Novavax, Inc. (Nasdaq:NVAX), a clinical-stage vaccine company focused on the discovery, development and commercialization of recombinant nanoparticle vaccines and adjuvants, today announced that it intends to offer, subject to market and other conditions, $200 million aggregate principal amount of convertible senior unsecured notes that will mature on February 1, 2023 (the Notes). The Notes will be offered and sold only to qualified institutional buyers pursuant to Rule 144A under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended. Novavax also expects to grant the initial purchasers of the Notes an option to purchase up to an additional $30 million aggregate principal amount of the Notes, solely to cover over-allotments.

The Food and Drug Administration aims to ensure hackers can’t remotely access or control medical devices, and it’s asking the private sector to do more to protect those devices.

Earlier this month, FDA issued draft guidance directing manufacturers to conduct “postmarket” evaluation of their devices, ensuring device security vulnerabilities won’t affect clinical performance.

Alexandria is the largest and leading urban office REIT uniquely focused on collaborative science and technology campuses in AAA innovation cluster locations. The firm currently has more than 19 million rentable square feet of operating properties, as well as development and redevelopment projects under construction, with another 11.6 million square feet in near-term and future ground-up development projects. Alexandria was the first to pioneer this niche under CEO Joel Marcus' vision when he founded the company in 1994. Since then, the firm has established a dominant market presence across the industry in locations such as Greater Boston/Cambridge, San Francisco, New York City, San Diego, Seattle, Maryland and Research Triangle Park.

Stephanie Fertig and Kory Hallett from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) will give an overview of SBIR and STTR Small Business programs at the NIH.

The talk will include:

• A description of the programs and goals
• Tips on applying
• Resources available to researchers and small/startup businesses interested in translating their technologies into commercial products.

At the end of their presentation, the speakers will respond to questions from the audience.

If you want to find ways to expand your biomedical startup using NIH funding, you won't want to miss this webinar!

T. Rowe Price sunk gobs of money into companies such as Cloudera, Dropbox, Apptio and Evernote in recent years, oftentimes at lofty valuations.

Now, the giant mutual fund manager is resetting some of those bets. According to a report in The Information (subscription required), T. Rowe Price has marked down its stakes in a number of companies.

British pharmaceutical firm GlaxoSmithKline is reportedly discussing terms of a medtech joint venture with US chipmaker Qualcomm.

Talks between the two companies to form a partnership to develop medical technology are "preliminary and nothing has been decided", reports Bloomberg, citing unnamed sources privy to the information. The Financial Times says the deal could be worth as much as $1 billion, and GSK reportedly has hired lawyers to help negotiate the terms of the joint venture with Qualcomm. If confirmed, FT expects the companies "to pool financial and human resources in a joint effort to develop new technology for use in the pharmaceuticals industry."

May 8 - 11, 2016 - Grand Hyatt Washington DC in Washington, DC

Health Datapalooza is a national conference focused on liberating health data, and bringing together the companies, startups, academics, government agencies, and individuals with the newest and most innovative and effective uses of health data to improve patient outcomes.

Roche will partner with the Lead Discovery Center (LDC) to identify and advance drug discovery projects intended to address diseases of unmet medical need across several areas. The value of the collaboration and the diseases to be addressed were not disclosed by the LDC, which announced the partnership today.

WIB has collaborated with BioProcess International (BPI), the biopharmaceutical industry´s leading scientific publication, to publish a four-part WIB/BPI special report series in 2016. The mission of this special report series is to provide a unique and interactive platform to reach and educate women (and all professionals) working in the life sciences with insight, mentorship, and leadership support through all stages of career development. Each edition of the WIB/BPI special report series will focus on critical issues all biotechnology professionals need to know, understand and manage in order to climb the corporate ladder and achieve the highest levels of leadership.

This is an opportunity to hear from NIST's leadership about their important mission, a multi-million dollar laboratory expansion, cybersecurity implementation, and vendor opportunities in construction and IT.

Participants will also have the opportunity to meet representatives from many of the NIST Operating Units and contracting officials at exhibitor tables, speak one-on-one with the panelists, and network with fellow government contractors.

More innovation will be the determining factor in achieving greater progress. Countries’ economic and trade policies can either help or hurt global innovation. For example, policies such as robust investment in and tax incentives for research and education support global innovation. In contrast, policies such as export subsidies or forced localization harm global innovation.

The White House has awarded Robert E. Fischell, ScD, a member of the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UM SOM) Board of Visitors, the National Medal of Technology and Innovation, the highest honor for technological achievement bestowed by the president of the United States. Previous recipients have included such luminaries as Steven Jobs and Stephen Wozniak (Apple Computer, Inc.), Stephen D. Bechtel, Jr. (Bechtel Group, Inc.), David Packard (Hewlett-Packard Company), Clarence L. Johnson (Lockheed Corporation), Edwin H. Land (Polaroid Corporation) and Edith Flanigen (Union Carbide).

DATE: Wednesday, February 10, 2016

LOCATION: Montgomery County Department of Economic Development, 111 Rockville Pike, Suite 800, Rockville, MD 20850

Southern Maryland's Energetics Technology Center (ETC-MD) announces it is opening Montgomery County's newest technology business incubator as part of the ETC-MD TechFire incubator network at the former National Labor College located at 10000 New Hampshire Avenue.  This incubator is sponsored by the Army Research Labs and is purposed to serve companies interested in commercializing ARL developed technologies although other technology companies will be considered as well.  Find out how you can work successfully with the Army Research Lab at this informative session.  

Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE) today announced an expansion of its Research & Development (R&D) investment strategy to include early-stage companies on the leading edge of scientific innovation, providing them with both equity and access to resources for research in promising areas aligned with Pfizer’s core interests. The first four investments of the newly focused initiative include $46 million in financing to companies at early stages of the discovery process that are actively exploring Conditionally Active Biologics (CABs), immuno-oncology, neurodegenerative technologies and gene therapy. Additional opportunities will continue to be identified by Pfizer’s scientific leadership through their active involvement, and Pfizer will help recipient companies fully explore their platforms in the hopes of advancing new therapeutic pathways.

To better reflect the remarkable progress and groundbreaking innovations its members achieve in healing, fueling and feeding the world, BIO – the world's largest biotechnology trade association – is changing its name to Biotechnology Innovation Organization. The organization will continue to use the shortened, “BIO” name.

In the more than 22 years since its founding, BIO – formerly Biotechnology Industry Organization – has united scientists, entrepreneurs, policymakers and the public to advance breakthrough cures and products in fields ranging from health, food and agricultural to industrial and environmental.

Emergent BioSolutions Inc. (NYSE:EBS) today announced the anticipated executive management team of Aptevo Therapeutics Inc., Emergent’s planned Biosciences business spin-off company. Members of the Aptevo executive management team will be appointed to their positions effective upon completion of the tax-free spin-off of Aptevo, expected to occur in mid-2016.

“We are pleased to have such an experienced and talented group of individuals to lead Aptevo Therapeutics,” said Daniel J. Abdun-Nabi, president and chief executive officer of Emergent BioSolutions. “These individuals possess the expertise, commitment, and passion to build on the successes of Emergent’s biosciences business for it to grow as a stand-alone publicly-traded company.”

As a result of research performed by scientists at the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UM SOM), the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the use of a drug to treat the deleterious effects of radiation exposure following a nuclear incident. The drug, Neulasta®, is one of a very small number that have been approved for the treatment of acute radiation injury.

The research was done by Thomas J. MacVittie, PhD, professor, and Kim Hankey, PhD, Study Director, both in the Preclinical Radiobiology Laboratory at the University of Maryland School of Medicine Department of Radiation Oncology's Division of Translational Radiation Sciences (DTRS). The investigators did their research in a non-human clinical model of high-dose radiation. Ann M. Farese, MA, MS, assistant professor in the same lab and department, also contributed to the work.

Welcome to ARP Network Quarterly Notes! Our goal is to keep you informed about ARP Network and Agricultural Research Service (ARS) current information. We hope that the notes build networking opportunities for businesses to connect with ARP Network Members.

February 16, 2016 2:30pm EST

Are you a scientist, entrepreneur, business developer, investor or economic development professional working in the area of human nutrition, animals, plants or sustainable agriculture? Are you interested in collaborating with world class scientists to scale up promising technologies? If these questions resonate with you, then this is a webinar for you!

ARS utilization centers are available for establishing partnerships to scale-up ARS research into commercial processes. Each of these state-of-the-art utilization centers has a unique set of resources, facilities, technical experts and scientific research capabilities for the industrial scaleup of lab-based technologies

SHARE For Cures (SFC), a new Washington, DC-based non-profit that makes it easy for individuals to access and securely share their health data with researchers, announced today a new partnership with BioHealth Innovation, a Maryland-based innovation intermediary focused on connecting health technology innovators and entrepreneurs with government agencies and corporations.

Through the partnership, SHARE For Cures will become an affiliate of Relevant Health, a Rockville, MD-based technology accelerator supported by BioHealth Innovation.

It's wise to think ahead when it comes to cancer, says William Nelson, one of the nation's leading oncologists and director of the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins University.

That includes taking steps like avoiding tobacco and tanning beds, especially when you're young.

In his final State of the Union address, President Obama announced a "moonshot" program to cure cancer. Obama named Vice President Joe Biden, whose son Beau died from brain cancer last year, to lead the government effort, which could even have bipartisan appeal. In 2015, House Republicans and Democrats overwhelmingly passed the 21st Century Cures Act, which raises funding and lowers barriers for audacious medical research. (The Senate is considering its own version.) The bill's sponsor (and Chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee), Fred Upton, tweeted his support for the Obama-Biden effort.

The Washington region could hit the billion-dollar mark in cybersecurity venture funding in 2016. Jonathan Aberman, managing director of Amplifier Ventures, a seed and early-stage venture capital fund based in McLean, said big fourth-quarter investments in cybersecurity companies helped boost overall venture funding in 2015 – and will continue to grow in 2016. He said the Washington region, a growing center for cybersecurity business and research overall, will see more big deals in 2016.

An ambitious effort to spark employment and redevelopment in Central West Baltimore is set for a public launch Monday.

The effort, called the Innovation Village, labels itself as Baltimore's first innovation district and spans some of the areas hardest hit in April's unrest.

Last year, three biomedical engineering (BME) MS students—Teresa Cauvel, Rebecca Peyser, and Sona Shah—took BME Lecturer Katherine E. Reuther’s new design course and came up with an idea for a health technology startup they called Neopenda. Their concept, born in January and shaped through Reuther’s class over the spring semester, was a low-cost, low-power, low-maintenance way to monitor neonatal vitals through engineered “hats,” a headband containing a small circuit that measures heart rate, respiratory rate, temperature, and blood oxygen saturation in critically ill infants and then sends the data to a centralized monitoring device.

It’s been a frenetic couple of weeks between Consumer Electronics Show and J.P. Morgan Healthcare conference so now it’s time to take a broader look at what investors took away from them. The latter conference has certainly evolved since its start as Hambrecht & Quist.

Our livers rested, our business cards sheathed – one more year of the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference has come and gone. Given that the week was relatively quiet in terms of breaking news, the focus rested more solidly on trend analysis, moodiness – and what was not said. It also showed undercurrents of change.

Frederick software startup Luminal has raised $20 million and is changing its name to Fugue.

The Series C round was led by New Enterprise Associates, with investment from Core Capital. The new financing brings the company’s total funding to $34 million.

At the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference, GlaxoSmithKline (NYSE: GSK) CEO Andrew Witty made headlines when he signaled that he might be open to splitting the pharma giant in separate parts, a move some investors say would unlock more value.

Venture capitalists invested a whopping $451 million in Maryland companies in the last three months of 2015, the largest quarterly amount in the state in 15 years.

Germany has a long-standing reputation for life science innovation. However, most pharmaceutical and biotech companies are now headquartered in the US, and significantly more digital health solutions are developed in Silicon Valley and Boston than in Berlin or Munich.

At its recent AgeTech Expo, Aging2.0 held the 3rd annual Pitch-for-Pilots (P4P) competition where market-ready startups pitched their innovations to senior care providers in the audience in hopes of securing pilot partnerships.    Selected from more than 150 applications, the pitching companies presented the challenge they are addressing, their solution, what kind of pilot they would like to run and any requirements for the potential provider partner. The prize at hand for senior care partners? A free, 6-week pilot with at least 10 senior participants. 

Hundreds of people packed into Morgan State University’s Murphy Fine Arts Center on Thursday for this year’s TEDxBaltimore. FEATURED JOBS Design Assistant / Project Manager C.N.Robinson

Entry Level Management Trainee - Marketing / Sales / PR GVG, Inc. Med Tech/CNA/Caregiver Brightview Senior Living Post a JobSee More Jobs The day-long event featured 15-minute talks from 17 speakers on topics ranging from scientific discovery and space exploration to prison reform and racial inequality. There were too many interesting ideas to talk about them all, but here are a few that captured my attention:

"We have released our annual Regional Report. The report benchmarks the region against other metropolitan regions, the national average and specifically markets comparable to the Greater Baltimore region. This year’s report analyzes the region’s employment, innovation, quality of life, jobs and investment."

Venture capitalists invested more than $451 million in 14 different Maryland companies in the fourth quarter, tripling the amount raised in the third quarter. It was the state's best quarter since the second quarter of 2006, when just over $406 million was raised.