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The stage has been set for a disruptive return of the “Small IPO” to the private equity marketplace (Seed, Series A, B etc.). This go-around, the liquidity boom will not be the exclusive provenance of the Four Horsemen (Alex Brown Inc., Hambrecht & Quist, Robertson Stephens & Co., and Montgomery Securities), the four boutique investment banks that drove liquidity for Silicon Valley during the boom. The new incarnation of the Four Horsemen will be in the form of crowdfunding marketplaces, not investment banks.

Gaithersburg-based MedImmune says it has received fast-track designation from the Food and Drug Administration for its MEDI8897, a drug being developed to prevent respiratory infections in infants and young children caused by respiratory syncytial virus. “We are working with a sense of urgency to develop a next-generation RSV [treatment] that we believe has the potential to benefit hundreds of thousands more infants, both in the U.S. and around the world,” said Steve Projan, senior vice president of research and development and infectious diseases and vaccines at MedImmune. “If successful, the fast-track designation will enable us to more quickly deliver a preventative solution.”

MDHIMSS annually awards scholarships of $2,500 each to two deserving students in the healthcare information system field:

• One awarded to a student studying healthcare information systems or related computer science
• One awarded to a student enrolled in certification or technical programs in computer technology, networking and telecommunications.

STONY BROOK, N.Y., April 8, 2015 – The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has granted Stony Brook University’s Center for Biotechnology a three-year $3 million award through the SUNY Research Foundation to establish the Long Island Bioscience Hub (LIBH). The award is part of the NIH’s Research Evaluation and Commercialization Hub (REACH) program and one of only three granted nationwide. The LIBH will be a collaboration between Stony Brook University, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory and Brookhaven National Laboratory, and is designed to help accelerate the translation of biomedical discoveries into new drugs, devices, and diagnostics to improve patient care and enhance health.

Foundation Medicine Inc. (NASDAQ:FMI) today announced the closing of its strategic transaction with Roche. This transaction included the purchase by Roche of approximately 15.6 million shares of common stock by means of a tender offer from Foundation Medicine stockholders at a price of $50 per share. Concurrently Roche also purchased an additional 5 million newly issued shares directly from the company at the same price per share for gross proceeds to Foundation Medicine of $250 million. As a result of these two related transactions Roche is a majority shareholder in Foundation Medicine. Foundation Medicine will maintain its operational independence with Roche having minority representation on Foundation Medicine’s Board of Directors.

Cerner Corporation and Epic Systems have joined iPatientCare as CMS Designated Test EHR Program participants. The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology announced the two rival companies’ participation April 6. The CMS program, designed to test electronic data exchange capabilities, is voluntary. Since the Test EHR Program was launched just over a year ago, more than 4,000 providers have registered to conduct tests, and more than 5,000 have successfully attested to the transition of care meaningful use core objective, ONC notes. In the past the program also included MEDITECH and McKesson.

The University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) has encouraged a culture of entrepreneurship, UMB President Jay A. Perman, MD, said in remarks at the 2015 Maryland Regional BioTech Forum. Perman appeared with three other university presidents on a panel, “How Academia Can Help Drive our Region’s Biotech Cluster.” The theme of the forum, “Growing Our Ecosystem,” referred to ways that corporate, governmental and academic partners can collectively make the region a leading hub of groundbreaking science and technology.

Katie Kirsch did not expect a move to Baltimore. Wrapped in a pashmina scarf in Baltimore’s Harbor East, she sips her chai and shrugs her shoulders, “We were destination agnostic.” Kirsch is the chief marketing officer of Sisu Global Health, a startup that creates medical devices for emerging markets. Sisu got its start in Grand Rapids, Mich., but acceptance into DreamIt Ventures’ Baltimore Health IT accelerator had them pick up and move east.

M&A may seem hot in the life sciences, but that and IPO activity is starting to cool across all sectors, according to a new report from the National Venture Capital Association. The first quarter of 2015 saw less than 20 venture-backed IPOs since the first quarter of 2013. Independent of sector, when it comes to deal size, this quarter was the slowest in M&A since the first quarter of 2013. But the bulk of the IPOs completed were, of course, in the life sciences – 13 of the 17 exits were in the medical and biotech sectors.