Nineteen. That’s the number of new drugs approved by the FDA thus far in 2016. With just over two weeks to go, there is little hope for a stellar year like 2015, which yielded 45 approvals.

What gives?

In their bid to host the 2024 Olympics, Washington business leaders plotted a transformation of the region into a more accessible, economically powerful and inclusive place, one that would glisten on the world athletic stage.

State boundaries matter for all sorts of reasons. The state you live in determined how much your vote counted in the 2016 election. It shapes what kind of benefits your employer might offer you, what taxes you pay, what kind of schools you can attend, and much more.

A group of 17 high-powered CEOs led by Russ Ramsey, Ted Leonsis and Peter Scher are forming a new organization aimed at spurring economic growth in the often disconnected region spanning from Baltimore to D.C. to Richmond.

The Greater Washington Partnership will focus on improving infrastructure, transit and workforce development and better branding what has become known as a "megaregion” or “super region” as a hub for business and innovation.

The Inova Health System today announced the official launch of Inova Strategic Investments (ISI), and the Inova Personalized Health Accelerator (IPHA). Hooks Johnston and Pete Jobse have been named managing directors. The fund is designed to raise the standard for affordable, high quality health care at Inova and in our region in an industry undergoing dramatic transformation.

Seeking Emerging International Business Leaders to Join the EDGE Program

We are now accepting applications for the next class of the Emerging and Developing Global Executives (EDGE) Program. The inaugural program was a great success (hear from the Bowe Fellows in their own words), and this year's group is off to a great start.

Bowe Fellows are a diverse group of globally minded leaders from the Baltimore area who have had significant career trajectories, generally with 10+ years of business experience. They are currently in or transitioning to roles in international operations and possess future growth potential within their companies.

An update on the Cancer Moonshot Initiative and more at the 11th PMWC 2017 Silicon Valley with 250+ speakers and 50+ sessions

While its creation was only announced earlier this year, with Vice President Joe Biden at the helm instilling hope and calling for action, the Cancer Moonshot may shockingly be nearing its end, as we know it. Uncertainties overshadow the future of this initiative as the White House Cancer Task Force is expected to exist in its current configuration only until the end of the Obama Administration, January 20, 2017.

Inova Health System is launching a new venture capital arm, bringing on investment veterans Hooks Johnston and Pete Jobse to help expand the system's reach into health innovation while earning financial returns. Officials plan to make a formal announcement later on Tuesday.

A startup dream has been realized, while an old pharma company tries to turn a new leaf.

On Monday, 60-year-old Purdue Pharma announced a strategic partnership with Exicure, a 2009 startup that could pull as much as $790 million and royalties if its drug candidates succeed.

The term “company DNA” is sometimes used as a shorthand for an organization’s culture and strategy — a metaphor for what makes it unique.  But there may be more to the metaphor. Understanding your company’s DNA can help you know what you can and can’t do, and how to achieve agility and authenticity in a changing world.

The starting point for achieving value in any health care system is to measure outcomes. Although this can present leadership challenges related to shifting strategy, culture and operations, it certainly isn’t rocket science. There are hundreds of provider organizations the world over that have already implemented outcomes measurement, and this number increases every week. Regardless, many providers still believe that measuring outcomes is too difficult to do.

The University of Maryland (UMD) today announced the appointment of Julie Lenzer as Associate Vice President for Economic Development, effective December 12, 2016. Lenzer will also serve as Director of UM Ventures – College Park in the UMD Division of Research.

Lenzer is an award-winning software entrepreneur, ecosystem builder, investor, and educator with a foundation in innovation-based economic development.

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:

• Notice of Extension of the Response Date for NOT-OD-17-015 "Strategies for 
• NIH Data Management, Sharing, and Citation"
• (NOT-OD-17-025) National Institutes of Health
• Revision: Participation of the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial 
• Research (NIDCR) in PAR-15-282 "Multidisciplinary Studies of HIV/AIDS and 
• Aging (R21)" 
• (NOT-DE-17-005)
• National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research
• Request for Information (RFI): Biological Mechanisms/Pathways of the Combined 
• Effects of Chemical and Non-chemical Stressors Associated with Atherosclerosis
• (NOT-ES-17-003)
• National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences
• National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute
• Notice of Intent to Publish a Funding Opportunity Announcement for Catalyzing 
• Innovation in Late Phase Clinical Trial Design and Statistical Analysis Plans 
• (U34) 
• (NOT-HL-16-473)
• National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute
• Notice of Intent to Publish a Funding Opportunity Announcement for Catalyzing 
• Innovation in Late Phase Clinical Trial Design and Statistical Analysis Plans 
• (X01)
• (NOT-HL-16-474)
• National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute
• Notice of Intent to Publish a Funding Opportunity Announcement for NHLBI Early 
• Phase Clinical Trials for Therapeutics and/or Diagnostics (R61/R33)
• (NOT-HL-16-475)
• National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute
• Notice of Intent to Publish a Funding Opportunity Announcement for Sex 
• Hormone Induced Thromboembolism in Pre-Menopausal Women (R61/R33) 
• (NOT-HL-16-477)
• National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute
• Soon to be Issued Funding Opportunity for All of Us Research Program 
• Community Engagement (OT2) 
• (NOT-PM-17-001)
• National Institutes of Health
• Notice of Change to Background for RFA-RM-16-024 "Knowledge Management 
• Center for Illuminating the Druggable Genome (U24)"
• (NOT-RM-17-002)
• NIH Roadmap Initiatives
• Notice of Change to Background for RFA-RM-16-025 "Resource Dissemination and Outreach Center for Illuminating the Druggable Genome (U24)"
• (NOT-RM-17-003)
• NIH Roadmap Initiatives
• Notice of Change to Background for RFA-RM-16-026 "Data and Resource 
• Generation Centers for Illuminating the Druggable Genome (U24)"
• (NOT-RM-17-004)
• NIH Roadmap Initiatives

The one thing venture capitalists and the medtech industry don’t want you to know is that innovation can sometimes be used as a manipulation to evade the law.

The industry can sometimes, even knowingly, be deceptive in three very specific ways. These are: lie to government agencies, underreport adverse events, blame the employees and consumer (victims). My goal as a federal whistleblower is to explain how these at times carefully crafted lies impacts each of you.

It was a huge year for Marriott International Inc., as it closed on its acquisition of Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide.

And that meant it was also a huge year for Marriott CEO Arne Sorenson.

The rise of diabetes is causing avoidable deaths and imposing substantial costs on ailing healthcare systems. Alarmed, lawmakers are attempting to improve prevention and get the emerging pandemic under control.

Diabetes is a growing healthcare challenge and one of the four priority noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), also known as chronic diseases, targeted for urgent action by world leaders.

Cancer Research: 5 Reasons You Should Apply

1. Free lab space: provisions, access to mouse study and technicians
2. Mentorship: Experienced scientific team with commercial expertise and successful serial biohealth entrepreneur and team
3. Prime location in the center of the MD Biohealth corridor
4. $10,000 a month in support: $5,000 cash/$5,000 “in-kind”
5. No strings attached: no equity participation or IP rights required

Immunomic Therapeutics is committed to providing a workplace that bolsters scientific ideas. The Cancer Discovery Incubator will enable and accelerate beginning ventures with the capacity for measurable change in oncology health. The goal is to empower the beneficiary to conduct proof-of-concept experiments and ultimately, attract funding, partnerships, and fuel growth.

Walking around San Francisco’s Union Square during biotech conference season in January—during this time of industry prosperity—you might expect it to be crawling with brainy young people. You might expect hot startups to come from students and postdocs, like in the tech industry, with VCs scrambling to get in on the ground floor.

The Trump administration will have an opportunity to reevaluate policies that affect innovation and technological development. How can federal policies promote broadband buildout, spur investment in intelligent infrastructure, encourage research and development, and advance a host of other actions that have the potential to improve productivity and the U.S. economy? Join ITIF and the Technology Policy Institute to discuss how the Trump administration can accelerate the pace of innovation in the U.S. economy.

With CoapTech, Steven Tropello and Howard Carolan are working on new technology for replacing patients’ feeding tubes.

The approach, called Percutaneous Ultrasound Gastrostomy, or PUG, utilizes a device with magnets that doctors can use to guide a feeding tube into place. It also features an ultrasound that allows doctors to see what is happening inside the body as the tube as it goes to the stomach, and identify the safest site for the tube to be placed.

It’s hard to get excited about a biotech shared-space in 2016.

Four years ago, it was an exciting and rapidly diversifying field. Now incubators are par for the course, with most Big Pharma and many institutions operating their own version.

Mass Innovation Labs was late to the game, opening in May 2015. But it is clearly doing something different.

Honoring those who see past the present to define the future

The future is not granted. It is born from the imagination of entrepreneurs. If you are a successful entrepreneur or have been inspired by an enterprising trailblazer, we’d like you to submit a nomination to the EY Entrepreneur Of The Year® 2017 program.

About the Entrepreneur Of The Year Program

Since 1986, EY has celebrated the accomplishments of thousands of entrepreneurs who have shaped the way we live, work and play. We recognize and honor these inspiring individuals through the Entrepreneur Of The Year.

Over three decades, the program has grown to span more than 145 cities, in more than 60 countries, and now boasts a roster of nearly 10,000 visionary trailblazers here in the US.

Despite a recent tapering of year-on-year growth, the global market for prescription drugs is forecast to reach $1.5 trillion per year by 2021, a 33 percent increase from 2016.

That’s according to a new report by the QuintilesIMS Institute, the research arm of the healthcare informatics company QuintilesIMS.

Ascension Ventures (AV) has finalized its latest strategic venture capital fund at $255 million. This fourth fund for AV, CHV IV, L.P., brings the firm’s total assets under management to more than $800 million. The new fund is backed by 13 health system partners, which enable AV to continue to add value to its portfolio companies while simultaneously delivering financial and strategic returns to the partners.

A defining moment in modern biology occurred on July 24, 1978, when biotechnology pioneer Robert Swanson, who had recently co-founded Genentech, brought two young scientists to dinner with Thomas Perkins, the legendary venture capitalist. As they stood outside Perkins’s magnificent mansion in Marin County, with its swimming pool and garden and a view of the Golden Gate Bridge, Swanson turned to his two young colleagues and said, “This is what we’re all working for.”

Inova announced today that Milton L. Brown, MD, PhD, has joined Inova where he will serve as director of the new Inova Center for Drug Discovery and Development and as deputy director for Drug Discovery for the Inova Schar Cancer Institute (ISCI). Dr. Brown is a physician scientist who has expertise in the design, synthesis, and evaluation of new drugs and is one of only a handful of physician scientists in the United States who hold a PhD in synthetic chemistry and an MD. He comes to Inova from Georgetown University Medical Center where he was founding director of the Drug Discovery Program (DDP).

Lingering for more than two years, the revamped 21st Century Cures bill, unveiled in late November, has now been approved by the House and Senate and President Barack Obama has said he will sign it.

The 996-page bill includes major tweaks to the way in which the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulates drugs, devices and biologics, while providing the agency with $500 million over 10 years to implement provisions that seek to move such products to patients more quickly, while maintaining the same standard for safety and effectiveness that the agency has adhered to in the past.

Entrepreneurs can’t sit still for long.

Four months after announcing his departure from Google Ventures (now GV), which he cofounded and led, Bill Maris is reportedly raising a fresh $230 million VC fund that will focus on healthcare investments.

AbbVie (ABBV), a global biopharmaceutical company, and the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine today announced that they signed a five-year collaboration agreement with the goal of advancing medical oncology research and discovery at both organizations.

Designed to build strong collaboration between AbbVie and Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers, the agreement will focus on several areas of oncology research, which could include lung, colorectal, breast, prostate and hematological cancer.

President-elect Trump didn't talk a lot about the Food and Drug Administration while he was on the campaign trail, but judging from what he did say, he will want the FDA to approve new drugs and products much faster.

BioBuzz Workforce Foundation, Inc., a social community organization whose mission is to build a more connected bioscience industry in the region, today announced a partnership with The City of Frederick Department of Economic Development and the Frederick County Chapter of BioBeers Meetup group. This new collaboration will give Frederick companies access to BioBuzz’s BioHive Platform and showcase them as important components within the ecosystem.

WorkSource Montgomery, Inc., the workforce development resource for Montgomery County businesses and career seekers, is collaborating with Montgomery College, which will serve as the lead on a $5.6 million America’s Promise grant. The grant will provide IT and cybersecurity training for students to ensure Montgomery County is better equipped to meet local business needs.

Sean Parker decided to take on cancer by throwing so many deep-rooted basics of research tradition out the window that he very nearly drove away the academics he wanted to attract.

As part of its longstanding commitment to Africa, Johnson & Johnson today announced the launch of the Africa Innovation Challenge, an initiative to support Africa’s vibrant and growing innovation ecosystem and to help develop important and locally sustainable consumer health solutions. The challenge is the latest initiative in the company’s comprehensive approach to advancing health and innovation worldwide. The Johnson & Johnson Family of Companies’ presence in Africa dates back more than 80 years and includes business operations, public health programs and corporate citizenship.

MedImmune, a global biologics research and development arm of AstraZeneca, and Abpro, an integrated life sciences company at the forefront of synthetic biology, announced they have entered into a collaborative agreement to advance the development of a preclinical, novel bispecific antibody targeting angiopoietin-2 and vascular endothelial growth factor (Ang2-VEGF). The agreement is structured as a spin out, benefiting from both companies’ scientific expertise and AbPro’s day-to-day leadership as it oversees the new company, AbMed.