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Montgomery County Department of Economic Development offers a program that provides free one-on-one business assistance to entrepreneurs, business owners, and start-ups.

A business development specialist will be available at locations throughout Montgomery County to meet directly with business owners.  Experts will provide information about county financial initiatives and other programs, make introductions and identify the connections your business needs. 

This program is open to any entrepreneur and/or business located within Montgomery County. Montgomery County works hard to support local businesses and has a variety of resources including industry sector experts in IT, cybersecurity, life sciences, green, international, government contracting, and more. Support is also available for navigating the county procurement and Local Small Business Reserve Program.

eHealth Initiatives’s iTHRIVE Innovation Challenge, August 12-13 in Washington DC, is a competition and event that convenes business leaders, government officials, innovators, investors and promising entrepreneurs looking to shape how health technology can improve the quality, safety, and efficiency of healthcare. The Challenge invites startups from around the world to submit proposals that tackle healthcare system problems head-on, focusing on three critical areas of the eHealth Initiative 2020 Roadmap: consumer-oriented health IT; population health management; and interoperability between providers, payers and across the delivery system.

If you have an idea about how health technology can improve the quality, safety and efficiency of healthcare, notice gaps in the system that offer easy fixes, or wish to share your vision for better healthcare delivery, join the competition and the conversation. 

External models of R&D innovation are the rage in Pharma today, as they should be – the future of our industry depends on a great deal more rather than less collaboration.

In a very healthy way, lots of experiments are being done across the ecosystem and the final scorecard for what worked and what didn’t is years from being tallied up; however, the early biomarkers are positive and it’s a widely-held belief that a critical element of exceptional R&D organizations in the future will be creative BD engagement. In short, great BD and R&D are becoming synonymous with each other.

AstraZeneca has joined forces with the University of Cambridge for three more joint schemes designed to develop the next generation of world-class scientists.

The schemes will support more than 80 PhD scholarships and eight clinical lectureships over the next five years spanning translational science, basic and clinical research.

Baltimore health IT startup Avhana Health has raised $750,000 to put toward continued development of its electronic medical record improvement software.

Investors in the seed round included SR One Limited, Boston Millennia Partners Founders Fund, TEDCO and DreamIt Ventures. Angel networks, such as Wilmington Investor Network and individual angel investors, also contributed.

Pieris Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: PIRS), a biotechnology company advancing its proprietary Anticalin® biotherapeutic technologies, today announced the pricing of a public offering of 9,090,909 shares of its common stock at a public offering price of $2.75 per share. All shares of common stock are being offered by the company. In addition, Pieris has granted the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 1,363,636 shares of common stock at the same price to cover any over-allotments.

MedStar Health, the largest not-for-profit health system in Maryland and the Washington, D.C. region, has become the newest Founding Member of Project Catalyst|The Power of We. The program gives developers of popular and emerging products insight into how Americans 50-plus use technology, in order to identify ways to improve the devices for mature consumers. By aligning with the country’s preeminent advocacy organization for older Americans, MedStar will help spur innovation in new and emerging digital technologies, products and experiences that can improve the lives of the rapidly growing 50-plus population.

Acting CMS Administrator Andy Slavitt announced the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services will be opening access to its voluminous federal healthcare data stores to entrepreneurs and other private-sector innovators – a move designed to spur innovation and effect transformation of healthcare. The new policy comes as part of the Administration’s “commitment to use of data and information to drive transformation of the healthcare delivery system.”

Slavitt made the announcement at Datapalooza, saying, “Today’s announcement is aimed directly at shaking up healthcare innovation and setting a new standard for data transparency. We expect a stream of new tools for beneficiaries and care providers that improve care and personalize decision-making.

The sun is just beginning to rise as Robyn Stoller sits busily typing at her computer. A steaming mug of coffee rests next to her, while she quickly and methodically scrolls through  he hundreds of emails waiting for a reply. Though dawn is just beginning to break, Stoller has already been at work for hours; fielding press inquiries, drafting blog posts and responding to heartfelt messages from cancer patients and their families. Running her nonprofit, CancerHawk, is constant work, but for Stoller it’s all part of her journey. A journey that, despite its tragic nature, has projected her life into a single mission – to connect cancer patients to the critical resources and information they need.