BHI Weekly Newsletter Archives

Johns Hopkins University today unveiled specific steps it plans to take to cultivate and support a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship and respond to the strategic challenges detailed in last year’s committee report on the topic.

The implementation plan, the release of which was announced today to the university community in a message from JHU President Ronald J. Daniels, addresses the 22 specific recommendations to bolster the university’s innovation initiatives that were included in the May 2014 innovation report.

Maryland’s road to a stronger high-tech economy lies at the intersection of its I-95 and I-270 corridors. Better integration of education, research and development in the state’s two biggest innovation centers—the Washington suburbs and Baltimore—will spur success. This is underway.

In less than three years, a strategic collaboration between the University of Maryland, College Park and the University of Maryland, Baltimore, called “MPowering the State,” has dramatically energized technology development along these corridors.

For the second year, The Johns Hopkins University and Johns Hopkins Medicine are co-sponsoring an opportunity that prepares health information technology startups to present their innovative ideas to the world. DreamIt Health Baltimore is a four-month intensive boot camp program for entrepreneurs, designed to accelerate new product development for health IT startup companies. The program provides six new startups with access to top-tier legal and accounting services, along with opportunities to meet and pitch to angel investors and venture capitalists. Each startup also receives additional seed capital of up to $50,000.

Italian drugmakers Alfa Wasserman and Sigma-Tau said on Thursday they had agreed to merge pharmaceutical activities to create a domestic champion with sales of more than 900 million euros ($992 million).

In October sources told Reuters the two companies were in advanced talks to combine their Italian operations.

Baltimore health IT startup Emocha Mobile Health Inc. is taking its medication-tracking mobile app to one of the largest counties in the country — Harris County, Texas. Emocha on Friday announced a year-long, $65,000 contract with the Houston-area county to help health workers make sure tuberculosis patients are taking their medication. The contract can be extended for up to a total of five years.

BIO is surveying members and non-members on their interactions with the FDA during the various stages of drug development prior to submitting an NDA/BLA. The survey can be accessed here.

Why is it important for you to share your feedback? In an increasingly competitive and fiscally-constrained environment, it is more important than ever for all stakeholders to work together to promote effective R&D for innovative medicines.

MorphoSys AG (FSE: MOR; Prime Standard Segment, TecDAX, OTC: MPSYY) and Emergent BioSolutions Inc. (NYSE: EBS) today announced the initiation of a Phase 1 clinical study to evaluate the safety, tolerability, and clinical activity of MOR209/ES414 in patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC). Under the terms of the companies’ co-development and commercialization agreement, the achievement of this milestone triggers a payment of US $ 5 million by MorphoSys to Emergent.

The total potential payout for the winner will be $2 million — pocket change for the biggest defense company on the globe. And yet, Lockheed Martin Corp. is leading one of 25 teams in the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s annual Robotics Challenge. And it’s the only large contractor to do so.

The teams will vie for a chance to win one of three cash prizes totaling $3.5 million at the DARPA Robitics Challenge finals — the second crop of 14 teams, many of which are international, was just added last week. The finals, which will take place June 5-6 at Fairplex in Pomona, California, will require robots to attempt a circuit of consecutive physical tasks, with degraded communications between the robots and their operators.

Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake’s State of the City Address will take on economic issues Monday, touting job creation and introducing initiatives like a $1 million innovation fund, doubled Small Business Resource Center budget and new online maps tracking development projects. Expect the mayor to compare economic conditions in the city today to those that existed when she first took office in 2010. She plans to note a drop in unemployment and a rise in jobs before pitching new and expanded programs geared toward boosting businesses, city officials said.

Next Due Date June 19, 2015; Submit Your Letter of Intent by May 19, 2015 Informational Webinar Coming Soon – Stay Tuned!

NHLBI’s Phase IIB Bridge Award provides up to $3M to support the continued development of your innovative technology requiring regulatory oversight. Applicants are expected to leverage NHLBI funding to attract matching third-party financing. For NHLBI-related technologies focused on rare diseases or pediatric populations, the Phase IIB Small Market Award (RFA-HL-14-012) provides up to $3M, with an expectation of partial matching funds from third-party investors. The next due date for RFA-HL-14-012 is June 19, 2015. Both Phase IIB programs are open to Phase II SBIR or STTR awardees from any agency.

Johns Hopkins University officials have been talking about putting more energy into fostering more entrepreneurship among the Baltimore institution’s vast research megalith. This week, they put a plan in writing.

On Wednesday, Hopkins President Ronald J. Daniels released a 20-page report that lays out plans for $40 million in new investment over five years. Officials want the new money to fuel the growth of an “innovation ecosystem.”

Google has been making major waves in healthcare lately, with a significant change in how it displays health search results in a collaboration with the Mayo Clinic that may include a change to its algorithms.

And efforts to make Google Glass more applicable to healthcare seem to be increasing. But that’s far from the only area it intends on disrupting. The folks at HIT Consultant put together this handy infographic that details the potential dominance, or at least influence, ranging from genomics to diagnosis to wearables.

Mach37, the CIT-backed accelerator for cybersecurity startups, has announced its spring cohort of investments. The companies include services ranging from risk tracking to system immunization and firewalling — your usual cybersecurity shenanigans.

The Herndon-based accelerator invests $50,000 in each of its startups and provides network access and guidance toward each company’s development. The portfolio includes 22 companies as of this announcement.

AstraZeneca has completed the acquisition of Actavis’ branded respiratory business in the US and Canada for an initial consideration of $600m.

The deal strengthens AstraZeneca’s aclidinium respiratory franchise and builds on the acquisition of Almirall’s respiratory portfolio in 2014 by extending the company’s development and commercialization rights into the US for both Tudorza Pressair and Duaklir Genuair.

This spring, the InvestMaryland Challenge will award four $100,000 grand prizes to innovative young companies with the potential to flourish in Maryland.

Now in its third year, this national seed and early-stage business competition, hosted by the Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development, has accepted hundreds of applications since fall 2014. Judges have now narrowed the field to just 46 companies, including the competition’s first-ever international semifinalist, Israel-based AcceleRadio. This month, they will present their business plans during face-to-face interviews with panels of three to five judges. Final reviews will take place in April.

The Johns Hopkins University Montgomery County Campus welcomes Leidos to the campus community. Leidos has located some of its employees in Building III, putting them in close proximity to the National Cancer Institute Shady Grove, located right next door. Leidos Biomedical Research and the National Cancer Institute have a contract to work together on “genetics and genomics, proteins and proteomics, advanced biomedical computing and information technology, biopharmaceutical development and manufacturing, nanotechnology characterization, and clinical trials management,” according to NCI.

Today at Henderson’s Wharf Inn in Fells Point, U.S. Senator Barbara A. Mikulski (D-Md.) announced she has decided not to run for re-election. Senator Mikulski, who will complete her 5th term in office in January, 2017, says she wants to focus for the next two years on working for her constituents and for the nation.

“Because every day, I want to wake up thinking about you — the little guys and gals, the watermen, automobile workers, researchers, small business owners and families,” Senator Mikulski said. “I want to give you 120 percent of my time with all of my energy focused on you and your futures. Because it’s always been about you, never about me. That’s what it takes to be a good senator by my expectations and by my standards.”

Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Mersana Therapeutics Inc, a provider of Fleximer antibody-drug conjugate technology, has secured $35 million in Series B-1 financing. New Enterprise Associates led the round with participation from Rock Springs Capital Management, Elliott Sigal, former head of R&D at Bristol-Myers Squibb, Pfizer Venture Investments and Fidelity Biosciences. Also, Mersana has appointed Anna Protopapas as president and CEO. And, Protopapas and Dr. Elaine V. Jones, executive director of Pfizer Venture Investments, have been added to Mersana’s board of directors.

On Feb. 19, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration took a huge step towards patient-centric medicine when it approved the marketing of genetics testing company 23andMe’s carrier test for Bloom Syndrome. This was a startling — and good — development because it affirmed the rights of consumers to drive their own health-care decisions and procedures. But it also means that it has become urgent to develop policies to regulate the rights of companies to resell data derived from the contents of our DNA and from our medical records.

Where will the first $1 trillion company come from? Some think it is already in the making, but not visible yet. The future is all around us and innovators can see it more than the rest of us.

As suggested, a convergence of technologies, including the Internet of Things, AI, robotics and synthetic biology, might just make a health company the first to be the Trillion Dollar Unicorn.

The interest in adopting digital health tools such as clinical wearables and smartphone diagnostics has been hindered in some ways by the rapid growth in the number of these devices and relatively little clinical validation. GE Ventures and Stanford Health Care have partnered to launch a company called Evidation Health to validate and optimize digital health tools, according to a company statement.

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:

• Eye on NIH Policy: OMB Uniform Guidance – What it Means for NIH & You (Video & Interactive Q&A – March 12, 2015)
• (NOT-OD-15-077) National Institutes of Health
• NCCIH Policy for Submission of R21 Applications Containing Clinical Trials
• (NOT-AT-15-004)
• 
National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health

Requests for Applications:

• Mobilizing Research: A Research Resource to Enhance mHealth Research (U2C)
• (RFA-OD-15-129)
Office of Behavioral and Social Science Research
• National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute
• National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism
• National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering
• National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke
• Application Receipt Date(s): May 08, 2015

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.

Aura Biosciences, a biotech company developing highly tumor-targeted breakthrough therapies for rare cancers, has secured a $21M Series B round of funding. The financing was led by Advent Life Sciences, with participation from new investors, Chiesi Ventures, Ysios Capital, and Alexandria Venture Investments. Existing investors, including LI-COR Biosciences and Henri Termeer, former Chief Executive Officer of Genzyme, also participated in the financing. The financing will be used to advance Aura’s unique and novel therapies into clinical trials for the treatment of rare cancers of the eye, and to further develop for additional cancer indications its first-in-class technology that was discovered and developed in partnership with Dr. John Schiller at the National Cancer Institute (NCI).

Symbiomix Therapeutics, a late-stage, privately held biopharmaceutical company developing innovative medicines for serious women’s health infections, today announced results from its Phase 1 clinical program demonstrating that its lead product candidate, SYM-1219, was safe and well tolerated and had predictable pharmacokinetics (PK), and that contraceptive efficacy for birth control pills would not be altered by SYM-1219 administration.

These results will be presented on March 6th at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics (ASCPT), which takes place in New Orleans from today through March 7th. Following are the details for the two posters presenting the study results:

MedImmune has joined the NIH’s Centers for Accelerated Innovations (NCAI) program as its first biopharma corporate partner.

The global biologics research and development arm of AstraZeneca said it will team up with NCAI awardees and help shape the program’s strategic direction. MedImmune said it may also review prospective NCAI technologies in collaboration with the awardees, and provide feedback regarding their commercial potential and early-stage development.

BioHealth Innovation, Inc. (BHI), a public-private partnership and innovation intermediary is seeking an energetic and motivated life science professional for the role of an Entrepreneur-In-Residence (EIR) with product development experience and subject matter expertise in the fields of neurology and neuroscience. The EIR will reside within the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and will also support intramural and extramural initiatives on an as needed basis.

The EIR program was established at BioHealth Innovation to:

• Retain and bring entrepreneurial talent to the Maryland ecosystem
• Connect resources including institutions, technology assets, people and capital within Maryland that include federal institutions, labs, academic institutions, small businesses, disease foundations and the investor community
• Build/support sustainable life science startups that will add value within the healthcare system and also build upon the existing infrastructure

The EIR will work with BHI leadership to ensure that the activities and outcomes are aligned with BHIs strategic focus.

A coalition of 13 leading life science and diagnostics organizations today announced the formation of the Allele Frequency Community, a landmark initiative that is creating an extensive, high-quality and ethnically diverse collection of human genomes to address a key challenge in interpreting sequencing data for research and clinical applications. The announcement coincides with the start of the 16th annual Advances in Genome Biology and Technology (AGBT) scientific meeting in Marco Island, Florida.

Five Maryland life science companies and a medical institution will share a total of $865,000 in grants from the BioMaryland Center. The awards — up to $200,000 per recipient — are part of the center’s Biotechnology Development Awards program, which is designed to help accelerate commercialization of medical treatments and technologies.

Smart Asset names Rockville and Bethesda as having the best paying STEM jobs in the nation

Looking for a job in STEM-related fields (Science, Technology, Engineering or Mathematics)? Look no further than Montgomery County.

A recent report by Smart Asset (smartasset.com) lists Rockville and Bethesda as the top spots in the nation for well-paying STEM jobs. The area (which included Frederick, MD) beat out Silicon Valley, San Francisco, Boston and New York in offering the most financially rewarding opportunities.

The Cambridge Biomedical Campus will become a new UK home for biologics research and protein engineering next year, as pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca opens its new headquarters.

Baltimore health technology startup Protenus Inc. hopes a partnership with health care consulting firm Sage Growth Partners will speed up the company’s development and lead to top-notch clients for the fledgling company.

Protenus is developing a cyber security tool that helps hospitals protect patient information by identifying and thwarting insider threats to hospitals’ electronic medical records. Since launching in 2014 the company has been focused on fine tuning its technology, which is already in use at Johns Hopkins Hospital. As part of Sage’s venture management program, Sage will help Protenus strengthen the business strategy side of the company. Protenus will be based at Sage’s office at the Broom Factory in Canton.

It’s a Rubik’s Cube.

That’s what New Enterprise Associates general partner Harry Weller told me about the monster venture capital firm’s philosophy regarding the management of its giant funds. The firm has raised more than $13 billion across 14 funds since its inception in 1977, the last three of which have been between $2.3 billion and $2.6 billion.

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:

• Reinforcing Service to the Biomedical Research Community
• (NOT-OD-15-035) National Institutes of Health
• Notice of Extension of the Public Comment Period for NOT-OD-15-019 “NIH Request for Public Comments on the Draft NIH Policy on Dissemination of NIH-Funded Clinical Trial Information”
• (NOT-OD-15-068) National Institutes of Health
• Announcement of Anticipated Availability of Funds for Research and Research Conferences on Research Integrity
• (NOT-OD-15-069) Department of Health and Human Services
• The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) is now the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH)
• (NOT-AT-15-003)
• National Center for Complementary and Integrative HealthNotice of Availability of Administrative Supplements to Extend the Scope and Reach of LINCS Datasets
• (NOT-RM-15-012)
• The Common Fund/Office of Strategic Coordination

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.

U.S. Small Business Administration leader Maria Contreras-Sweet drew parallels Friday between Baltimore and the rust-belt city of Detroit — but she actually meant it in a positive way.

Contreras-Sweet, the SBA’s administrator, was in Baltimore and took questions about the administration’s work in the city and its overall direction. Baltimore has many highly skilled workers who can pivot to new startup businesses, much like Detroit has automobile-industry employees who can put their expertise to work elsewhere, she said.

Paul Palmieri thinks Maryland’s entrepreneurs and innovators need a boost — especially after supporters of a state angel investor tax credit turned out in force to a Senate hearing Wednesday and faced some tough questions.

“We need to, as much as possible, support new entrepreneurs,” said Palmieri, the founder and former CEO of Millennial Media who’s now venture adviser at Chevy Chase-based New Enterprise Associates Inc. and an angel investor.

California-based companies received about 56 percent of all U.S. venture capital dollars in 2014, the state’s highest share of venture activity since the dot com boom of the early 2000s. Over the past 15 years, investment activity has steadily become more concentrated in California and a few other states. In 2009, about 67 percent of all deals and 74 percent of venture capital dollars flowed to the top five states. By 2014, those states’ share of venture dollars grew to 80 percent, according to NVCA/Pricewaterhouse Coopers data. A recent Harvard Business Review article, however, suggests that startups are receiving first-round funding in more metropolitan areas than ever.

Vaccination may be the most effective public health intervention of all time. This is especially true in developing countries, where many families can’t find or afford health care when they get sick. The prevention offered by vaccines can be life-saving.

Venture capital investment in U.S. life sciences companies soared 29 percent in 2014 from the year before, reaching $8.6 billion, the highest level since 2007. And there is reason to think 2015 will also be a big year for a sector having its third boom of the last two decades.

Did you see the recent news that the FDA has approved the first direct-to-consumer genetic test in the U.S.? Can you say game-changer? Talk about personalized medicine, what’s more personal than our own genetic blueprint? In a health care era defined by patients taking more personal responsibility for their own health and well being, including the costs, it’s about time that we enabled consumers directly with access to their own health care data and the tools to interpret and act on it. Access to our own genetic data gives new meaning to the buzzword, patient-centered care.

The Federal Laboratory Consortium for Technology Transfer (FLC) will be hosting its 2015 national meeting in Denver, Colorado, from April 28 – 30 at the Embassy Suites Denver – Downtown/Convention Center. Each year, the national meeting is highly anticipated by the FLC and the technology transfer (T2) community, serving as the premier event for advancing T2 strategies and providing important connections.

There’s a hushed quiet in the waiting room at a midtown Manhattan fertilization clinic called Reproductive Medical Associates as a dozen women flip through magazines, the glossies a welcome distraction from their scheduled treatments and consultations. But just down the hall, in a window-rimmed corner office with views of Central Park, conversation ping-pongs back and forth as Piraye Yurttas Beim, a scientist and entrepreneur, updates the clinic’s co-director on her startup’s progress.

Noah is a six-year-old suffering from a disorder without a name. This year, his physicians will begin sending his genetic information across the Internet to see if there’s anyone, anywhere, in the world like him.

Springboard’s Health Innovation Hub is a collaboration platform advancing the growth of digital health and life science companies led by women with significant potential for investment and partnerships.

About the Program

We seek women-led companies with a track record of milestone achievement. We are location- and stage-agnostic but seek solutions within several themes:

There’s been a flurry of news related to telemedicine this week, with several notable developments in Mississippi and Silicon Valley.

One of the more interesting aspects of telemedicine is that much of the innovation and focus of late has come from startups and vendors, while health systems have shown a bit of reluctance to deploy it on their own.

As the landscape of the biopharmaceutical industry expands into growing regions, an exciting transformation is beginning to transfer commercialization “recipes” to emerging markets. All eyes are on small, specialty, and midsize players emerging at the forefront of innovation in the mature regions of Europe and the United States.

At the global level, the BRICK countries of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and Korea are aggressively investing in R&D, facilities, and scientist training, and vying for bigger roles not only as markets for medicines, but also as rich breeding grounds for R&D and manufacturing.

Everything about China is big, including its cancer problem. In some wealthier cities, like Beijing, cancer is now believed to be the most frequent killer. Air pollution, high rates of smoking, and notorious “cancer villages” scarred by industrial pollution are increasing death rates around the country. Liver cancer in particular is four times as prevalent as it is in the West, in part because one in 14 people in China carry hepatitis B, which puts them at risk. Of all the people worldwide who die of cancer each year, some 27 percent are Chinese.

BioHealth Innovation, Inc. (BHI), a public-private partnership and innovation intermediary is seeking an energetic and motivated life science professional for the role of an Entrepreneur-In-Residence (EIR) with product development experience and subject matter expertise in the fields of neurology and neuroscience. The EIR will reside within the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and will also support intramural and extramural initiatives on an as needed basis.

The EIR program was established at BioHealth Innovation to:

• Retain and bring entrepreneurial talent to the Maryland ecosystem
• Connect resources including institutions, technology assets, people and capital within Maryland that include federal institutions, labs, academic institutions, small businesses, disease foundations and the investor community
• Build/support sustainable life science startups that will add value within the healthcare system and also build upon the existing infrastructure

The EIR will work with BHI leadership to ensure that the activities and outcomes are aligned with BHIs strategic focus.

Moving to advance its leadership in developing vaccines for important public health and biodefense needs, Vaxin Inc. today announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Immune Targeting Systems (ITS) Ltd. Vaxin is a clinical stage vaccine development company headquartered in Gaithersburg, Maryland. ITS develops novel T-cell vaccines at its operations in the United Kingdom and France. The deal is an all-stock transaction and is subject to customary closing conditions. The combined company will be known as Vaxin Inc.

MedImmune, the global biologics research and development arm of AstraZeneca, announced today that it has joined the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Centers for Accelerated Innovations (NCAI) program as the first biotech/pharmaceutical company corporate partner.

The NCAI program was launched in September 2013 to improve how basic science advances and discoveries are translated into commercially viable treatments for patients. The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) will provide $32.5 million in grants to establish three translational research Centers of Innovation in Boston, Cleveland and California, consisting of 14 top-tier research institutions. The program seeks to accelerate the commercialization of university-based technologies, and public private partnerships are critical to the success of the NCAI program.

Johns Hopkins University launched its Fast Forward business accelerator two years ago as a way to support the growth of its own entrepreneurial community, but also to help stimulate the Baltimore economy. It recently opened a second accelerator space on the East Side of Baltimore by its medical campus. It’s designed to equip life science startups with the kind of wet lab space that tends to come at a premium and is often too costly for early stage companies with an uncertain future.

MedImmune, the global biologics research and development arm of AstraZeneca, and the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) today announced the signing of a five-year agreement to jointly support research that will help advance drug discovery and manufacturing. The effort will focus on tools and measurements that will be used in the development and production of biopharmaceuticals, which are drugs and treatments derived from biological, rather than chemical, sources.

Roche and Qualcomm have entered into a new collaboration to improve remote monitoring and management of chronic disease patients.

The new deal between the Swiss cancer drug firm and the communication technology specialist will see Roche use Qualcomm Life’s 2net Platform to capture data from a patient’s medical devices, beginning with anticoagulation metres, and transmit it to Roche’s cloud-based services.

Pharma Major Lupin Limited (Lupin) and Celon Pharma S.A. (Celon) announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement under which the companies will jointly develop a fluticasone/salmeterol dry powder inhaler (DPI) product which is a generic version of GlaxoSmithKline’s Advair Diskus. Lupin will be responsible for commercialization of the product. Celon will supply the product to Lupin for its commercialization in the United States, Canada, Mexico, and other key markets. GlaxoSmithKline’s Advair Diskus® had global sales of over USD 7 billion as of last fiscal.

Crystal City-based Disruption Corp. is partnering with Maryland-based Greenspring Associates, a $3 billion fund of funds that backs some venture capital firms that actively invest in the region, including New Enterprise Associates, Revolution Growth and True Ventures.

Ashton Newhall, co-founder of Greenspring Associates, told me he believes Disruption and Greenspring are “philosophically aligned” on the possibilities of using data analytics to make sounder investments in startups and the private market broadly.

Enterprise Therapeutics Ltd, a drug discovery company focused on new therapeutics for respiratory diseases, today announced that it has secured £1.6m ($2.4m) in initial Series-A financing from Epidarex Capital. The proceeds will fund, in parallel, low molecular weight drug discovery and new target identification programs. The company will be based at the University of Sussex.

Deloitte has launched the 2015 Top Technology Talent Competition for a fifth year seeking innovative ideas from college students on how technology can solve a business problem.

The winner of the 2015 Top Technology Talent Competition will win a trip to one of the Deloitte digital studios in the US, in addition to a six-week summer internship in Deloitte Ireland which will enable them to further develop their idea if they so choose.

Many cancer patients and their families are happy to never look back once they’re safely on the other side of treatment, in remission or cured. But for David Austin and his wife, Emily, whose 6-year-old son now has a clean bill of health, winning the cancer battle was just the first step on another journey to help other cancer patients, particularly those whose treatment involves central lines — catheters placed directly into a vein in the chest to administer chemotherapy or take blood for frequent tests.

It was easy to get my head around the biotech buzz and the digital health marketing blitz that happened last month at the JP Morgan Healthcare Conference.

But here’s the question I heard most often (and gave me the most food for thought): “Can I meet more angels?”

The venture boom that funneled billions of dollars into life sciences companies last year included a big surge in first-time deals, according to a fresh analysis of the numbers for 2014. And the boom in venture investing looks set to continue well into 2015, according to the analysts at PricewaterhouseCoopers and the National Venture Capital Association, working with data provided by Thomson Reuters to put out the MoneyTree report.

At The MidAmerica Healthcare Venture Forum hosted at Chicago’s Fairmont Hotel on March 10 and 11, Healthbox’s Maria Siambekos will host a session about the growing role of healthcare accelerators. Do investors invest in them?

Wednesday, February 25, 2015, 10:00am – 04:00pm

The SBIR/STTR programs promote small business innovation in companies just like yours. The government has research and development needs. Every year, small businesses receive millions of dollars in SBIR/STTR funds for research, development, and commercialization purposes. Spend February 25 hearing from SBIR/STTR program experts.

An overview of the program will provide a comprehensive understanding of SBIR/STTR.

Discover the government’s on-going interest in innovation.

Listen to agency experts speak to agency-specific needs and program nuances.

Join us as this amazing gathering of speakers share stories of great successes, near-misses, and the review process. Our speakers embrace questions and will provide answers and direct attendees to information and resources. A box lunch will be provided. Please alert us to any dietary needs in the comments section upon registration.

GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) has taken control of Swiss company GlycoVaxyn in a $190m deal that bolsters its early vaccines pipeline.

GSK already owned a stake in GlycoVaxyn and had been working with the company since 2012 on the development of conjugate vaccines for bacterial infections.

Sucampo Pharmaceuticals, a global biopharmaceutical company, announced that Sucampo and R-Tech Ueno, Ltd. (RTU), have entered into a stipulation and licence agreement with Par Pharmaceutical, Inc. (Par). The agreement states that in limited circumstances, Sucampo or RTU would grant Par a licence for a generic version of the RESCULA (unoprostone isopropyl ophthalmic solution) 0.15 per cent product approved for the lowering of intraocular pressure in patients with open-angle glaucoma or ocular hypertension prior to the latest expiration date of the patents, which is July 2021. Par had previously submitted an Abbreviated New Drug Application to the US Food and Drug Administration requesting approval to market, sell, and use a generic version of RESCULA.

Swiss cancer drugs giant Roche (ROG: SIX) has acquired Signature Diagnostics, a privately-held company based in Potsdam, Germany. Financial terms of the transaction, which is the fifth deal in the past year aimed at building Roche’s molecular diagnostics business, were not disclosed.

Thursday, February 19, 2015, 06:00pm – 09:00pm

The Lifetime Achievement award is given to individuals who have gone above and beyond over the course of their career to serve our community. This year, we have expanded our award categories and are proud to recognize three outstanding individuals in the fields of technology, life science, and education.

Our past recipients include Clifford M. Kendall, Chairman and CEO (Retired) of Computer Data Systems, Inc., Dr. Freeman A. Hrabowski III, President of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC), Dr. James Barrett of New Enterprise Associates, and Ted Leonsis, Founder, Majority Owner, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Monumental Sports & Entertainment.

Johns Hopkins University President Ronald Daniels has seen plenty of innovation at the world-renowned research institution he leads. In opening a second incubator in East Baltimore, university officials believe they can get another benefit from the innovation.

“It’s happened before at Hopkins and it’ll happen again,” Daniels said of inventions that come out of the university. “But this time, we’re going to make some money on it.”

This is a Request for Proposal to lease the Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) facility located at the Institute for Bioscience and Biotechnology Research (IBBR), on the University System of Maryland’s Shady Grove campus at 9600 Gudelsky Drive, Rockville, MD 20850.

IBBR is a University System of Maryland joint research enterprise between the University of Maryland College Park, The University of Maryland Baltimore and the National Institute of Standards and Technology. IBBR’s Vision and Mission are as follows:

Maryland could establish a $5 million fund to put toward tax credits for individuals and firms who invest in startup companies.

Startup and investor advocates, including the Greater Baltimore Committee, have said they will push for the state to create a new tax credit specifically for angel investors who give money to companies at their earliest stages, when they often struggle to bring in needed cash. A bill introduced by Baltimore City Democrat Sen. Catherine Pugh earlier this month details how the tax credit would work and who could qualify as an investor and startup recipient.

It takes just one idea to change the world

The EY Entrepreneur Of The Year™ Award has become the mark of world-class individuals leading world-class companies. We invite you to be part of this exciting program. About the Entrepreneur Of The Year Program

EY Entrepreneur Of The Year honors entrepreneurs whose ingenuity, hard work and perseverance have created and sustained successful, growing business ventures. The program is celebrating its 29th year and has expanded to more than 140 cities and 50 countries around the world. EY forms a group of individuals from the business community to participate as the independent panel of judges for the program. This panel is made up of past award winners and C-suite leadership of high-growth entrepreneurial organizations. It also includes influential business leaders from the venture capital and private equity communities.

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:

• Registration Open for the 2015 NIH Regional Seminar on Program Funding and Grants Administration Baltimore, MD
• (NOT-OD-15-063) National Institutes of Health
• Request for Information: Sustaining the Biomedical Workforce and a Potential Emeritus Award for Senior Researchers
• (NOT-OD-15-064) National Institutes of Health
• NIH Interim General Grant Conditions Implementing New HHS Grants Regulations (Uniform Guidance)
• (NOT-OD-15-065) National Institutes of Health
• Notice of Pre-Application Webinar for PA-14-015 Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (NRSA) (Parent T32) Related to the Creation of New NHGRI Postdoctoral Training Programs in Genomic Medicine Res
• (NOT-HG-15-014) National Human Genome Research Institute

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.

In today’s world, the average adult between the ages of 65 and 69 takes almost 14 prescriptions per year, and those aged 80-84 take 18 prescriptions. With the safety information for each medication constantly changing, it can be difficult for consumers to be informed about their medications.

Four University System of Maryland schools rank among the top 100 public universities in the country, according to a new statistical analysis by The Business Journals.

University of Maryland, College Park, scored highest among Maryland’s public universities, coming in at No. 8 out of 484 schools nationwide. St. Mary’s College of Maryland; University of Maryland, Baltimore County; and Towson University also ranked in the top 100. Salisbury University ranked 107th.

While regulation of diagnostic tests by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) may not directly impact the biobanking industry, it does have an impact on the development of new therapies, particularly personalized medicine, and all of us have a stake in the future of personalized medicine.

National Institutes of Health director Francis Collins kicked off a two-day meeting in Bethesda, MD, this morning to discuss how to turn President Obama’s call for a national health research database into reality. The database, which NIH officials are calling the National Research Cohort, is one of two main thrusts of the administration’s precision medicine initiative.

Fourteen years ago, during the darkest moments of the “stem-cell wars” pitting American scientists against the White House of George W. Bush, one group of advocates could be counted on to urge research using cells from human embryos: parents of children with type 1 diabetes. Motivated by scientists who told them these cells would lead to amazing cures, they spent millions on TV ads, lobbying, and countless phone calls to Congress.

How are venture capital dollars are actually disseminated? Into early stage companies? Late? What fields get the most investment – cancer?

Bruce Booth of Atlas Ventures blogged about this today on his Life Sci VC site about this topic, highlighted in a new whitepaper from BIO. Here are the highlights:

District regulators approved the city’s first equity crowdfunding campaign last week. It was also the only application they’ve received to date.

The Department of Insurance, Securities and Banking approved equity crowdfunding rules last October as a way for the city’s entrepreneurs to raise small sums of money from city residents in exchange for a piece of their business.

Google is altering the way it displays search results. Over the next few days, Google Search will begin to dish out health bits of facts with search news. This is Google’s new attempt at health news, in fact, this could be a way to reimagine the now defunct Google Health.

This is not a first for Google. Its feet are firmly planted in the health space, having previously launched feature where people can connect to a doctor via video and its .

Crowdfunding is a hot idea in small biopharma, but a lot of people don’t quite know what to make of it. I’ve written about some academic examples of it, and I think that’s a good use of the idea. People can donate in the expectation that they’re helping along a research project, not because they’re looking for a big return on their money.

The NFL, GE, and Under Armour officials announced that they have joined with the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to launch Head Health Challenge III, an open innovation competition to advance materials that better absorb or dissipate energy. These new materials could improve the performance of protective equipment for athletes, military personnel and those in dangerous occupations.

April 27-29, 2015 – Boston, MA

Partners HealthCare is proud to announce the 2015 World Medical Innovation Forum, an annual gathering in Boston of more than 1,000 top innovation decision makers. The inaugural event will focus on neurosciences and be held on April 27-29, 2015. The goals of this three-day event are to identify today’s leading neuroscience innovations, address unmet needs, and discuss the critical issues affecting technology development and implementation in this new, evolving era of value-based care.

The recent February issue of Health Affairs, which features a series of articles on innovation, provides us with an opportunity to examine the state of America’s innovation ecosystem for medical technology. This ecosystem has produced a myriad of medical advances, ranging from advanced imaging to molecular diagnostics, minimally invasive surgical tools, and incredibly sophisticated implants. These technologies have shortened hospital stays, reduced the economic burden of disease, and saved and improved millions of lives.

Rockville-based Emergent BioSolutions will expand its Baltimore manufacturing facility and add 158 new jobs over the next four years. Emergent will potentially double its 58,000-square-foot space on Lombard Street to include additional manufacturing, labs and warehouse space.

Maryland is giving biotech firm Emergent BioSolutions a $2 million loan to double its footprint and staff in East Baltimore.

Emergent BioSolutions, which develops vaccines and other pharmaceuticals, will double its 58,000-square-foot manufacturing facility on Lombard Street to include more space for manufacturing, quality control cabs and warehouse space. Emergent expects to break ground on the expansion in the second quarter of 2015.

There have always been a lot of good reasons to locate a business in Montgomery County.

Now there are 8 more.

Montgomery County Executive Isiah Leggett is pleased to announce the expansion of the county’s innovative MOVE program. Effective February 1, 2015, companies that sign their first three-year commercial lease in the county will receive a grant of $8 per square foot (sf). Geared towards startups and businesses that locate into Montgomery County for the first time, the grant applies to companies that lease up to 10,000 sf.

Under Armour is doubling down on a big bet it made on fitness apps a year and a half ago.

On Wednesday, the company best known as an athletic apparel brand announced it was spending $475 million to buy MyFitnessPal and $85 million on Endomondo, two apps that rivaled the offerings of Under Armour’s Connected Fitness unit.

GlaxoSmithKline (GSK.L) set out a roadmap for a potential 2016 flotation of its HIV medicines business on Wednesday as it hired three leading banks to advise on what would be the drug industry’s largest ever initial public share sale.

Chief Executive Andrew Witty said his company would take the next two to three months to analyze the pros and cons of an initial public offering (IPO), as well as deciding how much of ViiV to sell and where to list the shares.

MedImmune, the global biologics research and development arm of AstraZeneca, and The University of Manchester have entered into a new research collaboration to generate cutting-edge protein formulation science.

As part of the collaboration, MedImmune will work with researchers at Manchester’s Centre of Excellence in Biopharmaceuticals (COEBP) on testing and understanding the fundamental principles of protein solution behavior in order to find better ways to administer breakthrough medicines to patients.

Inova Health System has leased Exxon Mobil’s Merrifield campus and plans to develop a multimillion-dollar Inova Center for Personalized Health, a major step toward becoming one of the world’s foremost institutions in the fledgling field.

The Fairfax health system wrapped up negotiations Friday morning to lease the 117-acre campus across from its flagship hospital for the next 99 years with the right of first refusal to acquire the property. The deal comes roughly two years after Exxon Mobil retained real estate brokerage Cassidy Turley, now DTZ, to position the four-building, 1.2 million-square-foot property for a potential sale or redevelopment.

The NFL, GE, and Under Armour officials announced that they have joined with the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to launch Head Health Challenge III, an open innovation competition to advance materials that better absorb or dissipate energy. These new materials could improve the performance of protective equipment for athletes, military personnel and those in dangerous occupations.

Johns Hopkins University led the U.S. in higher education research spending for the 35th consecutive year in fiscal 2013, with $2.2 billion for medical, science, and engineering research, according to the National Science Foundation.

The university also once again ranked first on the NSF’s separate list of federally funded research and development, spending $1.89 billion in fiscal year 2013 on research supported by NSF, NASA, the National Institutes of Health, and the Department of Defense.

Yanev Suissa, formerly a venture capitalist with New Enterprise Associates and a senior investment officer in the Bush and Obama administrations, is launching a new venture firm with a focus on companies doing business with the public sector.

The company’s debut fund has raised around $100 million and will focus primarily on Series A and B investments with the occasional Series C, which will likely include local companies. The firm, to be named SineWave Ventures, will officially launch in the region in the second half of the year.

UMD start-up SD Nanosciences has developed technology for creating targeted drug and vaccine delivery vehicles

When University of Maryland Professors Philip DeShong and Daniel Stein began tagging soap bubbles with biomolecules, they had no idea this technology would one day be poised to change the way drugs and vaccines fight against bacteria, viruses and cancer.

Notice is hereby given that the Office of Intramural Research (OIR), National Institutes of Health (NIH), will host two webinars to enable public discussion of its proposal to reorganize the OIR Office of Technology Transfer (OTT). The proposal seeks to align authority and responsibility for the implementation and execution of patenting and licensing (P&L) functions within the NIH Institutes and Centers.

A new 30,000-square-foot business incubator planned for Johns Hopkins University’s East Baltimore campus will more than double the university’s capacity for startup companies and is a major step toward its goal of being a bigger player in technology commercialization.

The new incubator, called FastForward East, will be housed at 1812 Ashland Ave., a 170,000-square-foot building by Forest City Enterprises, Inc. The building will be the next to go up in Hopkins’ Science + Technology Park, which is part of the 88 acre East Baltimore Development, Inc. project, for which Forest City is the master developer. Construction is expected to be complete in 2016.

The six startups that make up the new class of DreamIt Health Baltimore got to work Friday, Jan. 30. Along with offering the first chance for founders to get to know each other through icebreaker games, the orientation marked the first work session at a new coworking space in Power Plant Live.

States with robust innovation economies have assets in common: a corps of research-intensive universities, a highly educated workforce and a government supportive of their science and technology industries. Maryland has all of these things. What the state needs to strengthen is its entrepreneurial culture, so that it becomes a top destination for scientists serious about ushering their ideas out of the lab and into the marketplac

Tuesday, Feb 10, 2015 From 4:00-6:00 PM

Please join us for a Business Roundtable Discussion moderated by Bernanrd T. Ferrari, MD, JD, Prfoessor and Dean – Carey School of Business, at our new FastForward East Innovation Hub!

Wednesday, February 11, 2015, 08:00am – 02:00pm

Join the U.S. Commercial Service in Baltimore, along with the Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development and the Montgomery County Department of Economic Development for a forum on International Development. Come hear best practices and tricks of the trade from local U.S. firms that have managed, led, and participated in international development projects.

DATE: February 11, 2015 3:30 – 5:00 PM

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

We’re kicking off 2015 with a new (permanent) location and a wide variety of new programs for innovators and entrepreneurs in Montgomery County. Have you heard of the Thingstitute? Do you know about the Venture Mentoring Program? Guess what – there’s also a new life sciences accelerator! All of this (and much more!) including Montgomery County’s new emphasis on identifying funding sources for your business. You won’t want to miss this program.

Thursday, February 19, 2015, 06:00pm – 09:00pm

The Lifetime Achievement award is given to individuals who have gone above and beyond over the course of their career to serve our community. This year, we have expanded our award categories and are proud to recognize three outstanding individuals in the fields of technology, life science, and education.

Our past recipients include Clifford M. Kendall, Chairman and CEO (Retired) of Computer Data Systems, Inc., Dr. Freeman A. Hrabowski III, President of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC), Dr. James Barrett of New Enterprise Associates, and Ted Leonsis, Founder, Majority Owner, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Monumental Sports & Entertainment.

A surgeon can perform a complex, minimally invasive medical procedure with state-of-the-art robotic technology. But when she needs to communicate with her colleagues, the doctor is stuck with antiquated phone systems and outdated email clients.

When it comes to technology – not life-saving medical equipment, but the tools used in everyday communication – doctors are sometimes years behind the times. Despite rapid advances in technology (think smartphones, videoconferencing and more), physicians are largely reliant on slow, clunky and inconvenient tech.

In tracking life science investors worldwide, LSN’s research team has noticed that there are a growing number of Asia-based investors seeking global opportunities as well as investments in the U.S. and Asia.

After growing up on Cleveland’s east side, Bill Fuller headed for North Carolina in 1990. He returned briefly in the 2000s, but he didn’t think he’d ever come back. But when BioEnterprise asked him in 2013 to become its newest CEO-in-Residence, he couldn’t resist the opportunity.

In Palo Alto in the heart of Silicon Valley, hedge fund manager Joon Yun is doing a back-of-the-envelope calculation. According to US social security data, he says, the probability of a 25-year-old dying before their 26th birthday is 0.1%. If we could keep that risk constant throughout life instead of it rising due to age-related disease, the average person would – statistically speaking – live 1,000 years. Yun finds the prospect tantalising and even believable. Late last year he launched a $1m prize challenging scientists to “hack the code of life” and push human lifespan past its apparent maximum of about 120 years (the longest known/confirmed lifespan was 122 years).

The 3rd annual Ag Biotech Entrepreneurial Showcase is on May 19, 2015 in Research Triangle Park, NC. Ten to twelve entrepreneurs from across the greater eastern U.S. will be selected, and cash prizes for the best presentations will be awarded.

The deadline to submit an Application to present is February 12.

BioHealth Innovation, Inc. (BHI), a Montgomery County innovation intermediary is seeking an energetic and motivated life science professional for the role of an Entrepreneur-in-Residence (EIR) focused in the Medical Device space.

The EIR program was setup at BioHealth Innovation to:

• Retain and bring entrepreneurial talent to the Maryland Ecosystem
• Build sustainable life science startups that will add value within the healthcare system and also build upon the existing infrastructure
• Connect resources including Institutions, technology assets, people and money within Maryland as well as attract it to Maryland

The EIR will work with BHI leadership to ensure that the activities and outcomes are aligned with BHIs strategic focus.

Position Summary

GenVec is seeking a highly motivated professional who is able to make strong contributions in supporting all business and corporate development activities. The successful candidate will work directly with the Chief Executive Officer and will interact extensively with the scientific, legal, and financial personnel of the company to review and evaluate the scientific and commercial aspects of potential transactions. The Business Development Analyst will be responsible for supporting a portfolio of business development projects which address in-licensing, out-licensing, and acquisition opportunities for GenVec.

Qiagen NV (NASDAQ: QGEN ) solutions are used every day by healthcare providers to analyze patient DNA and RNA in order to guide treatment and by researchers pursuing next generation medicine. The opportunity for Qiagen to help the industry deliver the right drug to the right patient at the right dose at the right time is big, but a significant drop-off in revenue from a legacy product meant that potential didn’t translate into significant sales growth last year.

Germantown-based Intrexon Corp. a synthetic biology company, plans to raise up to $150 million though a secondary offering of common stock, the company said late Tuesday.

MedImmune, the global biologics research and development arm of AstraZeneca, is probably best known for its work in discovering and developing therapeutics based on antibodies -protein molecules produced by the body as a primary immune response. However, for a number of reasons, including the large size of the molecule, antibodies may not always offer the most appropriate solution for treating some diseases. In those cases there may be alternative, innovative approaches which can be explored in parallel with our usual work with antibodies.

Johns Hopkins University will give $15 million to promising researchers over the next three years.

Two new grants, totaling $15 million over three years, are intended for early-career researchers, who are increasingly being passed up for federal research grants. The grants will also support researchers who collaborate with others outside their school. Hopkins President Ronald J. Daniels is concerned about a potential dearth in new researchers entering the field, and in early January told the Baltimore Business Journal he planned to earmark more university funds to support their work.

DreamIt Health Baltimore announced its second cohort on Monday.

The startups that make up the accelerator’s class of 2015 include a telehealth platfrom, an app to improve patient handoffs and a photo-sharing service for healthcare professionals. Five of the six companies are from outside Baltimore, with one hailing from Spain. Officials also noted that two of the companies are female-founded.

Improving patient handoffs, autotransfusion, Epic alumni and a couple of women-led startups figure into DreamIt Health Baltimore‘s second class of early stage healthcare companies. They will also be the first to occupy its permanent office at a new shared working space.

In a phone interview with DreamIt Ventures Managing Director Jason Hardebeck, he noted that the accelerator has added new partners — University of Maryland in Baltimore, including its medical school, and The Abell Foundation.

Biotechnology companies in the Washington region attracted less money from investors in 2014 than any other year since 1999, recent data show, even as the sector saw a significant increase in venture capital dollars in other parts of the country.

Local industry observers aren’t sounding alarms just yet. They say one down year, no matter how down it may be, doesn’t necessarily mean the region has fallen out of favor with life sciences investors.

Tuesday, February 03, 2015, 08:00am – 10:30am

Who Has Capital and Who is the Right Fit for You?

Join the Tech Council of Maryland for a unique and informative discussion on life science investment strategy. On Wednesday, December 10, 2015 in Gaithersburg, Maryland, TCM will convene an investment super panel comprised of experts and representatives from across the investment spectrum.

Whether you are looking for the next round of financing, going into clinical trials, gearing up for the JP Morgan Annual Healthcare Conference, of just looking to sharpen your fundraising skills, this program is designed to teach you how to get the inside edge. The discussion, led by Dennis Ford, CEO of Life Science Nation is designed to offer attendees an exclusive view into the minds and operations of successful life science investors and to provide new and valuable tools to help you operationalize your knowledge for success.

Tuesday, Feb 10, 2015 From 4:00-6:00 PM

Please join us for a Business Roundtable Discussion moderated by Bernanrd T. Ferrari, MD, JD, Prfoessor and Dean – Carey School of Business, at our new FastForward East Innovation Hub!

DATE: February 11, 2015 3:30 – 5:00 PM

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

We’re kicking off 2015 with a new (permanent) location and a wide variety of new programs for innovators and entrepreneurs in Montgomery County. Have you heard of the Thingstitute? Do you know about the Venture Mentoring Program? Guess what – there’s also a new life sciences accelerator! All of this (and much more!) including Montgomery County’s new emphasis on identifying funding sources for your business. You won’t want to miss this program.

Benjamin H. Wu has been named the new Deputy Secretary of the Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development, Governor Larry Hogan and DBED Secretary Mike Gill announced today.

A former DBED employee, Wu is among the first Cabinet deputies to be named to the Hogan administration. He will act as Chief Operating Officer, responsible for overseeing the Department’s charge of attracting companies to the State, as well as working with in-state companies to help them expand and add jobs, while connecting them to partners and resources.

February 10th at 2pm ET

Every Phase II NIH SBIR/STTR application requires a commercialization plan, which essentially describes how the company plans bring its innovative technology to market. In this Hangout, we will discuss the key elements of a successful commercialization plan.

A U.S. House of Representatives panel today released a widely anticipated proposal for speeding the development of new medical treatments. The massive, 393-page document, dubbed the 21st Century Cures Act, has been under development by Fred Upton (R–MI) and Diana DeGette (D–CO) of the House Energy and Commerce Committee since last April. It grew out of a series of hearings and roundtables last year on ways to spur biomedical research innovation and streamline clinical trials and the drug approval process. The result is a long list of ideas summarized in this document.

President Obama’s settled the score on this one: It’s precision medicine. Not personalized medicine.

The life sciences community has been throwing around both terms, but there’s actually a keen distinction between the two.

Roche has become the latest pharmaceutical company to join the connected health party at Qualcomm Life — in this case to do remote patient monitoring. The goal of the strategic collaboration is to generate big data insights on patients’ condition to reduce complications from chronic conditions, according to a company statement.

LSN researchers recently decided to take a deep dive into interviews we have held with venture philanthropy groups from around the world to see what the future likely has in store. After analyzing data gathered over the past three years from more than 150 investors, we uncovered a few notable trends.

Every startup wants to change the world, but DC-based incubator and seed fund 1776 fosters the type of early stage companies that just might have a chance.

The incubator is focused specifically on startups for the public good and you won’t find any benign photo sharing apps in 1776’s portfolio.

The Federal Laboratory Consortium for Technology Transfer is proud to announce the winners of its 2015 Awards. Now in its 32nd year, the awards have recognized the outstanding efforts of scientists, technology transfer professionals, and their partners in academia and industry. Many technological breakthroughs that have become an essential part of our everyday lives have been winners of the FLC awards.

This year, nearly 100 nominations were submitted from eight federal agencies, which made the decision to select 23 winners a difficult one. But those selected represent technology transfer at its highest level.

Twenty-five U.S. institutions have been selected by the NSF-funded National Center for Engineering Pathways to Innovation (Epicenter) to join the Pathways to Innovation Program.

The Pathways to Innovation Program is designed to help institutions fully incorporate innovation and entrepreneurship into undergraduate engineering education. The program is run by Epicenter, which is funded by the National Science Foundation and directed by Stanford University and VentureWell (formerly NCIIA).

In what it’s calling a ‘historic’ announcement, the Department of Health and Human Services has set new goals to speed the U.S. healthcare system toward value-based care.

HHS Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell announced Monday that the agency wants to tie 30 percent of fee-for-service Medicare payments to quality or value through alternative payment models, such as accountable care organizations or bundled payments, by the end of 2016. It also aims to have 50 percent of payments affiliated with these models by the end of 2018.

In early January Brenton “Brent” Saunders, the chief executive of upstart pharmaceutical giant Actavis , reclined in a medical chair on a stage in an Orlando hotel ballroom as a plastic surgeon pierced his face 30 times, delivering needles full of Botox to the crooks of his eyes and nose and injecting Juvederm Voluma, a dermal filler, into his cheeks. A cameraman documented every prick and projected it on a huge screen behind him. These are bestselling products for Allergan AGN -0.51%, which Actavis is buying for $67 billion, the biggest health care deal in six years. The audience, 1,000 Allergan sales reps, went wild.

Montgomery County launches into the future as it establishes the Thingstitute, an innovative living laboratory for Internet of Things (IoT) technology. By providing an unparalleled test bed for start-ups, established companies, and research institutions, the lab will feature co-working space and equipment for fabricating and testing devices.

Located in Rockville’s historic Red Brick Courthouse, the Thingstitute will host an opening reception on Tuesday, January 27, 2015 from 5:30-7:00 pm.

MedImmune has formed a partnership with the National Cancer Institute to develop cancer therapies that use the immune system or attack tumor cells to fight the disease.

BioIT Solutions, a provider of enterprise systems built on the 1Platform4™ product suite, today announced that CIO Review has chosen BioIT Solutions as one of its 20 Most Promising Biotechnology Solution providers.

BioIT Solutions was selected for its expertise in providing data management solutions for biotech research, drug development, and diagnostics. The annual list of companies is selected by a panel of experts and members of CIO Review’s editorial board to recognize and promote technology entrepreneurship.

Germantown-based Intrexon Corp. a synthetic biology company, plans to raise up to $150 million though a secondary offering of common stock, the company said late Tuesday.

Intrexon (NYSE: XON) was trading at around $29 a share Wednesday.

CEOCFO: Mr. Fannon, what is the basic concept at BioIT Solutions?

Mr. Fannon: BioIT Solutions was formed to address needs for advanced computational, workflow and data management systems for biological research, drug development and diagnostics. Biology has become an information science. As scientists decoded the genome and discovered genes that encode proteins, results were stored in databases that form the basis for new approaches to biological discovery. There is a lot of emphasis on digital biology these days — work that used to require painstaking lab experiments can now be done, very efficiently, using databases and computational tools. The significant and rapid convergence of biology and information science is creating excellent opportunities for effective solutions for research, diagnostics, and personalized medicine.

Following AstraZeneca’s December announcement that it is taking steps to reintroduce the EGFR-targeted non-small cell lung cancer drug Iressa (gefitinib) in the US, Qiagen said last week that it would develop a tissue-based molecular diagnostic test to accompany the drug’s launch.

PharmAthene Inc. now knows how much money it stands to get in its long-running lawsuit with Siga Technologies Inc.: A judge Thursday said Siga must pay PharmAthene $195 million and $30,663 per day in interest if Siga loses its appeal to the Delaware Supreme Court.

The case dates to 2006, when Annapolis-based PharmAthene sued New York-based Siga after the companies’ planned merger fell apart. PharmAthene claimed it was entitled to some of the profits from Tecovirimat, Siga’s smallpox antiviral.

Nick Culbertson was a Green Beret. Robert Lord worked at a hedge fund in Connecticut. Then after a career change, both found themselves in medical school at Johns Hopkins University. But while there, the pair met and discovered a much greater need.

Tuesday, Feb 10, 2015 From 4:00-6:00 PM

Please join us for a Business Roundtable Discussion moderated by Bernanrd T. Ferrari, MD, JD, Prfoessor and Dean – Carey School of Business, at our new FastForward East Innovation Hub!

Alexandria Real Estate Equities, the largest owner and developer of real estate for the life-sciences industry in the nation wants to raise up to $20 million to build digital health startups in San Francisco, SFGate reports. Last year, the real estate developer announced that it would start three new accelerators nationwide to focused on agriculture, biotech and digital health. The biotech space is already up and running in New York City and has attracted giant pharma companies such as Pfizer Inc. and Eli Lily & Co with $51 million in funding. The agriculture space is scheduled to open later this year in North Carolina.

Advocates for programs spending state dollars on stem cell research or investment in technology companies were nervous about what Gov. Larry Hogan’s budget would hold for them, given warnings of “strong medicine” to cure fiscal woes.

But after Hogan’s spending plan was unveiled Friday, they were relieved to find that the Republican’s business-friendly message spared several economic development programs that were popular under Democratic Gov. Martin O’Malley.

The first batch of GlaxoSmithKline’s experimental Ebola vaccine has been dispatched to West Africa and is expected to arrive in Liberia later on Friday, the British drugmaker said.

The World Health Organization said on Thursday the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, the worst in history, appears to be waning but cautioned against complacency. The epidemic has seen 21,724 cases reported in nine countries since it started in Guinea a year ago. Some 8,641 people have died.

U.S. venture capital investment hit $48.3 billion in 2014, its highest level since 2000, according to data from the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). Investments jumped 61 percent over the previous year in terms of dollars. Deals were up as well, but by a more modest 4 percent to 4,356 deals in 2014, indicating the growth of deal size and the presence of a number of “megadeals.” NVCA also noted that investments were dispersed throughout the country, with 160 U.S. metros receiving some venture capital.

BioCity, the incubation specialist with locations in the East Midlands, North West and Scotland has announced a new investment fund, created following a significant contribution by AstraZeneca.

The £5 million fund, to be managed by BioCity will make equity investments, typically between £50,000 and £250,000, in life science companies based at Alderley Park, Cheshire. BioCity Chairman, Dr Louis Nisbet explains: “We are very pleased that AstraZeneca has chosen BioCity to manage these funds, not only to support the growth of a new generation of life science businesses at Alderley Park but also to make sound investment decisions that aim to replenish and grow this evergreen fund over time.”

CDVCA is organizing its 20th anniversary Annual Conference in Washington, DC on March 18-20, 2015 in Washington, DC. CDVCA’s Annual Conference is the premier training and networking event for anyone interested in developmental venture capital, including social VC fund managers, emerging fund managers, investors, economic development professionals, foundations representatives, policy makers, government officials and aspiring students.

Venture capital investment soared in 2014, hitting a high that hasn’t been seen since 2000. As reported in The Wall Street Journal, $52.12 billion was invested in private companies last year by venture and private equity firms, as well as corporations, hedge funds and mutual funds, according to Dow Jones VentureSource.

The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) has 3 targeted funding opportunities with deadlines in February. It’s also not too early to start preparing for the April 5 Omnibus solicitation deadline. Check your registrations (SAM must be renewed annually!) and reach out to discuss your project. For questions about the NHLBI SBIR/STTR programs, contact Small Business Coordinator Jennifer Shieh, PhD at NHLBI_SBIR@mail.nih.gov Human Cellular Models for Predicting Individual Responses to CFTR-Directed Therapeutics— Due February 9 For the development and validation of novel in vitro human cell-based tools for predicting the responses of individual patients to cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR)-directed therapeutics for cystic fibrosis lung disease. SBIR: RFA-HL-15-027 STTR: RFA-HL-15-026 For questions about these funding opportunities, contact:Robert Smith, PhD, robert.smith4@nih.govProgram Director, Division of Lung Diseases Development of a Microfluidic Platform for Blood Testing in Neonatal & Pediatric Patients— Due February 10 (Phase II only) For the development of microfluidic devices to analyze blood for factors related to the thrombotic, transfusion, and/or hemostatic status of pediatric/neonatal patients. SBIR—Phase II only: RFA-HL-14-026This application must be based on an awarded SBIR or STTR-funded Phase I project. For questions about this funding opportunity, contact:Ronald Warren, PhD, rwarren@nhlbi.nih.gov Program Director, Division of Blood Diseases and Resources Stem Cell-Derived Blood Products for Therapeutic Use: Technology Improvement— Due February 20 For tools and technologies that enable further advances in the manufacturing process to produce safe and functional blood and platelet products at reduced costs. SBIR: RFA-HL-15-030 STTR: RFA-HL-15-029 Slides from the January 8 webinar are available—please send a request to NHLBI_SBIR@mail.nih.gov.

For questions about these funding opportunities, contact:Shimian Zou, PhD, shimian.zou@nih.gov Program Director, Division of Blood Diseases and Resources John Thomas, PhD, thomasj@nhlbi.nih.gov Program Director, Division of Blood Diseases and Resources

Startup Maryland (www.startupmd.org) today announced appointment of serial entrepreneur Shahab Kaviani as Entrepreneur-in-Residence (EiR).

A recognized leader of startup communities globally, Kaviani brings over a decade of first-hand entrepreneurial expertise and leadership experience most-recently as co-founder and CEO of Rockville, MD based CoFoundersLab (now Onevest). Previously, Kaviani served on the executive management team growing another Maryland company, HyperOffice, into a cloud-collaboration software leader.

The most significant announcement that Apple made in 2014 wasn’t a larger-sized iPhone. It was that Apple is entering the health-care industry. With HealthKit, it is building an iTunes-like platform for health; Apple Watch is its first medical device. Apple is, however, two steps behind Google, IBM, and hundreds of startups. They realized much earlier that medicine is becoming an information technology and that the trillion-dollar health-care market is ripe for disruption.

View the ’15 Biggest Innovations in Health Tech’ infographic from Innovation in Practice.

UNC-Chapel Hill has created a $5 million fund to help startups commercialize technology developed at the university.

The new Carolina Research Venture Fund, an initiative of the university’s board of trustees, aims to address the dearth of seed funding available to startups. A long-standing maxim in the startup world is that the first infusion of cash is the toughest to raise.

With the surge in digital health tech, entrepreneurs who dream of developing the next killer healthcare app have plenty of reason to be optimistic. 2014 was a record-breaking year with over $4.1B in venture funding for digital health companies, more than the previous three years combined, according to Mercom Capital Group. The future of healthcare technology includes wearables that monitor vitals, apps that facilitate outpatient care, CRM systems that allow physicians to forge better relationships with patients, and more.

Please join us in wishing her well as she embarks on retirement and new adventures.

When:

January 20, 2015 4:30 p.m. – 6:00 p.m. (Remarks at 5:15 p.m.) La Tasca – Baltimore – 201 East Pratt St. (Parking validated at 100 Pratt St.- $5) Cash bar; light horse d’euvres

and/or

January 28, 2015 4:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m. (Remarks at 4:15 p.m.; BioBuzz networking ’til 7:30 p.m.) Growlers – Gaithersburg – 227 West Diamond St. Cash bar; light horse d’euvres

Novartis India has agreed to transfer its over-the-counter division (OTC Division) to GlaxoSmithKline Consumer (GSK CPL), a consumer healthcare joint venture (JV) between Swiss pharmaceutical firm Novartis and GSK, for about INR1.097bn ($17.6m)

The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL), in Laurel, Maryland, has received $4 million in funding from the Mann Fund to develop a next-generation retinal prosthesis system. The Mann Fund was created by philanthropist Alfred E. Mann 15 years ago to support the development of biomedical technologies.

A Exciting Opportunity for Investor Meetings and Showcases

SUBMISSION DEADLINE: January 21, 2015

We invite you to submit your high-growth and innovative companies to individually meet with and showcase to an exclusive Global 1000 Transaction Network of Corporate Investors, Venture Capitalists, and Angel Investors at the Combined University Startups and Global 1000 Meet | Partner | Deal Conference in Washington, DC, on March 11 and 12, 2015.

Swiss drugmaker Roche said on Wednesday it had entered into an agreement with QIAGEN that includes a provision of non-exclusive licenses to recently granted Roche patents, pertaining to the detection of mutations in the EGFR pathway.

It didn’t take R. Michael Gill very long to come up with some priorities after Gov.-elect Larry Hogan named him the next Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development secretary last week.

Gill wants to keep McCormick & Co. Inc. (NYSE: MKC) in state. He wants to bring the FBI headquarters to Maryland. And he wants to emphasize customer service in dealing with businesses.

Lockheed Martin Corp. is normally known for big things – tanks, planes, ships, those kinds of projects.

But a new partnership the defense giant has formed with a San Diego company has Lockheed looking at something very, very small.

The ETC (Emerging Technology Centers) www.etcbaltimore.com, Baltimore City’s award-winning technology innovation centers, announced today that the following six companies have been accepted into the AccelerateBaltimore™ 2015 program:

Show me the money, I’m not seeing it here.

According to NVCA, U.S. VC firms raised $29.8B in 2014, making it the best fundraising year since 2007 (’13 was $17.7B). Overall this is good news, but there has not been local traction. Here is the data from NVCA on the D.C. located funds that raised capital in ’14:

U.S. Senator Barbara A. Mikulski (D-Md.) today met with Governor-Elect Larry Hogan at Harry Brown’s Restaurant in Annapolis. Senator Mikulski and Governor-Elect Hogan discussed working together to support jobs and opportunity for Maryland families.

Roche said today it will acquire Trophos for up to €470 million (about $543 million), in a deal that will expand the pharma giant’s portfolio in neuromuscular disease with high medical need, anchored by the Phase II/III-completed spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) compound olesoxime (TRO19622).

AOL founder Steve Case predicted last January that the region east of the Mississippi River would raise more venture capital than Silicon Valley in 2014.

And the winner is … Silicon Valley. By a friggin’ landslide.

All that venture capital money so famously “sitting on the sideline” finally made it into company coffers in 2014.

Mark McCaffrey, a partner at PriceWaterhouseCoopers, called 2014 an “exciting year” for venture capital investing, where two deals exceeded $1 billion and 40 “megadeals” exceeded $100 million.

Venture capital funding hit its highest annual mark since 2001 as venture investors participated in $47.3 billion across 3,617 deals. Even versus 2013, the past year was huge as venture capital skyrocketed 62% YoY due to multiple $500M+ mega-rounds while deal growth was more modest, climbing 8%. Of note, two quarters each – Q2’14 and Q4’14 – notched over $13B in funding.

All of us here at Startup Maryland are very excited to invite you to Collaborate, an innovation conference we’re participating in January 23rd & 24th in Washington DC.

“Startup Maryland is delighted to be in the Resource Expo showcasing our initiatives around Celebration, Connections, Coaching and Capital.,” stated Michael Binko, founder and president of Startup Maryland. “We’ll be highlighting the results of the third-annual Pitch Across Maryland, our upcoming Raise Your Game bootcamp for entrepreneurs and our plans to engage side-line angel investors across the region,” added Binko.

January 30th, 2015 8:00 AM-10:00 AM

Learn from Eitan Yudilevich, Ph.D. Director of U.S. – Israel Binational R & D Foundation (BIRD) about grants available to collaborate new high tech product development with Israeli companies. Grants up to $1 million are available to engage innovative companies from The Start Up Nation to kick start your company’s product development to a new level.While there is no fee, RSVPs are required.

New Jersey’s first private medical school in 50 years is planned for part of the 110-acre Hoffmann-La Roche property. Roche plans to vacate the land in 2015 after an 80-year history in Clifton and Nutley.

A trio of scientists have started working with researchers at GlaxoSmitKline on a potential cure for cancer. In fact, they believe they’ve found the diseases’ “Achilles heel.”

Last month, GlaxoSmithKline (NYSE: GSK) selected a Wistar/Penn project for its 2014 Discovery Fast Track Challenge program, which was created to accelerate the development of new medicines.

FierceBiotech on Wednesday delivered the first big verdict on the “mood” of the JP Morgan Healthcare Conference – based largely on its executive breakfast held this week in San Francisco. The verdict: Real confidence well above and beyond the typical happy face you’d get, regardless, at JP Morgan.

In the summer of 2013, Pamela Shavaun Scott started having “24/7 severe headaches” — so severe that she couldn’t sleep. It wasn’t before December that she heard for sure that it was a brain tumor.

Harvard University has long played an outsized role in spurring the growth of the Boston area’s life sciences industry, but the school’s contributions have largely unfolded behind the scenes.

Unlike the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge’s Kendall Square — the beating heart of biotech — Harvard has been known less for spinning off startups than for licensing cutting-edge research and grooming the industry’s business leaders.

The cash just keeps flowing in health IT, as does M&A activity.

According to Mercom Capital Group, venture capital in the health IT space reached $4.7 billion in 2014, up from $2.2 billion the year prior. Rock Health recently put the figure at $4 billion, although it’s count does not include deals under $2 million.

The United States shouldn’t worry just yet about losing the number one spot as far as disease-related research in the world goes – that’s pretty solid – but that doesn’t mean the country is steadily moving forward the way it could or should.

‘Tis the season for dieting and purchasing gym memberships you may or may not use.

There are plenty of tactics out there for how to drop excess weight fast, and generally speaking, most of them probably won’t be the quick fix resolutionaries are hoping for (yes, that’s a made up word).

In 2012, we authored a report titled The Evolving Business Case for Social Media in Healthcare – a publication covering the range of social media influences on the industry. These influences were essentially cloud-based approaches to sharing information between consumers, individual care professionals and healthcare organizations.

The Colonial Room of the St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco was filled beyond capacity Monday afternoon, and the offices of digital-health seed fund Rock Health were buzzing with hundreds of partygoers just a couple of hours later.

In a laboratory first, Duke researchers have grown human skeletal muscle that contracts and responds just like native tissue to external stimuli such as electrical pulses, biochemical signals and pharmaceuticals.