Biohealth Innovation - 382nd Edition

BioHealth Innovation

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December 3, 2019

FOUNDING MEMBER OF

Full time Marketing and Communications Coordinator (Immediate Opening) (2)

BHI is seeking a full time energetic and motivated individual with relevant marketing experience and an interest in growing with our organization to serve as our full time Marketing and Communications Coordinator. The Marketing and Communications Coordinator will perform a variety of duties that support the organization’s mission, including formulating and executing a strategic marketing plan for the organization that encompasses BHI’s goals for the next three years and providing ongoing marketing collateral creation and marketing administrative support.

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Qiagen Shares Jump as Thermo Fisher Is Said to Weigh Acquisition - Bloomberg

Qiagen NV shares jumped the most in 17 years after people with knowledge of the matter said Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. is considering a takeover of the molecular testing firm.

Thermo Fisher has approached the Dutch company about a potential purchase that could become one of its biggest-ever acquisitions, the people said, asking not to be identified because the information is private. Shares of Qiagen rose 13% to 33.20 euros at 1:10 p.m. in Frankfurt, giving it a market value of $8.3 billion.

Children’s National Hospital taps Virginia Tech for Walter Reed campus - Washington Business Journal

Virginia Tech is coming to Children’s National Hospital’s new campus at the former Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

The partnership will bring a 12,000-square-foot biomedical research complex to the 12-acre Children’s National Research and Innovation Campus, slated to deliver in December 2020 as part of the project’s first phase. In the university's first D.C. location, Virginia Tech's Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at Virginia Tech Carilion will establish a D.C. team to work with Children’s National on translational research projects, faculty recruiting, intellectual property work and commercialization, and trainings for students and fellows — all focused on pediatric cancers of the brain and nervous system.

GSK and Montgomery College Partner on New Apprenticeship Program to Meet Growing Demands for Biomanufacturing Workforce in Maryland · BioBuzz

Earlier this year we reported on the First of Its Kind Apprenticeship Program at GSK’s Rockville, Maryland Site. We are happy to provide an update on that story with news that GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) has expanded their apprenticeship program to now include Biopharmaceutical Associates.

GSK is an industry-leading pharmaceutical, consumer products and healthcare company and is known for taking a future-oriented approach to their talent strategies. The Validation Technician Apprenticeship was the first of its kind in the U.S. pharmaceutical industry. They have also begun to explore Virtual Reality training as a model that can be used to speed up employee development.

UnMasked: We All Breathe - A film Exploring the Dark Truth Behind MDR TB (JnJ)

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is in the news lately and for good reason. Diseases that were once easy to treat are becoming increasingly difficult to cure. But the largest contributor to AMR is a disease that rarely makes headlines – drug-resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB), the world’s only airborne drug-resistant infection. DR-TB makes up a third of the world’s burden of AMR and in 2017, there were more than half a million cases of DR-TB globally [1] – including some right here in the District of Columbia. It is estimated that two-thirds of individuals with DR-TB do not even know they are infected [2], posing a threat to their own health and to global health security.

Johns Hopkins Launches Hub for Immunology and Engineering Research

Newswise — If the saying that two heads are better than one is true, then joining two fields of science may be better than one to spur more advances in medicine. With a $6.7 million, five-year grant from the National Institutes of Health, Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers will bring together immunologists, oncologists and biomedical engineers in an effort to build new tools to treat cancer and autoimmune diseases.

Success Breeds Success: How A $250M Acquisition Catalyzed Baltimore’s MedTech Ecosystem · BioBuzz

One company gets absorbed into a larger brand and a host of companies flower as a result. The Biohealth Capital Region’s (BHCR) cycle of creative destruction has continued with Harpoon Medical. This was the story shared at the TEDCO Entrepreneur Expo’s session titled, “Success Breeds Success.”

Image: https://biobuzz.io

Epidarex | LUNAC Therapeutics Spun Out to Develop Next Generation Anticoagulants, and Announces Series A Funding Round - Epidarex

Leeds, UK, 14 November 2019: LUNAC Therapeutics (LUNAC), a UK based drug discovery company focused on the identification and development of advanced anticoagulants with minimal bleeding risk, today announced it has spun out of the University of Leeds with £2.65M funding in the first close of a Series A financing round. The investment is being led by Epidarex Capital and the University of Leeds. The Company was founded based on IP generated by Prof Helen Philippou and Dr Richard Foster, through unique insights built on a decade of academic research into Factor XII which has been supported by the Wellcome Trust, British Heart Foundation and the Medical Research Council.

Johns Hopkins becomes first university to partner with NATO Innovation Hub | Hub

Johns Hopkins University has become the first university in the world to partner with Innovation for Defense, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization Innovation Hub's new initiative. Also called I4D, the Norfolk, Virginia–based center aims to bring together a variety of partners to design solutions to challenges the organization faces.

Todd Chappell Appointed CEO of Rasio Therapeutics · BioBuzz

November 14, 2019, Baltimore, MD – Rasio Therapeutics, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company that develops novel medicines using cutting-edge computer-aided drug design technology, today announced the appointment of Todd Chappell, a veteran medtech and pharmaceutical industry executive, as the company’s CEO.

TechConnect Innovation Showcase

Join the world's largest multi-sector technology commercialization program. The Innovation Showcase offers a unique and vetted pipeline for corporate, federal and VC prospectors to discover and connect with emerging technologies.

Empire State Development Announces 10 Finalists Selected To Take Part In Round III Of Luminate NY Accelerator Competition

ROCHESTER, N.Y., Nov. 08, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Empire State Development (ESD) announced the 10 companies selected to take part in the Round III of New York State’s Luminate NY accelerator competition in Rochester. The finalists selected include optics, photonics and imaging startups which were selected after pitching their innovative ideas to an advisory panel comprised of industry experts during the Lightning Awards at the Strong National Museum of Play on Nov. 7. Each company will receive an initial investment of $100,000 and will be a part of Luminate’s third cohort, which will begin in January 2020 at the Sibley Building in downtown Rochester. The six-month program will help the selected companies speed the commercialization of their technologies and business. In June, the teams will compete during Demo Day for $2 million in follow-on funding. Funding for the $25 million program is being provided through the Finger Lakes Forward Upstate Revitalization Initiative award and is being administered by NextCorps.

Qiagen shares surge as diagnostics group says open to takeover talks - Reuters

FRANKFURT, Nov 18 (Reuters) - Qiagen NV shares jumped to their highest in almost 19 years on Monday after the German genetic testing company said it would start talks with several potential suitors.

Germany-listed shares in the company were up 12.6% at 0926 GMT, giving the group an equity market value of about 8.7 billion euros ($9.6 billion).