The big headline out of the health care M&A world today is Swiss pharmaceutical giant Roche’s $1.9 billion acquisition of Flatiron Health, the Alphabet-backed, cancer-focused digital health analytics upstart that’s attempting to use real world patient information and big data to spur better oncology R&D.

Congress recently enacted the most significant overhaul to the U.S. Internal Revenue Code (the Code) in decades. The legislation, commonly known as the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (the Act), includes a number of changes to the Code that apply to corporate and pass-through businesses. This Q&A summarizes the key tax and employee benefits changes in the Act that impact domestic emerging growth enterprises and start-ups. For additional information on the Act, see our prior alerts: Congress Passes Tax Cuts and Jobs Act and U.S. House and Senate Pass Reconciled Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.

Seventy-five years ago, Silicon Valley was fruit orchids and Detroit was dominating the most exciting industry in the nation. "Things can change," Steve Case said of the tidal shifts of the U.S. innovation economy.

Roche Holding will buy Flatiron Health and its cancer-focused medical records technology for $1.9 billion, as drugmakers increasingly mine data to develop new oncology treatments.

A lot of great things happened this Valentine's Day - countless couples celebrated their love with chocolate, roses, and dates. However, there was one thing that stood out to me: Under Amour CEO Kevin Plank posted his first LinkedIn article. 

Weekly NIH Funding Opportunities and Notices

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

Elon Musk's plan to build a hyperloop tunnel to allow travel from D.C. to New York in under 30 minutes appears to be gaining traction with District officials. 

The Food and Drug Administration plans to use a proposed $400 million boost in federal funding to focus on a range of innovative approaches to speed the approval of new medical devices and create a new center that would support digital health oversight and address cybersecurity concerns.

Researchers at Johns Hopkins University believe robots could learn a thing or two from nature's most adaptable pest — the cockroach. The insect can navigate almost any terrain, thanks to over 300 million years of evolution. Scientists filmed the cockroaches running obstacle courses and captured their movements using high-speed cameras. The footage was then analyzed and adapted for a six-legged robot to repeat the movements. Researchers hope this work can eventually be used in search and rescue missions during natural disasters.

The Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO) celebrates its 25 years anniversary this year.

Innovators Magazine is a media partner with one of BIO’S flagship annual events, the World Congress on Industrial Biotechnology, and we’ve distributed special Congress editions at the last two instalments, in San Diego and Montréal.

Swiss drugmaker Roche Holding AG (ROG.S) said on Thursday it would buy the rest of U.S. cancer data company Flatiron Health for $1.9 billion to speed development of cancer medicines and support its efforts to price them based on how well they work.

Startup Maryland today unveiled the Overall Great Eight and other sub-category finalist for the Pitch Across Maryland Competitions. Startup Maryland is proud to showcase the finalists along with all the ventures who participated in the 2017 STRT1UP Roadshow celebration of innovation and entrepreneurship. This year's Overall Great Eight Finalist are listed below with a link to their pitch video.

Looking for a deal in your backyard? The NIH is the world's largest investor in early stage life sciences companies. Over 1000 companies annually tap into NIH’s SBIR and STTR program for nondilutive funding to the tune of $980M in FY17. Did you know the NIH maintains RePORTER, an online database, of all funded companies and projects?

Mallinckrodt plc (NYSE: MNK), a leading global specialty pharmaceutical company, today announced it has closed the acquisition of Sucampo Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a global biopharmaceutical company, including its commercial and development assets.

The National Institutes of Health has been funding fewer clinical trials in recent years, according to new Johns Hopkins University research.

Pieris Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: PIRS), a clinical-stage biotechnology company advancing novel biotherapeutics through its proprietary Anticalin technology platform for cancer, respiratory and other diseases, announced today the pricing of its previously announced underwritten public offering of 5,500,000 shares of its common stock at a public offering price of $8.00 per share. The gross proceeds from the offering, before deducting the underwriting discounts and commissions and other estimated offering expenses payable by Pieris, are expected to be $44.0 million. In addition, Pieris has granted the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to 825,000 additional shares of common stock at the public offering price, less the underwriting discounts and commissions. The offering is expected to close on or about February 16, 2018, subject to customary closing conditions.

Host:  UM BioPark & Wexford Science + Technology

Location:  UM BioPark The Nook Cafe 801 W. Baltimore Street Baltimore  Maryland  21201

Time: Thursday, February 22, 2018 5:00pm to 6:30pm

Mingle with BioPark tenants, our UM Ventures staff, UMB faculty and leaders in Baltimore’s technology community.

MaxCyte, the global cell-based medicines and technology company, announces that 30-year life sciences industry veteran Richard Douglas, Ph.D., has been appointed to the Company’s Board of Directors as an Independent Non-Executive Director.  

Is wood the next advanced material?

Scientists at the University of Maryland reported last week that they’ve discovered a way to treat wood to make it 12 times stronger than natural wood and 10 times tougher. According to Liangbing Hu, one the lead researchers in the paper published in Nature, their wood is so strong and durable that it can compete with steel, titanium alloys, and even carbon fiber–but at an infinitely much lower price point.

Brown Advisory—an investment and strategic advisory firm committed to making a material and positive difference in the lives of its clients—is excited to join forces with network-driven venture capital firm, NextGen Venture Partners ("NextGen"). On Feb. 22, 2018, the NextGen team will officially join their new Brown Advisory colleagues in offices across the United States.

SillaJen, Inc., (KOSDAQ:215600), a clinical-stage, biotherapeutics company focused on the development of oncolytic immunotherapy products for cancer, and ABL Europe, an ABL, Inc. company providing dedicated viral vector GMP services for gene therapy, oncolytic products and vaccines for all stages of clinical supply, have expanded their strategic manufacturing collaboration. Under the current agreement, ABL is currently manufacturing Pexa-Vec (formerly JX-594) for SillaJen’s multinational, randomized Phase 3, open-label study of Pexa-Vec in patients with advanced liver cancer. Under the expanded agreement, ABL will also provide development, manufacturing & QC release testing services for SillaJen’s pipeline product, JX-970.

The ability for cancer cells to develop resistance to chemotherapy drugs – known as multidrug resistance – remains a leading cause for tumor recurrence and cancer metastasis, but recent findings offer hope that oncologists could one day direct cancer cells to “turn off” their resistance capabilities.

In the last six months, Personal Genome Diagnostics (PGDx) raised a $75 million series B, Harpoon Medical sold for $100 million and Sunayu acquired Fractal Technology. Which Baltimore startup is next?

Lonza Pharma & Biotech and Denali Therapeutics (NASDAQ: DNLI) announced today an exclusive strategic partnership on Denali’s biologic pipeline products for neurodegenerative diseases. The agreement covers all stages of the development and manufacturing,

Rexahn Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NYSE American:RNN), a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company developing innovative, targeted therapeutics for the treatment of cancer, announced that updated safety and efficacy data from the ongoing Phase 2a clinical trial of RX-3117 in advanced urothelial (bladder) cancer were presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology Genitourinary Cancers (ASCO GU) 2018 Annual Meeting on February 9, 2018.

The University System of Maryland Board of Regents voted on Friday to approve the construction of a new engineering facility on the University of Maryland's campus.

Shepherd University has created a new nonprofit organization with a mission of helping facilitate research, innovation, and entrepreneurship. On January 24, the Internal Revenue Service approved the Shepherd Entrepreneurship and Research Corporation’s (SERC) status as a 501(c)(3).

By StartUp Health’s reckoning, New York City was the second most active city for health tech dealflow in 2017 with $1 billion invested across 63 deals. San Francisco had nearly twice the number of deals and more than three times the amount, but the closest to New York was Boston with 29.

The company overcame early funding challenges with the help of influential backing.

The University System of Maryland (USM) has selected NextStep Robotics, a startup company that has developed a personalized robotic therapy to help relieve discomforts of “foot drop” syndrome in recovering stroke patients, as recipient of the second investment from the recently established Maryland Momentum Fund.

NextStep Robotics, a US-based medical device manufacturer based on research at several Maryland institutions, has raised $750,000 in funding from investors including the Maryland Momentum Fund.

GlycoMimetics, Inc. (NASDAQ: GLYC) announced today that it has entered into an agreement with the Haemato Oncology Foundation for Adults in the Netherlands (HOVON) groupto initiate clinical trial startup activities. In the planned clinical trial, HOVON researchers will evaluate GlycoMimetics’ drug candidate, GMI-1271, in adults with newly diagnosed acute myeloid leukemia (AML) but who cannot tolerate intensive chemotherapy, as well as in patients with myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) with a high risk of leukemia. The HOVON Central Office has already approved a protocol concept, and this agreement enables HOVON to commit staff to the planned trial in order to finalize the protocol, start regulatory and ethics reviews, and begin development of the database. Separately, GlycoMimetics said it plans to announce the design details for its company-sponsored Phase 3 trial in relapsed/refractory AML patients as part of its fourth-quarter and year-end 2017 earnings call scheduled for March 6, 2018.

Rexahn Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NYSE American:RNN), a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company developing innovative, targeted therapeutics for the treatment of cancer, today announced that it has entered into a collaboration and license agreement with Zhejiang Haichang Biotechnology Co., Ltd. (Haichang), to develop RX-0201 (Archexin®) for the treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), the most common form of liver cancer.

eNeura, a Baltimore-based company that makes a device to treat migraines, closed a Series D investment round.

When: Tuesday, February 13, 2018 from 5:00 PM to 7:00 PM EST

Where: Bar Louie 150 Gibbs St Rockville, MD 20850

Join BioBuzz and sponsor BioIT Solutions in Rockville at  Bar Louie on February 13th, 2018 from 5 - 7pm. Only a 5 minute walk from the Rockville Metro, please join us for this exciting event. BioIT Solutions offers a range of services from enterprise systems built on their 1Platform4® Suite for advanced computational, workflow, and data management systems to IT strategy, architecture and management consulting. The 1Platform4® Suite consists of a software foundation on which various highly configurable modules are assembled and tailored to each client's specifications and needs.