Biotechnology is one of the hottest areas in business and investing, so it might seem a bit counterintuitive that a new biotechnology firm just launched that won’t seek to make any profit. But the new nonprofit drugmaker seeks to do precisely that, in order to tackle some of the worst health crises in the developing world.

Eight US-based startups have been accepted onto the 2018 cohort of Trajectory Next, a second-stage accelerator run by Johns Hopkins University (JHU), University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) and incubator Betamore.

Perhaps it was inevitable that with Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb speaking before an auditorium full of biotechnology executives, a particularly contentious topic would come up: the new right-to-try law.

Lockheed Martin [LMT] on Wednesday said it has added another $100 million to its venture capital fund, doubling the firepower of Lockheed Martin Ventures for investments in early-stage companies that are developing advanced technologies.

Regulatory and competitive uncertainties in the marketplace lead many life sciences companies to enter into collaborative arrangements with other companies to develop new drugs or medical devices. These arrangements allow for the leverage of expertise that may not have been available in-house – such as a pharmaceutical company that sees promising new science from a biotech startup – while also sharing in the costs and risks of new product development.

Betamore, Johns Hopkins Technology Ventures and the University of Maryland, Baltimore have launched the first cohort of a new collaborative accelerator program, called Trajectory Next.

GlycoMimetics (NSDQ:GLYC) priced an underwritten public offering of 7,000,000 shares of common stock at $17.00 apiece today, reporting that it expects to bring in $119 million from the offering.

Emergent BioSolutions Inc. (NYSE:EBS) today announced the beginning of a $50 million expansion to the company’s Camden fill/finish facility located in Baltimore, Md. The multi-year expansion is expected to be completed in 2021, and will significantly increase the company’s contract development and manufacturing capacity, redundancy, and flexibility. This expansion is also anticipated to create up to 60 new jobs in the next three years.

The company will receive $75,000 in exchange for up to 10 percent equity, plus incubation space and a customized growth strategy.

Instem, a leading provider of IT solutions to the global life sciences market, is pleased to announce that Noble Life Sciences, Inc. (Noble) has purchased a comprehensive package of preclinical software solutions, including Provantis®, the market leading preclinical data management system.

Fifteen children born with a rare muscle-wasting disease would probably not be alive today if not for an experimental treatment that tweaked their genes shortly after they were born.

Servier, an independent international pharmaceutical company, today announced the appointments of Christian Schubert, Ph.D. and Rekha Paleyanda, Ph.D., as Directors of Servier BioInnovation along with the opening of the Servier BioInnovation office in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The appointments of Dr. Schubert and Dr. Paleyanda, who will head Servier’s U.S. R&D and external innovation, and business development and licensing (BD&L) activities respectively, will operationalize the launch of Servier BioInnovation in the U.S. Located in the heart of one of the world’s leading biotechnology hubs in the Cambridge Innovation Center at Kendall Square, Servier BioInnovation will lead Servier’s expansion efforts into the U.S. innovation ecosystem.

New York City-based pharmaceutical company Pfizer Inc is planning on investing $600 million in biotechnology and other emerging growth companies through Pfizer Ventures. About 25 percent of the funding will focus on neuroscience.

The bioscience industry represents the unique confluence of key characteristics for societal and economic progress—extremely high levels of innovation that are saving and improving lives through advancements in biomedical, energy and advanced food and industrial technologies; and expanding a wide mix of employment opportunities with wages and incomes that support a high standard of living. The industry thinks big and is addressing a host of global grand challenges related to diagnosing, treating and curing disease; ensuring a safe, affordable and more sustainable food supply; and leveraging biotechnologies and sustainable approaches to develop biobased fuels, chemicals and other industrial products.

Last week, SSTI examined the geography of “America’s Seed Fund,” the SBIR/STTR awards, on a state-by-state basis. A look at how the more than 25,500 awards were distributed at the regional level over the five-year period from 2013 to 2017 yields additional insight. The metropolitan areas with the largest concentrations of SBIR/STTR awards include knowledge hubs with large universities and access to federal R&D, such as Boston, Los Angeles, and Washington D.C. Smaller regions with a large federal R&D presence, like Huntsville, Alabama, Santa Maria, California and Dayton, Ohio also rank highly.

Sonavex, Inc., a privately held medical device company focused on improving surgical patient outcomes with point-of-care imaging technologies, announced today that it received 510(k) clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to market its EchoMark and EchoMark LP soft tissue markers. 

This position reports to and works directly with the President & CEO and in close collaboration with the Director of Finance and Managing Director, Economic Development. The Executive Administrator also works closely with other staff members to ensure smooth operations and effective collaboration. As the representative of BioHealth Innovation, the Executive Administrator will provide administrative work in coordination with external leaders, constituents and board members.

To apply, please send a cover letter, resume, and salary requirements to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

As part of its ongoing efforts to accelerate patient access to safe, effective, and potentially curative gene therapies, the Alliance for Regenerative Medicine (ARM) today announced the launch of the ARM Foundation for Cell and Gene Medicine. This independent, 501(c)(3) non-profit organization is dedicated to increasing public awareness and understanding of the clinical and societal benefits of cell and gene medicine -- including gene therapy, gene editing, cell therapy, tissue-engineering, and organ regeneration -- and supporting its development through education and research projects.

We invite you to join us for the first event of the 2018 Inova Discovery Series: Early Stage Investing in Health Technology on Thursday, June 21, 2018, at the Inova Center for Personalized Health located at 3225 Gallows Road Fairfax, VA 22031.

Biotechnology and life sciences discoveries are deeply embedded in our DNA. MoCo is home to a thriving global hub, where life-saving innovations emerge every day. Our BioHealth clusters have more than 10,000 employees working in the private sector and an estimated 49,000 in federal government agencies along Montgomery County’s I-270 corridor, a lively and growing biohealth hotbed.

The National Institutes of Health on Monday announced a sweeping initiative to revamp the way it manages data in an effort to foster the adoption of artificial intelligence, supercomputing and other technologies poised to transform medical research.

With more than 90% of the biopharmaceutical industry made up of small, emerging companies, it is important for BIO to better understand early-stage investor and deal-making trends in order to determine where scientific or policy issues may be impacting the industry’s ability to maintain a robust pipeline of innovative medicines. The ability to access capital and form strategic alliances is vital for small therapeutic-focused companies to succeed in translating novel drug candidates into approved medical products for patients.

The conference is aimed at bringing together global companies to showcase the successes and future innovation of the innovative medicines manufacturing sector, which is already worth £30 billion to the economy.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) invests nearly $37.3 billion annually in medical research. More than 80% of the funding is awarded through nearly 50,000 competitive grants to more than 300,000 researchers at more than 2500 universities, medical schools, and other research institutions in every U.S. state and around the world.

Renowned worldwide for its technological prowess in fields like cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, IT, and smart mobility, Israel is also continuing to gain recognition for its invaluable contributions to the worlds of biotechnology and the life sciences – technologies which help improve healthcare and quality of life for millions worldwide.

Tuesday, June 19, 2018 - 5:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m. EST

It's been a wonderful spring for Women In Bio in Baltimore. Local organizers have put on amazing morning meet-ups featuring outstanding women scientists-entrepreneurs and business leaders. Let's cap off this "season" with a Capital Region chapter-wide event. At this evening mixer, we'll get to know each other more and meet new people in the bio scene in Baltimore and beyond.

Skim the headlines, and you might get the impression that the biotech startup world revolves around an insider’s club of Midas-listed venture capitalists.

Not true.

Risk management has become a top-of-mind issue for C-suites and boards around the world—nowhere more than in pharmaceutical companies. In a politically and economically turbulent environment, the risks pharma companies face, especially in clinical-trial design and execution, drug approval, product quality, and global commercial practices, are increasing in both frequency and magnitude.

Apply now!

CARB-X 2018 Funding Round 2 is open for applications until June 8, 2018, 5 PM EST. Expressions of Interest are welcome on-line only.

The scope of Round 2 funding is broad and includes therapeutics, vaccines, microbiome, diagnostics and other life-saving products for certain drug-resistant and difficult-to-treat pathogens. 

Detailed information about the scope of Round 2 can be found here.

Information about how to apply for CARB-X funding can be found here. The on-line link to submit an Expression of Interest is now live, and will be live until June 8 at 5 PM EST.

Healthcare focused startups and government agencies got together in the same room here for HHS Startup Day and each group brought some hard-earned advice for the other.

Today – May 31 – marks the end of Brain Tumor Awareness month. It’s a special time each year to educate the public and to reflect on the impact the disease has on patients, their families and friends.

Ceres Nanosciences (Ceres) is announcing today that it has reached a key product development milestone for its Nanotrap® Lyme Antigen Test System. The Nanotrap® Lyme Antigen Test System will proceed into manufacturing and analytical performance testing this year and is on track for clinical study and FDA submission in 2019.

Mary Meeker, leading technology analyst and partner at venture firm KIeiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB), released her annual internet trends report on Wednesday. As usual, the lengthy compilation of Internet prognostications offers a comprehensive look at the current digital technology landscape and what tech trends to expect next. Here are a few highlights.

Are you interested in leading innovation within an established company or creating your own startup company?

Explore the online Master of Professional Studies (MPS) in Technology Entrepreneurship at the University of Maryland. Applications for the fall 2018 entering class are due by June 15, 2018.

Philadelphia’s old brick residential neighborhoods aren’t the only part of the city that’s being gentrified.

The same thing is happening to University City’s rental lab space, where some rents are quadrupling. It’s a sign of success and the flood of investment boosting biotech firms. But it’s also a threat to startups that could force brainy startup leaders to flee to cheap space in the suburbs or go out of state, some university officials, start-up founders and young scientists say.