Development of these applications started in the early Nineties when Spears went looking for a source of research support from industry. Bentley Laboratories, a subsidiary of Baxter International Inc., was the largest supplier of oxygenators and a natural place to start. TherOx then licensed the Wayne State patents on aqueous oxygen. Unless specifically addressed in the licensing agreement, says Reinhart, Spears's research funded by other sources does not have to be offered to TherOx. If a discovery is made at the university using its resources or funds it administers, it's owned by the university, and the company will pay royalties.
Spears also shares in the royalties from Wayne State's licensing agreement with the company.
DynamOx is aimed first at wastewater treatment, in which bacteria that break down waste need oxygen. And this process could lead to yet another spin-off. Ten years from now, TherOx might be a holding company that owns patents and has administrative capability, and in octopus fashion around TherOx might be 10 or 20 entities that have legal and financial relationships with TherOx. The ownership and the boards of directors of TherOx and DynamOx overlap. New spin-offs would probably overlap as well, and like DynamOx would also be sublicensees of Spears's original technology.