What do beekeepers, marching band members, engineers and choir singers all have in common? They all raised money for various projects through Launch UMD, a new crowdfunding platform at the University of Maryland, College Park.
(Screenshot courtesy of launch.umd.edu)
Now through December 1st, 2014, Freudenberg will be hosting a contest in the area of smart surface technology for medical devices (preferably silicone based). Share your new product or business idea for the opportunity to launch a successful and innovative startup business in cooperation with Freudenberg.
About 15 years ago, the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation made what was considered a risky foray for a nonprofit organization into the world of business. It began giving money to a small biotechnology company to entice it to develop drugs for the deadly lung disease.
Ten years ago, scientists discovered that some people are naturally missing working copies of a gene known as PCSK9. The consequences of the mutation were extraordinary. These people, including a Texas fitness instructor, a woman from Zimbabwe, and a 49-year-old Frenchman, had almost no bad cholesterol in their blood. Otherwise, they were perfectly normal.
Wednesday, December 10, 2014 from 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM (EST), Rockville, Maryland
Climbing the Regulatory Summit: Insights into developing the Best Regulatory Pathway for your Venture and Methods of Designing an Efficient and Productive Clinical Trial
An absolutely essential exercise in any healthcare or life science start-up is to determine the optimal regulatory pathway and the most efficient clinical trial design. Come and hear the experts before you go spending those scarce resources!
In the “Mystery of Capital,” Peruvian economist Hernando de Soto famously writes about the need to convert assets into capital for creation of social and economic value in developing countries and economies in transition, noting: “Any asset whose economic and social aspects are not fixed in a formal property system is extremely hard to move in the market.” While de Soto is describing the need to legalize informal property systems, this is equally true with respect to BRICS and other countries seeking to unlock capital resources for R&D intensive start-ups, also known as Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs).
Are you an established public company looking to impress investors with your company’s latest developments, or a late-stage private company hoping to make the valuable connections needed to take your product to the next phase? Nominate your company to be the Buzz of BIO at the 2015 CEO & Investor Conference!
Ten biotechs will be nominated in each of two categories, “Most Distinguished Public Company” and “Most Promising Private Company.” Only 20 nominations will be accepted in total, and must be submitted by 5:00pm ET, November 21, 2014. All nominations are subject to review.
The US healthcare industry is undergoing a major transformation as healthcare reform encourages consumers to play a far more active decision-making role. Yet despite this traditionally business-to-business industry moving quickly to a business-to-consumer model, companies have been slow to join the digital movement. Unlike successful B2C companies in other industries—which offer mobile solutions, provide personalized product recommendations, and empower customer-service agents with a 360-degree view of the customer—most healthcare providers and payors are lagging, as are pharmaceutical companies and medical-device manufacturers.
Rockville, MD, November 19, 2014 – BeneVir BioPharm, Inc. today announced it closed a Series A investment round with Pansend, LLC, an indirect wholly owned subsidiary of HC2 Holdings, Inc. (OTCQB: HCHC). BeneVir’s core technology was licensed from New York University (NYU) and originally developed by Ian J. Mohr, Ph.D., NYU Langone Medical Center.
BeneVir used this core technology to develop a pipeline of cancer immunotherapy drug candidates that affect antigen presentation in both tumor cells and antigen presenting cells. BeneVir’s pipeline consists of oncolytic viruses delivered locally or systemically. Once inside tumors, the viruses selectively destroy cancer cells, evade elimination by the immune system, and activate multiple classes of anti-tumor immune cells. This multi-mechanistic approach builds upon key elements of both oncolytic virus and immune-checkpoint inhibitor approaches to cancer treatment and is designed to block the major methods that tumors use to subvert the immune system. Proceeds of the financing will be used to conduct initial proof- of-concept clinical studies of BeneVir’s lead product, further develop the pipeline, and establish partnerships to test promising combination therapies in a diverse set of metastatic solid tumors.
The angel investor market in Q1,2 2014 showed signs that the five year moderate growth has continued in the first half of 2014. Total investments in Q1,2 2014 were $10.1 billion, an increase of 4.1% over Q1,2 2013, according to the Center for Venture Research at the University of New Hampshire. A total of 30,270 entrepreneurial ventures received angel funding in Q1,2 2014, a 5.9% increase from Q1,2 2013, and the number of active investors in Q1,2 2014 was 143,140 individuals, an increase of 6.1% from Q1,2 2013. The increase in total dollars and the larger increase in total investments (deals) resulted in a deal size of $332,120 in Q1,2 2014, a decline from the deal size in Q1,2 2013 of $337,850. These data indicate that angels remain major players in this investment class and at valuations similar to Q1,2 2013. The market exhibited a sustained growth pattern over a five year period and the angel market has now recovered from the correction in 2008.
