AstraZeneca entered into a definitive agreement Friday to buy ZS Pharma, a California biotechnology company, for $2.7 billion.
ZS Pharma (NASDAQ: ZSPH) of San Mateo, Calif., has an application seeking approval for ZS-9, its experimental treatment for hyperkalaemia, under review with the Food and Drug Administration. A European marketing application is expected before the end of the year.
The new venture is expected to make its first investments in the first quarter of 2016.
A new business entity will invest $30 million in Israeli digital medicine ventures, sources inform “Globes.” Collaborating with the venture will be US hospital Johns Hopkins, one of the world’s largest medical institutions,and Luminox-Health, an Israeli group dealing in digital medicine.
Johns Hopkins’s annual budget is more than $7 billion, and the new venture is expected to make its first investments already in the first quarter of 2016.
QIAGEN N.V. has announced the start of commercialization activities for its GeneReader NGS System, the first complete Sample to Insight next-generation sequencing (NGS) solution designed for any laboratory to deliver actionable results.
With the introduction of the GeneReader NGS System, QIAGEN is offering the world’s first truly end-to-end NGS workflow from primary sample to a final report that provides a simpler, more cost-effective way for clinical testing to take advantage of NGS technology and improve outcomes.
Greenspring Associates has closed its seventh venture capital fund-of-funds at $430 million, the firm announced today.
Greenspring Global Partners VII, L.P will focus on established and emerging VC managers, expansion stage companies and secondary stakes in funds and companies.
Owings Mills venture firm Greenspring Associates has raised $430 million to invest in promising information technology companies.
Seventy percent of the fund, called Greenspring Global Partners VII, will be invested in about 25 venture capital managers that invest in early stage information technology companies. The remaining 30 percent of the fund will be invested directly into expansion stage IT companies with high growth potential.
The Maryland Technology Development Corporation (TEDCO) announced today that it is hosting a local competition in the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) 2016 InnovateHER: Innovating for Women Challenge. InnovateHER provides an opportunity for entrepreneurs throughout Maryland to compete for $70,000 in cash prizes by showcasing products and services that have a measurable impact on the lives of women and families, have the potential for commercialization, and fill a need in the marketplace.
“57% of working age women participate in the labor force, 74% of employed women work full-time, and 70% of working women have children under the age of 18,” said Rob Rosenbaum, President and Executive Director of TEDCO. “As demands on women and families grow, the need for products and services that address these unique challenges increases – we are hopeful that InnovateHER will identify some high potential solutions.”
A pair of SMU psychology professors working with University of Maryland engineers have been awarded a National Institutes of Health grant in October that will bring nearly $2 million to their joint project to create a wearable device for pediatric asthma patients that helps them avoid asthma triggers.
The asthma device will monitor air quality (including pollen levels and temperature), carbon dioxide levels in the blood, physical activity, breathing, emotional states and other stimuli to identify each patient’s individual asthma triggers and alert them when conditions are ripe for an attack. The concept is similar to the glucose monitor that alerts diabetes patients when their blood sugar is low, but it also includes much more complex monitoring of the patients’ environment.
Neurology research is one of those rare topics that immediately fascinates people outside the field. Any technology that makes healing brain ailments easier is a relief for people of all ages who fear what the future might bring for their health. But it’s also fascinating to see what new developments could do not just to protect our brains, but also augment them.
The new Tel Aviv accelerator Brainnovations will foster the very companies that will lead that development. It’s the brainchild of Israel Brain Technologies (IBT), a local non-profit that former President Shimon Peres launched in 2011. IBT is dedicated to “making Israel a leader in the international market” for braintech and has hosted two conferences and several industry meetups since 2013. But those events were only the beginning, according to Dr. Yael Fuchs Shlomai, Program Manager at Brainnovations.
GlaxoSmithKline could file up to 20 new drugs for regulatory approval before 2020 as it seeks to revitalize a portfolio hit by falling sales of best-selling inhaled lung treatment Advair, the company said on Tuesday.
Seven of them may reach the market before the end of decade, it added.
The Maryland Technology Development Corporation (TEDCO) announced today that six new Maryland companies received funding from its Cybersecurity Investment Fund (CIF). Jedvice, Point 3 Security, Topaz Research, Efflux Systems, Bricata and QI Solutions were each awarded $100,000 through CIF. The Fund supports Maryland companies looking to develop and commercialize new cybersecurity products or services by providing investments of up to $225,000.
“As the State’s first dedicated cybersecurity fund, we have seen an increase in momentum around Maryland’s information security ecosystem,” said Rob Rosenbaum, president and executive director of TEDCO. “CIF’s goal is to support innovative cybersecurity companies and accelerate their product development to help them get to commercial launch faster. With our funding and support, we are confident these six startups will successfully grow and create more jobs in Maryland. ”
