Have you developed - or are you looking to create - a healthcare solution based on digital technology? If so, you stand the chance of winning £20,000 and mentoring opportunities from MedImmune, the global biologics research and development arm of AstraZeneca.

Older people need more medicine. That rule of life is no secret to pharmaceutical companies across the globe. Many also realize that Japan’s rapidly aging population presents a unique business opportunity. Japan remains the world’s second-biggest pharmaceuticals market, behind only the United States and China. The Japanese market also is expected to grow annually. The lessons learned there will be critical as the population grows older in many other markets.

Jarrod Borkat of MedImmune says what would help MedImmune would be other large biotech companies located in Montgomery County. Although he expects his company would lose talent, it would be a net gain.

The Maryland Department of Assessments and Taxation unveiled a new website Monday designed to help small business owners and entrepreneurs plan, start, manage and grow their businesses.

The year 2017 marked yet another exciting period of innovation and growth for the University of Maryland (UMD) research community, with over 170 inventions disclosed and 52 patented, 46 technologies licensed, and the receipt of the largest investment in UMD history in total of $219.5 million from the A. James and Alice B. Clark Foundation. Researchers broke barriers in fields related to agriculture, information management, biotechnology, and energy, making discoveries and inventing technologies that have the potential to make positive impacts on the planet and on people’s lives around the globe.

Join ISPE Chesapeake Bay Area Chapter, Maryland Tech Council, BioHealth Innovation and ByteGrid for a one day Life Sciences Cloud & Infrastructure Conference.

Listen to speakers, including Krishna Ghosh, Ph. D., Senior Policy Advisor at the Food and Drug Administration, and the co-chairs of the GAMP Cloud Special Interest Group and get a behind-the-scenes data center tour of ByteGrid’s flagship Silver Spring facility.

You’ll also get valuable insights into cloud adoption in the regulated Life Sciences industry, hear about updates to the revised ISPE GAMP Good Practice Guide on IT Infrastructure and much more!

The agenda and speakers are listed here: https://hubs.ly/H0b3TKs0

The Innovative Molecular Analysis Technology Development for Cancer Research and Clinical Care (SBIR-IMAT) solicitation is a companion SBIR funding opportunity announcement to the NCI Innovative Molecular Analysis Technologies (IMAT) Program aimed at the inception, development, integration, and application of novel and emerging technologies in support of cancer research, treatment, diagnosis, and prevention.

TEDCO, Maryland’s economic engine for technology companies, inducts ClearMask into its mdPACE program to assist in bringing its life-changing innovation to market. Baltimore-based, ClearMask LLC is the developer of the country’s first, full-face transparent surgical mask designed to help healthcare entities reduce medical errors caused by miscommunication and provide a better experience for deaf patients and other patient groups who heavily rely on visual cues, including children, limited English proficiency patients, and immunosuppressed patients who cannot see the smiles of their loved ones and care team.

23andMe, Inc., the leading personal genetics company, today received the first-ever FDA authorization for a direct-to-consumer genetic test for cancer risk. The authorization allows 23andMe to provide customers, without a prescription, information on three genetic variants found on the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes known to be associated with higher risk for breast, ovarian and prostate cancer.

Surgeons trying a new way to save the life of a baby born with half a heart stood over her open chest and waited for the FedEx box.

Millions of travelers suffer from jet lag every year. And now Vanda Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: VNDA) said one of its drugs successfully addressed the problem with hundreds of volunteers in a late-stage clinical trial.

Symbiont Health, maker of innovative technology to detect falls for seniors and nursing home patients, took home the $15,000 grand prize at yesterday’s Pitch Dingman Competition, the University of Maryland’s business competition chaired by businessman and philanthropist Robert G. Hisaoka. The competition awarded nearly $30,000 in seed funding to top student entrepreneurs in a “Shark Tank”-style pitch session, hosted by the Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship at the Robert H. Smith School of Business.

Sonavex, Inc. announced today the final closure of its expanded $4.5M Series A and filing of a 510(k) submission to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its EchoMark device. The proceeds will accelerate Sonavex’s commercial launch later this year and support further product development. Participants in the additional financing included Fusion Fund (aka NewGen Capital), FundRx, and existing investors.

Get answers from experienced entrepreneurs and legal/business professionals on how to build a successful startup company. Receive free and impartial advice, brainstorm business strategies, investigate funding opportunities and learn about the vast resources available to entrepreneurs.

Wednesday, March 14, 2018, 4-6 p.m.

TAP Building, 387 Technology Drive, Room 1105, UMD

Rexahn Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NYSE American:RNN), a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company developing innovative, targeted therapeutics for the treatment of cancer, today announced financial results for the year ended December 31, 2017.

The dispute is already underway. In August, the Trump administration initiated a sweeping investigation into Chinese trade practices, including whether Chinese firms are investing in U.S. companies to steal their technology and whether they are forcing joint ventures, pressuring American companies that invest in China to transfer technology to a Chinese partner, or hacking U.S. companies’ software.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has announced a new initiative designed to provide patients access to their electronic health records and share their data with their preferred health care providers.

New compounds targeting epigenetics have shown remarkable early activity in patients with lymphoma, according to data presented at the TAT (Targeted Anticancer Therapies) International Congress 2018 in Paris, France. ESMO's phase-I oncology meeting featured early clinical studies with BET inhibitors and EZH2 inhibitors.

Life science industry impacts N.J. economy in big way, C&W report says By Emily Bader New Jersey | Mar 7, 2018 at 11:44 am

The life science industry is fueling New Jersey’s economy through revenue and job growth, according to a report by Cushman & Wakefield.

Will Your Company be the Buzz of BIO?

Are you an innovative biotech company that is R&D-intensive and looking to develop strategic partnerships within the industry? Nominate your company to be the Buzz of BIO!

Winners receive complimentary registration that includes BIO One-on-One Partnering™, a Company Presentation slot in the BIO Business Forum, and marketing promotion to thousands of industry leaders.

Nominations End March 16

Summer R.I.S.E. (Real Interesting Summer Experience) is a unique opportunity for Montgomery County youth to explore potential careers and for our local businesses to participate in developing a talent pipeline. The initiative is led by WorkSource Montgomery, Inc. (WSM), Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) and supported by county and state government partners, local businesses and non-profit organizations. Local businesses and governmental organizations volunteer to bring rising high school juniors and seniors into their workplaces to provide hands‐on, real world career experiences.

Officials from Amazon.com toured sites in Washington, Montgomery County, Md., and Northern Virginia last week — the latest sign that the tech giant is seriously considering adding a second headquarters with as many as 50,000 jobs to the D.C. area, according to officials in all three jurisdictions.

PointClickCare Technologies, the leading cloud-based software vendor for the long-term and post-acute care (LTPAC) market, announced today its strategic partnership with Redox Inc., the leading integration platform for healthcare data exchange. Together, PointClickCare and Redox will work to bridge the gap between the acute and post-acute markets, empowering health systems with the visibility required for a truly coordinated and collaborative approach to care delivery across the healthcare continuum.

After a year of surging growth, Supernus Pharmaceuticals Inc. is building out a new home double its current size.

A team of students from Virginia Tech claimed victory at the fourth annual Deloitte Foundation Cyber Threat Competition for their analysis and incident response approach to a simulated cyber event. Anirudh Bagde, Danny Colmenares, Nicholas Herman and Andy Wong, the school's team members, each received $2,000 in scholarship money.

Did you know you are required to file for and receive a Hazardous Use Permit every year if you are storing, handling or using any hazardous substance in excess of 5 gallons or 50 pounds? (Failure to do so could result in civil and criminal penalties.)  Learn how to do this at the free training session, March 8th, at the Germantown Innovation Center, hosted by BioHealth Innovation and Montgomery County’s Office of Emergency Management and Homeland Security

Bring your laptop and materials inventory to a 15 minute 1:1 meetings with County staff and they will help you register your materials as required on the County’s website.  (Pre-registration for these appointments is REQUIRED). 

To schedule an appointment, send your top 3 time preferences to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Meeting slots are assigned on a first-come, first-served basis:
8:45, 9:00, 9:15 a.m. – Open
9:30-11:30 a.m. - Booked
11:30, 11:45 a.m.  – Open
12:00, 12:15 p.m. - Open

More information:  https://Hazmat.MontgomeryCountyMD.gov

Entrepreneurship is on the rise in Hampton Roads and there’s an event to celebrate it.

757 LAUNCH, from 12:30 p.m. to 2 p.m. on March 30 at the Selden Market in Norfolk, will showcase three new resources to support area entrepreneurs and startups.

A new incubator is helping its first companies at Johns Hopkins this school year. Run by a group of undergraduate students, The Hatchery Incubator is helping undergraduate students who are starting companies.

It’s an initiative of TCO Labs, a nonprofit organization founded by students that’s looking to provide more startup resources on campus.

The Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society has acquired Healthbox, looking to tap the business accelerator for its consulting and fund management capabilities.

Silicon Valley is home to an abundance of VC firms, all of them competing to get in on the next big deal. But VCs also exist (and succeed) outside of the Bay Area. While Washington, D.C. may not be an obvious location to establish a venture capital firm, Lavrock Ventures set its sights on the political capital. The firm announced today that it has closed its first fund at $25 million to invest in early-stage startups at the intersection of enterprise software, cybersecurity, and national security.

Personal Genome Diagnostics is adding to its IP portfolio to further develop new kinds of cancer tests.

A licensing deal announced Wednesday gives the Canton-based company exclusive rights to develop and commercialize products based on a key discovery at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Baltimore's Sisu Global Health Inc. is launching its first medical device product and planning for growth in 2018.

Sisu, founded in 2014, specializes in creating health technologies to solve public health problems. The company is backed by $2.1 million in funding from various sources including local investors Camden Partners, the Abell Foundation and state-backed Maryland Technology Development Corp. It also won an investment from venture capitalist and AOL co-founder Steve Case, through his Rise of the Rest initiative.

When: Tuesday, March 27, 2018 from 4:00 PM to 7:30 PM EDT

Where: Montgomery College Pinkney Innovation Complex: Science & Technology 20200 Observation Drive Germantown, MD 20876

Join us for our first Women in Pharma event! This community is for those in the pharmaceutical/biotech industry and is a community of mentors, resources across all levels, and provide educational sessions that will be an enabler for career success and work-life balance. All are welcome.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is undertaking an ambitious plan to assess Federal technology transfer efforts to enable greater “Return on Investment” (ROI) from the Federal Government’s $140 Billion annual investment in research and development (R&D). NIST is uniquely positioned to implement this initiative through our government-wide leadership role within the Department of Commerce, including delegated (link is external) regulatory authority and responsibility for annual reporting to the President and Congress.

Studying such real-world evidence offers manufacturers a powerful tool to prove the value of their drugs - something Roche (ROG.S) aims to leverage, for example, with last month’s $2 billion purchase of Flatiron Health.