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We have the sharks for an all healthcare Shark Tank, now we need the startups. Although someone pointed out on Twitter that Vinod Khosla should be in this group, and it’s true, he should be. So with that addition, what entrepreneurs should be pitching to this group on Friday night?

Deanna, Stephanie, Amanda and I each nominated companies. Here are the criteria:

• Solution must address a need-to-solve problem, not a nice-to-solve 
• CEO or founder must give a good pitch 
• Idea must be relatively understandable for a general audience

Montgomery County’s own Sanaria, a emerging biotech company dedicated to the creation of a Malaria vaccine, was named the Verl Zanders Emerging Business of the Year by the Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce.

The award was accepted by CEO Dr. Stephen L. Hoffman during an awards dinner on November 21.

Many medical scientists feel most comfortable at the laboratory bench, developing hypotheses, testing ideas, and running experiments. The US National Institutes of Health (NIH), too, almost exclusively funds this type of hypothesis-driven basic research.

However, bringing a drug, diagnostic tool, or medical device to market requires a lot more than basic research. The problem, scientists say, is that federal funding runs out long before a potential product is ready for investors. “If you’ve made a discovery with NIH grant money and you want to run some studies in a mouse model, those can be expensive, and it’s not the type of study that NIH reviewers typically like. There’s this gap in the ability to get money”, says Paul DiCorleto, director of Cleveland Clinic’s Lerner Research Institute.

It’s hard to believe that nearly two years after it picked its inaugural class of entrepreneurs to respond to trends in healthcare. Now the health IT accelerator in New York  Blueprint Health is gearing up for class number five.

Looking back on its first graduates, Dr.  Brad Weinberg, who co-founded  the program with Mathew Farkash, noted that seven of the original nine companies are still in business. Five are generating revenue.  Looking at its alumni of 39 companies with which it’s invested, 36 of them are still in operation and 80 percent are turning a profit — a record he would challenge other healthcare accelerators to beat.

GSK announced a $1 million dollar prize for innovation in the emerging area of bioelectronics research. This prize will be awarded to the scientists who are first able to solve the challenge of creating a miniaturised, fully implantable device that can read, write and block the body’s electrical signals to treat disease and it is hoped that after finding a solution to this challenge will open and accelerate significant avenues of research in this field.

The scientific challenge was developed and agreed by a group of approximately 150 leading scientists from around the world, brought together by GSK’S Bioelectronics R&D unit at a summit this week in New York. Collectively, summit attendees agreed that if they create an implantable wireless device that can record, stimulate and block neural signals to a single organ, it will be a critical factor enabling the onward development of bioelectronic medicines as a future therapeutic reality.

This year, conversations about creativity and innovation have been happening all over the world. And while there’s still a long way to go, we’re excited to see just how many schools and communities are embracing the importance of letting a child’s imagination run wild.

A fantastic example of this is when five-year-old Miles Scott became Batkid in San Francisco-turned-Gotham City this November.

AstraZeneca, a global and innovation-driven biopharmaceutical business, has signed an agreement to acquire the entirety of Bristol-Myers Squibb’s interests in the companies’ diabetes alliance for an initial consideration of $2.7 billion on completion and up to $1.4 billion in regulatory, launch and sales-related payments. AstraZeneca has also agreed to pay various sales-related royalty payments up until 2025. In addition, AstraZeneca may make payments up to $225 million when certain assets are subsequently transferred.

Upon completion of the transaction, AstraZeneca will own intellectual property and global rights for the development, manufacture and commercialisation of the diabetes business, which includes Onglyza (saxagliptin), Kombiglyze XR (saxagliptin and metformin HCl extended release), Komboglyze (saxagliptin and metformin HCl), dapagliflozin (marketed as Forxiga outside the US), Byetta (exenatide), Bydureon (exenatide extended-release for injectable suspension), metreleptin and Symlin (pramlintide acetate).

MedImmune, the global biologics research and development arm of AstraZeneca, is pleased to announce its participation in the Brazilian government program, Science Without Borders.

Thirty Brazilian post-doctoral fellows will work at MedImmune’s three sites in Gaithersburg, Maryland, Mountain View, California and Cambridge, UK for a period of two years. The areas of research will include oncology, respiratory, inflammation and autoimmune diseases (RIA), cardiovascular and metabolic diseases (CVMD), infectious diseases, translational science, antibody discovery and protein engineering, and biopharmaceutical development.