The National Institutes of Health aims to boost healthcare technology and science through 15 Institutional Clinical and Translational Science Awards. Total amount of the awards is $79 million in 2013.

The awards will be used to help translate basic discoveries into new treatments that tangibly improve human health requires innovative collaborations and resources, as well as a diverse, highly-trained workforce,” NIH officials said in announcing the awards on Oct. 22.

Crowdfunding moved closer to becoming a reality for small businesses Wednesday morning when the Securities and Exchange Commission proposed rules that will govern how shares in small companies are sold through Internet intermediaries.

The SEC took only 50 minutes to unanimously approve the proposed rules, which were issued more than 560 days after the JOBS Act, the law that legalized the use of crowdfunding for equity investments, was signed by President Barack Obama.

Towson University is getting more serious about entrepreneurship on campus, and Frank Bonsal III will play a big role in that new focus.

Bonsal has served as interim director for TowsonGlobal, the university's business incubator, since June. Earlier this month, he became the university's first director of entreprene

Becton, Dickinson and Company (BD) has launched shortest ever insulin syringe needle for the first time in Hyderabad. The needle is 25 per cent shorter than the contemporary needles available in the market.

BD, a leading global medical technology company, has launched BD Glide 6mm needle, the smallest ever insulin syringe needle developed with TBL technology for the first time in India. The needle has been designed to improve patient comfort. Compared to present needle size, 80 per cent patients have preferred this new needle.

For six years, green energy business Clean Currents made the Rockville Innovation Center above the downtown Rockville library its home.

The company enjoyed reduced costs for spaces and certain services than it would have had in the general private market. It had access to shared conference rooms, administrative help, a kitchen and copy machine, all pretty much financed by Montgomery County.

Venture capitalists invested $1.12 billion to U.S. mobile companies in last quarter, making it the biggest venture capital financing quarter in history for this sector.

Q3 also had the highest number of mobile deals ever in a quarter, and it was the first time mobile VC deal share eclipsed the healthcare sector, according to a study by CB Insights. 

I think few things could be more rewarding than investing in a company that develops a cure or effective treatment for any of the hundreds of conditions that affect millions of people with no effective treatment. But finding the right company can be fraught with risk. That’s one reason why angel and venture investors have been allocating funds to later stage companies that carry less risk.

Luke Timmerman of Xconomy and David Sable, the portfolio manager for the Special Situations Funds, each compiled a handy list of red flags that should make prospective investors in startup life science companies pause. Here are six of them.

Between October 1 and 17, the federal government ceased all nonessential operations because of a partisan stalemate over Obamacare. Although it is premature to declare this the greatest example of misgovernance in modern U.S. Congressional history, this impasse ranks highly.

One casualty of the showdown was any consideration of changes to lessen the impact of the across-the-board sequestration cuts that began on March 1. The cuts have caused economic and other distress across the nation, including serious impacts within the health care sector. Nearly eight months into sequestration, we can move beyond predictions and begin to quantify these effects.

Venture capital deals in the Greater Baltimore area jumped in the third quarter, as investors poured money into medical device makers, biotech firms and one of the region’s largest money managers.

VC firms invested $445.7 million in 53 companies in the Baltimore-Washington area in the three months ended Sept. 30. That was up from $420 million invested in 30 companies in the second quarter and the highest level in almost six years, according to the MoneyTree report from PricewaterhouseCoopers and the National Venture Capital Association. The report uses data from Thomson Reuters.

Every country, every government, every population is a participant in a global trial and error. Each one faces different circumstances and, therefore, approaches healthcare differently.  But, as world health leaders see it, everyone can learn from others' struggles and successes to improve and simplify their respective strategies. Health information technology is at the core.

Finding the global lessons from local healthcare strategies facilitates progress toward Universal Health Coverage, or UHC, a public health concept championed notably by the World Health Organization and it’s director, Margaret Chan. According to Najeeb Al-Shorbaji, director of knowledge, management, and sharing at the WHO, in a statement released to Healthcare IT News, WHO defines UHC as “all people receiving quality health services that meet their needs without exposing them to financial hardship in paying for them.”  

Join BioBuzz and their sponsor Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies along with many others from the local biotech industry at another exciting BioBuzz event on October 30th from 4:30 - 7:00 p.m. in Gaithersburg at Growlers in Old Towne Gaithersburg!

Click the link to learn how to win a FujiFilm Camera!

The economy works like a simple machine. But many people don't understand it— or they don't agree on how it works — and this has led to a lot of needless economic suffering. I feel a deep sense of responsibility to share my simple but practical economic template. Though it's unconventional, it has helped me to anticipate and sidestep the global financial crisis, and has worked well for me for over 30 years.

The Johns Hopkins University regained a five-year, $70 million federal grant designed to change how researchers pursue drug development and other medical treatments, but the University of Maryland, Baltimore lost its first bid for a similar grant, the National Institutes of Health said Tuesday.

The award pleased Hopkins officials, who had been forced to tweak their proposal for the grant after their application wasn't renewed in 2012. The university received $80 million through the program, which focuses on what is known as "translational" research, from 2007 through 2011.

Biotechnology startups have stampeded to the public markets this year, but their colleagues in the medical device field have sat quietly on the sidelines.

Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg News So far this year, 27 venture-backed biopharmaceutical companies have gone public, compared to just one medical device company, according to industry tracker Dow Jones VentureSource.

Go Neighborhood-Hopping in Baltimore

The city’s once-grungy northern districts have transformed into a thriving area with hip boutiques, destination restaurants, and a homegrown art and nightlife scene.

When WellDoc was founded in 2005, it was one of the first companies that sought 510(k) clearance for its patient and physician facing mobile health DiabetesManager platform. By putting its flagship apps through the discipline of clinical trials that generated positive results, it has helped earn confidence from physicians to prescribe it to their patients. Insurance companies are providing reimbursement for physicians and that has been critical for the company’s growth.

The Baltimore, Maryland-based company’s fundraise last year of about $8.4 million, in an amended Form D filing today, shows that confidence in the company is building. In a phone interview with WellDoc Chief Strategy and Commercial Officer Chris Bergstrom, he said the company continues to be entirely funded by angel investors who are flexing more power as Super Angels. “Each year we have brought on a higher caliber of angel investors. We’re really raising angel money at an institutional investor level.” He added: “It’s a great time and place for institutional investors, but angel investors can provide as much strategic value as institutional investors.”

QIAGEN N.V. today announced a partnership with Clovis Oncology CLVS +1.11% to co-develop and co-commercialize a companion diagnostic test to guide the use of CO-1686, a novel Clovis Oncology product candidate currently in clinical development. The Clovis drug candidate will initially target an unmet clinical need in patients with epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) driven non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) for whom current EGFR-inhibiting drugs no longer control disease.

The diagnostic will build on QIAGEN's therascreen® EGFR RGQ PCR Kit, which was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in July 2013 as a companion diagnostic for use in the treatment of metastatic NSCLC in patients whose tumors have certain EGFR mutations. Analytical performance of the therascreen EGFR test has been established for 21 EGFR mutations, including the most prevalent resistance mutation, T790M. The test supports efficient laboratory workflow with real-time PCR technology on the FDA approved Rotor-Gene Q MDx, which is part of the QIAsymphony family of laboratory solutions.

Governor Martin O’Malley today joined with Montgomery County Executive Isiah Leggett and City of Gaithersburg Mayor Sidney Katz  to announce that Emergent BioSolutions is expanding into a new headquarters building in Gaithersburg, and also plans to make improvements to its existing Research and Development site. As part of the expansion, the global pharmaceutical company will retain its existing 235 employees, and hire an additional 133 employees over the next five years.

“Emergent BioSolutions’ continued investment in Maryland helps solidify our position as a life sciences powerhouse,” said Governor O’Malley. “I am proud that Emergent BioSolutions is growing in Maryland, continuing to create jobs and working to develop life-saving vaccines that will give hope to millions of people around the world.”

This Notice is to provide NIH’s extramural community with information on how NIH is resuming operations after the government shutdown.

eRA Systems Availability

eRA systems will be available for use by the applicant/grantee/reviewer community on Monday, October 21. 

Rescheduling October Application Due Dates

All October grant application due dates have been rescheduled as follows: Standard Due Dates:

Cleveland Clinic is in the midst of its annual Cleveland Clinic Medical Innovation Summit today at the new Global Center for Health Innovation. More than 1,100 entrepreneurs, investors, executives and clinicians have gathered for a show and tell of new ideas in the medical world. Cleveland Clinic Chief Information Officer C. Martin Harris talks about how the health system stays nimble on the innovation front.

Cleveland Clinic Innovations, the corporate venturing arm of Cleveland Clinic, was founded in 2000, and it has been hosting the Medical Innovation Summit since 2003. Since Cleveland Clinic Innovations was founded, it has:

When Pascal Soriot took the reins of AstraZeneca last fall, he said he planned to corral firms with promising innovations in their pipeline to reinvigorate the Anglo-Swedish pharma’s offerings.

And so he has – to the tune of more than $1 billion.

Since the former chief operating officer of Roche AG was named CEO on Oct. 1, 2012, the firm has made five acquisitions, five collaborations with other pharmas to develop drugs, and entered two licensing deals. Six of the 12 moves are tied to cancer treatment developments, a core focus for the firm, while the remaining are in diabetes and renal, kidney, cardiovascular and respiratory diseases.

The research, by Gary Dushnitsky, Associate Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship, London Business School and his co-author Dr Alvarez-Garrido, is featured in the British Venture Capital Association’s report ‘The Missing Piece’ and finds that corporate venture capital is now the driving force behind cutting edge medical innovation.

Dr Dushnitsky, also Academic Director, Deloitte Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, said, “Biotech start-ups are increasingly turning to corporate venture capital arms, which are steadily on the rise, while traditional venture capital funds are partially drying out.  In a recent Nature Biotechnology study, my co-author and I find that the shift in funding patterns is resulting in an increase in scientific publications as well as patenting output.

There is one certainty about the current regulatory process for drug approval in the United States and Europe: No one likes it.

Manufacturers are frustrated by the need for large, complex, and lengthy clinical-development programs that often hinge on meeting a single endpoint in one pivotal clinical trial. As a result, the cost to bring a drug to market has been estimated to be well over $1 billion — and it may be much higher. Patients and providers are disturbed by lack of timely access to medicines that show early promise in addressing significant unmet needs. Even regulators, who are responsible for enforcing the current structure, chafe at what manufacturers typically present to them: successful trial results in patients who are carefully selected to show the drug offers benefits but who are not very representative of the broader population likely to receive it. Payers then have a mess on their hands: pressure to pay for premium-priced medications that, when broadly employed, don’t offer much therapeutic benefit over existing alternatives.

Nutty things are happening in biotech. Irrational exuberance has returned. Generalist investors with lots of money are suddenly buying these stocks first and asking questions later. Companies can fire off meaningless press releases, and be rewarded. I heard a big-time money manager talk the other day about a recent biotech IPO being one of the “best performers” in the market. It had a two-week track record, and had done nothing fundamental to earn its tag as a “best performer.”

If markets are driven by cycles of fear and greed, and I believe they are, we are in the greed cycle.

CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield will offer up to $1.5 million in grants to help medical providers develop telemedicine-based behavioral health services, the Baltimore insurer announced this week.

CareFirst wants to seed projects that use video conferencing or other technologies to allow doctors and others to diagnose and treat patients remotely.

Christy Wyskiel is the new senior adviser to the president for enterprise development at Johns Hopkins University. Wyskiel has previously worked as an investor in early stage and startup companies. She has also provided business and management support to startups, such as Hopkins spinout GrayBug.

Wyskiel officially takes on her new role leading Hopkins’ tech transfer office Jan. 1. But she’s already busy getting the lay of the land and helping map out what will come next for Hopkins with regard to technology commercialization.

Investors are pouring venture capital dollars into the Washington region at a pace not seen in more than a decade.

Companies across the Washington region have attracted $1.15 billion in the first three quarters of the year, more money than the first three quarters of any year since 2001.

As an African-American man entering a Caucasian-dominated industry, Solomon Graham wasn’t intimidated when he founded Quality Biological in 1983, investing $10,000 of his own money to start the business.

The Gaithersburg company is one of the longest-operating biotechs in Montgomery County and has grown into a multimillion-dollar enterprise. It provides products and supplies for molecular and cell biology laboratories to use in infectious disease and cancer research.

Investments in electronic health records, tools to help hospitals absorb physician practices anda group working with hospital systems to help them set up their own insurance plans. Those three health IT companies helped drive venture capital investment in the software sector, which hit a 12-year high in the third quarter. Medical device and biotechnology companies collectively marked their lowest investment for a nine month period since 2005, according to the MoneyTree Report by PricewaterhouseCoopers and the National Venture Capital Association. It is based on data from Thomson Reuters.

About $3.6 billion was invested in the software sector and there were 42o deals in the quarter.

You can purchase 14 gallons of organic milk or 396 lollipops. You can give her 33 rides on the Ferris wheel at the state fair, or you can get him a couple of violin lessons. You could put the money in a savings account, you could buy her her very own LeapFrog LeapPad Explorer digital learning tablet, or you could buy enough pizzas to feed all of her friends on the block. So many options, so many choices.

I took that money and got my daughter's genes tested, ordering up an analysis of the composition of her very small self and its odds of living a long and healthy life. And in so doing, I in some small way tied her fate to the success of the company doing the analysis, a genetic-testing startup called 23andMe in Mountain View, California.

The latest of edition of Mtech News published by Maryland Technology Enterprise Institute.

AstraZeneca and Taiwan’s National Research Program for Biopharmaceuticals (NRPB) today announced a collaborative program to support academic research proposals using open innovation as a catalyst for drug discovery. The program will connect expert physicians and scientists with a wide range of high-quality, small molecule compounds and biologics developed by AstraZeneca.  

Successful research proposals submitted from academic institutes in Taiwan will be funded by the NRPB to explore new therapeutic uses for specific AstraZeneca compounds which may in turn lead to the development of novel therapies for patients. Further financial details were not disclosed. Areas of high interest include cardiovascular, metabolic, respiratory, inflammation, autoimmune, oncology, infection and neuroscience diseases.

Billionaire oilman T. Boone Pickens plans to give Johns Hopkins University $20 million to help spur potentially vision-saving research at the school’s Wilmer Eye Institute.

The gift will be included in the 85-year-old’s estate and will create an endowment to fund a T. Boone Pickens Scholars program supporting scientists.