Biohealth Innovation
There are a couple of common analogies for startups wooing potential investors, said entrepreneur Brian Razzaque — it's like herding cats, or getting one lemming to lead the others. Most investors are wary of bankrolling an unproven company without someone else's seal of approval.
When Open Works makes its debut in the Station North Arts and Entertainment District next year, Will Holman hopes it will become just the kind of place where he can set up shop. An architect by training and furniture maker, Holman is also the project director for Open Works, a $10 million incubator Baltimore Arts Realty Corp. is developing in a warehouse across from Greenmount Cemetery.
Pieris Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (OTCQB: PIRS), a biotechnology company advancing its proprietary Anticalin® biotherapeutic technologies, announced today the completion of enrollment of healthy subjects in a blinded, placebo-controlled Phase I clinical trial for the Company's PRS-080 program, a hepcidin antagonist to treat anemia. This study was conducted at a single site in Germany.
The event will focus on the most innovative life sciences clusters in Europe. It will bring together top level representatives from universities, research labs, science parks, incubators, venture capital, hospitals, start-ups and government agencies, all having a role to play in these regional innovation ecosystems.
Hundreds of people from more than 140 life sciences organizations based in Maryland are traveling to the BIO International annual conference taking place next week, June 15th-18th, in Philadelphia.
Stop by our Booth (#301), enjoy a cup of espresso, meet key industry leaders, and learn more about the many resources and experts available in Maryland to help you grow your business!
Take a poll of most of biotech’s venture capitalists—the ones that survived the financial crash, anyway—and you might find that just about all of them have reloaded with new funds over the past few years. Today, you can add Clarus Ventures to the list.
Clarus—a VC firm with offices in the bi-coastal biotech hotbeds of Cambridge, MA, and South San Francisco, CA—has raised its third fund, a $500 million haul called Clarus Lifesciences III LP that’ll it’ll use to invest in both early and mature drug developers.
Symbiomix Therapeutics today announced the dosing of the first patient in a Phase 3 clinical trial, the second of two planned pivotal trials for its lead drug candidate SYM-1219 for the treatment of bacterial vaginosis (BV). Symbiomix previously announced that it plans to submit the multi-center, randomized Phase 2 trial completed last year as one of two pivotal trials required for a New Drug Application (NDA) filing. This Phase 3 trial is the second pivotal study to support an NDA submission for BV. SYM-1219 is a novel drug candidate that contains secnidazole, an antibiotic with favorable pharmacokinetics (PK) allowing for single-dose oral therapy in a condition that is marked by high recurrence rates and low adherence to the current recommended treatment.
Alexandria Real Estate Equities will break ground next week on The Alexandria Center, an 11-story biotech building at 400 Dexter Ave. N.
Juno Therapeutics will be the anchor tenant, taking about 90,000 of the 285,000 square feet. Juno will lease the top four floors and has an option on three more.
Maryland Governor Larry Hogan today announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the University of Maryland (UMD) and the headquarters of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), China’s top science and technology research and educational organization.
Signed on June 2nd by UMD President Wallace D. Loh and CAS President Bai Chunli at CAS headquarters in Beijing, the MOU encourages joint research activities, student exchanges, and other related and mutually beneficial activities. CAS is composed of 104 research institutes, two universities, 12 academies, and over 100 key national labs.
Tech award season rolled on in Maryland on Thursday night at the American Visionary Art Museum. The Maryland Incubator Company of the Year Awards recognized startups in a host of categories like life sciences, health technology and technology services.
Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development Secretary Mike Gill offered the keynote address, detailing a few specifics of how Gov. Larry Hogan’s administration wants to make the state more business-friendly. That will include a new name for the department, and will likely mean a new title for Gill.
Gemstone Biotherapeutics, a Baltimore company developing treatments to promote wound healing, has raised $2.45 million in a seed round of investment, company officials said.
The company plans to use the money to further test its technologies and pursue regulatory review and clinical trials. It is developing biosynthetic "scaffold" technology that has shown in animal tests it can help skin regenerate and prevent scarring when applied to burn wounds.
Personal Genome Diagnostics has raised $4.3 million in private financing, the firm said in a document filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday.
A spokesperson for the firm said that the financing was in the form of a convertible note funding and is part of a larger Series A round currently underway. No further details were disclosed.
The Incubator Company of the Year Awards is an opportunity to highlight Maryland's impressive incubator system and recognize the breadth and depth of technology talent that we have throughout Maryland. In determining the winners, judges considered factors such as technology and product development, increase in employee numbers, growth in revenue, and the attraction of outside investors. The Incubator Company of the Year Awards represent some of the best companies in Maryland that have recently been started and have gone through incubator programs. With BioHealth Innovation's assistance, Avhana Health has been able to create a category-defining product, triple it's workforce and gain funding from outside investors.
Investment to accelerate momentum behind cloud-based electronic health record software for behavioral health market
June 2nd, 2015 | Rockville, MD - Credible Behavioral Health, Inc. ("Credible"), a leading provider of electronic health record ("EHR") and practice management Software-as-a-Service ("SaaS") solutions to the behavioral health market, today announced that it has secured a $30 million minority investment from Goldman Sachs. The investment will allow Credible to further pursue its mission of helping behavioral health agencies improve their quality of care by scaling its presence across the clinic, community, residential, and inpatient behavioral health market. Credible plans to accelerate product development, build out its sales and marketing team, and opportunistically pursue acquisitions.
Gaithersburg-based Novavax Inc. — known for its work developing vaccine candidates for the flu, a pediatric respiratory illness and Ebola — expanded into a new 54,000-square-foot research and development space where it plans to house its vaccine work.
"It's a very important signal of our continued growth," said Buck Phillips, chief financial officer of Novavax (Nasdaq: NVAX) of the new space at 21 Firstfield Road, across the street from its headquarters.
For decades, a postdoctoral appointment in a university laboratory has been the “default” next step for new Ph.D. researchers in biomedical sciences and, increasingly, in other sciences as well. In those positions, scientists encounter such well-known issues as low pay, long hours, and little or no preparation for career opportunities outside academe.
The Human Genome Project was one of mankind’s greatest triumphs. But the official gene map that resulted in 2003, known as the “reference genome,” is no longer up to the job.
So say scientists laying plans for a new universal map they say will combine the genomes of hundreds, and eventually thousands, of people to create a true reference that reflects all of humanity.
Come to this information breakfast to learn about Relevant Health, the new accelerator located in the Rockville Innovation Center, now accepting applications from health tech startups for its Fall 2015 class. Relevant Health’s five-month program involves an intensive product-focused curriculum that gives founders of health tech startups the skills to define, develop, position and launch a viable health tech product. Companies admitted to the accelerator will have access to the cowork facility along with other support that includes up to $50,000 in funding, mentorship, development support from a pool of software engineers, and access to the local health tech ecosystem. Interested applicants should visit http://www.relevanthealth.md to complete the online application. The final deadline for application submissions is July 31, 2015. Free, breakfast will be served. Park in designated GIC parking spots only.
The TechConnect World Innovation Conference is an annual event uniquely designed to accelerate the commercialization of innovations out of the lab and into industry. The Technical Program spotlights applications focused innovations, materials and devices emerging from industrial, government and academic laboratories worldwide. The Innovation Partnering Program gathers market-ready, commercially-viable, innovations into the largest global technology accelerator program.
Early-stage companies are reviewed and selected by our board of corporate and investment partners. Technical submissions are reviewed and selected by our symposium chairs and program review committee. The 2015 TechConnect World Innovation event encompasses the 2015 SBIR/STTR National Conference, the 2015 National Innovation Summit and Showcase, and Nanotech2015 – the world’s largest nanotechnology event.
One of the two boards that oversee the Virginia Biotechnology Research Park has adopted bylaw changes and added members as part of a plan to support innovation in the entire Richmond region economy.
The Virginia Biotechnology Park Corporation Board, which is the nonprofit leadership entity for the 34-acre park in downtown Richmond, has changed its named to the Innovation Council — a “placeholder” name, for now, that is expected to change as the council works on a rebranding program.
Lawmakers on the Legislature’s powerful budget committee trimmed Gov. Scott Walker’s proposed $300 million two-year funding cut to the University of Wisconsin System to $250 million, which if it stands would be tied for the largest cut in System history and would mark the fifth time in the last six budget cycles that the universities took a significant funding cut.
Governor Larry Hogan joined Maryland companies RTKL and Marriott International, as well as officials from the University of Maryland, College Park and the University of Maryland, Baltimore, for a ceremony during which agreements were signed with Chinese companies and educational institutions. Among the partnerships, Marriott International has agreed to work with R&F Real Estate Development in China to operate the 350-room Ritz-Carlton in Harbin; and global design firm RTKL signed an agreement with Beijing Thaihot Jiaying Real Estate Development Co. to provide design consulting services for the Shijingshan Galaxy Business Area. In addition, two emerging Chinese companies – Shanghai Tongji Biological Product Co. and Ankang Shimao Biotechnology Co. – announced plans to set up U.S. operations in Maryland’s International Incubator at the University of Maryland, College Park, which is already home to a number of Chinese firms.
For at least three days this month, Philadelphia will be the Silicon Valley of biotech.
Nearly 40 startups and small businesses funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) with innovative biomedical technologies based on fundamental research will be in Philadelphia June 15-18 at the 2015 BIO International Convention, the world's largest gathering of the biotechnology industry.
The big data movement is redefining the way we approach biotech – opening up new opportunities for engineers and mathematicians. It also is helping entrepreneurs launch an entirely new kind of biotech startup – one at the nexus of tech and biotech.
So there’s a lot of talk about how best to entice the tech-savvy into the life sciences – because the silos remain very real. How do we bridge the gap between tech and biotech?
Entrepreneurs and other private-sector innovators will soon, for the first time, have access to voluminous federal healthcare data stores, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced Tuesday. This reverses a longstanding rule that researchers could not use CMS data for commercial purposes.
Acting CMS Administrator Andy Slavitt presented the new policy Tuesday at Health Datapalooza, an event focused on open healthcare data.
June 18th at 1:30pm
This webinar is intended to help enhance the productivity of scientific research--most of which is conducted in teams-- by creating awareness of the National Research Council’s recently published report, “Enhancing the Effectiveness of Team Sciences.”.
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:
Please note that most links to RFAs, PAs, and Guide Notices will take you to the NIH Web site. RFPs will take you to FedBizOpps. Links to RFPs will not work past their proposal receipt date. Archived versions of RFPs posted on FedBizOpps can be found on the FedBizOpps site using the FedBizOpps search function. Under “Document to Search,” select Archived Documents.
Bioresearch just got a shot in the arm. On March 23, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced that three proof-of-concept hubs would join three already existing Research Evaluation and Commercialization Hubs (REACH).
Those new REACH awardees are:
OpGen, Inc. (Nasdaq:OPGN), an early commercial-stage molecular testing and bioinformatics company, today launched its expanded, comprehensive molecular testing and bioinformatics program for detecting and managing Gram negative multi-drug resistant organisms, or MDROs. These products and services are designed to enable healthcare providers to rapidly identify and help manage hospital patients who are colonized or infected with life-threatening, drug resistant organisms.
OpGen also announced that it has been selected to participate in the White House Forum on Antibiotic Stewardship, being held today in Washington, D.C. The event brings together key federal and private-sector constituencies involved in the development, promotion and implementation of antibiotic stewardship activities to ensure the responsible use of antibiotics nationwide. A live stream of the opening session will be available beginning at 8:00 a.m. Eastern time via www.whitehouse.gov/live.
Strand Life Sciences is hoping for a bigger seat at the table in the U.S. next-generation sequencing (NGS) market with the launch of an expanded version of its Stranddvantage pan-cancer genomic profiling test.
Revolution LLC plans to raise $450 million for its next fund, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The raise comes right as the previous fund — which backs growth-stage companies and was also valued at $450 million — is reaching its limit for initial investments. D.C.-based Revolution has invested in 11 companies from that fund since its 2011 inception, with one or two more new investments expected.
BioMarker Strategies, LLC, today announced the appointment of Samuel Broder, M.D., as Chairman of its Scientific Advisory Board and his election as a member of the Company’s Board of Directors, effective immediately.
“We are privileged to bring a leader of Dr. Broder’s distinction and scientific experience back to our Company. His record of accomplishment in internal medicine and oncology are well known, and we look forward to benefiting from his scientific and strategic insight in the years ahead,” said Jerry Parrott, President and CEO, BioMarker Strategies. “I am particularly pleased that Dr. Broder has agreed to take on the important role of Chairman of our Scientific Advisory Board. We expect to announce the members of our newly constituted SAB in the near future.”
Awards recognize best practices in university-based economic development
The University Economic Development Association (UEDA) is currently seeking applications for its annual Awards of Excellence program, which recognizes cutting edge university-based economic development initiatives from across the country. The Awards of Excellence Program spotlights higher education institutions and their partners who are transforming their campuses and communities into engines of economic prosperity through creative initiatives in five categories:
The Emerging Leaders (EL) Program provides rising leaders with the skills and connections essential to professional success and effective community leadership. Through eight monthly interactive sessions, participants will gain unique exposure to the issues, resources and key players impacting Montgomery County, while strengthening their professional skill sets.
If you experience any difficulty creating an account or filling out the application, please contact Carol Ippolito This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or 301-881-3333
Technology Digest Inc., an information technology consulting and product development firm, has made its new home at Johns Hopkins University Montgomery County Campus.
The firm is the brainchild of Sarah Iranpour, a first-generation immigrant to the United States from Iran. Iranpour spent years working for others in the IT field. When her son went to college, she decided to “go after my dream developing something substantial for health and medical.”