Private equity firm TPG Growth just invested $75 million in Precision for Medicine, a Maryland-based startup that melds value-based care with precision medicine.

We’re waiting to hear back from TPG Growth and Precision for Medicine for comment on how this funding will be deployed.

Global biopharmaceutical business AstraZeneca has expanded its presence in Asia by entering two significant relationships with medical companies in China and Japan.

A strategic alliance was announced on December 16, between WuXi AppTec (WuXi), an open-access research and development capability and technology platform company, and, MedImmune, the global biologics research and development arm of AstraZeneca.

Today, the White House announced the latest recipients of the National Medal of Science and National Medal of Technology and Innovation—our Nation’s highest honors for achievement and leadership in advancing the fields of science and technology. The new awardees will receive their medals at a White House ceremony early next year.

NHLBI has issued the first in a series of Requests for Information (RFIs) to solicit input from its stakeholders on ways to optimize the clinical trials enterprise. This first RFI seeks stakeholder views on clinical trial management, performance milestones, and metrics.

NHLBI has an important legacy of conducting and funding clinical trials that have provided critical insights into mechanisms of human disease and have shaped medical practice improving the lives of those with sickle cell disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, cardiovascular disease, and other debilitating conditions. In funding and overseeing these trials, NHLBI has an important stewardship responsibility to the research participants and the public.

Venky Ganeson, managing director of Menlo Ventures and future chairman of the National Venture Capital Association, told Inc. that 2015 has been the third-strongest year for venture capital investment since the dot-com bubble of the late 1990s. Only 1999 and 2000 were stronger years. The LA Times reported there was $98 billion in worldwide venture capital investment in the first three quarters of 2015 alone. That's 11 percent higher than the investments for all of 2014.

When the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued their 2014 quality and financial performance results in August, an accountable care organization (ACO) formed by Johns Hopkins achieved a perfect score for quality reporting.

The Johns Hopkins Medicine Alliance for Patients, or "JMAP," reported on all 33 quality measures. A perfect quality reporting score is an indication that the ACO is able to provide timely, complete and appropriate information to CMS regarding each of the requisite ACO quality measures.

OrbiMed, a leading investment firm focused on the healthcare sector, announced the closing of its next venture capital fund, OrbiMed Private Investments VI, LP, with $950 million in limited partner commitments. Investors in the fund include some of the preeminent medical research institutions globally, along with leading endowments, foundations and sovereign wealth funds.

It’s taken 30 years and more than $565 million to make it happen: the first-ever malaria vaccine. The innoculation, called Mosquirix, is the first of its kind to fight a parasite and has the potential to transform the lives of millions of people living in malaria-stricken areas. An estimated half million people die from the disease every year, the majority children. Such deaths have fallen by 47% since 2000 thanks to better prevention methods, but many have been waiting a long time for a vaccine that could protect children better and earlier.

Headquartered in Pasadena, California, Alexandria Real Estate Equities (ARE) was founded by Joel S. Marcus and Jerry M. Sudarsky in 1994. The company is structured as a REIT (real estate investment trust) and completed an initial public offering in 1997. The company is now the third-largest publicly traded office REIT in the United States and is part of the S&P 400.

Chief Scientific Officer Prof Dolores Schendel appointed new Chief Executive Officer of Medigene AG

Dave Lemus appointed Chief Operating Officer of Medigene AG and Chief Executive Officer of Medigene Inc. in the United States

Martinsried/Munich, 17 December 2015. Medigene AG (Frankfurt Stock Exchange: MDG1) announced today that the Supervisory Board has resolved important changes and additions to the senior management team to better align the organisational structure with the strategic goals of the company in immuno-oncology and to expand Medigene's presence in the United States.

Drs. Donald Zack and Valentin Sluch spent 30 anxious days waiting for their experiment to yield results.

They were eager to see if the retinal ganglion cells growing in their lab would turn red, indicating that they'd successfully edited the cells' DNA. Turning the eye cells red would allow them to be sorted from other cells and potentially provide the key to research that one day could lead to a cure for blindness caused by glaucoma or multiple sclerosis.

Brace Pharma Capital led a $33 million Series B funding in Navitor Pharmaceuticals, a biopharmaceutical company. Other investors in the funding included Remeditex Ventures, Sanofi-Genzyme BioVentures and an undisclosed individual investor. Existing investors Polaris Partners, Atlas Venture, Johnson & Johnson Innovation and SR One also participated. Vinzenz Ploerer, president and chief executive officer of Brace Pharma Capital, will join Navitor’s board.

May 8 - 11, 2016

ANNOUNCING NOMINATIONS NEW BEING ACCEPTED FOR THE HEALTH DATA LIBERATORS AWARD

The Datapalooza's Health Data Liberators Award recognizes extraordinary contributions and leadership in the liberation of health data, helping to accelerate the pace and multiply the volume of data available to innovators in order to foster the creation of products and services to improve health and health care. The Award is presented annually and will be bestowed to the recipient at 2016 Health Datapalooza in Washington, DC.

It’s hard to get people to eat right.

Healthy food can be expensive and time consuming to prepare.

Pharmaceutical group GlaxoSmithKline said its majority-owned HIV business would buy drugs at different stages of development from U.S. rival Bristol-Myers Squibb for an initial $350 million.

GSK said the acquisitions would provide ViiV Healthcare, its HIV unit in which Pfizer and Shionogi are junior partners, with new opportunities for growth.

AstraZeneca along with MedImmune, its global biologics research and development arm, announced a range of strategic initiatives to accelerate the delivery of innovative biologics and targeted medicines to patients in China, the company’s second largest market globally and a key growth platform.

The initiatives and investments include a strategic alliance with WuXi AppTec, a leading Chinese biologics manufacturer and contract research organisation, to produce innovative biologics locally in China. Under the agreement, AstraZeneca has the option to acquire WuXi AppTec’s biologics manufacturing capacity in Wuxi City in the next few years through an overall investment approximating $100 million. Prior to that, Wuxi AppTec remains the company’s exclusive partner for R&D manufacturing for innovative biologics in China.

On Thursday, January 14th from 4-6:30pm pm there will be an open house for the spring courses in the “Advanced Studies in Technology Transfer” program at the Foundation for Advanced Education in the Sciences (FAES) Graduate School at NIH in the FAES Academic Center in NIH Building 10.

On Monday, I wrote about a new bill introduced by Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Mike Lee (R-UT) to overhaul the Food and Drug Administration. Among other things, the bill would try to speed up FDA approvals in order to boost innovation and address the current dearth of new drugs in the pipeline.

I was skeptical. In recent years, Congress has passed a number of measures to greatly shorten the amount of time that drug applications languish in the FDA bureaucracy, and that hasn't led to a lasting boom in new drugs that are significant improvements over existing treatments. So far, cutting through red tape hasn't ushered in a new age of innovation.

Baltimore digital health company WellDoc plans to push its flagship diabetes management tool nationally and globally following a $22 million financing round.

The Series B round, led by Samsung Ventures with returning investor Merck Global Health Innovation Fund, will give WellDoc the cash and connections needed to scale up its U.S. Food and Drug Administration-approved program for adults with type 2 diabetes, called BlueStar.

MedImmune, the Gaithersburg research arm of pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca, is making aggressive moves to expand its footprint in China.

The company said Wednesday it plans to spend $50 million on another production facility in Wuxi, a city near Shanghai on China’s east coast. The company also announced an expansion to a key manufacturing partnership with a Chinese company, WuXi AppTec.

AstraZeneca today announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire the core respiratory business of Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited ("Takeda"). The deal will include the expansion of rights to roflumilast (marketed as Daliresp in the US and Daxas in other countries), the only approved oral PDE4 inhibitor for the treatment of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

Sucampo Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Sucampo) (Nasdaq:SCMP), a global biopharmaceutical company, today announced that Peter Greenleaf, Chief Executive Officer, has been appointed Chairman of the Board of Directors, effective January 1, 2016. Mr. Greenleaf was appointed Chief Executive Officer of Sucampo in March 2014 and was elected to the Company’s Board at that time.

Mr. Greenleaf succeeds Dan Getman, Ph.D., who had served as Chairman since March 2014.  Dr. Getman, who has served as a director of Sucampo since 2011, will continue on the Board and will serve as Chairman of the nominating & corporate governance committee of the Board. 

Amgen Inc on Monday said it had reached a deal with British drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline to reacquire the sales rights to three of its products in 48 countries, including Australia as well as markets in Asia, South America and Europe.

The three Amgen drugs are the osteoporosis treatment Prolia; the related drug XGeva, used to prevent fractures in cancer that has spread to the bone, and Vectibix for advanced colorectal cancer.

The year isn’t even over yet, but venture fund Rock Health is reporting that venture investment in digital health has equaled 2014’s record of $4.3 billion. Digital health continues to account for about 7 percent of all venture funding, the San Francisco-based organization said.

“While skeptics may use the flatness of growth to question the attractiveness of the digital health industry, it’s important to keep in perspective what an incredible feat it was for 2015 to be on track with record-breaking 2014,” Rock Health said in its year-in-review, released Monday. “The steady amount of funding should calm any concerns of a bubble.”

The MACH37 Cyber Accelerator program lasts for 90 days and is composed of startups that are cultivated from the area’s best and brightest and they are instructed on the various facets of starting and sustaining a successful business. The first session was held in September of 2013 and since then there have been five classes and 29 new cyber security companies have been launched as a result.

AstraZeneca confirmed Monday morning that it is "exploring potential strategic options" with Acerta Pharma BV.

Acerta is a privately held biopharmaceutical company with offices in California and The Netherlands. Its lead product is an experimental blood cancer drug, called acalabrutinib, which is in late-stage clinical testing.

Amidst the rhetoric of Campaign 2016, the reality of escalating health costs, and the acceleration of consolidation across the industry, healthcare headlines in 2016 will highlight major changes that will reshape the future for the next decade and beyond.

Here’s the top 10 you can expect to read next year:

Gaithersburg-based biotech WellStat Therapeutics Corp. received Food and Drug Administration approval for Vistogard, an emergency treatment for an overdose of certain chemotherapy drugs, it was announced Friday.

It is the second FDA approval the company has received for one of its drugs this fall.

Prince William County is in a race to establish itself as the center of bioscience research and commercialization and it's making progress.  The county’s science accelerator, established two years ago, now has three companies and will add two more in the next few months. Prince William’s head of economic development, Jeff Kaczmarek, says the accelerator is aiming to be at full capacity by the end of next year, as more companies take up its 9,100 SF, which is the only commercially available wet lab space in the region. 

Dr Martine Rothblatt and Cyndi Lauper were the recipients of this year’s Billie Jean King Leadership Initiative (BJKLI) awards on Wednesday night.

The tennis legend launched the non-profit BJKLI in 2014 with her partner, Ilana Kloss, to promote and celebrate inclusive leadership. This year’s awards gala, in partnership with Teneo, took place Wednesday night at World Trade Center 4 in New York.

AstraZeneca and its global biologics research and development arm, MedImmune, today announced a three-year collaboration with the newly established Wallenberg Centre for Protein Research (WCPR). The collaboration aims to develop new technologies for biologics production and to identify new targets for disease research in the ground-breaking area of the Secretome - research into all proteins that are secreted by a cell or that are exposed to the outside of the cell from within the cell membrane.

Although the University System of Maryland, at its core, is a collection of 12 colleges, new Chancellor Bob Caret says he sees it as a business — a business that the state needs to invest in. Caret said that for every $1 the state spends on USM, he can bring the state back $6.

U.S. health regulators on Friday said they have granted accelerated approval to Roche Holding's drug for advanced lung cancer in patients with a specific genetic mutation.

The drug, alectinib, to be sold under the brand name Alecensa, was approved to treat patients with advanced ALK-positive non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) whose disease has worsened after, or who could not tolerate, treatment with Pfizer's Xalkori.

Becton, Dickinson and Company (BDX), or BD, operated under three business segments until 2014. It then underwent organizational restructuring, effective October 1, 2015, to better align its business model to the strategic vision and goals of the company. Consequently, the company operates under two business segments: BD Medical and BD Life Sciences.

Sweden’s eHealth Agency (eHälsomyndigheten) selected woman-owned Get Real Health's electronic personal health patient engagement platform to help its citizens access and manage their own health data.

Get Real Health, a Montgomery County, Maryland health IT pioneer, is partnering with Swedish technology consulting company Capgemini Sverige AB to bring a complete patient engagement solution, called HälsaFörMig, to Sweden’s publicly owned Swedish eHealth Agency. Capgemini will run the service, while Get Real Health’s two core products, InstantPHR® and CHBase™ (Connected Health Base), will provide the consumer health data platform.