Relevant Health, a newly launched innovative health technology startup accelerator focused on bringing products to market, announced that it is now accepting applications from health tech startups for its Fall 2015 class. Additionally, the accelerator launched its website and the portal to its streamlined application process. U.S. and international startups are encouraged to apply.

Relevant Health’s five-month program involves an intensive product-focused curriculum that gives founders of health tech startups the skills to define, develop, position and launch a viable health tech product. The new accelerator will be based out of a brand-new cowork space in the Rockville Innovation Center, centrally located in the heart of the Montgomery County (Maryland) life sciences corridor. Companies admitted to the accelerator will have access to the cowork facility along with other support that includes up to $50,000 in funding, mentorship, development support from a pool of software engineers, and access to the local health tech ecosystem.

Baxalta Incorporated, a $6 billion global biopharmaceutical leader dedicated to delivering transformative therapies to patients with orphan diseases and underserved conditions, has completed the acquisition of the Oncaspar (pegaspargase) portfolio from Sigma-Tau Finanziaria S.p.A.

The acquisition includes Oncaspar, an important biologic treatment for patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), the novel investigational biologic calaspargase pegol, and established global clinical and commercial resources. Baxalta previously announced plans to acquire the portfolio for approximately $900 million.

MedImmune, the global biologics research and development arm of AstraZeneca, and the University of Sheffield announced today that they have entered into a multi-project research collaboration to generate breakthrough research in cell factory technology, the process by which living cells can be controlled and manipulated to make specific proteins with therapeutic benefits.

As part of the five-year collaboration, MedImmune will provide funding and in-kind contributions to support University of Sheffield post-doctoral and doctoral research projects to address key challenges in cell engineering. The aim is to produce tools to ensure that manufacturing success is “designed in” from a much earlier stage than occurs with current screening-based strategies, to improve the development and production of biologic medicines. The collaboration will focus on harnessing expertise from both MedImmune and the world-leading group in the University’s Advanced Biomanufacturing Centre to advance research specifically in mammalian cell factories.

Vaxin Inc. today announced that it has added key patents to its expanding Intellectual Property (IP) portfolio. The clinical stage vaccine and immunotherapeutics company confirmed that the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has issued a Notice of Allowance for two patents that protect important elements of its Densigen platform technology for immunotherapeutic treatment of Hepatitis B virus infection, and its RespirVec non-invasive adenoviral vector influenza vaccine. The patents include U.S. Application Serial No. 13/977,265 (the ‘265 application) entitled “Fluorocarbon-Linked Peptide Formulation”, and U.S. Application Serial No. 13/426,037 (the ‘037 application) entitled “Rapid and Prolonged Immunologic-Therapeutic”.

A Notice of Allowance is issued after the USPTO makes a determination that a patent can be granted from an application. Vaxin now has 37 patents protecting its products in 13 countries.

Funding and Research Opportunities

The following funding opportunity announcements from the NHLBI or other components of the National Institutes of Health, might be of interest:Notices:

• Request for Information (RFI): Inviting Comments and Suggestions on the Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) Program (the National Children's Study Alternative)
• (NOT-OD-15-117) National Institutes of Health

Request for Applications:

• Collaborative Projects to Accelerate Research in Organ Fibrosis (R01)
• (RFA-HL-16-003)
• National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute
• Application Receipt Date(s): October 22, 2015 and October 21, 2016, by 5:00 PM local time of applicant organization.
• Sickle Cell Disease Implementation Consortium (SCDIC): Using Implementation Science to Optimize Care of Adolescents and Adults with Sickle Cell Disease (U01)
• (RFA-HL-16-010)
• National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute
• Application Receipt Date(s): November 12, 2015
• Data Coordinating Center for Sickle Cell Disease Implementation Consortium (SCDIC): Using Implementation Science to Optimize Care of Adolescents and Adults with Sickle Cell Disease (U24)
• (RFA-HL-16-011)
• National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute
• Application Receipt Date(s): November 12, 2015
• Facile Methods and Technologies for Synthesis of Biomedically Relevant Carbohydrates (U01)
• (RFA-RM-15-007)
• NIH Roadmap Initiatives
• Application Receipt Date(s): October 15, 2015
• Novel and Innovative Tools to Facilitate Identification, Tracking, Manipulation, and Analysis of Glycans and their Functions (R21)
• (RFA-RM-15-008)
• NIH Roadmap Initiatives
• Application Receipt Date(s): October 15, 2015
• Novel and Innovative Tools to Facilitate Identification, Tracking, Manipulation, and Analysis of Glycans and their Functions (U01)
• (RFA-RM-15-009)
• NIH Roadmap Initiatives
• Application Receipt Date(s): October 15, 2015

Please note that most links to RFAs, PAs, and Guide Notices will take you to the NIH Web site. RFPs will take you to FedBizOpps. Links to RFPs will not work past their proposal receipt date. Archived versions of RFPs posted on FedBizOpps can be found on the FedBizOpps site using the FedBizOpps search function. Under “Document to Search,” select Archived Documents.

I’m a huge fan of R&D collaborations between pharma and academia, so I should be thrilled by Sanofi’s latest tie-up with seven top-tier centers – so why do I have mixed feelings?

On first glance, there’s a lot to like: Sanofi has committed $2.4M per year to seven top centers, including Johns Hopkins, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and Columbia, to fund about 20-25 seed projects annually, with no strings attached and a wide-open scope. Who knows what will emerge – but it won’t take much for this to look like a pretty good investment for Sanofi.

The truism about biopharma being a global industry has never been truer than when it comes to the top 20 IPOs for the first half of this year.

The U.S. had exactly half of the therapeutic, diagnostics, and tools/tech IPOs that were completed or began trading their first shares on public markets during January-June 2015. The rest of the world accounted for the other half, with Europe being home to seven of the 10 ex-U.S. top IPOs, followed by China, Canada, and Bermuda with one each.

Jobs in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) represent some of the best opportunities for workers in today’s economy. The work can be rewarding as well as coming with high pay and good benefits (like a 401(k) and health insurance). Diversity in STEM, however is a problem, one that has captured the attention of CEOs like Jeff Bezos and policymakers including the president himself.

Synthetic Biologics, Inc. (nyse mkt:SYN), a clinical-stage company focused on developing therapeutics to protect the microbiome while targeting pathogen-specific diseases, today announced that it has commenced an underwritten public offering of shares of its common stock. All of the shares in the offering are to be sold by Synthetic Biologics. The Company intends to grant the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 15 percent of the share amount sold to cover over-allotments, if any. The offering is subject to market conditions, and there can be no assurance as to whether or when the offering may be completed, or as to the actual size or terms of the offering.

The White House is getting ready to honor five years since the creation of Challenge.gov — the central web portal for government competitions intended to spur innovation and solve problems — with a forward-looking celebration.

Touting the $72 million in prizes awarded across 400 challenges in the last five years, the Office of Science and Technology Policy announced a special event this fall that will highlight some of the major breakthroughs and civic issues solved through the program.

The University of Maryland students who join the Startup Shell incubator are all working hard to turn their ideas into successful businesses. As the new executive director of Startup Shell, 20-year-old Chris Szeluga is working just as hard to help make that possible. Now in his third year at UMd, the finance major has been involved in helping grow Startup Shell since it began, during his freshman year. His new role puts a new responsibilities on him though, making Startup Shell rather more than just a club or hobby.

"I consider Startup Shell to be pretty much my full-time job," Szeluga said. "I definitely spend at least 30 to 40 hours a week working on it in some way."

Venture-backed biotechs continue their blistering pace of funding. According to the latest MoneyTree Report from PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA), with data from Thomson Reuters, over $2.1B was invested in biotech companies in 2Q 2015, bringing the year to date total to almost $4B(covered here, here). Four of the last five quarters are amongst the largest record-setting quarters in ten years.

It’s one of the best periods for biotech funding in the history of the industry, offering an opportunity for emerging companies to scale and develop their pipelines more significantly than ever before.

It is no secret that 2015 has been a highly active year for deal-making in the life science space. However, what is often overlooked is exactly where in the space those deals are taking place. Life Science Nation’s financing rounds database contains detailed information on over 250 of these rounds that have taken place since January 1 of 2015. We track this data from a variety of sources however as many companies and investors chose not to disclose this information this should be viewed as a sample of the entire data set of financings. With this article will highlight what our data tells us about the rounds that have taken place thus far in 2015 for therapeutics companies around the globe.

Johns Hopkins University tops the list of private, non-government employers in the Baltimore region, although three of the top five Baltimore-area employers are health systems — an unsurprising fact given that most workers in the Baltimore area are in health care or education.

Health care and education employees make up 19 percent of workers in the Baltimore area, more than any other supersector, according to May data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Still, there are large employers of many different industry types in the Baltimore area. Subscribers can check out the full list here.

The shift from fully integrated pharmaceutical companies (FIPCOs) to virtually integrated pharma companies (VIPCOs) has made biopharmas more reliant on external R&D. Often, that external R&D comes from startups nurtured through the venture funds of biopharma giants.

This year’s List offers three significant changes since last year’s ranking of corporate venture funds. One is the exclusion of Novo Ventures and Novo Seeds from the list, since the funds do not invest for the benefit for Novo Nordisk, but for its holding company Novo A/S.

Bioscience companies up to 7 years old can now apply for state funding that was formerly available only to younger companies.

BioInnovation Connecticut, managed by Connecticut Innovations, a state financing entity, invests in bioscience companies to speed the path to commercialization through its CT Bioscience Innovation Fund. Until July 1, only companies 3 years old and younger were eligible to apply, said Margaret Cartiera, vice president and fund manager for BioInnovation CT.

Since Medicaid's creation in 1965, it's become the largest health insurer in the country, covering more than 70 million Americans. Initially covering only poor, single parents and their children, the program now also offers government-subsidized insurance to disabled people, able-bodied adults without kids and some elderly.

The program's expansion may slow down a bit, but it’s not likely to stop anytime soon, and there’s a whole lot of reform going on, along with major shifts in coverage.

It was Coney Island in the early 1900’s. Beyond the Four-Legged Woman, the sword swallowers, and “Lionel the Lion-Faced Man,” was an entirely different exhibit: rows of tiny, premature human babies living in glass incubators.

Barkers, including a young Cary Grant, called out to passersby, enticing visitors to come see the preemies.