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Baltimore City’s technology incubator, ETC  (Emerging Technology Center), announced today that six companies have been selected to participate in the 2013 AccelerateBaltimore™ program –a 50% increase from the first AccelerateBaltimore™-. The program received over 120 applications from all over the world. The three month accelerator will kick off on February 4, 2013. 

“The quality of the applications and the number of participants was amazing. It made the job of choosing the final participants very difficult,” says Deb Tillett, President of ETC. “We had the help of some professionals from the tech community and it was a challenging but fun process. Congratulations and thanks to all I can’t wait to get started.”

Companies in Maryland, Virginia and D.C. raised a paltry $94.9 million in venture funding in the last three months of 2012, according to the PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP MoneyTree report, marking one of the shabbiest quarters in years.

The region hasn’t seen this weak of a fundraising total since the $89.7 million raised in the first quarter of 2009, according to historical MoneyTree data. Excluding that period, the end of 2012 would have ranked as the worst quarter since the first quarter of 1997.

Emergent BioSolutions, Inc., recently signed a license agreement for the manufacture and sale of VaxInnate Corporation’s recombinant influenza vaccine.

The deal is considered to be a step in the right direction towards preparing the United States for the event of a major influenza pandemic. The licensing agreement grants Emergent BioSolutions, Inc., the right to manufacture and sell VaxInnate’s pandemic flu vaccine in the United States. VaxInnate, in turn, will receive payments and royalties associated with vaccine’s production and sale.

Bicoastal venture titan New Enterprise Associates ranked as the most active VC firm in the country last year, according to investment research firm CB Insights.

NEA, which has major offices in Chevy Chase, beat out Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Google Ventures, Andreesen Horowitz and other top VCs, according to the report, which attributes NEA’s exuberance to its shiny new $2.6 billion fund. Major NEA deals last year include Sonatype Inc., Desire2Learn, 10Gen and Lithium Technologies.

Gov. Martin O’Malley released a $37 billion spending plan Wednesday that for the first time in recent years contains no drastic cuts or proposed tax increases.

Amid a stronger economy, O’Malley also proposed to boost the pay for state workers, expand tax credits for some high-tech industries and set aside more money to clean up the Chesapeake Bay.

“These have been challenging years to say the least,” O’Malley said.

Another day, another class of digital health startups. That’s how it feels sometimes, with so many accelerators working with dozens of new companies each year. While there are plenty of “me-too” startups entering crowded markets, accelerators are still managing to find some fresh and interesting gems.

Blueprint Health’s winter program kicks off this week with the addition of Verizon, Humana and Aetna as partners, as TechCrunch reports. It’s also brought on mentors from powerhouses like the Cleveland Clinic, Optum, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Weight Watchers.

British healthcare firm GlaxoSmithKline has filed for US regulatory approval of its new type 2 diabetes drug albiglutide, which belongs to the same group of injectable GLP-1 receptor agonists as Byetta, Bydureon and Victoza .

GSK announced on Monday that it had submitted the once-weekly medication to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for approval and confirmed that it also plans to seek European Union regulatory approval for the new product in 2013.

Peter Greenleaf is stepping down down as president of Gaithersburg-based biotechnology giant MedImmune, according to a company spokesman, to take the helm of parent company AstraZeneca’s Latin America business.

He will be replaced by Bahija Jallal, who currently serves as MedImmune’s executive vice president of research and development. Jallal joined the company in 2006 as vice president of translational sciences.

MedImmune executive Bahija Jallal will be the new chief of the Gaithersburg biotech under a leadership shuffle by parent company AstraZeneca, a spokesman confirmed Wednesday. Current MedImmune President Peter Greenleaf will lead AstraZeneca’s Latin American business.

Jallal, who joined MedImmune in 2006 as a vice president of translational sciences, has also been promoted to AstraZeneca’s senior executive team, according to an announcement on Tuesday. That announcement, however, left unclear exactly how her role at MedImmune would change, and how that change would affect Greenleaf.