Rockville-based BeneVir Biopharm Inc., a biotech specializing in immunotherapy treatments for cancer, has reached a deal to sell to pharmaceutical goliath Janssen Biotech Inc., a Johnson & Johnson company, in a deal worth up to $1.04 billion.

Think of The Collective as a 15K SF clubhouse for big kids. Grownups are welcome, but leave your electronic devices in your pockets, please. This is about face-to-face fun.

1,129,744 patient records were breached between January and March 2018, according to new data released today in the Protenus Breach Barometer. Published by Protenus, an artificial intelligence platform used by top health systems to analyze every access to patient data inside the electronic health record (EHR), the Breach Barometer is the industry’s definitive source for health data breach reporting.

Landos Biopharma, Inc., an emerging biopharmaceutical company focused on developing improved treatments for autoimmune diseases, announced the publication of findings on the mechanisms of action for its top lead candidate, BT-11, in Inflammatory Bowel Diseases, the Official Journal of the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation. The study concludes that through the activation of the Lanthionine Synthetase C-Like 2 (LANCL2) pathway, BT-11 induces changes in the interface of inflammation and metabolism within immune cells in the gut that are critical to provide lasting therapeutic efficacy against inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). These changes in metabolism enhance regulatory CD4+ T helper cell responses and promote lasting therapeutic actions locally within the gut. The mechanistic findings demonstrate the translatability of the therapeutic efficacy of BT-11 to the clinic.

When: Wednesday, May 16, 2018 from 5:00 PM to 7:00 PM EDT

Where: UMBC Shady Grove, 9630 Gudelsky Drive ,Rockville, MD 20850

Join BioBuzz and sponsor UMBC Shady Grove in Rockville on May 16th for our next great networking event. UMBC at The Universities at Shady Grove (USG) has a 17+ year history of providing high caliber and industry desired academic programs in Rockville, MD. This Fall, UMBC is launching its first Bachelors of Science degree at USG in Translational Life Science Technology. This degree, designed in partnership with Montgomery College, combines the theory of a traditional life science degree with real-world applications used by scientists in academic and industry research. 

Provider venture funds are more active than ever before and their perspectives were a topic of discussion at the newest megaconference on the healthcare block — HLTH — which kicked off Sunday at the Aria hotel in Las Vegas.

This is the Letter of Intent Form (LOI) for Phase 0 of the VA BEACH BIO INNOVATION Startup Challenge. The Team Leader of each team should fill out and submit one form for this challenge. The last date to submit an LOI is May 31st.

Page 1: Basic information and Confidentiality Page 2: Additional Team information (can be completed during Phase 1)

Anyone can Enter!

No minimum team size - you can enter individually Your Background: Anyone with an entrepreneurial spirit! No Geography Restrictions: This challenge welcomes international participants

MCEDC SUPPORTS BUSINESS

FY 18 HIGHLIGHTS

It was quite fascinating to cover the speech that Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar gave this week in Washington, D.C. In a keynote address on Wednesday morning at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel, Secretary Azar laid out his agency’s overall policy strategy, for attendees at the World Health Care Congress, which annually gathers together leaders from all the major sectors of the U.S. healthcare industry, from hospitals to physician groups to post-acute and behavioral healthcare, to health plans/health insurers, employer-purchasers, pharmaceutical leaders, and healthcare IT leaders. It’s an ideal venue for senior federal healthcare officials to make announcements—and they usually do show up every year, and sometimes, make news.

The Cambridge life sciences cluster has the potential to contribute an additional £1bn to the UK economy by 2032, according to independent research commissioned by AstraZeneca.

How much is an undergraduate degree really worth? The average 20-year payoff for a bachelor’s degree—even after factoring in tuition and other college costs—is roughly $225,000, according to salary data released Tuesday from PayScale.

What does it take to be a founder of a cybersecurity startup in the Greater Washington region? Prior experience, according to a new study from American University’s Kogod School of Business.

Come join us on June 21, 2018 for our first event of the INOVA 2018 Discovery Series.

Inova Center for Personalized Health Conference Center - 3225 Gallows Road, Fairfax, VA 22031

6:00pm - Reception

7:00pm - Presentation: State of Healthcare Investing; Analysis: Investor Panel Discussion/Q&A

Is government action actually coming for the price of pharmaceuticals in the U.S.? It's been a campaign promise going back to 2015, from both sides of the political aisle, but nothing substantial has changed.

Janssen Biotech has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire a privately-held biopharmaceutical company focused on the red-hot field of cancer immunology.

Financial terms of the deal for BeneVir BioPharm are being kept confidential.

Students at UMB are looking to form new startups that will bring change to a range of different areas in healthcare and beyond, from the pockets where nurses keep supplies to the ways that drugs are delivered.

When Twist Bioscience Corp. started in Mission Bay five years ago with the idea of making synthetic genes for researchers, it consisted of Emily Leproust and her two co-founders. Today, the 240-employee company is priming to move to nearly 61,000 square feet in South San Francisco.

A pair of Baltimore-based tech leaders are joining the board of directors for TEDCO.

With the appointment by Gov. Larry Hogan, each will serve a four-year term on the board that oversees the state’s quasi-public agency backing early-stage tech companies.

"Commercializing Technologies for Societal Impact"

The governments of the United States of America (through the Department of State) and India (through the Department of Science & Technology) have established the United States - India Science & Technology Endowment Fund (USISTEF) for the promotion of joint activities that would lead to innovation and technopreneurship through the application of science and technology. The Endowment Fund activities are implemented and administered through the bi-national Indo-U.S. Science and Technology Forum (IUSSTF).

HC2 Holdings, Inc. (“HC2”) (NYSE:HCHC), a diversified holding company, announced today that BeneVir Biopharm, Inc. (“BeneVir”), a privately-held biotechnology company developing oncolytic immunotherapies for the treatment of cancer, has entered into a definitive agreement to be acquired by Janssen Biotech, Inc. (“Janssen”).

When: Thursday, May 17, 20184:00 - 7:00 PM EST
 
Where: University of Maryland BioPark, 801 West Baltimore Street, Baltimore, MD 21201

Join the fourth in the TEDCO funded Anchor Ventures events series for an important discussion about Talent. Our expert panel will discuss how to draw the right candidates to your company, the role personnel plays in the investment process, opportunities for enhancing your existing team, and the regional supply of entrepreneurial talent.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology is looking for the public’s help in refreshing how it uses research and development funds to help bring new products to market.

The digital health rocket seems to have gotten supercharged lately, at least when it comes to fundraising.  Depending on who you ask, either $1.62 billion (Rock Health’s count) or $2.5 billion (Mercom) or $2.8 billion (Startup Health’s count) was plowed into digital health companies in just the first three months of 2018.  By any measure Q1 2018 was the most significant quarter yet for digital health funding.  This headline has been everywhere.  Digital health:  to infinity and beyond!  But what is the significance of this? Should investors and customers of these companies be excited or worried?  It’s a little hard to tell.

One of the enduring mysteries of medicine is how individual genes, environment and lifestyle may combine to spark sickness or protect us from it. Unraveling this puzzle remains essential for scientists hoping to achieve the elusive goal of offering tailored treatments or personalized prevention plans.

Highmark Health announced today that through its VITAL Innovation Program, a test-and-learn platform, it will be evaluating WellDoc's® BlueStar® mobile app, an FDA-cleared, proven digital therapeutic for individuals with type 2 diabetes.

You've heard the word "blockchain" many times now, but probably not quite as many as you've heard the word "bitcoin." Yet you surely have a sense that the referents of those two words have a connection, and even if you haven't yet been interested in either, you may well know that blockchain, a technology, makes Bitcoin, a currency, possible in the first place. Their sheer novelty has already given rise to a mini-industry of explainer videos, more of them dealing directly with bitcoin than blockchain, but in time the latter could potentially overtake the former in importance, to the degree that it becomes as vital to society as the protocols that undergird the internet itself.

Scott Gottlieb, commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, has introduced information technology initiatives under the agency’s data science incubator program during  the Health Datapalooza conference in Washington, D.C., MedCityNews reported Thursday.

It’s baaaaack, that reputation-shredding, stock-moving fight to the death over key CRISPR patents. On Monday morning in Washington, D.C., the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit will hear oral arguments in University of California v. Broad Institute. Questions?

The Baltimore Business Journal recognized Christy Wyskiel for her ongoing efforts to perfect the “magic formula” that will further catalyze the commercialization of life-changing research and technologies emerging from labs and dorms across Johns Hopkins.

A few years ago, Allysa Dittmar was about to go into surgery, but her interpreter didn’t show up.

Dittmar, who is deaf, was able to lip-read and recognize facial expressions during some of the mandated check that’s required before a procedure, but those were obscured when surgeons, nurses and anaesthesiologists, put on their masks. Things grew more frustrating, and the staff eventually gave up trying.

emocha Mobile Health’s video Directly Observed Therapy (DOT) platform helped patients with tuberculosis achieve 94 percent medication adherence with the potential to save public health programs $1,391 per patient on average, according to a new study conducted by researchers at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine published today in Open Forum Infectious Diseases. Staff and patients cited increased flexibility, convenience, and patient privacy compared to traditional treatment methods.

Illumina Accelerator, the genomics-focused startup accelerator backed by the publicly traded genetic sequencing pioneer Illumina Corp., has picked five startups for its seventh accelerator class, the company announced.

Wth technology addressing skin microbial therapeutics, fertility science, chronic disease alleviation, post traumatic stress disorder treatments, and services for the biopharmaceutical and clinical research industries; the startups selected by Illumina will have access to the company’s genomics and sequencing expertise, business coaching, lab and office space and an infusion of capital.

Please join us for our third lecture, “Understanding the Journey: The Past, Present, and Future of Cardiovascular Disease in Women " with Dr. Nanette Wenger of Emory University Division of Medicine. 

This year marks the 70th Anniversary of the establishment of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.

NHLBI began as the National Heart Institute on June 16, 1948, when President Harry S. Truman signed the National Heart Act. In 1969, the Institute expanded its mission (and name) to cover research on lung diseases, and in 1976, the Institute grew further to include blood disorders.

To commemorate the Institute's 70th anniversary and showcase important investments in scientific research, NHLBI will feature lectures throughout the year from prominent thought leaders representing areas of high scientific priority in heart, lung, blood, and sleep disorders.

United Therapeutics Corporation (NASDAQ: UTHR) and SteadyMed Ltd. (NASDAQ: STDY) announced today the signing of a definitive merger agreement under which United Therapeutics will acquire SteadyMed for $4.46 per share in cash at closing and an additional $2.63 per share in cash upon the achievement of a milestone related to the commercialization of Trevyent®. The transaction, including the $75 million in contingent consideration, is valued at $216 million.

The real world isn’t like Hollywood. Despite what we might see in TV shows like 24 or movies like Contagion, we don’t have teams of experts ready to spring into action at the first signs of a global outbreak.

But we should, philanthropist Bill Gates emphasized during his Shattuck Lecture for the Massachusetts Medical Society today. And Gates is ready to put up $12 million to help us get there.