Technology transfers into cash for UT Southwestern. (University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center) (Health Care Quarterly)

By 8 a.m. each morning the telephone already is ringing in Ray Wheatley's office at The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. On the other end are Merck & Co. Inc., Genentech Inc., Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. -- major league players in the fiercely competitive biotechnology industry.

While Wheatley talks with them, others are leaving messages: Eli Lilly and Co., Centocor Inc., Mission Pharmacal Co., Vitel International, as well as individual entrepreneurs who do not even have corporate names yet.

These companies-- some from Dallas, others from all over Texas and throughout the nation -- are not trying to sell products to UT Southwestern. They are …