New Enterprise Associates made the most venture deals for the second year in a row in 2017, with 125 investments totaling $914 million, according to VCJ’s analysis of preliminary Thomson Reuters data through mid-December.

Precision Medicine Group announced it had raised $275 million. The round was led by Berkshire Partners and TPG Growth, with participation from its co-founders and management team, as well as original investors Oak Investment Partners and J.H. Whitney.

When the University System of Maryland set its strategic plan for the next 10 years in 2010, it hoped to double the system’s externally sponsored research and development funding from $1.2 billion to $2.4 billion. Instead, as federal dollars have dried up, that number has remained relatively flat, up to just $1.27 billion with three years

Global pharmaceutical company Mallinckrodt Plc (NYSE: MNK) has entered an agreement to buy Rockville’s Sucampo Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: SCMP) for $1.2 billion including debt.

Shanghai-based pharmaceutical company WuXi AppTec Group is partnering with Merck Serono, a subsidiary of company Merck KGaA, to launch a pharma and biotech startup incubator in Israel in early 2018. Israel-born businessman Mori Arkin and life sciences-focused venture capital fund Pontifax Ltd. will also be part of the venture. The plans were declared last week in an event held by the partners in Tel Aviv.

Swiss pharma giant Roche has given itself a pricey holiday gift and deepened its oncology product portfolio with its $1.7 billion acquisition of immuno-oncology business Ignyta. Based in San Diego, the company tests, identifies, and treat patients with cancers that come with rare mutations.

While 2016 was marked by a changing landscape as the city’s tech community expanded into new neighborhoods, 2017 was defined by moves from the companies themselves.

In a buyout that marks the latest endorsement for targeted cancer drugs—and, potentially, the increasing utility of broad cancer DNA tests—Roche this morning agreed to acquire San Diego biotech Ignyta in an all-cash deal valued at $1.7 billion.

Sisu is hiring in Baltimore and Ghana. Sisu is a medical device company for emerging markets and these hires will play an integral role as we launch Hemafuse in Ghana and Kenya. Hemafuse is a device that can salvage and recycle a person's own blood from internal bleeding. Sisu is seeking a baltimore-based Program Manager and Production Manager (posting soon). We are also hiring a Ghana-based Marketing manager and Africa-based Sales director. Click on the blog post to see more!

Application deadlines:

JANUARY 15, 2018 for New Applications

FEBRUARY 5, 2018 for Re-submissions

APRIL 5, 2018 for Grant Submission

As part of your application, you will need to complete and upload a one page abstract as well as upload your curriculum vitae (CV). Please download the abstract guidelines and provide your abstract in the requested format. You will be able to upload additional supporting documents once your application has been submitted by following the link that will arrive in your confirmation email.

Life sciences are booming with over 10M SF lab space, Shady Grove is producing a modest mini-city, and the Purple Line is revving its engines!  

Come learn about market trends and developments in Shady Grove, Silver Spring, Rockville Pike, Germantown, Gaithersburg, and the Life Sciences Corridor.

Sign up today to take part in what promises to be a fun, exciting, and influential morning. Gain invaluable information and enjoy networking with your friends and colleagues in the industry. 

Bacteriophages, or simply phages, are viruses that infect and replicate within bacteria, and they hold considerable potential for combatting antibiotic-resistance and other threats to human health. Timed with the hundredth anniversary of their discovery, a new review published in the British Journal of Pharmacology examines the challenges and opportunities of developing phages as health-promoting, commercially-viable biopharmaceuticals.

2017 has undoubtedly been a standout year in the realms of telemedicine and digital health.

In telehealth alone, much has happened over the past 12 months.

My glowing genes, Rudolph!

If we didn’t already know that Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer was special, that shiny proboscis of his could have resulted from the one-in-a-million transfer of genetic material from a brilliant colored coral found in the Red Sea.

Swiss drugmaker Roche has won fresh approvals for two cancer drugs in Europe and the United States, shoring up its position in new medicines as it braces for falling sales of older products.

Vicki Sato, a longtime Boston biotech entrepreneur, laid out a challenge for New York life sciences in 2018. “Stop being an initiative,” she said. “Start being a player.”

Expenditures for R&D from state government agencies increased by 17.3 percent from FY 2011 to FY 2016, reaching $2.3 billion, according to data from the Survey of State Government Research and Development, a survey sponsored by the National Science Foundation’s National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (NCSES). Nearly two-thirds of this total – 64 percent – came from just five state governments (California, New York, Texas, Florida, and Ohio).

Today, the Greater Washington Partnership (the Partnership), a civic alliance of CEOs that together employ more than 175,000 workers in the region, released a new report that outlines why developing, attracting and retaining digital technology workers will be imperative for the Capital Region’s future growth and economic competitiveness. 

The Emmes Corporation today announced its participation in a three-year study testing the results of two different opioid treatment medications.  The research, published in one of the world's oldest and best known medical journals, concluded that for those able to begin treatment, both drugs are nearly equal in their safety and effectiveness.  The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) funded the research.

During the fall semester, students at Johns Hopkins who were interested in starting a company had some new options to turn to as they looked to develop their ideas and meet other entrepreneurs at the university.

Maryland is open for business and here’s another way our state supports companies seeking capital. Maryland Commerce has launched a new, searchable site that lets you search and find just the right program to fund your business. With the ability to filter by type of program, category or keyword, the Financial Incentives database is a great place to find grants, tax credits, loans and training. Give it a try!

The pharmaceutical industry as a whole is set to benefit from the tax reform vote to take place this week. The general reduction in corporate taxes and a special tax deduction for cash repatriated from overseas should see companies post improved returns to shareholders and a whole lot of cash freed up right away.

The Food and Drug Administration has approved Mumbai-based Lupin’s Tydemy. The product is a generic version of Bayer’s Safyral (drospirenone, ethinyl estradiol, and levomefolate calcium tablets, 3 mg/0.03 mg/0.451 mg and levomefolate calcium tablets, 0.451 mg).

A new research initiative by the University of Maryland’s Institute for Bioscience and Biotechnology Research (IBBR) and the University of Pittsburgh could finally uncover how T-cells—the “killer cells” that defend the body from microbes—are alerted to hazardous invaders in the body.  Funded by a $3.7 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the research will be the first to combine X-ray crystallography and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy for a unique view of the cell’s alert system, which could lead to innovative therapeutics to fight viruses and tumors.

gel-e Inc., a privately held, clinical-stage medical device company, announces the 510(k) clearance of its adhesive bandage by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for prescription (Rx) and over-the-counter (OTC) use.

This new bandage clearance expands the Company’s label to include the management of moderately to heavily exuding chronic wounds and acute wounds. Under medical supervision, this new adhesive bandage may be used for the management of pressure sores, diabetic ulcers, leg ulcers, donor sites and graft sites, surgical wounds, skin abrasions and lacerations, 1st and 2nd degree burns and traumatic wounds. No medical supervision is required for usage in the management of minor cuts, minor scalds and 1st degree burns, and minor abrasions and lacerations. This newly cleared bandage complements gel-e’s existing vascular closure device cleared for the “management of bleeding wounds such as vascular access sites and percutaneous catheters or tubes.”

On the evening of Nov. 7, Steffanie Strathdee sent out a cryptic tweet: “#Phage researchers! I am working with a team to get Burkholderia cepacia phages to treat a 25 y old woman with CF whose infection has failed all #antibiotics. We need lytic non-lysogenic phage URGENTLY to find suitable phage matches. Email if you can help!” The message was retweeted nearly 400 times.

Humans and bacteria have been clashing for as long as both have inhabited the Earth, and for decades now, humans have had the upper hand. Starting with penicillin in 1942, antibiotics have brought previously untreatable maladies like tuberculosis under control and made surgery far safer.

MockV Solutions, Inc. (MockV or the Company), a biotechnology company developing non-infectious viral clearance prediction products that address the unmet needs of process development scientists as they establish biopharmaceutical manufacturing platforms, announced today the receipt of a Phase I grant from the National Center for Advancing Translations Sciences under auspices of the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program of the National Institutes of Health. The $250,000 grant under the Award Number R43TR002231 is focused on demonstrating the utility of a non-infectious Minute Virus of Mice-Virus Like Particle for predicting viral clearance during biopharmaceutical process development.

Andreessen Horowitz, a Menlo Park, CA-based venture capital firm, has launched its $450m second bio fund.

Bio Fund II will focus on investing in companies at the intersection of biology and engineering.

Immunotherapy draws the lion's share of attention from top VCs, but startups focused on other types of cancer therapies, such as protein targeting, are also starting to gain recognition.

Scientists at George Mason University have developed a nanotechnology that for the first time can measure a sugar molecule in urine that identifies tuberculosis with high sensitivity and specificity, setting the stage for a rapid, highly accurate and far less-invasive urine test of the disease that could potentially prove to be the difference between life and death in many underdeveloped parts of the world.

Governor Larry Hogan today announced a series of new initiatives to spur job creation and economic growth in Maryland and further establish the state’s leadership in key STEM-related (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) industries. The governor was joined by Commerce Secretary Mike Gill, Labor Secretary Kelly Schulz, University System of Maryland Chancellor Robert Caret, Wicomico County Executive Bob Culver, and numerous officials from the counties benefiting from the governor’s expanded jobs initiative.

Tech firms leased more office space in D.C. over a recent 12-month period than the prior year, while coworking spaces signed on for fewer square feet.

Those trends come according to the latest DC Development Report, which was released by the Washington D.C. Economic Partnership at the organization’s annual meeting on Tuesday. WDCEP partners with commercial real estate services firm CBRE on the report, and the results come from a “development census” taken in August.

Are you interested in investing in Montgomery County's future workforce? Sign up to be a career experience host for WorkSource Montgomery's Summer RISE program at Summer-rise.com! 

Play a key role in a successful initiative that provides Real Interesting Summer Experiences to rising Montgomery County Public School's juniors and seniors. Last summer, the program supported career exploration and industry insights for more than 360 students with the help of over 185 host organizations.  Summer RISE 2017 hosts had rewarding experiences, saying their students were professional, creative, engaged and motivated to learn.