Biohealth Innovation
New Enterprise Associates, Venrock, and Pelion Venture Partners—all early investors in Internet company Cloudflare—are now ponying up $100 million to fund startups that build applications atop Cloudflare's technology, which speeds up web site performance and offers security to web applications. Cloudflare products handle an estimated 10% of the world's web requests. If you click on a browser button, theres a good chance Cloudflare is expediting the response.
Funding and Research Opportunities
The following funding opportunity announcements from the NHLBI or other components of the National Institutes of Health, might be of interest:
Notices
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is by far the principal nonprofit funder of biomedical research in the United States. Consequently, when President Donald Trump’s fiscal year 2018 budget proposal included deep cuts in funding for the NIH, it sent shock waves through academic medical institutions that benefit from NIH research moneys. Although Congress is unlikely to accommodate this proposal, the suggested cuts raise the question of the role of government in medical innovation.
Whether you’re a fan of Steve Jobs and his products or not, two things are undeniable: He was very successful and very different. Now you can relax; this short article will not provide a blow-by-blow account of the man and his methods. “What would Steve Jobs tell the pharma/biotech industry?” is just a metaphor to encourage our industry to radically change — not by reinventing the wheel, but by copying the success of others.
The University System of Maryland was ranked 27th by the National Academy of Inventors and the Intellectual Property Owners Association on a list of the most U.S. patents granted last year among universities worldwide.
The University of Maryland received 48 of the 72 patents granted to universities in the university system in 2016, said Felicia Metz, the intellectual property assistant director of this university's Office of Technology Commercialization, which works with patents owned by the university and inventors to help make the products of research available on the market.
Here's what New Enterprise Associates chief Scott Sandell says about his record fund, along with a look at the other 10 firms that have raised $1 billion or more since 2015.
More and more, bwtech@UMBC has been a stop for international visitors looking to learn about cybersecurity, said executive director Ellen Hemmerly.
While paying a visit to the research park’s incubator or attending a conference offers a glimpse, there are signs of a desire to dig deeper. Earlier this year, the incubator was a “soft landing” for a group of companies from the Netherlands as part of an exchange program run by the Maryland Department of Commerce.
Learn. Build. Launch.
BHI Q&A with Leverege, LLC. Co-Founder & CEO, Eric Conn
Company: Leverege, LLC.
Location: Germantown Innovation Center
Founded: July 2014
Overview: Leverege is an Internet of Things (IoT) software company with a suite of cloud-based products that simplify and accelerate any IoT project.
Goal: Leverege aims to become the #1 destination for all things IoT. Learn. Build. Launch.
Pipeline: Currently working with numerous commercial companies in a number of verticals launching IoT projects for asset tracking, remote monitoring and control, energy management, security, and defense applications. Partner ecosystem is growing nicely and recently became technology partners of Google and AT&T. Anticipate increasing monthly recurring revenue associated with licensing of the cloud-based platform and sales of the accelerated IoT deployment package called Jumpstart.
Funding: A bootstrapped company that has been financed by the founders since inception. Revenues are increasing each month with a projection to be cash-flow positive by the end of 2017. Anticipate raising a Series A in Q1 2018 from a combination of traditional VCs and strategic investors to expand operations, invest in new products, and accelerate growth.
Recent Recognition: Winner of the 2017 Maryland Incubator Company of the Year Award for Best Software Company.
Q&A with Eric Conn, Co-Founder & CEO, Leverege
Thank you! We are honored to have been selected for the award and really appreciate the recognition from our peers in Maryland’s startup ecosystem. The support we have received from the State, particularly Montgomery County through the Germantown Innovation Center, has helped us immensely and significantly reduced some of the normal financial burdens associated with launching a startup.
Leverege was conceived and started by me and my close friend Steve Lee in the summer of 2014. Steve and I are both software engineers and have worked with each other for over 20 years in previous companies. We had always talked about starting a business together and finally, the time was right. I was wrapping up things with my prior startup Gloto and he was ready to move on from a long career at Raytheon Solipsys, a company I had helped start in the mid-nineties after leaving the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. It was just the two of us for the first 6 months so we rented a couple of desks in a friend’s incubator in the Reston Town Center and started crafting our business strategy.
There were several reasons we chose the Germantown Innovation Center. The first was the proximity to each of our homes. I live in western Howard County and Steve lives in Alexandria Virginia so Germantown was approximately in the middle – although I have to admit my commute is much better than Steve’s since he has to cross the American Legion Bridge every day. The second reason was the amenities and support staff. The offices are very modern and the support staff is so friendly and helpful. The building also has excellent infrastructure such as high-speed internet and a computer room for our rack of servers – not to mention the high-tech coffee machine which is pretty vital to our productivity. The third reason was the very reasonable and flexible lease agreement. Expensive, long-term leases for traditional office space don’t’ really make sense for a startup trying to find its way and the per office/per month pricing that the GIC offered us really helped.
I think Maryland has done a great job in supporting early stage startups. There are many high-quality incubators such as the GIC and bwtech@UMBC (where we also have an office) and numerous resources are available if you need them. From a financial angle, there are grants and numerous early stage funding options through TEDCO, Anne Arundel County’s VOLT program, Baltimore County’s BOOST loan program, and the Maryland Venture Fund. Ultimately though it all comes down to making your own breaks and working incredibly hard on your business. There is so much competition out there and you really need to be on top of your game at all times.
The Internet of Things is all about bringing the physical and digital worlds closer together and improving people’s lives through remote sensing, data analytics, and automation. However, implementing an IoT project can be a daunting undertaking since it involves knowledge of sensors, wireless communications, cloud computing, and user interface design. We’re striving to remove some of the complexity from the equation by developing software products that make launching an IoT initiative much simpler, less expensive, and faster.
As a serial entrepreneur, I know how hard starting and growing a business can be. No matter how many times I do it, it never really gets easier. Funding is always a challenge and is something that keeps you awake at night no matter how large or small your company is. Knowledge of your market is also very important and finding the right product/market fit before you grow is paramount. Finally something I really stress is corporate culture. Hiring the right people who share your ideals and vision is the ultimate competitive advantage. Too many companies fail because they don’t pay attention to the most important ingredient in any company, the people.
We differentiate ourselves from our competition in several ways. We run one of the most popular online educational sites about IoT called “IoT For All.” On iot-for-all.com, we post high-quality, unbiased content on a daily basis about technology trends in IoT as well as detailed explanations of key concepts. Our audience is growing rapidly and that site has helped establish Leverege as a thought leader in the industry and also provides an excellent channel for inbound sales leads. On the technology side, we employ high-fidelity simulation and easy-to-use self-serve tools to build IoT projects with higher quality in less time at a lower cost. Our team and corporate culture is also pretty incredible so our customer service is outstanding. We regularly have large customers and partners such as Cox Communications and Google tell us how impressed they are with our people, technology, and processes.
We’re laser-focused on execution across the board right now. We want to grow our IoT For All publication to 1M page views per month in 2017 and begin monetizing the site by the end of the summer. Our product roadmap is fairly aggressive and we hope to launch a full suite of our self-serve tools to select system integrator partners in Q3. From a revenue perspective, we are onboard several new customers right now and anticipate being cash-flow positive with 15 employees by the end of the year. We are also gathering all of the required diligence materials for our Series A raise in Q1 2018. It’s a very exciting time.
Being an entrepreneur is certainly not easy but I wouldn’t trade it for the world. However, it is not for everyone. The collection of skills required to build a successful business is ever changing and the ride is never smooth. You must be prepared to work harder than you ever have, usually with less pay and certainly with less job security, and nothing will be given to you. That being said, the rewards of success are unmatched on a personal level. Just like with everything in life, the harder the battle, the sweeter the victory.
To learn more about Leverege. Visit their Website, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn pages.
Pharmaceutical companies are betting big on a new wave of innovative cancer therapies they believe will be more effective than existing treatments and move them a big step closer to finding a cure for the disease.
The fast-emerging branch of therapies – immuno-oncology (IO) – works by equipping the body’s immune system with the tools to kill cancer cells.
The Old Line's flag laid board-flat against the marbled gray sky as crisply as if it had been pressed by a hot iron. I double checked my lifejacket, clipped the boat's kill switch onto its nylon strap and eased the 25-foot center console beyond the breakwaters of Matapeake. White caps that had rolled past Point Lookout three hours earlier continued to barrel northward toward Rock Hall. I took a quick look around, briefly questioned my decision-making faculties and then punched the throttle to get on top of the rumbling three footers.
Roche (SIX: RO, ROG; OTCQX: RHHBY) announced today that its fourth-generation HIV combination antigen-antibody assay, the Elecsys HIV combi PT assay, has received FDA PMA approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
The Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer Improvements Act of 2017, H.R. 2763, unanimously passed a House committee last week, moving one step closer to approval.
“The bill ultimately helps small businesses advance innovation and research that will help industries across California and the nation,” Knight said. “The advantages of supporting small business in their ventures are endless as some of the greatest entrepreneurial developments in technology originate from the support of the surrounding community and government resources.”
Nearly two years after its launch, Johnson & Johnson’s crowdfunding website for global public health projects in underserved communities has raised almost $500,000 for 51 projects to date.
The percentage of projects posted on the website that are funded has increased from 33 percent one year ago to 65 percent this year, according to an email from Fetzer.
Innovations born in the world of academia have contributed more than a trillion dollars to the US economy over the past two decades, according to a new report.
Examining the licensing of university technology, a study undertaken by the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO) and the Association of University Technology Managers (AUTM), reveals that over a 20 year period ‘academic patents and the subsequent licensing to industry’ boosted industry output by $1.33 trillion.
GlycoMimetics, Inc. (NASDAQ: GLYC) today announced the closing of its underwritten public offering of 8,050,000 shares of its common stock at a public offering price of $11.50 per share, which includes the exercise in full by the underwriters of their option to purchase up to 1,050,000 additional shares of common stock. All of the shares in the offering were offered by GlycoMimetics. The aggregate gross proceeds to GlycoMimetics from the offering, before deducting the underwriting discounts and commissions and offering expenses, were approximately $92.6 million.
Switzerland, Sweden, the Netherlands, U.S. and UK are the world's most innovative countries according to a new report by produced by Cornell University, INSEAD and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).
Now in its 10 edition, the Global Innovation Index surveys 130 economies using dozens of metrics - from patent filings to education spending - for a high-level look at the innovative activity that increasingly drives economic and social growth.
Over the past four years, 1,668 deals involving university spinout companies from across the globe attracted approximately $35.6 billion from 2013 to 2016, according to a new report from Global University Venturing. The report, however, highlights that global deals peaked in 2014 with 529 deals and total investments dollars peaked in 2015 with nearly $14 billion invested. As the authors highlighted, these global numbers were unsustainable and 2016 saw significant declines in both deals and dollars. In 2016, the total deals reported were 407 (21.6 percent decrease from 2015) and dollars invested was $6.4 billion (a 54.3 percent decrease from 2015).
On June 15, two startups based on Johns Hopkins technology received Incubator Company of the Year Awards at an annual event sponsored by the Maryland Technology Development Corporation (TEDCO) and several other organizations.
The brain continues to surprise us with its magnificent complexity. Groundbreaking research that combines neuroscience with math tells us that our brain creates neural structures with up to 11 dimensions when it processes information. By "dimensions," they mean abstract mathematical spaces, not other physical realms. Still, the researchers "found a world that we had never imagined," said Henry Markram, director of the Blue Brain Project, which made the discovery.
Event is for Post-Docs & Professional Scientists currently working in the Therapeutic Areas of:
Event will include music, lawn games, hors d'oeuvres, drinks.
University of Maryland, Baltimore County's bwtech Research & Technology Park is partnering with the state Department of Commerce to create an international cybersecurity center that will help lure foreign cyber companies to establish a presence in Maryland.
The Maryland Department of Commerce and bwtech@UMBC Research & Technology Park today announced the establishment of an international cybersecurity center, iCyberCenter@bwtech. The governor made the announcement in an address to cyber industry leaders and officials at the Houses of Parliament in London during the administration’s economic development and trade mission to Europe.
In Uganda alone, nearly 600,000 newborns require medical intervention for complications at birth. That's a problem that Teresa Cauvel and Sona Shah are on a mission to solve. Neopenda, the health tech startup they founded in 2015, makes wearables that monitor four newborn vitals: Heart rate, respiration, blood oxygen saturation, and temperature.
Using an input-output “I-O” approach to estimating the economic impact of academic licensing and summing that impact over 20 years of available data for academic U.S. Association of University Technology Managers (AUTM) Survey respondents, the total contribution of these academic licensors to industry gross output ranges from $320 billion to $1.33 trillion, in 2009 U.S. dollars; and contributions to gross domestic product (GDP) range from $148 billion to $591 billion, in 2009 U.S. dollars. Estimates of the total number of person years of employment supported by U.S. universities’ and hospitals’ and research institutes’ licensed-product sales range from 1.268 million to over 4.272 million over the 20- year period. An explanation of the I-O approach is provided, and the assumptions used and the potential effects of the assumptions on the estimates are discussed. AUTM associated contributions to GDP, calculated using the I-O approach, are compared with U.S. GDP as a whole, and to selected industry, as defined by North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) codes, contributions to GDP. Factors affecting the AUTM contributions to GDP appear to differ from those affecting U.S. GDP as a whole, as well as from those affecting selected NAICS industry contributions to GDP.
Advances in biotechnology innovation have had an enormous transformative impact on many sectors of the U.S. economy — life-saving drugs for patients of all ages, protecting plants that are key to feeding the world and industrial biotechnology applications that are leading to bio-based fuels, chemicals and products that can protect our environment.
The bioscience’s need for a stable and supportive public policy framework is vital to industry firms large and small. It is almost impossible for any state or region to ignore the need for selective incentives to either hold existing bioscience companies or attract new enterprises.
Just as some politicians are increasing their calls for Washington micromanagement of the Bayh-Dole law (which allows universities and federal laboratories to license federally supported inventions for commercial development) a new study shows how impressively the current decentralized, market driven system is performing.
Patients with active systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) were able to control their disease with Benlysta (belimumab) plus standard of care (prednisone), pharmaceutical giant GSK said in announcing the results from a 10-year continuation study.
GSK presented the study’s results at the Annual European Congress of Rheumatology (EULAR 2017), held June 14-17 in Madrid.
New Enterprise Associates has closed its 16th flagship fund on $3.3 billion, per the Wall Street Journal, the largest venture vehicle ever raised.
A monumental fundraise, yes, but billion-dollar funds are nothing new for NEA—its latest vehicle also represents the firm’s seventh consecutive $1-billion-plus venture fund. In 1978, NEA closed its first fund on $16 million. The firm has gone on to garner $17 billion in committed capital across 15 funds, not including NEA 16. Here’s a look at the firm's largest funds to date, according to the PitchBook Platform:
Despite the best cybersecurity efforts, the number of breaches in the healthcare world is remaining fairly constant, according to the latest Protenus Breach Barometer.
The Barometer is based on data provided by DataBreaches.net.
The Maryland Science Center has promoted from within to replace president and CEO Van Reiner, who will retire this year after 13 years with the Inner Harbor attraction.
Mark Potter, the organization's vice president of development for the past six years, will assume the top spot following Reiner's retirement in October.
A Sanofi executive discusses his company’s leadership-development programs and approach to building employee capabilities amid rapid change.
Rich Bendis, Founding President and Chief Executive Officer, BioHealth Innovation, Brian Darmody, Associate Vice President for Corporate and Foundation Relations and former Association of University Research Parks (AURP) President, and Julie Lenzer, AVP of Innovation and Economic Development at UMD engage in a discussion of the transformed university tech transfer office at the AURP BioParks 2017 conference, held in conjunction with BIO 2017 at San Diego, California.
The session was moderated by David Winwood, Associate Executive Director and Chief Business Development Officer at Pennington Biomedical Research Center at LSU, and included an earlier panel on the transformation of medical research campuses into hubs of innovation and scientific breakthroughs.
This event is a prelude to BIO 2017 in San Diego, which generated a record breaking delegation from the state of Maryland, including numerous private sector biotechnology companies based in Maryland, Ben Wu, from Maryland Department of Commerce, Tamie Howie, from the Maryland Technology Council, and biotechnology economic development representatives from across the state.
At BIO 2017 the delegation will discuss partnering opportunities with the FDA in White Oak, state financing for biotechnology companies, and presentations from Maryland's leading biotechnology companies at the Maryland Pavilion.
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-US Science and Technology Forum (IUSSTF).
The fund aims to select and financially support promising joint U.S.-India entrepreneurial initiatives that address the theme of “Commercializing Technologies for Societal Impact” through a competitive grant program.
OpGen announced today that it has signed a supply agreement with Thermo Fisher Scientific to combine its Acuitas Rapid Test for Pathogen ID with Thermo Fisher's real-time PCR solutions.
The biotech industry remains poised for growth, EY said in its annual industry report released today, despite continuing pressure from payers to contain drug prices and an investor pullback from capital markets that helped deflate profits and slow down revenue growth for public companies last year.
"Beyond Borders: Staying the Course" observed that while biotechs will continue to pursue the prices they seek for new drugs by citing their value—either in patient outcomes or lower costs—so too will payers seek to contain those prices.