Biohealth Innovation
A group of UC Berkeley students launched what they call the first-ever student-run health tech incubator Thursday at the office of Downtown Berkeley’s Skydeck, which fosters campus startups.
The incubator, Catalyst@Berkeley, aims to provide a framework for students to bring viable prototypes to the market and open doors of entrepreneurship to undergraduate students interested in health care innovation.
The Food and Drug Administration on Thursday approved the first of an eagerly awaited new class of cancer drugs that unleashes the body’s immune system to fight tumors.
The drug, which Merck will sell under the name Keytruda, was approved for patients with advanced melanoma who have exhausted other therapies.
When British pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline announced in October 2012 that it planned to make detailed data from its clinical trials widely available to researchers outside its own walls, the scientific community was stunned. For a company that spends $6.5 billion a year on research and development, it was a sharp turn away from the system of data secrecy that had made it one of the world’s largest drug companies, with 2013 sales of $43.6 billion.
The announcement came a few months after the company pled guilty to misdemeanor charges in the U.S. that it had marketed drugs for unapproved uses, based on improperly reported clinical trial data, and failed to report safety data on another drug later shown to raise the risk of heart attacks. Given the timing, many wondered if GSK’s move was more about rehabilitating its image than embracing data transparency.
The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Maryland is seeking a dynamic, innovative and accomplished biomedical/biotechnology executive with demonstrated scientific and entrepreneurial expertise to provide strategic vision and leadership for the Office of Translational Alliances and Coordination (OTAC). The OTAC is charged with developing, implementing and leading translational research programs that create recognizable commercial value for discoveries and innovations during their gestational stages and facilitating their ultimate translation into new diagnostics, devices, therapeutics and tools. The Office is also charged with identifying emerging areas of translational opportunities, serving as a focal point for extramural researchers for information on NHLBI-wide small business technology development opportunities.
The OTAC Director is an expert in entrepreneurism and technology advancement with the vision and unique skill set required to recognize commercial value in very early stage technologies, guide their scientific and business oriented risk-mitigating development and the capital acquisition activities required for their ultimate customer/patient deployment. These skills, gained through experience in both the academic research and the start-up/small business or industry sector, will provide the OTAC Director the capability to oversee and effectively manage existing NHLBI translational research technology development programs and the development of new programs and initiatives required to identify and advance innovations and technology platforms for research, diagnosis, treatment, control and prevention of cardiovascular, lung, blood and sleep disorders.
SAVE THE DATE: THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2014
The MCCC Business Awards Dinner Committee and Chair of the Board Lisa Cines, CPA of Dixon Hughes Goodman LLP invite you to join in the celebration of those who make our economy and community thrive. This annual sold-out event attracts 700+ guests including award winners, sponsors, business leaders, elected and government officials and the media. Join us for a great evening of Meaningful Connections, Commerce and Celebration.
The Life Sciences Discovery Fund (LSDF) today announced nearly $750,000 in Proof of Concept grants to Washington state for-profit and non-profit organizations to promote translation of health-related technologies from the laboratory to the commercial marketplace. Also announced was nearly $56,000 in supplemental funding to an existing grant to increase the commercial potential of a drug to protect hearing in patients taking certain antibiotics. (See Backgrounder Information.)
The LSDF Board of Trustees selected the awardees following review of proposals for scientific and technical merit, commercial potential, and health and economic benefits to Washington.
Are you an entrepreneur ready to pitch your company? Register for your chance to film a three-minute video pitch to be seen online by VCs and angel investors and be voted on by fans around Maryland!
The Montgomery County Department of Economic Development and the Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce have partnered to host Montgomery County's Pitch Across Maryland stops on October 1, 2014. Applications for the Montgomery County Pitch stops are due September 15!
Friday, November 14, 2014
Encounter the hottest trends and innovations in Health IT as well as investment at the “eHealth Venture Summit”. This event at the MEDICA Health IT Forum showcases new companies, offers valuable insights and shall foster strategic partnerships and investment opportunities crucial to bringing innovative products to market. The event will feature seasoned industry experts from leading companies and funding specialists. The conference is jointly organized by Prof. Talya Miron-Shatz, CEO of CureMyWay, and a faculty member at the Ono Academic College, and Dr. Stefan Becker of the Institute for Drug Safety, University Hospital Essen.
GETTING IDEAS TO PATIENTS: THE SOPE FOUNDATION CROWDFUNDING CAMPAIGN NEEDS YOUR SUPPORT FOR EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS
To provide SoPE members with educational programs, events and more, we need your support. The SoPE Foundation has started a crowdfunding* campaign —Getting Ideas to Patients—to raise $250,000 by the end of 2014 for educational programs and events. The SoPE Foundation is the sole funder for these activities, such as the Blakely Visiting Lectureship Series named posthumously for one of our co-founders, and support for biomedical and health innovators applying for the Innovation Scholars Program. SoPE's operates on a low-cost membership model to encourage enrollment. With your financial contribution, we will have the funding to do what we set out to do. Every little bit helps, and every larger bit moves us closer to our goal.
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:
NIH Guide Notices:
Requests for Applications:
Maryland Industrial Partnerships (MIPS) Funding for Technology Product Development
MIPS provides funding, matched by participating companies, for university research projects that help companies develop new technology products.
Benefits to Maryland Companies
Benefits to Maryland Faculty
Visit www.mips.umd.edu or call 301.405.3891301.405.3891 for details.
APPLICATIONS ARE DUE BY OCTOBER 15, 2014!
The I2C Conference is a full-day event to help you get your technology-based small business on the fast-track! Three in-depth panels on Innovation, Commercialization and Financing Speakers include: GlycoMimetics, MedImmune, Johns Hopkins University, Naval Research Labs, Brain Sentry, Mindoula, SmartSenseCom, TEDCO, Maryland Venture Fund, and the exit strategy team from Amplimmune. Enjoy lunch...
Dubbed as the most severe and deadly outbreak, the Ebola menace in West Africa has caught the attention of GlaxoSmithKline plc (ADR) (NYSE:GSK) and National institute of health. CNBC’s Meg Tirrell reports that NIH and GlaxoSmithKline have partnered to develop a vaccine that is said to have had immense success in primates, but yet to be tested in Humans.
The studies are to be used to ascertain whether the vaccine is safe and also its ability to prompt an immune response, able to combat the Ebola virus. No humans are to be infected’ with the Ebola virus during the course of the study.
Anne Arundel Medical Center is looking to get in on technology commercialization, a game more typically played at research hospitals and universities.
The James and Sylvia Earl Simulation to Advance Innovation and Learning (SAIL) Center is developing a plan to bring together doctors and the local business community to commercialize technology that would benefit the hospital.
Legal 500, considered one of the most comprehensive worldwide qualitative guides available on legal services providers, recently announced its 2014 rankings. Venable’s national Corporate Group continued to earn high marks in the latest edition leading the way with a Tier 1 ranking in the M&A: Middle-Market (Sub-$500m) category. The group also received high marks in the Technology: Outsourcing, Technology: Transactions and Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) categories.
Corporate Practice Co-Chair Charles J. Morton, Jr. and partner William T. Russell received special recognition as Leading Lawyers for M&A: Middle Market (Sub $500m) Technology: Transactions respectively. Leading Lawyers are selected from all the nationally recommended attorneys in a particular category and represent those few individuals, who, in the view of their peers, represent the highest standards of their practice. This is Mr. Morton’s third year as a Leading Lawyer and Mr. Russell’s fourth. Mr. Morton was one of 23 attorneys nationwide named a Leading Lawyer in M&A: Middle Market (Sub $500m). Mr. Russell was one of only 12 attorneys nationwide named a Leading Lawyer in Technology: Transactions.
A lot has been written lately about innovation, or the lack thereof, in the world of biopharma. One question that often gets asked: which countries lead the way in creating new medicines? Many people think that drugs originate in the nation where the companies that produce them are headquartered. The truth, however, is much more complicated. Given that multi-national firms market the majority of medicines, figuring out where each one of their drugs originated requires digging through some extensive data vaults. A proper analysis requires the examination of company histories, free market deal making, and in some cases government interventions. Consider the following examples:
Have you always wondered what type of scientific researcher you are? Take the quiz to find out.
Student consultants at the University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business often find their target audience staring at them in the mirror when they do market research for nonprofit organizations.
ChangeTheWorld.org, a pro bono consulting program launched at the school's Center for Social Value Creation in 2006, reports an increased interest among nonprofit organizations in the Millennial Generation as the population segment grows up and goes to college. "Nonprofit organizations want to unleash the potential of this generation, and they are coming straight to the source for insights at the Smith School and other partner universities," said Pammi Bhullar, program manager at the Center for Social Value Creation and ChangeTheWorld.org. "Essentially, they are asking college students to gather market intelligence on themselves."
Too much fat weighs down not just your body, but also your brain.
harms most organs in the body, and new research suggests the brain is no exception. What’s more, the researchers found that getting rid of excess fat actually improves brain function, reversing the ill effects of the extra weight. The new study, which focused on people who underwent bariatric surgery, found that the procedure had positive effects on the brain, but other research has shown that less invasive weight loss strategies, like exercise, can also reverse brain damage thought to be related to body fat.
GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) is one of the world’s leading research-based pharmaceutical and healthcare companies, has announced that it will freeze the prices of its vaccines for five years for developing countries that graduate from GAVI Alliance support.
By committing to offer GAVI Alliance prices for vaccines against pneumonia, diarrhoea and cervical cancer, GSK will support developing country governments as they transition to financing the full cost of their local vaccination programmes.
A candidate Ebola vaccine could be given to healthy volunteers in the United Kingdom, The Gambia, and Mali as early as September, as part of a series of safety trials of potential vaccines aimed at preventing the disease that has killed more than 1,400 people in the current outbreak in West Africa.
Human trials of this candidate vaccine, being co-developed by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), are to be accelerated with funding from an international consortium in response to the Ebola epidemic, which the World Health Organization (WHO) recently declared a public health emergency of international concern.
GlaxoSmithKline's experimental Ebola vaccine could be tested on humans in the UK, US, the Gambia and Mali in the next few weeks, in a race to contain the deadly virus that has claimed more than 1,500 lives in west Africa.
The news came as the World Health Organisation (WHO) warned that the Ebola epidemic could eventually exceed 20,000 cases. Bruce Aylward, WHO's assistant director-general for emergency operations, said: "This far outstrips any historic Ebola outbreak in numbers. The largest outbreak in the past was about 400 cases."
Johnson & Johnson and Sanofi are using IBM Watson’s computer brain/big data cruncher to support research and development. It will be used to identify new applications for drugs that have already been developed and to leaf through scientific papers that detail clinical trial outcomes, according to a statement from IBM. The partnerships follow a new development in Watson’s evolution that help it visually uncover patterns and pinpoint connections in related data to accelerate the discovery process and advance science research.
“Watson now has the ability to understand the language of chemistry, biology, legal and intellectual property, giving scientists the ability to make connections with data that others don’t see, which can lead to rapid breakthrough in discoveries,” the statement said.
Every day our DNA breaks a little. Special enzymes keep our genome intact while we’re alive, but after death, once the oxygen runs out, there is no more repair. Chemical damage accumulates, and decomposition brings its own kind of collapse: membranes dissolve, enzymes leak, and bacteria multiply. How long until DNA disappears altogether? Since the delicate molecule was discovered, most scientists had assumed that the DNA of the dead was rapidly and irretrievably lost. When Svante Pääbo, now the director of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany, first considered the question more than three decades ago, he dared to wonder if it might last beyond a few days or weeks. But Pääbo and other scientists have now shown that if only a few of the trillions of cells in a body escape destruction, a genome may survive for tens of thousands of years.
The crossover round is alive and well. Just a few days after Dermira put out the word that a consortium of backers had come up with a $51 million C round, the company rolled out a $75 million IPO. And the news, along with a fresh, $86 million filing from Rhythm Pharmaceuticals, helps set the stage for a new round of fall biotech IPOs that will once again test investors' appetite for risk.
First, let's look at Redwood City, CA-based Dermira. Focused on skin ailments, the biotech is partnered with UCB on the development of Cimzia--already on the market--for psoriasis, a field that will soon be packed with a host of contenders from the likes of Novartis ($NVS) and Eli Lilly ($LLY). The biotech has laid plans for a Phase III psoriasis trial in 2015 as it pursues further work on a new therapy for "hyperhidrosis," or excessive sweating, in the armpits. It's in a Phase IIb study and a successful outcome would set the stage for a late-stage program. There's also an acne treatment in early mid-stage studies.
Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake on Thursday appointed six new members to the Baltimore Development Corp. board, an announcement that comes as Councilman Bill Cole takes over as president of the agency.
The six new members are mostly long-standing vacancies on the 19-member board. One of the appointments fills a seat opened after city Finance Director Harry Black announced last month that he was leaving his job to become city manager in Cincinnati.
Scientists who use government money to conduct genomic research will now be required to quickly share the data they gather under a policy announced on Wednesday by the National Institutes of Health.
The data-sharing policy, which will take effect with grants awarded in January, will give agency-financed researchers six months to load any genomic data they collect—from human or nonhuman subjects—into a government-established database or a recognized alternative.
The National Science Foundation (NSF) announced today that it will provide a multi-million dollar grant to create a hub of innovation that unites public and private institutions throughout Southern California, headquartered at and administered by the University of Southern California, the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), and the University of California Los Angeles.
The new center is part of the NSF Innovation Corps, or "I-Corps," initiative, which is aimed at fostering innovation throughout the U.S. by encouraging the translation of ideas and research beyond the laboratory to create social and economic impact. The announcement cements the position of Southern California as a crucial focal point of technology entrepreneurship in the country.
The Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development says its Maryland Venture Fund has made follow-on investments in two Maryland startups totaling $700,000.
Bethesda-based KoolSpan, a mobile security encryption company, received $400,000. BrainScope, also in Bethesda, got $300,000. BrainScope is developing neurotechnology for quickly assessing traumatic brain injury.
Over $21M in New Funding Available for Bioreactors for Reparative Medicine
Learn more at webinar on September 12, 3 pm ET
The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB), and the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) announce a new program that aims to support multidisciplinary small business teams in the development of complex, three-dimensional engineering systems for growing heart, lung, or bone marrow tissue. Ultimately, bioreactor designs should provide the most physiologically relevant environment to promote correct 3-dimensional tissue growth and maintenance, which is also efficient, safe and economical. Such devices should be made commercially available and widely disseminated to researchers for application in the translational setting.
Baltimore is going to be OK, as long as it has its big name medical centers.
That’s the big takeaway from a new report by Moody’s Investors Service that looked at the economic impact large medical and education systems have on the cities where they are based.
Venture capital continued its love affair with biotechnology in the second quarter, with investment in biotech reaching record levels.
Venture capitalists invested $1.84 billion in 122 biotech deals in the period, according to a MoneyTree report released Monday by PricewaterhouseCoopers and the National Venture Capital Association, using Thomson Reuters data.
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:
NIH Guide 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.
Emergent BioSolutions is looking to fill a position for a senior scientist position.
If hired, the senior scientist will be responsible for vaccine potency and assay development at Emergent BioSolutions.
Key responsibilities of the position include the design and execution of experimental protocols for developing and qualifying animal-based potency assays, conducting in vitro potency assay development and leading vaccine product stability studies with the company’s Potency Assay Group.
GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) has announced that it will freeze the prices of its vaccines for five years for developing countries that graduate from GAVI Alliance support. By committing to offer GAVI Alliance prices for vaccines against pneumonia, diarrhoea and cervical cancer, GSK will support developing country governments as they transition to financing the full cost of their local vaccination programmes.
Since its formation in 2000, the GAVI Alliance has helped to fund the immunisation of 440 million children in some of the world’s poorest countries. GSK is a long-standing partner of the Alliance and reserves its lowest prices for GAVI-eligible countries, which can be as low as one-tenth of prices in developed countries.