Centrexion Therapeutics Corporation, a company focused on developing non-opioid, non-steroidal therapeutics for the treatment of chronic pain, today announced the successful completion of a $67 million Series D financing.

NexImmune, an emerging leader in the field of antigen-directed immunotherapy, announced the closing of a Series A financing co-led by new investor ArrowMark Partners and existing investor Barer & Son Capital, along with significant participation from Piedmont Capital Partners.  In conjunction with the financing, Tony Yao, MD, PhD, a Partner at ArrowMark Partners, will join NexImmune’s Board of Directors.

I expect progress. Here’s my list of major trends and issues that will affect the lives of cancer patients in 2018:

The grants came through the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the National Science Foundation.

Join us on Thursday, January 11 for the 2017-18 Spring Term FAES Graduate School Open House to meet and mingle with FAES faculty. Bring yourself, a friend, and your questions about registering for the Spring 2018 courses. The event will be held in the FAES Academic Center, Building 10, NIH, Bethesda, MD, 4:00 - 6:00 PM. Light refreshments will be served!

The biopharma sector has had quite a year. Under FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, the regulator approved a record number of drugs and helped usher in innovative gene therapy treatments. Behavioral health drugs also marked a milestone with the approval of Otsuka Pharmaceutical’s Abilify MyCite, embedded with a sensor developed by Proteus Digital Health to remotely monitor medication adherence for people with schizophrenia and bipolar disorders.

The FDA has released a range of decisions regarding the agency's role in regulating digital health technologies since Scott Gottlieb, MD, assumed the role of commissioner in May.

Here are three highlights from the FDA's year in digital health.

In covering the D.C. innovation economy comes the inevitable: funding news. Trust us, there’s a lot of it floating around the D.C. metro area. Here’s a roundup of all of the major funding news from the region in December: 

Dr. David Feinberg has served as president and CEO of Danville, Pennsylvania-based Geisinger since 2015. Previously, he was president of UCLA Health System, CEO of UCLA’s hospitals and associate vice chancellor of UCLA Health Sciences.

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.”