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GlaxoSmithKline ($GSK) has already made some moves to sell off some of its older meds. But now, it's making more that could end up much, much bigger.
As Sky News reports, the pharma giant has solicited bids from a handful of private equity firms--Advent International, Blackstone and KKR included--for some or all of the 50 or so drugs in its established products portfolio, worth up to £7.5 billion ($12.6 billion). A spokesman for GSK told Sky the company is currently evaluating its options.
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Qiagen announced a collaboration with Eli Lilly and Co. to co-develop universal and modular assay panels for the simultaneous analysis of DNA and RNA biomarkers targeting multiple cellular pathways involved in common cancer types. The agreement includes the development of tests that will be based on Qiagen’s multi-modal, multi-analyte Modaplex analysis platform, which can process multiple sample types and biomarkers in a single test.
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Before coming into the program I would highly stress putting together a comprehensive product roadmap for the duration of the program as well as 2 months after. Start by splitting the upcoming 3 months into individual weeks & writing out goals both for the tech side (development, design, ux etc.) of the company as well as the business side (sales, fund raising, partnerships etc.). If possible have them written on a huge calendar for everyone in the company to see & be aware of.
Then go more granular and translate those weekly goals into individual tasks using any project management software, here I’d recommend Trello since its very intuitive, has great array of browser plugins to support different styles of task management & it’s totally free.
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June 10, 2014 08:00 AM – 10:00 AM
Bethesda North Marriott Hotel & Conference Center
Maryland is home to the most innovative and fast growing life science companies in the world. Two of these companies have recently made a huge splash – Amplimmune and GlycoMimetics. Hear from the CEOs of each company about why being homegrown and staying in Maryland is a key ingredient to success and what their achievements through IPO and acquisition can mean for your company and our life science community as a whole.
Discussion topics include:
- The challenges faced – the stories behind the stories
- Choosing your path and having the path choose you
- Planning for adaptation
- IPO vs. acquisition
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Epidarex Capital, a leading international venture capital firm, has raised over £47.5 million to lead investments in early-stage life science and health technology companies, including spin-outs from leading research universities. Global pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly and Company participated in the final closing with a significant capital commitment. King’s College London also invested in the final closing.
The fund’s early-stage focus is supported by a diverse range of investors, including four top research universities as well as the European Investment Fund, Scottish Enterprise and Strathclyde Pension Fund. Epidarex’s close working relationship with the Universities of Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen, three of Scotland’s top research universities, as well as with King’s College London, provides access to some of the most innovative healthcare start-ups, including those specialising in novel drug development.
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Imperial Innovations Group plc (AIM:IVO, ‘Innovations’), the leading technology commercialisation and investment company and S.R.One Ltd, GlaxoSmithKline’s venture captial fund, announce today that they have led, alongside co-investor UCL Business PLC (UCLB), an £850,000 seed financing for Puridify, a newly formed company providing purification solutions for biotherapeutic manufacturing.
Puridify’s technology was developed in the world-leading Advanced Centre for Biochemical Engineering at UCL (University College London). UCLB, the technology transfer office for UCL, licensed this technology to Puridify in 2014. It was the winner of the 2013 OneStart competition (founded by SR One and the Oxbridge Biotech Roundtable, http://www.oxbridgebiotech.com/onestart), which is designed to encourage young entrepreneurs. The company has received additional matched-funding awards totalling £780,000 from the UK’s innovation agency, the Technology Strategy Board, to support advancement of the technology.
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Immunotherapy, a new, promising therapeutic approach that leverages the power of the immune system to fight cancer, is the cornerstone of MedImmune’s oncology portfolio. As the biologics research and development arm of AstraZeneca, MedImmune is striving to push the boundaries of science to deliver life-changing medicines to patients.
By targeting the immune system, immunotherapy may lead to durable and prolonged response rates across a range of cancer types. Tumours are heterogeneous in that there many different cells that often mutate and grow in different ways. In lung cancer, for example, there may be more than 60 different mutations. Cancer often manages to continue replicating and becomes resistant and returns to growth, making it challenging to treat. This happens despite chemotherapy, surgery and other targeting therapies. Even worse, some of the existing therapies – especially chemotherapy – actually diminish the immune response, thus limiting the body’s own natural defence mechanisms to fight tumours.
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Bloomberg’s Drew Armstrong reports on the failed Pfizer and AstraZeneca merger on Bloomberg Television’s “Bloomberg Surveillance.”
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Register for the Spring National SBIR/STTR Conference and take your pick of 1-on-1 meetings with Agency principals on a first-come, first-serve basis. More than 300 meeting slots filled in a week at last year’s conference, so don't delay. Once you register, you’ll receive access to descriptions of all 23 participating Agencies and Institutes to make your 1-on-1 meeting choices.
The conference, held at the Gaylord Convention Center in National Harbor, MD on June 16 – 18, will feature the SBA Administrator, representatives from all participating NIH institutes and key leaders from across the Federal government. The event is the nation's largest annual gathering of SBIR/STTR Agencies, industry leaders, and awardees.
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The changing face of Frederick County’s economy is reflected in the rapidly growing field of bioscience and biotechnology companies locating or expanding here.
Agriculture and tourism may still be the leading economic factors in Frederick County, but the life sciences are becoming an integral part of the local economy. Additionally, many Frederick residents work for life science companies in Montgomery County and Washington. They may not be in the lab or doing administrative work for a bioscience firm in the county, but they benefit from the growth of local firms, as many of the companies collaborate on innovations and research.
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In this Hangout, we will discuss when a small business should contact the FDA, and what formal and informal mechanisms exist for device, drug, biologic, and diagnostic developers to obtain early advice from the FDA.
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Mobile devices are revolutionizing the health care system for patients and medical providers. Using this new technology wisely and securely is the goal of the health information technology experts who talked about trends in the field during a Health IT Forum at the Johns Hopkins University Montgomery County Campus.
The Health IT Forum series, held four times a year, is a community partnership co-sponsored by Montgomery County Department of Economic Development, the TechCouncil of Maryland and the Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce. The May forum, titled “mHealth: Bring Your Own Device,” attracted dozens of IT experts from the region.
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More than a decade has passed since scientists completed the Human Genome Project, a worldwide effort to decode our DNA. That DNA sequence contains instructions for making all of the proteins that our bodies need to function.
Now researchers have cataloged the vast majority of those proteins, creating a dynamic map of the human body called the proteome.
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The University of Maryland's commitment to expanding science opportunities on campus could not be any more clear having now acquired a five-year, $1.2 million grant to further undergraduate science education from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
The College Park institution plans to use the grant to develop a new living-learning program for students enrolled in the biological and chemical sciences. It will include a residence hall with integrated support mentoring programs, community-building activities, co-enrollment in introductory science courses and advanced access to stellar hands-on research opportunities.
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Graduates and current tenants of Baltimore accelerator the Emerging Technology Centers contribute almost $174 million in direct economic impact in Baltimore, according to a new report commissioned by the city.
About 63 percent of the ETC’s 76 graduate companies have stayed in Baltimore and generate about $108.5 million in economic activity. Those 48 companies employ 311 workers.
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Can the nationally acclaimed Meyerhoff Scholars Program, which has an unparalleled record of advancing diversity in the sciences, be adapted successfully at more universities?
That question is at the heart of a new partnership between the Univ. of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC), the Pennsylvania State Univ., the Univ. of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC), and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI). The four institutions are launching the collaborative Meyerhoff Adaptation Project to learn whether elements of UMBC’s highly regarded Meyerhoff Scholars Program can be adapted at Penn State and UNC. The participating schools aim to learn what it takes to establish a successful program and to share what they learn so other institutions might follow.
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U.S. Sen. Barbara Mikulski says a new state roundtable on cyber security will focus on keeping the fast-growing industry’s jobs in Maryland, rather than going to Northern Virginia.
The Maryland Cybersecurity Roundtable will hold its first meeting on Thursday. The group includes Mikulski, Gov. Martin O’Malley, KEYW Corp. CEO Len Moodispaw and Jeffrey Wells, who oversees cyber for the Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development.
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A bipartisan initiative known as “21st Century Cures,” spearheaded by the House Energy and Commerce Committee, is aiming to keep the U.S. at the forefront of biomedical innovation.
The U.S. bio-phrama industry’s distinction as No. 1 hasn’t gone unnoticed in the rest of the world, says “A Path to 21st Century Cures,” a white paper that describes the initiatives main objectives. “[O]ther nations are now actively working to gain a competitive edge in various elements, whether through a focus on basic research or a streamlined approval process to bring new treatments to market more quickly,” according to the report.
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IAN READ, the chief executive of Pfizer, is not a man easily rebuffed. His attempt to woo AstraZeneca, a British drugs firm, included politesse—appearances before Parliament, web videos on Pfizer’s strategy—and, more importantly, a sweetened offer on May 18th worth around £70 billion ($120 billion). However, AstraZeneca’s board has rejected the bid and, as we went to press, it seemed dead in the water.
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After a lengthy and somewhat contentious markup, the House Science, Space and Technology Committee approved the Frontiers in Innovation, Research, Science, and Technology (FIRST) Act (H.R. 4186) by a vote of 20-16 on May 28th. As discussed in previous editions of Capitol Update, the bill reauthorizes and prioritizes federal investments at the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) by funding research and development (R&D) to address national needs. The bill also sets priorities to drive the nation's investments in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education programs.
The FIRST Act would require that the NSF publish a justification of each grant's scientific merits and relevance to the broad national interest in order to meet minimum standards of public accountability and transparency in its grant funding decisions. The FIRST Act does not change NSF's peer review process. Provisions of the FIRST Act also broadens the definition of STEM education to include computer science and supports student participation in nonprofit competitions, out-of-school activities and field experiences related to STEM.
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Once a year, all of the tech world stops to listen to what influential analyst Mary Meeker has to say. According to Meeker, current trends show a slight dip in internet user growth but she highlights that emerging markets are showing the fastest growth in terms of internet usage. This growth can be seen more rapidly in what she calls “difficult to monetise developing markets” like India, Indonesia and Nigeria.
Meeker, a partner at VC company Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers (KPCB), unveiled her annual trends report at the Code Conference this week. The report highlights the disruption that is underway in areas like media consumption, education, healthcare, commerce, security, mobile and consumer apps. We have picked some key trends that we thought were worth highlighting.
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Microsoft Ventures, Microsoft's startup investment arm, is to set up its first accelerator dedicated solely to companies in the cybersecurity area.
The four-month programme aims to provide startups with tools to succeed in business, from mentorship to help with development to marketing expertise. Companies that get through the program will have an opportunity to get $1m in funding, courtesy of Jerusalem Ventures Partners (JVP), which has partnered with Microsoft Ventures on the project.
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The Biotechnology Industry Organization today issued the following statement in response to Senator Patrick Leahy’s announcement that he will remove current patent legislation from the Senate Judiciary Committee’s agenda for now:
“BIO applauds Chairman Leahy’s decision to remove the controversial patent bill from the Senate Judiciary Committee’s agenda until greater stakeholder consensus can be achieved.
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All of us know that you have to be a little crazy to be an entrepreneur. Launching, let alone sustaining, a new enterprise can be challenging along almost every dimension − mentally, emotionally, and often financially. Historically, this reality has been even more sobering in the health care sector, where the typical hardships experienced by any start-up have been amplified by numerous industry-specific challenges: Extensive regulation, entrenched players with a strong grip on the status quo, confusing paths to entry, and an even more opaque path to payment have made health care a particularly treacherous territory for entrepreneurs.
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Numerous studies have shown that Americans of European origin have a more independent, and Asians have a more interdependent, social orientation, as measured by questionnaires asking about agreement with such statements as “I feel it is important for me to act as an independent person.” But this social-orientation difference is about 6 times greater among people from both backgrounds who are carriers of two particular alleles of a dopamine-receptor gene known as DRD4, according to a team led by Shinobu Kitayama of the University of Michigan. The alleles appear to predispose people to acquire behaviors that are considered socially desirable, the researchers say.
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Translating Ideas from Bench to Bedside
June 3rd, 2014, from 6 to 8:30 pm
Krieger School of Arts and Sciences Advanced Academic Programs
Johns Hopkins University Montgomery County Campus, Rockville, MD 9601 Medical Center Drive (A&R Building, Room 106-110)
Connect with physician entrepreneurs and other stakeholders in healthcare innovation as we explore the winning formula for successfully advancing new medical devices and technology to commercialization.
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 Join business leaders, government, elected officials and the media as we celebrate leadership that energizes our community and makes it possible to declare What's Next is Here. Five prestigious awards will be presented including the Chairman's Award. Witness the passing of the torch from the 2013-2014 MCCC Chair of the Board Christopher Carpenito, CPA, Executive Vice President & CFO, HESS Construction to the 2014-2015 MCCC Chair Lisa Cines, CPA, Office Managing Partner, Dixon Hughes Goodman LLP and welcome the 2014-2015 MCCC Board of Directors.
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