda for 16 years, where he held various leadership roles with focus on small molecule and antibody-drug conjugates drug discovery. Stepan received his PhD from Charles University in Prague and completed post-doctoral training at Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, where he focused on natural product synthesis.