It was in 1980 when the Bayh-Dole Act in the United States opened the path to the creation of a value creation office and TTO (Technology Transfer Office). France followed two years later with the “guiding and programming law for technological research and development”: this introduced the principals of value creation and researchers being an objective on a similar scale to that of knowledge acquisition. In 1984 the law on higher education, strengthened the 1982 law enabling the formation of value creation departments within Universities.

In 1999, the Allègre law made it possible for universities and researchers to create a start-up and to submit patents.

Following this last law, Inserm decided, in 2000, to create Inserm Transfert. The company has advanced in a rich, stimulating and complex human health innovation ecosystem at the interface between the academic and industrial world and with local, national and international components.