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Novartis has agreed to buy all remaining rights to Ofatumumab from Britain’s GlaxoSmithKline for up to $1 billion, boosting the Swiss drugmaker’s stable of multiple sclerosis (MS) treatments.

Basel-based Novartis had previously acquired the rights to Ofatumumab for oncology indications, but it is currently being developed for relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis and other auto-immune conditions.

October 27 – 29, 2015 (Seattle, WA)

The 17th Annual NIH SBIR/STTR Conference will be held in Seattle, Washington on October 27 – 29, 2015. Early-bird registration rate of $350 is available until August 20, 2015. Let us know if you’re planning to attend so we can connect with you directly!

The WIB-DC/Baltimore Mentors, Advisors, and Peers (MAPs) Committee is thrilled to announce the initiation of our 1:1 Mentoring Program. This program is designed to match mentees in the early stages of their careers to mentors who can help guide them based on different areas of interest. We are looking for volunteers interested in being part of this new program.

Most consumers are familiar with the idea of probiotics — particularly when it comes to gastrointestinal health. But could they actually benefit HIV and AIDS patients?

That’s a question being examined in a medical probiotic product created by Gaithersburg startup ExeGi Pharma LLC. That product, Visbiome, is planned for launch this fall and was originally designed to help the treatment of patients with ailments such as ulcerative colitis or irritable bowel syndrome.

Startup Maryland and LAUNCH! Annapolis today announced a teaming relationship under which both organizations present the 2015 Maryland Open Bloody-Mary and Crab-Soup Competitions. Contested over two rounds, the Maryland Open will be held during the Pitch Across Maryland tour and celebration of innovation and entrepreneurship.

Round One begins on Saturday, September 12 during a tailgate at the University of Maryland. Round One continues the following week Saturday, September 19 during a tailgate at the United States Naval Academy. The Final Round will be announced during the Pitch Across Maryland tour.

BrainScope Company, Inc., a privately held neurotechnology company with an initial focus on traumatic brain injury (TBI) and concussion assessment, is feeling a lot of positive momentum these days as it recently announced an additional $500,000 funding from GE and the NFL, and a host of new appointments intended to move the company forward.

In July, the company announced that it had received an additional $500,000 award from GE and the National Football League (NFL) to further enhance its portable concussion assessment system, as one of six final winners of the GE NFL Head Health Challenge I. In February 2014, Brainscope was selected as one of the initial 16 recipients from more than 400 entries from 27 countries of the up to $10 million Challenge, which was created by GE and the NFL to award entrants for proposals focusing on “identifying breakthrough technologies and approaches that will improve the diagnosis and prognosis of mild traumatic brain injury (TBI).”

United Therapeutics (Nasdaq: UTHR) is selling a voucher designed to speed up approval for rare pediatric disease treatments to Chicago-based pharmaceutical company AbbVie Inc. for a record $350 million.

The Wall Street Journal reports the Silver Spring-based biotechnology company landed the voucher when it received approval from the Food and Drug Administration for Unituxin, its drug designed to treat neuroblastoma.

Sara Nayeem will participate in the Biotechnology Industry Organization webinar entitled, “Capturing Investor Interest in a Hot Biotech Climate,” on Tuesday, August 18th at 1PM EST. The panel will explore the strong biotech market and answer questions from start-ups seeking funding in their venture.  

The biotech market is stronger than ever with more than $5B invested in 2015 so far. With the influx of capital flowing in the biotech pools, the panel will advise startups on what to look for when interviewing investment firms, what due diligence is needed to find appropriate investment partners, and what steps a company should take to ensure that the partnership runs smoothly. 

Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) is a major consumer technology developer and Internet services giant which is involved in an incredibly diverse array of innovative tech fields. The company is best known for its Internet search engine, which processes an average of about 40,000 search queries every second, but in our Companies We Follow series  we’ve seen them develop everything from robots with humanoid personalities to medical emergency response drones. We’ve covered Google acquisitions that have pulled the company into the sphere of digital wallet tech as well as patenting activities in the field of autonomous vehicles. It’s clear that the tentacles of the corporate octopus that is Google stretch wide and far away from each other.