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June 10, 2014 08:00 AM – 10:00 AM
Bethesda North Marriott Hotel & Conference Center

Maryland is home to the most innovative and fast growing life science companies in the world. Two of these companies have recently made a huge splash – Amplimmune and GlycoMimetics. Hear from the CEOs of each company about why being homegrown and staying in Maryland is a key ingredient to success and what their achievements through IPO and acquisition can mean for your company and our life science community as a whole.

Discussion topics include:

• The challenges faced – the stories behind the stories
• Choosing your path and having the path choose you
• Planning for adaptation
• IPO vs. acquisition

Graduates and current tenants of Baltimore accelerator the Emerging Technology Centers contribute almost $174 million in direct economic impact in Baltimore, according to a new report commissioned by the city.

About 63 percent of the ETC’s 76 graduate companies have stayed in Baltimore and generate about $108.5 million in economic activity. Those 48 companies employ 311 workers.

Can the nationally acclaimed Meyerhoff Scholars Program, which has an unparalleled record of advancing diversity in the sciences, be adapted successfully at more universities?

That question is at the heart of a new partnership between the Univ. of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC), the Pennsylvania State Univ., the Univ. of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC), and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI). The four institutions are launching the collaborative Meyerhoff Adaptation Project to learn whether elements of UMBC’s highly regarded Meyerhoff Scholars Program can be adapted at Penn State and UNC. The participating schools aim to learn what it takes to establish a successful program and to share what they learn so other institutions might follow.

Epidarex Capital, a leading international venture capital firm, has raised over £47.5 million to lead investments in early-stage life science and health technology companies, including spin-outs from leading research universities.  Global pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly and Company participated in the final closing with a significant capital commitment.  King’s College London also invested in the final closing.

The fund’s early-stage focus is supported by a diverse range of investors, including four top research universities as well as the European Investment Fund, Scottish Enterprise and Strathclyde Pension Fund.  Epidarex’s close working relationship with the Universities of Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen, three of Scotland’s top research universities, as well as with King’s College London, provides access to some of the most innovative healthcare start-ups, including those specialising in novel drug development.

U.S. Sen. Barbara Mikulski says a new state roundtable on cyber security will focus on keeping the fast-growing industry’s jobs in Maryland, rather than going to Northern Virginia.

The Maryland Cybersecurity Roundtable will hold its first meeting on Thursday. The group includes Mikulski, Gov. Martin O’Malley, KEYW Corp. CEO Len Moodispaw and Jeffrey Wells, who oversees cyber for the Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development.

A bipartisan initiative known as “21st Century Cures,” spearheaded by the House Energy and Commerce Committee, is aiming to keep the U.S. at the forefront of biomedical innovation.

The U.S. bio-phrama industry’s distinction as No. 1 hasn’t gone unnoticed in the rest of the world, says “A Path to 21st Century Cures,” a white paper that describes the initiatives main objectives. “[O]ther nations are now actively working to gain a competitive edge in various elements, whether through a focus on basic research or a streamlined approval process to bring new treatments to market more quickly,” according to the report.

IAN READ, the chief executive of Pfizer, is not a man easily rebuffed. His attempt to woo AstraZeneca, a British drugs firm, included politesse—appearances before Parliament, web videos on Pfizer’s strategy—and, more importantly, a sweetened offer on May 18th worth around £70 billion ($120 billion). However, AstraZeneca’s board has rejected the bid and, as we went to press, it seemed dead in the water.

Imperial Innovations Group plc (AIM:IVO, ‘Innovations’), the leading technology commercialisation and investment company and S.R.One Ltd, GlaxoSmithKline’s venture captial fund, announce today that they have led, alongside co-investor UCL Business PLC (UCLB), an £850,000 seed financing for Puridify, a newly formed company providing purification solutions for biotherapeutic manufacturing.

Puridify’s technology was developed in the world-leading Advanced Centre for Biochemical Engineering at UCL (University College London). UCLB, the technology transfer office for UCL, licensed this technology to Puridify in 2014. It was the winner of the 2013 OneStart competition (founded by SR One and the Oxbridge Biotech Roundtable, http://www.oxbridgebiotech.com/onestart), which is designed to encourage young entrepreneurs. The company has received additional matched-funding awards totalling £780,000 from the UK’s innovation agency, the Technology Strategy Board, to support advancement of the technology.

Immunotherapy, a new, promising therapeutic approach that leverages the power of the immune system to fight cancer, is the cornerstone of MedImmune’s oncology portfolio. As the biologics research and development arm of AstraZeneca, MedImmune is striving to push the boundaries of science to deliver life-changing medicines to patients.

By targeting the immune system, immunotherapy may lead to durable and prolonged response rates across a range of cancer types. Tumours are heterogeneous in that there many different cells that often mutate and grow in different ways. In lung cancer, for example, there may be more than 60 different mutations. Cancer often manages to continue replicating and becomes resistant and returns to growth, making it challenging to treat. This happens despite chemotherapy, surgery and other targeting therapies. Even worse, some of the existing therapies – especially chemotherapy – actually diminish the immune response, thus limiting the body’s own natural defence mechanisms to fight tumours.

The changing face of Frederick County’s economy is reflected in the rapidly growing field of bioscience and biotechnology companies locating or expanding here.

Agriculture and tourism may still be the leading economic factors in Frederick County, but the life sciences are becoming an integral part of the local economy. Additionally, many Frederick residents work for life science companies in Montgomery County and Washington. They may not be in the lab or doing administrative work for a bioscience firm in the county, but they benefit from the growth of local firms, as many of the companies collaborate on innovations and research.