Pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca has revealed proposed designs for its new corporate headquarters and global research centre in Cambridge, which is scheduled to open in late 2016.
The plans for the new facility, which will be located on the Cambridge Biomedical Campus (CBC), include designs for the global centre, an R&D enabling building and an energy centre.
Analytical Informatics, Inc, a portfolio company of the New Ventures Department of the University of Maryland, Baltimore is one of the semifinalists in 43North, the world’s largest business idea competition. 43North will award $5 million in cash prizes and is setting out to turn the best new business ideas from around the globe into reality. The top award is $1 million, with six $500,000 awards and four $250,000 awards. There were with 6,932 applications from 96 countries and all 50 U.S. states. That got boiled down to 2,603 qualified submissions and 113 semifinalists. Analytical Informatics, Inc was the only Baltimore and Maryland based company selected.
More than 80% of U.S. consumers conduct online research prior to making everyday purchases. This is a statistic that is growing, and extends beyond products to include services and, finally, even healthcare. With the abundance of information available, consumers are empowered–they want to be as informed as possible when selecting physicians, but how does someone navigate through the overwhelming results of Google searches and decide how to best make a decision as important as selecting a healthcare provider? I think most people would agree that selecting a physician and selecting where to have dinner have highly differing degrees of importance when it comes to online research.
President Obama’s visit earlier this month to 1776, the startup hub in downtown Washington, D.C., shined a spotlight on entrepreneurship and innovative thinking nationwide. It was a good location because the contemporary, well-lit loft that incubates and supports area startups has grown from zero to 215 members in only a year-and-a-half.
The president’s visit highlighted two entrepreneurial stories, not only of 1776 but also of the early steps by American University involving its Masters of Arts in Media Entrepreneurship program (MAME) and two campus collaborators. We became the hub’s first university partnership in a fruitful relationship that could be repeated at other campuses across the country.
It’s tough for medical device companies to get that stamp of FDA approval, but the labyrinthine regulatory pathway certainly doesn’t help things. Regulators want to change that:
“…we learned that the delivery of new therapies to patients can be accelerated if medical device innovators — including entrepreneurs and university students and faculty — understand FDA’s regulatory processes,” FDA researcher Francis Kalush wrote recently.
There’s a panoply of alternative funding streams for healthcare startups out there – fledgling companies are seeking out avenues like prepaid revenue models, grant funding in lieu of venture capital, and the ever-popular crowdfunding approach.
The outcomes can be a mixed bag, however, said a panel of speakers at MedCity News’ CONVERGE conference in Philadelphia today.
DreamIt Ventures is kicking off its second health IT accelerator class in Philadelphia with a stronger life sciences theme than last year. More hospitals reviewed candidates this year and the result included four life sciences startups in its nine-member class. They take diverse approaches to the problems they solve — from molecular diagnostics to detect disease earlier to wound management.
It’s an interesting development because healthcare startup accelerators tend to stick to health IT and mobile health companies because it takes a shorter amount of time to develop products, there’s less risk and the path to getting FDA clearance can take a while. Although it’s not interested in therapeutics, DreamIt has definitely been warming up to medical technology that goes beyond health IT. One reason is that molecular diagnostics and 3D printing is increasingly accessible through mobile platforms.
NexImmune, an early stage biopharmaceutical company, today announced it has secured $3 million USD in financing led by New Enterprise Associates (NEA). Other investors include Pfizer Venture Investments and Amgen Ventures. In association with the financing, Jim Barrett of NEA and Janis Naeve of Amgen Ventures were named to NexImmune’s board of directors.
NexImmune is developing immunotherapy products from its proprietary Artificial IMmune (AIM™) nanotechnology. The AIM technology, which was first developed by Drs. Mathias Oelke and Jonathan Schneck at The Johns Hopkins University, has several potential applications for the treatment of cancer, autoimmune disorders, and infectious disease. Proceeds from this financing will be used to support pre-clinical development of the company’s first product, AIM 101, an artificial Antigen Presenting Cell (aAPC) for the treatment of cancer.
The head of a young Baltimore cyber security company says a New York investor nixed a deal after discovering Maryland’s new cyber security tax credit wouldn’t transfer to investors.
Suzanne Magee, CEO of Bandura LLC, said the credit should go to the investor. That’s how it works with the state’s biotech tax credit.
That was my question when I spoke with DreamIt Health newbie BioBots, specifically co-founder Ricardo Solorzano. He has spent three years working on technology to develop low-cost 3D bioprinters that research scientists can use to develop biomaterials. The company was formed by a couple of University of Pennsylvania graduates They view it as a way to change the way people think of regenerative medicine.
Solorzano and fellow co-founder Danny Cabrera joined Hive 76 in Philadelphia so they could learn more about developing these 3D printers. They also work with intern Eric Wamakima. They spoke with MedCity News at DreamIt Health’s launch party for its second class
