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ROCKVILLE, MARYLAND, September 6, 2017 – BioHealth Innovation Inc., (BHI) President and CEO Richard Bendis has been named one of The Daily Record’s 2017 Innovators of the Year. Mr. Bendis is one of 26 individuals and companies who have created new products, services or programs that have had a positive effect on business, industry or the community.

“I am grateful to be chosen as an Innovator of the Year by The Daily Record,” said Mr. Bendis. “The Biohealth Innovation team, along with our partners throughout and beyond the BioHealth Capital Region, all deserve a piece of this honor.”

The 2017 Innovator of the Year awards will be presented Oct. 18th at a reception/dinner starting at 5:30 p.m. at the American Visionary Art Museum, 800 Key Highway in Baltimore. Winners will be profiled in a special magazine that will be inserted into the Oct. 19th issue of The Daily Record and available online at www.TheDailyRecord.com.

Machfu, an Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) company leading the way in the development of an edge intelligence platform for IIoT, announced that it has raised $1.6 million in the first round of institutional financing. This investment, led by Blu Venture Investors, will allow the company to accelerate its successes in the Smart Grid and Smart Water markets, and expand its footprint in the oil and gas industry. The company has also recently received financing from Maryland’s TEDCO and other angel investors.

When Betsy Edmunds met her future husband, Hooks Johnston, through friends at a bar in New York City on March 30, 1985, she couldn’t believe two things about this tired and overworked investment banker — his name, and how he spoke so earnestly about his family.

The National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences at the National Institutes of Health has awarded Children’s National Health System, in partnership with The George Washington University (GW), another prestigious Clinical and Translational Science Award. The grant, made available to facilities across the nation through a competitive process, underwrites the existing Clinical and Translational Science Institute at Children’s National (CTSI-CN) and provides funding that is essential to continue the collaborative pediatric-focused translational research occurring at Children’s and at GW. 

Johns Hopkins University remains the leading patent recipient in the state of Maryland.

BioMarker Strategies, LLC, today announced that the Japan Patent Office has granted new patents covering the Company’s SnapPath® Cancer Diagnostics System technology and its PathMAP® Functional Signaling Profile technology.

BrainScope Company, Inc., the medical neurotechnology company which created the first FDA-cleared handheld medical device for assessment of the full spectrum of traumatic brain injury, today announced it has completed a $16 million equity financing. New investor DBL Partners joined previous backers Revolution LLC, ZG Ventures, Maryland Venture Fund and other existing and new investors in the round, which the company will use to support the commercial launch of its flagship BrainScope One medical device, as well as for continued research and development initiatives.

AstraZeneca has sold off marketing and development rights to another one of its pipeline assets.

This time it’s Takeda that’s stepping up, inking a deal package totaling $400 million for development and commercialization rights to its home grown MEDI1341, an alpha-synuclein antibody designed to combat Parkinson’s disease.

The MVR Company (MVR) and Engineered Medical Systems, Inc. (EMS) announced today that they have executed a lease to occupy space at the City Garage in Port Covington. The location will be used for a medical device manufacturing operation and a business development accelerator to support the State’s emerging growth medical technology companies.

Engineered Medical Systems manufactures medical products for their proprietary line, and provides private label and OEM contracts to distribution teams and other medical device companies. Their current facilities operate out of Indianapolis, IN, and Penang, Malaysia. For several years, MVR and EMS have been in discussions regarding the possibility of placing a medical device manufacturing operation in Baltimore to support the growing Medtech ecosystem in the State of Maryland. EMS will produce proprietary and contract products in the new facility and is in discussions with several out of state companies that are interested in producing in the new location. The facility will be known as The Factory™, consistent with the focus of City Garage to develop new capabilities for Baltimore in high value manufactured products. Brad Quinn, Co-President of EMS and Director of Operations, commented “We have been intrigued by the vibrancy of the clinical and innovation atmosphere in Maryland, and have in fact had several productive relationships in the past with researchers and physicians from the area. We view this as a timely opportunity to engage more deeply with the medical device community in greater Baltimore and Maryland.”

AstraZeneca announced that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved Faslodex (fulvestrant) as monotherapy for use in women with hormone-receptor positive (HR+), human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 negative (HER2-) advanced breast cancer who are postmenopausal and have not received previous endocrine therapy.

Lightower Fiber Networks, the premier provider of all-fiber, high-performance networking solutions delivered over its own network, announced the availability of a newly constructed, all-fiber Potomac River crossing near Ashburn, VA. Wholly owned and operated by Lightower, the crossing serves as a strategic route that bypasses the greater Washington D.C. area, allowing for superior network connectivity to data centers, cloud providers, and other service locations in northern Virginia, including the Ashburn area.

Virginia Bio, the premier statewide non-profit association of the life science industry in Virginia, elected Andrew J. Krouse to a two-year term as Chairman of the Board of Directors, during the annual meeting of the Board held at i.Lab at UVA.

In a bid to detect cancers early and in a noninvasive way, scientists at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center report they have developed a test that spots tiny amounts of cancer-specific DNA in blood and have used it to accurately identify more than half of 138 people with relatively early-stage colorectal, breast, lung and ovarian cancers. The test, the scientists say, is novel in that it can distinguish between DNA shed from tumors and other altered DNA that can be mistaken for cancer biomarkers.

The MOVE program is an innovative approach intended to attract new businesses to Montgomery County, Maryland. Eligible new businesses will receive a one-time grant upon signing a commercial lease within the county.

Businesses new to the county that lease up to 20,000 square feet of Class A or B office space may receive a grant of $8/sf. All grants are capped at 10,000 square feet for purposes of calculating the grant award.

Maryland Tech Council CEO, Tami Howie talks with Montgomery County Economic Development Corporation for #MOCO365 on educating, advocating and connecting biotech and tech companies in Maryland.

When: Thursday, September 14, 2017 from 5:00 PM to 7:00 PM EDT

Where: BIOTrain @ Montgomery College Germantown 20200 Observation Drive Germantown, MD 20876

Join BioBuzz and sponsor BIOTrain for our next networking event and showcase of the continuing-education and workforce support programs throughout the county and state.

There also will be a tour of Montgomery College’s state-of-the-art labs in the same building around 6pm.

Tue, Sep 19, 2017 at 7:30 AM – American Visionary Art Museum800 Key HighwayJRVC 3rd FloorBaltimore, MD 21230

Already dubbed a ‘tech hub’, the Baltimore-Washington region has built a solid foundation in cyber activities as they pertain to government agencies and defense contracting. Now a transformation is underway to build up the commercial side of cyber. And that’s precisely what this panel will reinforce.

TEDCO’s 7th Annual Entrepreneur Expo will bring together all of Maryland’s entrepreneurial resources from across the state into one place, at one time.

You can expect to see 700+ of the region’s top entrepreneurs, small and large business executives, angel and venture capital investors, federal and state economic development officials, university leaders and legislators.

The following funding opportunity announcements from the NHLBI or other components of the National Institutes of Health, might be of interest:

Notices

• Notice of Participation of National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) on RFA-CA-17-031 ” Limited Competition: A Data Resource for Analyzing Blood and Marrow Transplants (U24)
• (NOT-AI-17-038)
• National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
• Notice of Applicant Information Webinar for the Point-of-Care Technologies Research Network Centers (U54)
• (NOT-EB-17-010)
• National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering
• Notice of Intent to Publish: Stimulating Access to Research in Residency Transition Scholar (StARRTS) (K38)
• (NOT-HL-17-533)
• National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute
• Notice Announcing an Applicant Information Webinar for Phase II of the Undiagnosed Diseases Network (RFA-RM-17-019, RFA-RM-17-018, RFA-RM-17-017, RFA-RM-17-016, RFA-RM-17-015)”
• (NOT-RM-17-038)
• NIH Roadmap Initiatives

Requests for Applications

• Stimulating Access to Research in Residency (StARR) (R38)
• (RFA-HL-18-023)
• National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute

Program Announcements

• Continuation of Existing Grant Based Epidemiology Cohort Studies in Heart, Lung, Blood, and Sleep Diseases and Disorders (U01)
• (PAR-17-338)
• National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute
• Clinical and Epidemiological Research on Chronic Disease in the Caribbean (R01)
• (PAR-17-470)
• National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute

Corporate venture firms are a well-established presence on the biotech funding scene, with the likes of Novartis and Glaxosmithkine’s SR One among the most active investors in the sector. However, the past few years have seen some different names crop up more and more: Pfizer, Celgene and Roche have noticeably stepped up their financing activity, a new analysis by EP Vantage finds.

Corporate venture capital (CVC) has long been an important source of capital for early-stage biotechs and shows no signs of diminishing, with more and more biopharma companies stepping up their investment activity.

We built it, but they didn’t come. In another less-than-glowing analysis of Florida’s innovation economy, the Florida Research Consortium says the state lags in overall number of scientists and in the number of scientists publishing research.

On May 11, Scott Gottlieb, M.D., officially became the 23rd commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Dr. Gottlieb has previous FDA experience, having served as deputy commissioner for medical and scientific affairs, among other positions, during the George W. Bush administration. More recently, he was a venture partner at the world’s largest venture capitalist firm, New Enterprise Associates (NEA), sitting on the boards of several pharmaceutical companies, including GSK, Daiichi Sankyo, and Vertex. He was also a clinical assistant professor and practiced medicine at the New York University (NYU) School of Medicine, and is a cancer survivor (Hodgkin’s lymphoma).

In July 2017, Nanochon LLC and CEO Ben Holmes were awarded a Phase I SBIR grant from the National Science Foundation. The grant will fund the development of an implantable medical device for cartilage repair in the knee, based on 3D printing technology. Nanochon LLC was founded by Ben Holmes and Nathan Castro and is based on their work in Grace Zhang’s Tissue Engineering Lab.

Join us on September 24, 2017 in San Jose, CA, one day before The MedTech Conference powered by AdvaMed, for the 5th Annual Pediatric Device Innovation Symposium. This year’s theme is “Partnering for Breakthroughs in Pediatric Surgery and Care.”

TOP REASONS TO ATTEND

Experienced Startup Development Officers Help Universities, Faculty, Researchers, Students and Entrepreneurs Create, Develop and Fund University Startups and IP

Join this webinar to learn more about: How to Attract Venture Capital Wednesday, September 6, 1:00 pm ET/10:00 am PT

WHO SHOULD ATTEND: Researchers, Students, Faculty, Entrepreneurs, Startups, Vice Presidents of Research, University Tech Transfer Offices, Open Innovation Officers, Chief Innovation Officers, Angel Groups, VCs, University Venture Funds, University Angel Groups

September 28, 2017 11a PT/ 2p ET

Join us for a web panel discussion on how to successfully move a life science organization from founding to exit. During this discussion, founders will provide guidance on how executive teams can partner business and science together to overcome the stumbling blocks along the way and achieve results. Learn what is real and what is myth!

The university and life science giants AstraZeneca and MedImmune have joined forces with the burgeoning Cambridge Biomedical Campus and pledged to work with the Government and partners in areas identified as major catalysts for growth.

Biotech/Health execs play for a small $50 donation in the tournament that will benefit Zaching Against Cancer Foundation organization.

Welcome to the 2017 Biotech / Health Invitational, a DogDenGolf managed event that is being supported by top executives at Medimmune, other Biotechnology / Health companies and Vendors in the region. This year’s event will be held on October 23, 2017, at Cattail Creek Country Club in Glenwood, MD and will determine the Biotech / Health Executive Golfers of the Year.

Proceeds from this event will benefit Zaching Against Cancer Foundation (ZACF), a 501(c)(3) non-profit foundation established to provide support to cancer patients and their support networks through scholarships, research and outreach. Money raised by ZACF goes toward several college scholarships, an internship and donation to cancer research and outreach organizations.

For more information, visit their websites at www.zachingagainstcancer.org.