– BHI offers program that guides biohealth startups in securing federal funding –
ROCKVILLE AND BALTIMORE, MARYLAND, June 10, 2014 – BioHealth Innovation, Inc. (BHI) announced today that two local biohealth companies to which it has provided strategic assistance, N5 Sensors, Inc. and BioDatomics, have secured Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) awards. N5 Sensors, a BHI client, received two awards: one from the Enivronmental Protection Agency (EPA) and one from the National Science Foundation (NSF). BioDatomics, which participated in a federal funding assistance program offered by BHI, secured an SBIR grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH)1. The U.S. federal government’s SBIR program encourages domestic small businesses to engage in federal research and development that has the potential for commercialization. The SBIR program empowers these companies to develop their trade and provides a path to profitability.
“BHI is dedicated to supporting start-up biohealth companies in Central Maryland in their submission of competitive SBIR applications,” said Ethan Byler, Director, Innovation Programs, BioHealth Innovation, Inc. “We congratulate N5 Sensors and BioDatomics on receiving SBIR grants from the EPA, NSF and the NIH, respectively.”
Senseonics, a privately held medical device company focused on the development and commercialization of the first fully implantable, long-term continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) system, announced that it has raised an additional $20 million of private equity financing. Senseonics also announced that Mirasol Panlilio, formerly of Abbott Diabetes Care and LifeScan, has joined the company as Vice President of Global Sales and Marketing.
Current investors Anthem Capital, Delphi Ventures, Greenspring Associates, Healthcare Ventures, New Enterprise Associates and other strategic partners all participated in the financing round. Senseonics intends to use the proceeds to continue its product development initiatives including completing pivotal trials in Europe, obtaining CE mark, and initiating IDE trials in the United States. “We’re very happy of the continued support from our investors as we near the completion of the product development efforts for our first generation long-term CGM system, “ said Tim Goodnow, CEO and President. Senseonics has recently begun its European pivotal trials and expect to complete site initiation of all seven European sites before the end of summer.
Rockville-based CytImmune Sciences Inc. has raised $400,000 from the Maryland Venture Fund, Montgomery County and an unnamed venture investor to push Aurimune — a drug that pairs a decades-old tumor-fighting agent with gold nanoparticles — into phase 2 trials.
The Maryland Venture Fund led the round with $200,000, with another $100,000 coming from the Montgomery County Department of Economic Development and the unidentified investor.
Ventana Medical Systems, Inc. (Ventana), a member of the Roche Group and MedImmune, the global biologics research and development arm of AstraZeneca, today announced they are jointly developing a PD-L1 (SP263) immunohistochemistry assay to enroll patients in clinical trials for MedImmune’s MEDI4736 anti-PD-L1 therapy for non-small cell lung carcinoma. This includes the recently commenced MEDI4736 ATLANTIC trial that will enroll only patients who express PD-L1 as determined by the VENTANA assay.
MEDI4736 is an investigational, engineered, human monoclonal antibody directed against programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1). Signals from PD-L1 help tumors avoid detection by the immune system. It is believed that by targeting PD-L1, MEDI4736 may block this ligand from sending out signals to T-cells to ‘ignore’ tumor cells, thereby countering cancer’s immune-evading tactics.
GSK, formerly Glaxo SmithKline, and the Philadelphia Foundation have announced a $5 million grant package available to non-profits which will lead to healthier lives.
It’s called the GSK IMPACT Grant. IMPACT stands for Innovative, Measured, Partnered, Accountable, Community Centered and Transformative. Katie Loovis is GSK’s director of Community Relations.
LOCATION: Institute for Bioscience and Biotechnology Research, University of Maryland, in Rockville, MD
Emerging Strategies for the Production and Characterization of Biosimilars
The biomanufacturing industry faces an unprecedented challenge with the emergence of biosimilars. The pathway to approval for biosimilars is a fluid process and several key aspects are still not determined. The University of Maryland and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) will deliver a one-day symposium on the current trends of characterization and production of biosimilars. On Friday, June 13, 2014 at 8:30 am join the thought-leaders, policy-makers, and creators of biosimilars as we present current trends, ideas, and predictions.
Learn about the current and future initiatives of the International Collaboration for Clinical Genomics (ICCG)! As part of our commitment to data sharing and collaboration to improve patient care, ICCG is creating a universal, clinical-grade database of genomic variation (including structural and sequence variants), available to the public through resources such as NCBI’s ClinVar database, and much more. We encourage the attendance of clinical laboratory personnel (from both cytogenetics and molecular communities), clinicians, genetic counselors, and others that are interested in setting the standards for clinical-grade databases of genomic variation.
Karen Ambrose, Program Director, Business, Professional Licensure and Certification Programs Montgomery College, Workforce Development and Continuing Education
ABSTRACT:
Montgomery College has joined with the world renowned Kauffman Foundation in support of current and future business owners before, during, and after the start-up process. Our plethora of courses is designed to meet the entrepreneurial needs of the aspiring business person and those who dream of business ownership.
Free monthly program offered through the Gateway to Innovation: Montgomery County Welcome Center for Federal and Academic Tech Transfer. For more information and additional calendar items, please visit TechTransferConnection.com.
Engage with others in the tech transfer field by joining the Gateway to Innovation LinkedIn Group.
MdBio Foundation is looking for solutions to build a diverse and highly qualified STEM workforce. Read the latest from CEO Brian Gaines published in the Washington Business Journal.
Google turned heads last week when it disclosed that its workforce includes a troublingly low rate of women and minorities. We applaud Google for its leadership in sharing this data. The disclosure sparked national questions about the hiring practices at our most innovative companies.
Johns Hopkins biomedical engineering students have designed a lightweight, easy-to-conceal shirtlike garment to deliver lifesaving shocks to patients experiencing serious heart problems. The students say their design improves upon a wearable defibrillator system that is already in use and should help persuade patients at risk for sudden cardiac arrest to wear the system around the clock.
“In two studies, up to 20 percent of patients who received the defibrillator garment that’s already available did not keep it on all the time because of comfort and appearance issues, problems sleeping in it, and frequent ‘maintenance alarms,’ which occur when the device does not get a good signal from sensors on the patient’s skin,” says Sandya Subramanian, who led the undergraduate team that built the new prototype. “We set out to address these issues and design a device that heart patients would be more likely to wear for longer periods of time—because their lives may depend on it.”
Simeon Taylor, MD, PhD, a seasoned pharmaceutical executive who has served in senior positions with Eli Lilly and Bristol-Meyers Squibb, has joined the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) as industry liaison with its Center for Clinical Trials and Corporate Contracts (CCT).
In his new role for CCT, he will assist faculty in developing research strategies that will maximize corporate partnering and funding opportunities, and the possible creation of valuable intellectual property. CCT is part of the University’s Office of Research and Development, and the part-time consultancy is funded in keeping with the University’s 2011-2016 Strategic Plan
The U.S. National Institutes of Health has awarded $25 million to the J. Craig Venter Institute to back an initiative to study infectious diseases like malaria and influenza at the genetic level to help find better treatments and preventive measures.
The institute, with offices in Maryland and California, will use the 5-year grant from NIH to establish the Genome Center for Infectious Diseases to study the genetic secrets of a wide range of bacteria, viruses and parasites, officials said on Thursday.
The University of Maryland, Baltimore County and the Chesapeake Innovation Center are teaming up to teach cyber entrepreneurs how to pitch to investors.
The seven-week program — Perfect Pitch — is scheduled to begin in September and conclude at the end of October. The program will end just before the start of the CyberMaryland Conference on Oct. 29.
Early June is Health Datapalooza time, and this year’s event was again a whirlwind of energy, insights, and over 2,000 very motivated and passionate health data enthusiasts (health datapaloozers doesn’t sound right). The hallway conversations provided tons of of pragmatic, productive and engaging conversations, inspired by keynotes and presentations from Todd Park, Bryan Sivak, Jeremy Hunt, Atul Gawande, Steve Case, Jerry Levin, Vinod Khosla, Kathleen Seblius, Dwayne Spradlin, Francis Collins, Fred Trotter, and many more (if you haven’t heard of some of them, look them up, it’s worth your time).
The University Economic Development Association (UEDA) is currently seeking nominations for its annual Awards of Excellence program, which recognizes cutting edge university-based economic development initiatives from across the country. The Awards of Excellence Program recognizes higher education institutions and their partners who are transforming their campuses into engines of economic prosperity through creative initiatives in five categories:
Community Connected Campus: initiatives that promote the physical development of quality connected campuses and their surrounding communities;
Research and Analysis: initiatives that enhance the capacity of colleges and universities to provide new forms of research and tools for community, economic and workforce development practitioners;
Leadership and Collaboration: initiatives that support the development of collaborative economic development strategies and the leaders required to implement them;
Innovation and Entrepreneurship: initiatives designed to support startups, high-growth companies and clusters within a region; and
Talent Development: initiatives that promote the development of 21st-century skills.
ERIC KING, 30, of Northern Liberties, is founder and CEO of Grand Round Table, a startup on 3rd Street near Market that develops software to help doctors make complicated diagnoses. GRT, which launched in 2012, is getting the correct diagnoses about 70 percent of the time. The company, which was part of the first DreamIt Health accelerator in 2013, has three full-time employees and has raised $110,000 from the Wharton Venture Initiation Program and Ben Franklin Technology Partners.
PETER PRONOVOST: The biggest misperception is certainty. When you receive a diagnosis from a doctor, we don’t always know for 100% sure if it is correct. In reality, medicine is an inexact science. In 2012, Johns Hopkins researchers, including myself, found that in intensive-care units alone, diagnostic errors may account for as many deaths as breast cancer in the U.S.
This is part of a growing body of research highlighting the need to focus on diagnostic accuracy. We need to create health-care systems in which learning is incorporated into daily practice, so that physicians can receive feedback on the accuracy of their diagnoses. We can do this by standardizing care around best practices and standardizing data collection regarding clinicians’ diagnoses and the results they get: Health information technology makes this possible.
In the translational medicine space — where medical research is “translated” into health tools and solutions for patients — the majority of engaged physicians are either biomedical researchers interested in advancing our understanding of the basic science, or are practicing doctors who want to improve clinical practice while focusing on patient care.
The number of physicians who receive training in understanding this translational research space is few, and even fewer are those who are able to take this skill set into the market to develop new technologies based off this understanding.
At Medgadget we speak with quite a few physicians-turned-entrepreneurs, and one of the most enthusiastic and impressive we’ve known is Dr. Amy Baxter. We first met Dr. Baxter at the AARP conference in Atlanta last October where she was showing off a simple, yet effective tool she developed for pain relief called “Buzzy.” There’s been a lot of, well, buzz about the device ever since she pitched it on Shark Tank and turned down the investors. Informed by her experiences as a pediatric emergency physician, Dr. Baxter took time out of her schedule to answer a few questions we had about the device and why she thinks everyone who experiences pain should have one.
A biotech entrepreneur wants to arm physicians with an electronic companion diagnostic tool to help hospitals reduce hospital-acquired infections.
Last year, antibiotic-resistant infections caused more than two million illnesses and 23,000 deaths in the U.S. alone, according to the Centers for Disease Control. About 70 percent of those antibiotic-resistant infections were caused by hospital-acquired infections.
As the United States slowly emerges from the Great Recession, led by our cities and metropolitan areas, a remarkable shift is occurring in the spatial geography of innovation.
For the past 50 years, the landscape of innovation has been epitomized by regions like Silicon Valley — suburban corridors of spatially isolated corporate campuses, accessible only by car, with little emphasis on the quality of life or on integrating work, housing and recreation.
Disruptive change is now a fact of life for many industries. Healthcare is no exception. Although healthcare has been changing for decades—think about the introduction of diagnosis-related groups (DRGs) or the initial push toward managed care in the 1980s—the Affordable Care Act (ACA) promises to accelerate both the rate of change and the level of uncertainty confronting the industry. Payors face navigating a difficult transition: from an industry in which the customer is often a corporation or small company and the business is paying claims to one in which consumers make healthcare purchasing decisions, the direct provision of care may be necessary for success, and consumer and retail capabilities really matter. Furthermore, payors must make this transition amid regulatory and consumer uncertainty and in a fairly short time frame. This industry and business-model shift is on a scale that few companies and few sectors in the economy have been through.
Meet the humble “Magnetosperm,” a tiny, sperm-like robot with incredible potential in the medical world.
It’s approximately six times longer than a human sperm, and scientists at the American Institute of Physics say in a paper that Magnetosperm “technology could be used not only to help with fertilization, but also chemotherapy treatment.”
BioHealth Innovation (BHI) is a regionally-oriented, private-public partnership functioning as an innovation intermediary focused on commercializing market-relevant biohealth innovations and increasing access to early-stage funding in Maryland.
The information contained in this website and newsletters is for general information purposes only. The information is provided by BioHealth Innovation via its newsletters, but not written or endorsed in any way by BioHealth Innovation unless otherwise noted. While we endeavor to keep the information up to date and correct, we make no representations or warranties of any kind, express or implied, about the completeness, accuracy, reliability, suitability or availability with respect to the website or the information, products, services, or related graphics contained on the website for any purpose. Any reliance you place on such information is therefore strictly at your own risk.
GlaxoSmithKline ($GSK) has already made some moves to sell off some of its older meds. But now, it’s making more that could end up much, much bigger.
As Sky News reports, the pharma giant has solicited bids from a handful of private equity firms–Advent International, Blackstone and KKR included–for some or all of the 50 or so drugs in its established products portfolio, worth up to £7.5 billion ($12.6 billion). A spokesman for GSK told Sky the company is currently evaluating its options.
Qiagen announced a collaboration with Eli Lilly and Co. to co-develop universal and modular assay panels for the simultaneous analysis of DNA and RNA biomarkers targeting multiple cellular pathways involved in common cancer types. The agreement includes the development of tests that will be based on Qiagen’s multi-modal, multi-analyte Modaplex analysis platform, which can process multiple sample types and biomarkers in a single test.
Before coming into the program I would highly stress putting together a comprehensive product roadmap for the duration of the program as well as 2 months after. Start by splitting the upcoming 3 months into individual weeks & writing out goals both for the tech side (development, design, ux etc.) of the company as well as the business side (sales, fund raising, partnerships etc.). If possible have them written on a huge calendar for everyone in the company to see & be aware of.
Then go more granular and translate those weekly goals into individual tasks using any project management software, here I’d recommend Trello since its very intuitive, has great array of browser plugins to support different styles of task management & it’s totally free.
June 10, 2014 08:00 AM – 10:00 AM Bethesda North Marriott Hotel & Conference Center
Maryland is home to the most innovative and fast growing life science companies in the world. Two of these companies have recently made a huge splash – Amplimmune and GlycoMimetics. Hear from the CEOs of each company about why being homegrown and staying in Maryland is a key ingredient to success and what their achievements through IPO and acquisition can mean for your company and our life science community as a whole.
Discussion topics include:
The challenges faced – the stories behind the stories
Epidarex Capital, a leading international venture capital firm, has raised over £47.5 million to lead investments in early-stage life science and health technology companies, including spin-outs from leading research universities. Global pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly and Company participated in the final closing with a significant capital commitment. King’s College London also invested in the final closing.
The fund’s early-stage focus is supported by a diverse range of investors, including four top research universities as well as the European Investment Fund, Scottish Enterprise and Strathclyde Pension Fund. Epidarex’s close working relationship with the Universities of Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen, three of Scotland’s top research universities, as well as with King’s College London, provides access to some of the most innovative healthcare start-ups, including those specialising in novel drug development.
Imperial Innovations Group plc (AIM:IVO, ‘Innovations’), the leading technology commercialisation and investment company and S.R.One Ltd, GlaxoSmithKline’s venture captial fund, announce today that they have led, alongside co-investor UCL Business PLC (UCLB), an £850,000 seed financing for Puridify, a newly formed company providing purification solutions for biotherapeutic manufacturing.
Puridify’s technology was developed in the world-leading Advanced Centre for Biochemical Engineering at UCL (University College London). UCLB, the technology transfer office for UCL, licensed this technology to Puridify in 2014. It was the winner of the 2013 OneStart competition (founded by SR One and the Oxbridge Biotech Roundtable, http://www.oxbridgebiotech.com/onestart), which is designed to encourage young entrepreneurs. The company has received additional matched-funding awards totalling £780,000 from the UK’s innovation agency, the Technology Strategy Board, to support advancement of the technology.
Immunotherapy, a new, promising therapeutic approach that leverages the power of the immune system to fight cancer, is the cornerstone of MedImmune’s oncology portfolio. As the biologics research and development arm of AstraZeneca, MedImmune is striving to push the boundaries of science to deliver life-changing medicines to patients.
By targeting the immune system, immunotherapy may lead to durable and prolonged response rates across a range of cancer types. Tumours are heterogeneous in that there many different cells that often mutate and grow in different ways. In lung cancer, for example, there may be more than 60 different mutations. Cancer often manages to continue replicating and becomes resistant and returns to growth, making it challenging to treat. This happens despite chemotherapy, surgery and other targeting therapies. Even worse, some of the existing therapies – especially chemotherapy – actually diminish the immune response, thus limiting the body’s own natural defence mechanisms to fight tumours.
Register for the Spring National SBIR/STTR Conference and take your pick of 1-on-1 meetings with Agency principals on a first-come, first-serve basis. More than 300 meeting slots filled in a week at last year’s conference, so don’t delay. Once you register, you’ll receive access to descriptions of all 23 participating Agencies and Institutes to make your 1-on-1 meeting choices.
The conference, held at the Gaylord Convention Center in National Harbor, MD on June 16 – 18, will feature the SBA Administrator, representatives from all participating NIH institutes and key leaders from across the Federal government. The event is the nation’s largest annual gathering of SBIR/STTR Agencies, industry leaders, and awardees.
The changing face of Frederick County’s economy is reflected in the rapidly growing field of bioscience and biotechnology companies locating or expanding here.
Agriculture and tourism may still be the leading economic factors in Frederick County, but the life sciences are becoming an integral part of the local economy. Additionally, many Frederick residents work for life science companies in Montgomery County and Washington. They may not be in the lab or doing administrative work for a bioscience firm in the county, but they benefit from the growth of local firms, as many of the companies collaborate on innovations and research.
In this Hangout, we will discuss when a small business should contact the FDA, and what formal and informal mechanisms exist for device, drug, biologic, and diagnostic developers to obtain early advice from the FDA.
Mobile devices are revolutionizing the health care system for patients and medical providers. Using this new technology wisely and securely is the goal of the health information technology experts who talked about trends in the field during a Health IT Forum at the Johns Hopkins University Montgomery County Campus.
The Health IT Forum series, held four times a year, is a community partnership co-sponsored by Montgomery County Department of Economic Development, the TechCouncil of Maryland and the Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce. The May forum, titled “mHealth: Bring Your Own Device,” attracted dozens of IT experts from the region.
More than a decade has passed since scientists completed the Human Genome Project, a worldwide effort to decode our DNA. That DNA sequence contains instructions for making all of the proteins that our bodies need to function.
Now researchers have cataloged the vast majority of those proteins, creating a dynamic map of the human body called the proteome.
The University of Maryland’s commitment to expanding science opportunities on campus could not be any more clear having now acquired a five-year, $1.2 million grant to further undergraduate science education from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
The College Park institution plans to use the grant to develop a new living-learning program for students enrolled in the biological and chemical sciences. It will include a residence hall with integrated support mentoring programs, community-building activities, co-enrollment in introductory science courses and advanced access to stellar hands-on research opportunities.
Graduates and current tenants of Baltimore accelerator the Emerging Technology Centers contribute almost $174 million in direct economic impact in Baltimore, according to a new report commissioned by the city.
About 63 percent of the ETC’s 76 graduate companies have stayed in Baltimore and generate about $108.5 million in economic activity. Those 48 companies employ 311 workers.
Can the nationally acclaimed Meyerhoff Scholars Program, which has an unparalleled record of advancing diversity in the sciences, be adapted successfully at more universities?
That question is at the heart of a new partnership between the Univ. of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC), the Pennsylvania State Univ., the Univ. of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC), and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI). The four institutions are launching the collaborative Meyerhoff Adaptation Project to learn whether elements of UMBC’s highly regarded Meyerhoff Scholars Program can be adapted at Penn State and UNC. The participating schools aim to learn what it takes to establish a successful program and to share what they learn so other institutions might follow.
U.S. Sen. Barbara Mikulski says a new state roundtable on cyber security will focus on keeping the fast-growing industry’s jobs in Maryland, rather than going to Northern Virginia.
The Maryland Cybersecurity Roundtable will hold its first meeting on Thursday. The group includes Mikulski, Gov. Martin O’Malley, KEYW Corp. CEO Len Moodispaw and Jeffrey Wells, who oversees cyber for the Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development.
A bipartisan initiative known as “21st Century Cures,” spearheaded by the House Energy and Commerce Committee, is aiming to keep the U.S. at the forefront of biomedical innovation.
The U.S. bio-phrama industry’s distinction as No. 1 hasn’t gone unnoticed in the rest of the world, says “A Path to 21st Century Cures,” a white paper that describes the initiatives main objectives. “[O]ther nations are now actively working to gain a competitive edge in various elements, whether through a focus on basic research or a streamlined approval process to bring new treatments to market more quickly,” according to the report.
IAN READ, the chief executive of Pfizer, is not a man easily rebuffed. His attempt to woo AstraZeneca, a British drugs firm, included politesse—appearances before Parliament, web videos on Pfizer’s strategy—and, more importantly, a sweetened offer on May 18th worth around £70 billion ($120 billion). However, AstraZeneca’s board has rejected the bid and, as we went to press, it seemed dead in the water.
After a lengthy and somewhat contentious markup, the House Science, Space and Technology Committee approved the Frontiers in Innovation, Research, Science, and Technology (FIRST) Act (H.R. 4186) by a vote of 20-16 on May 28th. As discussed in previous editions of Capitol Update, the bill reauthorizes and prioritizes federal investments at the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) by funding research and development (R&D) to address national needs. The bill also sets priorities to drive the nation’s investments in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education programs.
The FIRST Act would require that the NSF publish a justification of each grant’s scientific merits and relevance to the broad national interest in order to meet minimum standards of public accountability and transparency in its grant funding decisions. The FIRST Act does not change NSF’s peer review process. Provisions of the FIRST Act also broadens the definition of STEM education to include computer science and supports student participation in nonprofit competitions, out-of-school activities and field experiences related to STEM.
Once a year, all of the tech world stops to listen to what influential analyst Mary Meeker has to say. According to Meeker, current trends show a slight dip in internet user growth but she highlights that emerging markets are showing the fastest growth in terms of internet usage. This growth can be seen more rapidly in what she calls “difficult to monetise developing markets” like India, Indonesia and Nigeria.
Meeker, a partner at VC company Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers (KPCB), unveiled her annual trends report at the Code Conference this week. The report highlights the disruption that is underway in areas like media consumption, education, healthcare, commerce, security, mobile and consumer apps. We have picked some key trends that we thought were worth highlighting.
Microsoft Ventures, Microsoft’s startup investment arm, is to set up its first accelerator dedicated solely to companies in the cybersecurity area.
The four-month programme aims to provide startups with tools to succeed in business, from mentorship to help with development to marketing expertise. Companies that get through the program will have an opportunity to get $1m in funding, courtesy of Jerusalem Ventures Partners (JVP), which has partnered with Microsoft Ventures on the project.
The Biotechnology Industry Organization today issued the following statement in response to Senator Patrick Leahy’s announcement that he will remove current patent legislation from the Senate Judiciary Committee’s agenda for now:
“BIO applauds Chairman Leahy’s decision to remove the controversial patent bill from the Senate Judiciary Committee’s agenda until greater stakeholder consensus can be achieved.
All of us know that you have to be a little crazy to be an entrepreneur. Launching, let alone sustaining, a new enterprise can be challenging along almost every dimension − mentally, emotionally, and often financially. Historically, this reality has been even more sobering in the health care sector, where the typical hardships experienced by any start-up have been amplified by numerous industry-specific challenges: Extensive regulation, entrenched players with a strong grip on the status quo, confusing paths to entry, and an even more opaque path to payment have made health care a particularly treacherous territory for entrepreneurs.
Numerous studies have shown that Americans of European origin have a more independent, and Asians have a more interdependent, social orientation, as measured by questionnaires asking about agreement with such statements as “I feel it is important for me to act as an independent person.” But this social-orientation difference is about 6 times greater among people from both backgrounds who are carriers of two particular alleles of a dopamine-receptor gene known as DRD4, according to a team led by Shinobu Kitayama of the University of Michigan. The alleles appear to predispose people to acquire behaviors that are considered socially desirable, the researchers say.
Krieger School of Arts and Sciences Advanced Academic Programs
Johns Hopkins University Montgomery County Campus, Rockville, MD 9601 Medical Center Drive (A&R Building, Room 106-110)
Connect with physician entrepreneurs and other stakeholders in healthcare innovation as we explore the winning formula for successfully advancing new medical devices and technology to commercialization.
Join business leaders, government, elected officials and the media as we celebrate leadership that energizes our community and makes it possible to declare What’s Next is Here. Five prestigious awards will be presented including the Chairman’s Award. Witness the passing of the torch from the 2013-2014 MCCC Chair of the Board Christopher Carpenito, CPA, Executive Vice President & CFO, HESS Construction to the 2014-2015 MCCC Chair Lisa Cines, CPA, Office Managing Partner, Dixon Hughes Goodman LLP and welcome the 2014-2015 MCCC Board of Directors.
BioHealth Innovation (BHI) is a regionally-oriented, private-public partnership functioning as an innovation intermediary focused on commercializing market-relevant biohealth innovations and increasing access to early-stage funding in Maryland.
The information contained in this website and newsletters is for general information purposes only. The information is provided by BioHealth Innovation via its newsletters, but not written or endorsed in any way by BioHealth Innovation unless otherwise noted. While we endeavor to keep the information up to date and correct, we make no representations or warranties of any kind, express or implied, about the completeness, accuracy, reliability, suitability or availability with respect to the website or the information, products, services, or related graphics contained on the website for any purpose. Any reliance you place on such information is therefore strictly at your own risk.
Montgomery County, taking a page from the state’s playbook, has lured cybersecurity startup Mobile System 7 across state lines from McLean, Va. to Bethesda, Md. with $100,000 of investment and services according to The Washington Post. Expansion of the cybersecurity business sector has become a very high priority throughout Maryland and this is just the latest of a series of investments by the state and local governments to encourage successful cybersecurity companies to open or move businesses to Maryland.
The move is reminiscent of the way Luminal, a cybersecurity startup born in West Virginia, was enticed into moving to Frederick thanks to generous investment offers via the state government. That was state investment however, while the Mobile System 7 move comes after Montgomery County’s Department of Economic Development convinced the company that it would do better in Maryland than in Virginia.
Supernus Pharmaceuticals, Inc. today announced that United Therapeutics Corporation UTHR +0.58% has paid Supernus a $2 million milestone payment under United Therapeutics’ license agreement with Supernus. This payment was due upon the launch of Orenitram™ (treprostinil) Extended-Release Tablets for the treatment of pulmonary arterial hypertension, in the United States. Orenitram™ utilizes a Supernus patented technology platform. In addition to the launch milestone, Supernus will receive royalties on net sales of Orenitram™, and may become entitled to additional milestone payments.
“We are pleased to have played a role in helping to bring Orenitram™ to patients and their physicians as an important new therapy option,” said Jack A. Khattar, President and CEO of Supernus. “Over the life of the product, we expect to receive significant recurring royalty revenue from United Therapeutics’ commercialization of Orenitram™.”
Also this week in Pfizer-related Maryland biotech news: Gaithersburg-based GlycoMimetics Inc. collected a $15 million payment from the pharma giant stemming from its license agreement for the sickle cell anemia drug rivipansel.
GlycoMimetics in 2011 inked the Pfizer partnership, worth up to $340 million, to develop rivipansel (then just called GMI-1070) as a treatment for a complication of sickle cell disease called vaso-occlusive crisis.
AstraZeneca on Monday rejected a “final” $119 billion buyout offer from Pfizer, possibly sinking a pharmaceutical mega-merger that could have jeopardized jobs at AZ’s Maryland subsidiary, MedImmune.
Pfizer, which would have created the world’s largest drug company through the deal, on Sunday evening increased its earlier $106 billion cash-and-stock bid. In a statement, AstraZeneca Chairman Leif Johansson called that new offer “inadequate” and said it would have “serious consequences for the company, our employees and the life-sciences sector in the U.K., Sweden and the U.S.”
The second annual InvestMaryland Challenge, an early-stage business competition of the Maryland Department of Business & Economic Development, came to an exciting close Monday evening at the National Aquarium in Baltimore.
Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley, joined by DBED Secretary Dominick Murray, entrepreneurs and business leaders, applauded the winners of nearly $1 million in grants and prizes.
A health IT startup launched last year by four recent Johns Hopkins graduates and one soon-to-be JHU graduate was one of four firms to win a $100,000 top prize Monday in the InvestMaryland Challenge, a state-run competition to help promising new companies in the life sciences and high tech industries.
The competition, run by the Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development, had 260 entries. Healthify took first place in the General Industry category, open to companies anywhere in the U.S. if they open a location in Maryland. Healthify, based in New York, beat out two other finalists—a wholesale food distribution website with a focus on local, sustainably-produced items; and an ad technology company.
Engineering is a field with the power to transform lives across the globe, often in the most underserved regions. Nowhere is this maxim more apparent than at the Center for Bioengineering Innovation & Design (CBID), founded in 2007 at the Johns Hopkins University’s Department of Biomedical Engineering.
Each summer, teams of new engineering graduate students travel overseas to areas where poverty and poor healthcare dominate. They look for opportunities to put their skills to work solving difficult, and often deadly, health problems.
QIAGEN N.V. (NASDAQ: QGEN; Frankfurt Prime Standard: QIA) today announced the expansion of its industry-leading portfolio of bioinformatics solutions with additional content from BIOBASE, a provider of expertly curated biological databases, software and services. With access to HGMD, an especially in clinical markets widely used biomedical data resource as well as to other unique content, QIAGEN expand its world’s most comprehensive, high-quality and up-to-date literature source for clinical research and diagnosis – further strengthening its market-leading position in the analysis and interpretation of sequencing data. QIAGEN’s growing bioinformatics and next-generation sequencing (NGS) franchises is positioned to benefit from the integration of BIOBASE, its assets and employees and will benefit the expansion of relationships with thousands of clinical labs and NGS users in life sciences.
“The ability of next-generation sequencing to rapidly deliver genomic insights is opening up new frontiers for clinical research and medicine, and QIAGEN is strategically addressing customers’ needs to interpret the massive amounts of data generated by NGS. With HGMD and other content from BIOBASE, a respected organization with a dedicated team and robust line of unique databases and software, QIAGEN is further extending its competitive advantage as the overall market leader for clinical interpretation of human sequencing data,” said Peer M. Schatz, Chief Executive Officer of QIAGEN. “Already today, more than 15,000 users worldwide rely on QIAGEN’s bioinformatics products for interpretation – and have processed over a quarter of a million genome sequences. HGMD is a unique fit with our offering and will integrate well. We expect to drive additional adoption of this leading literature-based knowledge base used by clinical reference labs for annotating hereditary variants, as well as BIOBASE’ other solutions by having integrated them into interpretation solutions shared with our Ingenuity Knowledge Base – adding value for QIAGEN and BIOBASE customers and accelerating our growth drivers in NGS and bioinformatics.”
Biotech is certainly a growing industry in Greater Baltimore, and here’s more proof. These 10 companies all said they are growing their staff in the coming months, when we asked in our annual industry survey. Here are all the jobs they’re already looking to fill:
SBIR/STTR programs promote small business innovation and profitability while simultaneously meeting the government’s research and development needs. Every year, small businesses receive millions of dollars in SBIR/STTR funds for research, development and commercialization purposes. This course will provide attendees with an overview of the SBIR/STTR programs; funding sources and eligibility requirements; best practices in SBIR/STTR proposals writing, involvement, and commercialization; and a discussion of how to protect your company’s legal interests in either program.
Join members from NHLBI’s SMARTT team for a free webinar to hear how three investigators utilized SMARTT services to advance the development of their lead candidates.
Webinar agenda
Overview of SMARTT
Translational Investigator presentations:
Steven Idell, MD, PhD, Vice President for Research at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Tyler Development of fibrinolysin single chain urokinase plasminogen activator (scuPA) for pleural effusions
Athan Kuliopulos, MD, PhD, Professor of Medicine at Tufts University and Tufts Medical Center Development of PZ-128 for the prevention of arterial thrombosis in acute coronary syndrome and percutaneous coronary intervention
Barry Coller, MD, Vice President for Medical Affairs and Physician-in-Chief, The Rockefeller University Development of novel small molecule platelet inhibitors for pre-hospital treatment of myocardial infarction.
Challenges in Early Translational Science: Industry Perspective
Q&A with SMARTT
Representatives from NHLBI staff and from SMARTT’s regulatory, manufacturing, and pharmacology/toxicology facilities will be available to answer questions.
Krieger School of Arts and Sciences Advanced Academic Programs
Johns Hopkins University Montgomery County Campus, Rockville, MD 9601 Medical Center Drive (A&R Building, Room 106-110)
Connect with physician entrepreneurs and other stakeholders in healthcare innovation as we explore the winning formula for successfully advancing new medical devices and technology to commercialization.
City innovation economy classifications and rankings, 2014.
World’s largest city classification and global ranking with 445 benchmark cities classified, and all cities analyst ranked this year. Measuring each cities potential as an innovation economy at the current time, since 2007.
Based on 2thinknow analyst interpretation of 162 city indicators from 2thinknow City Benchmarking Data set.
In almost every case, the scientist-entrepreneurs approaching LSN are falling victim to one or more fallacies that are propagated through the industry. LSN is in a dialogue with over 5,000 investors around the world, and the reality is that what many entrepreneurs believe to be sound business logic could be dooming their companies. This article compiles the top 10 fundraising misconceptions so that you can avoid these pitfalls.
Providing shared space, services, equipment, and expertise to budget-conscious scientist-entrepreneurs who are looking to prove a hypothesis and launch a company is the mission of life science incubators. And they have helped many start-ups.
However, increasingly, scientist-entrepreneurs are disappointed with what they’re finding. LSN hears a lot of complaints because we are in dialogue with a lot of the firms that populate these incubators. They acknowledge that incubators are less expensive than going it alone. Still, they say the lab space is too expensive, the promise of seeding seasoned players who can augment the founding team often goes unfulfilled, and there’s little to no tactical fundraising support.
American entrepreneurship is apparently on the decline, according to a recent article from FiveThirtyEight, but small business owners report consistently high levels of satisfaction with their choices despite the financial difficulties that they have faced.
“Americans started 27 percent fewer businesses in 2011 than they did five years earlier, according to data from the Census Bureau,” writes Ben Casselman on FiveThirtyEight. As a share of all companies, startups have been declining for more than 30 years.”
Vinod Khosla, sassy VC and legendary co-founder of Sun Microsystems, has predicted the future of health.
In essence, he has said, our medical lives will become increasingly automated, with ultra-intelligent systems prescribing fine-grain recommendations to nurse us back to health. According to a newly released report, he predicts:
The Angel Capital Association (ACA) today launched a campaign to protect startups from a devastating loss of angel capital if the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) increases the financial qualifications for accredited investors. The “Protect Angel Funding” initiative is a call to action to the startup ecosystem—from angel investors to economic development organizations and entrepreneurs – to urge regulators to preserve the definition of who qualifies as an accredited angel investor. Protecting this important investment class is critical to preserving the economic fuel it provides to startups and job creation. If changes proposed by “investor protection” organizations are enacted by the SEC, nearly 60 percent of angel investors would be eliminated.
The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 requires the SEC to review the definition of an accredited investor in 2014 to determine whether it should be modified “for the protection of investors, in the public interest and in light of the economy.” Currently, an individual accredited investor is defined as someone with $1 million in net worth excluding the value of a primary residence, or annual income of $200,000. At issue is whether these financial thresholds should be arbitrarily raised based on inflation.
In the US, many entrepreneurs see grants as “free money,” since they are not loans and don’t have to be repaid. A grant is not an equity investment, so the entrepreneur doesn’t have to give up a stake in the company either. Typically they can be used to fund product development and commercialization that would otherwise require outside investors.
A good place to start looking is the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program, which is a lifeline for high-tech startups. A more general approach is to check out Grants.gov, which is a searchable directory of more than 1,000 federal grant programs. An advanced search tool is provided to search for a grant by eligibility, by issuing agency, or category.
The DoD SBIR 2014.2 solicitation is now available for the submission of proposals.
Participating Department of Defense (DoD) agencies:
Army
Navy
DARPA
DLA
DMEA
Missile Defense Agency (MDA)
IMPORTANT DATES and DEADLINES
May 23, 2014 Solicitation opens and DoD begins accepting proposals June 11, 2014 SITIS closes to new questions June 25, 2014 6:00 am EST Solicitation closes to receipt of proposals at 6:00 AM EST-plan ahead and submit early.
Two year’s ago this month the Fourth Economy team completed an assignment for the Pennsylvania Life Science Leadership Advisory Council. At a news event in May 2012 we participated in the release of “Life Sciences Leadership for the Next Decade: Nurturing a Life Science Ecosystem for Job Creation and Economic Development in Pennsylvania”. This report highlighted five steps and related actions that the life science community could undertake to maintain the economic impact of the life science industry in the state.
Flash forward two years and we wanted to check in and see how the industry was performing in terms of employment and establishments. The following information summarizes our findings. The life science industry continues to be a strong overall sector for the state’s economy.
Its no secret: the University of Colorado receives hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funds that sponsor our research. My lab alone racks up expenditures of $800,000 a year to pay for post-doc and graduate student salary, tuition, materials and travel. Isn’t it preposterous to now ask the public for some more of their hard-earned cash as we, and many other universities now, do on CU Boulder’s new initiative?
It helps to first think about why the government actually does make these payments in the first place: to educate the next generation of engineers and scientists by working on research problems with important societal benefits. With this money becoming more competitive, the pool of ideas actually being supported becomes smaller with little to no feedback from the general public. Crowdfunding research allows the public to turn this around by enabling scientists to find support for projects currently not (or never) on the radar of conventional funding agencies, yet enjoying sufficient public interest. This category of research is probably the most obviously deserving of crowdfunding and has already enabled a host of documentaries, research excursions, and books, often by providing exclusively ideological or intellectual reward.
QIAGEN N.V. (frankfurt prime standard:QIA) today announced that its therascreen® KRAS RGQ PCR Kit (therascreen KRAS test) has received U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval to guide the treatment of metastatic colorectal cancer patients with Amgen’s Vectibix® (panitumumab). This marks the third FDA approval of a companion diagnostic from QIAGEN that has been paired with a novel medicine.
QIAGEN’s growing menu of clinically validated companion diagnostics is driving global dissemination of personalized healthcare, which uses genomic information to guide treatment decisions in individual patients.
BioHealth Innovation (BHI) is a regionally-oriented, private-public partnership functioning as an innovation intermediary focused on commercializing market-relevant biohealth innovations and increasing access to early-stage funding in Maryland.
The information contained in this website and newsletters is for general information purposes only. The information is provided by BioHealth Innovation via its newsletters, but not written or endorsed in any way by BioHealth Innovation unless otherwise noted. While we endeavor to keep the information up to date and correct, we make no representations or warranties of any kind, express or implied, about the completeness, accuracy, reliability, suitability or availability with respect to the website or the information, products, services, or related graphics contained on the website for any purpose. Any reliance you place on such information is therefore strictly at your own risk.
BioHealth Innovation, Inc. (BHI) announced this week its selection of George Jiang, M.D., M.B.A., PMP, as its new Chinese-American Entrepreneur-in-Residence (EIR). Dr. Jiang, a consultant with over 15 years of experience in life science research and development and in health industry business development, will lead in the scouting of technologies and partnership opportunities in life science hubs in the U.S. and China.
“We welcome Dr. Jiang as our newest addition to the EIR program,” said Rich Bendis, President & CEO, BioHealth Innovation, Inc. “There is a vast opportunity to develop strategic partnerships with more Chinese corporations, and Dr. Jiang – as a Chinese American with experience as a consultant evaluating life science opportunities in China for a U.S. government agency – is in an ideal position to facilitate these collaborative efforts and the movement of new technologies along the commercialization path.”
Dr. Jiang will be based at BHI headquarters in Rockville, Maryland. BHI and China Fortune Land Development Co., Ltd. (CFLD) established this EIR position in February 2014. After the two organizations met during a four-city mission trip to China for leaders from Montgomery County and the DC metropolitan area, led by Ike Leggett, County Executive of Montgomery County, Maryland.
Dr. Jiang has facilitated biohealth product development across the academic, government, private and military sectors. As a senior consultant at Booz Allen Hamilton for eight years, Dr. Jiang has health industry experience in business development, subject matter expertise, stakeholder partnerships, and project/personnel management. Previously, Dr. Jiang served as the Director of Primate Immunology at the Naval Medical Research Center. Prior to that, he was a senior microbiologist at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. He earned his M.B.A. from the Johns Hopkins University, PMP (project management professional certification) from the Project Management Institute, M.D. from Southern Medical University in Guangdong, China, and M.S. from the Beijing Institute of Basic Medical Sciences in China.
BHI and CFLD, a company specializing in investment and operation of industrial areas in China, including science parks, created the new Chinese-American Entrepreneur-In-Residence role to:
Evaluate life science technologies in China and U.S. markets,
Provide a strategic plan for start-ups,
Advise on new ventures, and
Lead commercial strategy for mature assets.
Dr. Jiang will be BHI’s 5th named EIR since the program began two years ago.
The organization is also actively recruiting for a China-USA EIR Program Intern to assist Dr. Jiang in his activities.
Guest Speaker: Rich Bendis, Founder, President & CEO, BioHealth Innovation, Inc.
The chair-elect of the Economic Development Committee, Leslie Weber, welcomed MCCC members and introduced the guest speaker, Rich Bendis, Founder, President & CEO, BioHealth Innovation, Inc. (BHI). BHI is an innovation intermediary that connects market relevant research assets to appropriate funding, management, and global markets to facilitate the development of commercially viable biohealth products and companies.
The organization co-founds early stage biohealth companies and works directly with existing regional commercially relevant biohealth firms on their early business development milestones to accelerate commercialization. Ninety percent of the companies BHI is working with are in Montgomery County Maryland.
BioHealth Innovation, Inc. (BHI) is seeking a highly talented professional to serve as its China-USA EIR Program Intern. The China-USA EIR Program Intern will support the Chinese-American Entrepreneur In Residence (EIR) position, which manages the relationship between BHI and its partner, China Fortune Land Development Co., Ltd. The China-USA EIR Program Intern will primarily support the EIR through research and translation, but will also perform administrative tasks.
William E. (Brit) Kirwan, chancellor of the University System of Maryland and a longtime national figure in public higher education, will resign from his leadership post when a successor is named, Mr. Kirwan announced on Tuesday.
Mr. Kirwan, who is 76, has led the Maryland system for 12 years and served as president of Ohio State University from 1998 to 2002. He has been at the forefront of national conversations about reducing college costs, including athletics spending.
Mike Baader, the head of Venable’s Baltimore office, will be joining the law firm’s longtime client, Greenspring Associates, as a partner and general counsel, sources said.
The sources said Baader will stay on with the firm for several months to assist in the transition. Courtney Capute has been named to succeed Baader as head of the law firm’s Baltimore practice.
Pharmaceutical behemoths New York-based Pfizer and London-based AstraZeneca are waging a trans-Atlantic battle over a potential multibillion-dollar buyout that has put both companies and their respective governments on the defensive.
The kerfuffle raises questions about the future of 3,100 scientists and manufacturers employed in the Maryland offices of MedImmune, a biotechnology company that local officials worry could be gutted if its corporate parent, AstraZeneca, gets bought.
Pfizer has again raised its offer for AstraZeneca, making what it said was a final effort to bring the giant British drug maker to the negotiating table.
The latest offer, made Sunday evening, is worth about $119 billion. It comes after AstraZeneca’s rejection of several private and public offers from Pfizer.
Join us at another BioBuzz event with Sponsor The UMD Biotechnology Research and Education Program (BREP) on May 21st from 5:00 – 7:30 p.m. at American Tap Room in Rockville, MD. .This location is a short walk from the Metro in the Rockville Town Center. We’re capping the registration at 120 people, so make sure you sign up today!
Cybersecurity is a major growth engine in the region. Get on board by joining over 200 cyber leaders from the private, government and academic sectors at the 2014 CyberMontgomery Forum. Plus, hear a keynote address by The Honorable Thomas J. Ridge, the first Secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and former two-term Governor of Pennsylvania.
Attendees will also get an update on the National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence and hear from other industry experts and guest speakers including Congressmen Ben Cardin and Chris Van Hollen, Montgomery County Executive Isiah Leggett and representatives from Lockheed Martin, Discovery Communications, DMI, Triumfant, Koolspan, Inc. and many more.
Health Care Providers: Learn About the First Rx-only, FDA-Cleared, Mobile Therapy for Type 2 Diabetes
Smartphones and tablet computers are a new way to deliver diabetes therapy. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) calls this new type of therapy MPT: “mobile prescription therapy.” MPT products tell you what to do to take care of your disease. The advice shows up on your smartphone or other device.
The Tech Council of Maryland (TCM), Maryland’s largest technology trade association for life science and technology, today announced the winners of its 26th Annual Industry Awards. More than 700 technology and business leaders from around the state attended the celebration last night, which took place at the Bethesda North Marriott Hotel & Conference Center.
“The individuals and companies we honored at last night’s industry awards celebration represent the tremendous talent, innovation and dedication we have in Maryland’s thriving technology community,” said Phil Schiff, TCM’s CEO. “The nominees for this year’s awards were truly outstanding, and exemplify how Maryland’s technology community is playing a vital role in ensuring our state’s long-term prosperity.”
Cybersecurity will be a major growth engine in the region for many years to come. The 2014 CyberMontgomery Forum is YOUR chance to join with cyber leaders from the private sector, government and academia. Hear from The Honorable Thomas J. Ridge, the first Secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and former Governor of Pennsylvania.
Plus, get an update on the National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence and hear from industry experts and guest speakers including Congressmen Ben Cardin and Chris Van Hollen, Montgomery County Executive Isiah Leggett and representatives from Lockheed Martin, Discovery Communications, DMI, Triumfant, Koolspan, Inc. and…
GlycoMimetics, Inc. announced today that data from a Phase 2 clinical trial of its lead drug candidate rivipansel ( GMI-1070 ) in pediatric patients has been presented at the American Society of Pediatric Hematology Oncology (ASPHO) 27th Annual Meeting . As part of the symposium entitled, “Sickle Cell Disease: Saving the Brain and Treating the Pain,” Timothy McCavit, M.D., M.S., Assistant Professor of Pediatric Hematology-Oncology at UT Southwestern Medical Center, highlighted the results observed in a randomized, multi-center, double-blind, adaptive Phase 2 study of rivipansel in pediatric sickle cell disease patients with vaso-occlusive crisis (VOC). The ASPHO Meeting is taking place May 14 through May 17 at the Palmer House Hilton in Chicago.
“Because sickle cell disease is genetic with symptoms presenting in patients at very young ages, there is a huge unmet need for managing its symptoms in pediatric populations. Dr. McCavit’s presentation at the ASPHO meeting underscores the potential role of rivipansel in addressing VOC in pediatric patients,” said Helen Thackray, M.D ., Vice President of Clinical Development and Chief Medical Officer at GlycoMimetics. “We remain committed to supporting the advancing study of this potential therapy in both children and adults and look forward to continued research through the Phase 3 study, which will be led by our collaborator Pfizer, Inc.”
OpGen, Inc., a Gaithersburg based molecular diagnostics company, announced today that it has launched a new molecular-based test that can quickly and reliably identify patients at risk for harboring serious disease-causing microbes that can resist even the strongest antibiotics. The Acuitas™ MDRO Gene Test is a comprehensive molecular screening tool that can directly detect as many as seven genes from one patient sample, and will help hospitals and public health officials combat some of the most critical multi-drug resistant organisms (MDROs) threatening patients in healthcare facilities.
“Drug-resistant ‘superbugs’ pose a serious and immediate threat to the world’s health and safety increasing the likelihood of prolonged illnesses, higher costs – even death,” said Evan Jones, Chairman and CEO, OpGen, Inc. “The new Acuitas MDRO Gene Test makes MDRO screening more efficient and cost-effective by delivering comprehensive, precise and actionable information to healthcare practitioners within 24 hours, assisting them in their efforts to combat and prevent the spread of these complex and potentially life-threatening infections.”
Richard Griffin, Director of Economic Development for the City of Frederick, and Julie Garner, Director of External Affairs, Maryland for AstraZeneca, accepted the award at the 2014 MEDA Awards Ceremony. The ceremony annually honors “standouts” in the field of economic development and the professionals who foster MEDA’s success today.
The award-winning plant, located next to the original 163,802 square foot biomanufacturing facility, provides increased capacity and has enabled AstraZeneca and MedImmune to meet the demand for new products. The company boasts world-class protein engineering and process development capabilities.
“Hi, my name is Krzysztof Sitko, cofounder of Aegle, and I’m going to tell you today about how we failed throughout all of DreamIt Health, and why you might consider investing in us anyhow.”
A month ago, that wasn’t how I pictured my presentation at our startup accelerator’s Demo Day. I was working tirelessly alongside my cofounders to put together a business. Yet there I was in front of a room of 200 to announce that we didn’t have a market for the product we had been working on.
THIS MOBILE HEALTH TOOL HELPS PEOPLE TO BE ABLE TO CONFRONT THEIR ANXIETIES AND THEIR FEARS.
A new self-help tool has now been developed by a team of psychologists, physicists, and developers, which uses augmented reality over a mobile health platform, with the goal of helping users to be able to treat their phobias and overcome their anxieties.
Maryland lawmakers have penned a letter to Pfizer asking the New York-based pharmaceutical giant to ensure that it will not shed jobs at Gaithersburg-based MedImmune should it succeed in acquiring parent company AstraZeneca.
Pfizer has offered as much as $106 billion to acquire United Kingdom-based AstraZeneca in a deal that could rank among the largest ever for the pharmaceutical industry. So far, the companies have not agreed on a purchase price.
San Diego-based biopharmaceuticals developer Lumena Pharmaceuticals has been acquired by UK-based Shire plc, in a deal worth $260M plus earn out, the companies said this morning. Shire said the buy would help add to its rare diseases portfolio. Lumena Pharmaceuticals had filed for an IPO in April; the company was venture backed by Alta Partners, New Enterprise Associates, RiverVest, A.M. Pappas Life Sciences Ventures, and Adage Capital Partners.
The recently published “Johns Hopkins Guide to Digital Media”, weighing in at over five hundred pages, claims to be the first “systematic and comprehensive” reference work on digital media. However, the reader need only scan the table of contents with entries ranging from the expected, such as “Blogs,” to the obscure such as “Searle’s Chinese Rooms,” to appreciate that it is neither systematic nor comprehensive. And, this is not necessarily a bad thing. For, The Guide does indeed accomplish what it sets out to do: provide readers with ” a GPS and a map of the territory of digital media, so that they will be able to design their own journey through this vast field of discovery.”
University of Maryland is well-known across the nation and internationally as a forward-thinking research institution, which is why it wasn’t too surprising to hear that UMD is now home to one of the nation’s fastest university-owned supercomputers.
Put simply, the supercomputer going by the name of Deepthought2 (appropriate, eh?) will help to support advanced, high-performance computing and research with the ability to do things like simulate fire and combustion. The contraption has a processing speed of about 300 teraflops, which is crazy fast. How fast? Absurdly speedy.
Johns Hopkins announced on May 6 its plans to build a new cancer treatment building in Baltimore. The facility will be constructed with the help of a $65 million gift. It will be named after the late Albert P. “Skip” Viragh, Jr., a philanthropist and a former cancer patient treated at Johns Hopkins, who died in 2003, at the age of 62.
The Skip Viragh Outpatient Cancer Building is scheduled for completion in 2017. It will be constructed on the southeast corner of Fayette Street and North Broadway, in East Baltimore, and will feature about 50 exam rooms, advanced cancer imaging, a specially designed cancer diagnostic and treatment planning center, and many other facilities and services.
A 300-teraflop supercomputer named Deepthought2 will now power research at the University of Maryland. Housed in the institution’s new 9,000-square-foot Cyberinfrastructure Center, Deepthought2 was developed with high-performance computing solutions from Dell and will support advanced research activities ranging from studying the formation of the first galaxies to simulating fire and combustion for fire protection advancements.
Deepthought2 replaces its namesake Deepthought, installed in 2006. According to a university statement, “the new supercomputer is 10 times faster than its predecessor, able to complete between 250 trillion and 300 trillion operations per second. It has a petabyte (1 million gigabytes) of storage and is connected by an InfiniBand network, a very high-speed internal network. Put another way, Deepthought2 is the equivalent of 10,000 laptops working together, it has 2,000 times the storage of an average laptop, and its internal network is 50 times faster than broadband.”
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.
Join members from NHLBI’s SMARTT team on May 28, 2014 (1:00-2:30 pm EST) for a free webinar to hear how three investigators utilized SMARTT services to advance the development of their lead candidates.
Webinar agenda
Overview of SMARTT
Translational Investigator presentations:
Steven Idell, MD, PhD, Vice President for Research at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Tyler Development of fibrinolysin single chain urokinase plasminogen activator (scuPA) for pleural effusions
Athan Kuliopulos, MD, PhD, Professor of Medicine at Tufts University and Tufts Medical Center Development of PZ-128 for the prevention of arterial thrombosis in acute coronary syndrome and percutaneous coronary intervention
Barry Coller, MD, Vice President for Medical Affairs and Physician-in-Chief, The Rockefeller University Development of novel small molecule platelet inhibitors for pre-hospital treatment of myocardial infarction.
Challenges in Early Translational Science: Industry Perspective
Q&A with SMARTT
Representatives from NHLBI staff and from SMARTT’s regulatory, manufacturing, and pharmacology/toxicology facilities will be available to answer questions.
David Mott will speak at the BioTrinity 2014 Conference, the European Bipartnering and Investment Conference on May 12-14, 2014.
BioTrinity is the premier European Biopartnering and Investment Conference, partnering R&D companies with big pharma and more biomedical investors than any other key European partnering conference.
The National Venture Capital Association on Wednesday named Scott Sandell, a Silicon Valley-based general partner with New Enterprise Associates, its next chairman.
He takes over as chair of the Arlington-based VC trade group at an optimistic time, at least compared with the years following the recession. By the NVCA’s own numbers: Venture firms, nationally, are seeing increasing success luring back limited partners, while a greater number of venture-backed companies are going public. Total VC dollars invested hit a more than dozen-year high last quarter.
The National Institutes of Health announced on Wednesday a new policy requiring that both sexes be represented among the subjects of preclinical biomedical research it finances involving animal and cell models.
More than two decades after requiring gender balance among human beings in the trials themselves, NIH leaders said they now realize that the same step should be applied to the laboratory experiments that inform those trials.
Every summer, the National Security Agency offers about 250 internships to undergraduate and graduate students interested in pursuing careers with the federal agency. If you can snag one, your career will be off to a great start.
But getting one is the hard part. There are more than 10,000 applicants every year for the internships, which span the science, technology, engineering and math fields. Richard Ledgett, deputy director of the NSA, on Wednesday told members of the BWI Business Partnership the selection process is grueling because of the high standards and required security clearances.
Johnson & Johnson’s ($JNJ) Janssen arm is planning to open another biotech incubator, this time setting its sights on South San Francisco in hopes of finding a few promising drug developers.
The new operation, dubbed Janssen Labs @South San Francisco, will be a 30,000-square-foot mix of lab and office space with room for up to 50 startups, J&J said. Mirroring Janssen’s flagship San Diego incubator, the new facility will be staffed by some of J&J’s biotech brains and provide operational support, education and business services to its guest companies.
The National Institutes of Health contracting arm has launched a $20 billion governmentwide acquisition program, Nextgov reports based on solicitation documents.
RCT Ventures has just announced a new opportunity for early-stage medical device companies: the 2014 MedTech Innovator competition. Companies and university-stage teams are encouraged to apply. Ten semi-finalists will be selected by a panel of medical device venture capitalists that will receive free registration to the Wilson Sonsini Medical Device conference. There, a live audience will select the winner, who will receive the $100k grand prize.
RCT Ventures’ last contest, Medtech Idol, had a fascinating array of gadgety competition with Aventamed‘s impressive ear-tube placement device coming out on top. When asked about the competition, Paul Grand, Managing Director for RCT Ventures said, “In today’s lean start-up model, the $100k prize should be enough to allow the winner to bridge the funding gap and achieve a milestone that can help them secure a larger funding round or critical industry partnership.”
D.C. startup incubator and co-working campus 1776 filed paperwork with the SEC to create a $25 million seed investment fund according to a report in the Washington Business Journal. The filing, issued in the name of “1776 Seed Investors, LP,” would be part of a longer term plan by 1776 to start funding startups while it continues to incubate them at its D.C. headquarters.
Electronics giant Samsung recently announced a foray into big pharma. The South Korean company is set to invest over $2 billion into biopharmaceuticals—drugs developed from biological sources (e.g. vaccines or gene therapies) as opposed to traditional chemical cocktails—with a focus on creating cheaper versions of existing therapies.
But cheapness won’t be Samsung’s only advantage. The company better known for its smartphones could also take advantage of the fact that the pharma industry has been slow to explore mobile health technology.
Researchers at the Mayo Clinic have completed a groundbreaking new test: They knocked widespread blood cancer into remission with a single massive blast of measles vaccine.
Stacy Erholtz, who was suffering from an advanced stage of blood cancer, recovered thanks to an intravenous injection of the measles virus, which was sufficient to overwhelm the cancer’s natural defenses, the StarTribune reports.
BioHealth Innovation (BHI) is a regionally-oriented, private-public partnership functioning as an innovation intermediary focused on commercializing market-relevant biohealth innovations and increasing access to early-stage funding in Maryland.
The information contained in this website and newsletters is for general information purposes only. The information is provided by BioHealth Innovation via its newsletters, but not written or endorsed in any way by BioHealth Innovation unless otherwise noted. While we endeavor to keep the information up to date and correct, we make no representations or warranties of any kind, express or implied, about the completeness, accuracy, reliability, suitability or availability with respect to the website or the information, products, services, or related graphics contained on the website for any purpose. Any reliance you place on such information is therefore strictly at your own risk.
Novavax Inc. believes it has created a vaccine against the Middle East Respiratory Virus, or MERS, which has been causing pandemic concerns.
The Gaithersburg biotech, working with University of Maryland School of Medicine researchers, said their vaccine candidate blocked MERS infections in laboratory studies. It is based on a platform for a vaccine candidate that is said to protect against Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, or SARS; both MERS and SARS are coronaviruses.
Ready to put an end to a devastating disease, Maryland-based biotechnology company Sanaria launched a crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo to eliminate the threat of malaria. The company is aiming to raise $250k to develop of SporoBot, a robot that will dissect mosquito salivary glands and to accelerate vaccine development.
Malaria is a vector borne disease that is transmitted by the bite of an infected mosquito. During the bite, it regurgitates parasitic protozoa Plasmodium falciparum. This is then embedded in the host’s liver until it matures and releases its progeny. It then destroys the host’s red cells and ultimately kills the host.
Genome pioneer J. Craig Venter is teaming up with a unit of United Therapeutics to develop pig lungs that have been genetically altered to be compatible with humans, a feat that, if successful, could address the urgent need for transplant organs for people with end-stage lung disease.
Venter’s privately held company Synthetic Genomics said it has entered a multiyear deal with United Therapeutics’ Lung Biotechnology to develop the so-called humanised pig organs.
Two University of Maryland graduates have designed The Micro, a consumer-friendly, sub-$300 3D printer, and are quickly staging one of the most successful Kickstarter campaigns of all-time to produce it, hauling in $3.3 million with more than 10,000 backers.
The Micro raced past its $50,000 goal in just 11 minutes and hit the $1 million mark in 25 hours, faster than the Pebble watch, which took 28 hours.
QIAGEN N.V. (NASDAQ: QGEN; Frankfurt Prime Standard: QIA) today announced that its artus C. difficile QS-RGQ MDx Kit has been cleared by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to qualitatively detect Clostridium difficile, a widespread healthcare-associated infection (HAI). In addition, the FDA has granted 510(k) regulatory clearance for the QIAsymphony RGQ MDx system, QIAGEN’s flagship automation platform that is transforming laboratory workflows and driving dissemination of molecular diagnostics. The U.S. milestone for QIAGEN’s global rollout of its sample-to-result automation platform, together with the FDA clearance of the first in a portfolio of tests for HAI infections, supports the expected growth in QIAsymphony placements globally to more than 1,250 by year-end 2014 and 1,500 by year-end 2015.
“Our QIAsymphony RGQ platform is revolutionizing laboratory workflows with flexible, efficient automation from sample to result – and the U.S. clearance affirms that we are well on track with our targets for this important growth driver,” said Peer M. Schatz, Chief Executive Officer. “QIAGEN is now positioned to rapidly expand the menu of standardized, regulator-approved diagnostic kits running on QIAsymphony. Our FDA cleared artus C. difficile QS-RGQ MDx Kit provides reliable detection of both the Toxin A and Toxin B of the infection. artus C. difficile QS-RGQ MDx Kit is the first test of our planned HAI portfolio in the United States. As we continue to deliver on a deep pipeline for infectious diseases and personalized healthcare diagnostics, the growing menu adds value for customers and patients by allowing consolidation of more tests on this platform.”
Emocha, one of nine graduates of the first class of startups from the DreamIt Health Baltimore accelerator, announced at Demo Day on April 30 that it’s opening an investment round this summer.
The mobile health platform is already being used in three separate pilot programs to allow physicians and clinicians based at health organizations to monitor patients’ symptoms, recovery and rehabilitation from a variety of diseases via smartphone.
Economic Gardening initiatives, including the Advance Maryland program, are gaining momentum across the State, but to understand the origin of the term, one must first look to Littleton, Colorado.
In the late 1980s, with the closing of a major missile manufacturing plant, the Denver suburb faced thousands of layoffs. Town leaders were left with two thoughts: What to do next and how to be less vulnerable in the future?
Drug targets are like fashion items. When a trendsetter proves one is worth spending money on, a lot of followers pile in. That’s no knock on drug developers, necessarily: When a new target shows some promise, it’s good to have lots of researchers with different ideas and approaches trying to find a drug to hit it. In the last few years, many of those researchers from the academic and industry camps who traditionally wouldn’t work together are joining forces.
Enter drug giant GlaxoSmithKline (NYSE: GSK), which has tried various schemes to make its research groups more biotech-like, including the spin-out of an immunology team into a separate biotech company. That company, Tempero Pharmaceuticals of Cambridge, MA, has teamed up with two academic labs to go after one of the most intriguing targets in immune disease, the IL-17 pathway, and a paper they published recently has caught the eyes of their peers.
When Ron Daniels took the stage in a fourth floor auditorium inside the Johns Hopkins University Medical Center in East Baltimore, he was staring down a veritable Who’s Who of Baltimore city’s tech community: startup founders, the presidents and operators of incubators, people at the helm of deep-pocketed foundations and tech company investors.
It was April 30, Demo Day for DreamIt Health Baltimore, when nine health IT startups would graduate from a four-month accelerator program backed, in part, by the Johns Hopkins University. And Daniels, president of Johns Hopkins, had one message for the startups’ founders anxiously awaiting their turn to present their companies to the crowd of at least 100.
Foluke Tuakli hopped on a bicycle and weaved around her classroom at the University of Maryland, College Park, acting out the problems that cyclists encounter on the road. “I’m turning, I’m turning,” she shrieked as the bike wobbled.
The demonstration was part of a student pitch for a bicycle GPS app in a freshman entrepreneurship class in the honors college. Other student groups had their own pitches: a new type of sustainable drinking fountain where water is squirted directly into the mouth, a Third World slum development project, and a day care center that emphasizes healthful eating habits.
Michael Spinosa overflows with enthusiasm about the team that helped his Columbia company figure out new strategies for growth — at no charge.
That might not sound like economic development, if your conception of it is multimillion-dollar incentives to tempt big employers to move in. The assistance Spinosa got is a different approach with the same goal: more jobs.
The following funding opportunity announcements from the NHLBI or other components of the National Institutes of Health, might be of interest:
NIH Guide Notices:
NOT-OD-14-085: Transition Plans for Reporting Sex/Gender, Race, and Ethnicity Information in Non-Competing Type 5 Progress Reports
NOT-OD-14-086: NIH Launching New System and Procedures for Reporting Sex/Gender, Race, and Ethnicity Information to the NIH
NOT-OD-14-087: Notice of Change in Eligibility for RFA-OD-14-005 “NIH Research Evaluation and Commercialization Hub (REACH) Awards (U01)”
NOT-OD-14-088: Notice of Clarification of Career (K) Award Eligibility
NOT-HL-14-223: Request for Information (RFI): Strategic Planning for Asthma Research
NOT-NS-14-029: Notice of NINDS Participation in NOT-HL-14-222 “Request for Information (RFI): Opportunities to Advance Clinical and Epidemiologic Research to Facilitate Aging in Place utilizing In-Home Monitoring “
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.
The rising prevalence of smartphones and mobile phones has made their use as a way to help people manage their health more viable. So much so that the National Institutes of Health has started an mhealth grants program and is looking for submissions.
It plans to offer awards of up to $500,000. Self management of chronic conditions and improving patient-provider communications are among the sought-after areas. It begins accepting applications today through May.
During the Spring 2014 Maryland legislative session, the Biotechnology Investment Incentive Tax Credits were increased by $2M to $12M. The electronic queue for these credits will take place on July 1, 2014. To participate in this queue, companies must register by submitting their complete application (form A1/A2/A3 and form B) to the Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development (DBED) Tax Incentives Group between June 2nd and June 27th.
Companies seeking to confirm their QMBC (Qualified Maryland Biotechnology Company) status prior to June 2nd may do so by submitting their company’s information (form B) to DBED between May 19th and May 30th.
Join us at another BioBuzz event with Sponsor The UMD Biotechnology Research and Education Program (BREP) on May 21st from 5:00 – 7:30 p.m. at American Tap Room in Rockville, MD. .This location is a short walk from the Metro in the Rockville Town Center. We’re capping the registration at 120 people, so make sure you sign up today!
The Government Contracting Institute, sponsored by TargetGov and bwtech@UMBC, introduces a new class covering the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs. The class, called “How the SBIR/STTR Program Can Help Grow Your Business” will be held at bwtech@UMBC’s South Campus on May 27, 2014. Representatives from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) will be an integral part of the class instruction.
The SBIR/STTR programs promote small business innovation and profitability while simultaneously meeting the government’s research and development needs. Every year, small businesses receive millions of dollars in SBIR/STTR funds for research, development and commercialization purposes. This course will provide attendees with an overview of the SBIR/STTR programs; funding sources and eligibility requirements; best practices in SBIR/STTR proposals writing, involvement, and commercialization; and a discussion of how to protect your company’s legal interests in either program.
The University of Maryland and the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) will host the first national symposium to discuss biosimilar therapeutics on June 13, 2014, at the Institute for Bioscience and Biotechnology Research in Rockville, Md., university officials announce today.
The event, ” Emerging Strategies for the Production and Characterization of Biosimilars ,” kicks off the first annual UMD/NIST Biomanufacturing Technology Summit, which pulls together company, government and academic thought leaders from around the world each year to discuss strategies, trends and issues in biotechnology products and manufacturing.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded a contract to researchers at The Johns Hopkins University to launch a new center devoted to developing innovative ways to identify and track influenza viruses worldwide.
One top goal is to rapidly identify new influenza virus strains that may emerge as the next seasonal influenza or global pandemic that could threaten public health.
The Maryland Science Center’s newly expanded and re-imagined space, SciLab , is now open, providing a unique, popular and hands-on laboratory science simulation for visitors. The 2,000-square-foot expansion was partially funded by a $100,000 contribution from BD Diagnostics, a segment of BD (Becton, Dickinson and Company) BDX +1.01% , a leading global medical technology company. SciLab’s expansion includes a classroom space, new investigation stations and additional laboratory gear that enhance educational opportunities for visitors and local school groups.
Visitors to SciLab will don lab coats, wear safety glasses and experiment with dozens of lab tools at large investigation stations to explore scientific wonders including chemical composition analysis, DNA extraction, optical illusions and the inner workings of the human body. “SciLab Scientists” will use test tubes, pipettes, beakers and microscopes while measuring, mixing, stirring and observing their way to testing a hypothesis.
The Intellectual Property & Science business of Thomson Reuters , the world’s leading provider of intelligent information for businesses and professionals, honored Amplimmune, Inc. and Medimmune for their work in pharmaceutical Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A), and Isis Pharmaceuticals and Biogen Idec for biopharmaceutical licensing with the Allicense 2014 Breakthrough Award for Deal of the Year .
The winners were announced Tuesday, April 29, after a public vote at 2014 Allicense , a prominent event connecting business development, licensing, and merger and acquisition (M&A) professionals throughout pharma, biotech and finance to discuss industry-wide challenges and collaborate on creating a roadmap for the future of pharmaceutical development. The annual award honors the top global deals in two categories: M&A and Biopharmaceutical Licensing. Five contenders in each category were nominated by Thomson Reuters deals analysts after a thorough analysis of information in Thomson Reuters Recap —the premier analysis tool for biopharmaceutical business deal making—and other criteria that examined hundreds of deals negotiated throughout 2013.
Nearly 30 business incubators throughout Maryland are fostering the next generation of entrepreneurs, breaking down barriers to entry and introducing new talent to investors.
For the past 14 years, organizers of the Maryland Incubator Company of the Year Awards have honored the most promising startups emerging from the State’s incubators. From among 22 finalists, this year’s category winners will be announced at the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore on June 10, the competition announced Wednesday.
Top Story: QMBC Determinations for the Maryland Biotech Investment — Incentive Tax Credits (BIITC) Begin May 19th; Line-up July 1st
The electronic line-up for the next round of Maryland Biotechnology Investment Incentive Tax Credits (BIITC) will take place July 1, 2014. To participate in this queue, companies must register by submitting their completed application (Form A and Form B) to the Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development (DBED) Tax Incentives Group between June 2nd and June 27th.
Companies seeking to confirm their QMBC (Qualified Maryland Biotechnology Company) status prior to June 2nd may do so by submitting their company’s information (Form B) to DBED’s Tax Incentives Group between May 19th and May 30th.
The report is the third in an annual series briefing Congress on the results of legislative language in the America Competes Reauthorization Act of 2010 that encourages the use of prize competitions by federal agencies to spur innovation.
In the private sector, such competitions have occasionally become major spectacles, such as the 1927 Orteig Prize that led to Charles Lindbergh’s trans-Atlantic flight and the $10-million prize a decade ago for the successful launch of a commercial spacecraft. But in the arena of federally sponsored science, and especially as it concerns the basic research done at universities, the uses appear more limited, such as tackling logistical roadblocks or developing web applications.
The number of people age 65 and older in the United States is expected to almost double by 2050, a shift that is expected to drastically alter the nation’s racial makeup and pressure its economy, two government reports released on Tuesday said.
Those older U.S. residents are expected grow from 43 million in 2012 to nearly 84 million over the next four decades as the baby boomer generation ages, the Census Bureau said in its latest estimate.
Digital health is a popular business these days, but it’s also a tricky one.
In theory, remote monitoring and engagement products have the potential to drive long-term cost savings, but robust data is lacking and consumer adoption so far has been relatively low.
BioHealth Innovation (BHI) is a regionally-oriented, private-public partnership functioning as an innovation intermediary focused on commercializing market-relevant biohealth innovations and increasing access to early-stage funding in Maryland.
The information contained in this website and newsletters is for general information purposes only. The information is provided by BioHealth Innovation via its newsletters, but not written or endorsed in any way by BioHealth Innovation unless otherwise noted. While we endeavor to keep the information up to date and correct, we make no representations or warranties of any kind, express or implied, about the completeness, accuracy, reliability, suitability or availability with respect to the website or the information, products, services, or related graphics contained on the website for any purpose. Any reliance you place on such information is therefore strictly at your own risk.
Wondering what the future of health IT in Marylands holds? Judging by the startups that presented their successes during Maryland’s first health IT accelerator demo day we are only now beginning to scratch the surface of the exciting new technologies that will be making their appearance over the next few years. BHI is proud to have been a founding sponsor of this initiative. With the added support of major players from Maryland’s biohealth community, DreamIt Health Baltimore has proven to be a success – one that shows that for Maryland to truly become the next big biohealth hub, all key players need to work together in making that a reality.
DreamIt Ventures, the Johns Hopkins University and John Hopkins Medicine, Northrop Grumman Corporation, BioHealth Innovation and Kaiser Permanente, are hosting Demo Day for the cohort of healthtech startups that spent the last 16 weeks in the DreamIt Health Baltimore accelerator program. The event will be held tomorrow, April 30, 2014 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Sheikh Zayed Auditorium (2119A) at the Johns Hopkins Hospital, 1800 Orleans St., Baltimore, MD. The presenting companies will have the opportunity to briefly share their progress and future plans before an audience of several hundred investors, industry leaders, potential customers, members of the press and other colleagues. A webcast of the event will be broadcast through the Johns Hopkins UStream channel here.
“Demo Day is our capstone event, literally giving our portfolio companies a platform from which to share their stories, accomplishments to date and their roadmap for the future before a select audience of potential investors, partners and customers,” said Elliot Menschik, Managing Partner of DreamIt Health.
A better material for the 3D printing of vascular implants, a new technology that makes cloud storage more secure and efficient, and a low-cost, high-energy solid state lithium-ion battery are the University of Maryland 2013 Invention of the Year winners.
The winning inventions were announced at the university’s Celebration of Innovation and Partnerships event on April 29, 2014. Also announced was the recipient of the Corporate Connector of the Year Award, Michael Pecht, director and founder of the UMD Center for Advanced Life Cycle Engineering. This award recognizes a University of Maryland researcher, staff or unit that has achieved significant engagement with the private sector in corporate research, philanthropy, or student support.
The NIH Research Evaluation and Commercialization Hub (REACH) program will support proof-of-concept centers (Hubs) that facilitate and accelerate the translation of biomedical innovations into commercial products that improve patient care and enhance health. The REACH Hubs will provide qualified institutions with the initial investment and resources to nurture innovators to develop high priority early-stage technologies within the NIH’s mission by providing: (1) infrastructure for identifying the most promising technologies, (2) funding for product definition studies (e.g. feasibility studies, prototype development, or proof-of-concept studies), (3) coordinated access to expertise in areas required for early stage technology development (including scientific, regulatory, reimbursement, business, legal, and project management), and (4) skills development and hands-on experience in entrepreneurism. Establishing public-private partnerships and providing additional non-federal funds will be critical for success.
PathSensors, Inc. is a growing biotechnology company headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland. The company is developing products for the rapidly evolving field of pathogen detection. We are currently seeking qualified candidates for the position of Director of Biosensor Development. The successful candidate will be responsible for design, development and continuous improvement of our portfolio of biosensor products.
MedImmune, the global biologics research and development arm of AstraZeneca, and the University System of Maryland announced today that the initial research collaboration between MedImmune and the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) has been expanded to include the University of Maryland, College Park and the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. The collaborators have also announced that they have identified the first five research projects to be undertaken under the expanded agreement. This follows the September 2013 announcement in which MedImmune and UMB announced a five-year, $6 million collaboration to drive novel bioscience research in the state of Maryland
Pfizer Inc. increased its offer for AstraZeneca to $106 billion — but the sweetened bid was immediately rejected.
London-based AstraZeneca, which has its U.S. headquarters in Wilmington, Del., and whose MedImmune unit has operations in Hayward, said in a statement “the financial and other terms described in the proposal are inadequate, substantially undervalue AstraZeneca and are not a basis on which to engage with Pfizer. The large proportion of the consideration payable in Pfizer shares and the tax-driven inversion structure remain unchanged. accordingly, the board has rejected the proposal.”
Small Business Innovation Research Funds / Small Business Technology Transfer Research Funds (SBIR/STTR) are the number one technology venture funding for American inventors, start up enterprises, and early stage small businesses. Phase One grants can provide up to $100,000 on average and Phase Two grants can provide up to $750,000 on average depending on the awarding agency. Montgomery County’s Business Innovation Network is pleased to announce the kick off of a new SBIR center in Germantown, MD to help Maryland businesses apply for, win, and manage these types of grants.
Please join us on May 13 for an event featuring an overview of SBIR/STTR. We’ll have panelists explain the what, why, and how of the application process. (Economic development professionals, please also attend the afternoon training session. You can register for that event here.)
The MOVE Program is a recently-announced initiative from the Montgomery County Department of Economic Development created to get you to take a serious look at Montgomery County, Maryland and the variety of great commercial office space available to YOUR business right NOW!
We are offering a $4/SF rent subsidy to life sciences, IT, cybersecurity and green technology businesses currently NOT in Montgomery County. The program provides the rent subsidy for year one of the lease when qualified companies sign their FIRST County lease of at least three years for office space between 2,000 and 10,000 rentable square feet. With a one page application, cash up front to the tenant and assistance with any required permits, it’s a truly unique program to benefit YOU.
MdBio Foundation, Inc. and Montgomery College Germantown are currently accepting applications for FUNdamentals of Biotechnology (formerly the Young Science Explorer’s Program), a week long science camp for students entering the 7th and the 8th grades.
Over the course of one week students will explore the world of science and experience biotechnology first hand. Campers will visit local Maryland STEM companies and use the latest laboratory techniques and equipment to learn about a wide variety of science based careers.
Each program will run Monday through Friday from 9 AM – 3 PM. The sessions will be held the weeks of July 14th and July 21st at the Montgomery College Germantown Campus. The camper fee is $400 with limited scholarships available. Registration and additional details may be found on Montgomery College’s website.
The future of health technology is in the palm of your hand. Mobile communication, wearable devices, data sharing, analytics and even gaming concepts will soon seamlessly meld with medical treatment.
DreamIt Health Baltimore explored these possibilities in a four-month accelerator program that fostered nine early-stage companies. Company representatives demonstrated their products, presented plans for growth and pitched to investors during the program’s culminating Demo Day on Wednesday.
What started as a Johns Hopkins Hospital program to train healthcare workers to treat HIV in Uganda has evolved into a multimedia platform for adherence, clinical trials and chronic diseases rolled into a healthcare startup, Emocha, In a presentation at DreamIt Health Baltimore’s demo day, CEO Sebastian Seiguer talked about the company’s origins at Johns Hopkins University Hospital and its relevance for both developing and industrialized countries.
Circulomics Inc has been awarded a Phase I Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) grant by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to develop its new Nanobind DNA/RNA extraction technology.
Nanobind is an inexpensive thermoplastic nanomaterial developed for high integrity DNA and RNA extraction. Its hierarchical structure of microscale folds topped by nanoscale wrinkles creates a high binding area silica surface capable of capturing large amounts of high molecular weight (MW) DNA and RNA.
With the decline of great industrial laboratories, such as Bell Labs—home of such major technological advances as the transistor and research that won seven Nobel Prizes, all in physics—many universities are putting increased focus on technological innovation, translational research, and commercialization. Work leading to successful innovations, however, “does not necessarily result in outcomes that are traditionally counted [by universities] in career advancement, such as publication,” write Paul Sanberg, senior vice president for research and innovation at the University of South Florida in Tampa, and his co-authors in an article published 28 April in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. In fact, it “often requires faculty members with a different working mindset and modus operandi than those conducting purely basic research.”
A team of physicists, psychologists and developers have produced a mobile health platform to make virtual reality and augmented reality more accessible as a self-help tool for treating phobias. Phobius, part of DreamIt Health Baltimore’s inaugural class, has developed a smartphone-enabled tool and is planning a September launch for its consumer product, which includes goggles and an iPhone or Android app.
Phobius comes to Baltimore by way of Barcelona. In addition to the consumer-facing tool, a clinician-facing track is under development. The consumer-facing platform will concentrate on phobias from insects and public speaking to needles. The company plans to market it without any guarantees of its effectiveness in curing these phobias. But it also plans to seek FDA clearance and a CE Mark from European regulators to use the device for treating post traumatic stress disorder and anxiety disorders.
The angel investor market in 2013 continued the upward trend started in 2010 in investment dollars and in the number of investments. Total investments in 2013 were $24.8 billion, an increase of 8.3% over 2012, according to the Center for Venture Research at the University of New Hampshire. A total of 70,730 entrepreneurial ventures received angel funding in 2013, an increase of 5.5% over 2012 investments. The number of active investors in 2013 was 298,800 individuals, an increase of 11.4% from 2012. The increase in both total dollars and the number of investments resulted in a deal size for 2013 that was slightly higher than in 2012 (an increase in deal size of 2.6% from 2012). These data indicate that angels were active investors in 2013 but those that did invest decreased their individual investments from $85,435 in 2012 to $83,050 in 2013, a decrease of 2.8%. The $24.8 billion in total investments is close to the market high of $26.0 billion that occurred in 2007.
When I recently sat down with Andrew Skibo, regional VP of supply biologics, global engineering, and real estate at AstraZeneca (AZ), I was the guy with no experience. Sure, I have 20+ years of pharmaceutical industry experience, but after a few minutes of conversation, I learned that this exchange could only be described as one between a veteran and a rookie — and I was the latter.
Skibo has an impressive list of industry accomplishments, including overseeing large-scale capital projects that garnered two International Society for Pharmaceutical Engineering (ISPE) facility of the year awards (FOYA) and two Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED) Gold awards. But what you can’t conclude from someone’s CV is the skill with which they are able to communicate their wisdom. For instance, I found Skibo to be a patient and skilled communicator, putting me at ease by stating, “If I answer any of these questions in too much detail, stop and fine-tune me as to the level you need.” What follows are his insights on applying a risk-based approach to modeling and planning for biologics manufacturing capacity. Of course, he knows a thing or two about this topic, considering nearly half of AstraZeneca’s 2014 development pipeline falls into the large molecule (biologic) category.
A day before a U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee hearing in which heads of the nation’s major research agencies will jointly testify on the need for federal research investments to drive innovation and economic growth, a group of 50 leading business, higher education, scientific, and patient organizations urged members of that panel to make strong, sustained investments in research in order to close what they call an “innovation deficit.”
In written testimony submitted to the Senate committee, the coalition—which includes Johns Hopkins University President Ronald J. Daniels and Ralph Semmel, director of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory—described the links between basic research and economic growth, improved medical treatments, and national security. They noted that lagging U.S. investment in research and higher education combined with the significant increase in such investment by other nations has created an innovation deficit, threatening the nation’s international competitiveness.
Poke around and you will find plenty of scary statistics about new businesses—so many that starting a company at all can seem like sheer lunacy.
While research varies widely, we’ve seen reports that as many as 90 percent of tech startups “fail,” and that anywhere from 25 to 75 percent of venture-backed firms do not return capital to their investors. Just last week, Fab.com chief executive officer Jason Goldberg wrote a blog post about the difficulties of turning around his once fast-growing e-commerce startup, which had to cut half its staff as it pivoted away from flash sales toward a broader e-commerce approach.
University of Maryland, Baltimore County is moving forward with a new $123 million science building.
UMBC will begin designing the Interdisciplinary Life Sciences Building with $4.1 million from Maryland’s fiscal 2015 budget. The entire construction project is estimated at $123 million, which the state is expected to pay. Construction of the 123,000-square-foot building is scheduled to begin in March 2017 and the project should be completed by March 2019.
Smartphones and tablet computers are a new way to deliver diabetes therapy. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) calls this new type of therapy MPT: “mobile prescription therapy.” MPT products tell you what to do to take care of your disease. The advice shows up on your smartphone or other device.
You need a prescription for MPT products, which are regulated by the FDA. MPT products must show in clinical trials that they are safe and help people improve their health. MPT products must keep your health information private. These products are not like the simple health apps you can get for your phone or tablet. They can provide medical advice that regular apps aren’t allowed to provide.
Mene Pangalos is the man tasked with nothing less than firing up the discovery engine of Britain’s second-biggest drug maker after its catastrophic fall off the “patent cliff”.
He joined AstraZeneca as head of innovative medicines in 2010, as the company was bracing for patents to expire on a string of its best-selling drugs.
The Cyber Incubator@bwtech of Baltimore, Md., has been named a finalist for the National Business Incubation Association’s 2014 Dinah Adkins Incubator of the Year award in the technology focus category. The winner of the prestigious award will be announced May 20 at NBIA’s 28th International Conference on Business Incubation in New Orleans.
The Cyber Incubator is located at bwtech@UMBC Research and Technology Park, adjacent to and affiliated with the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC). The Cyber Incubator’s mission is to provide a unique, innovative approach to business incubation for early-stage cyber security and IT-focused businesses, including women-owned, minority-owned, and small disadvantaged businesses, and to foster economic development for the state of Maryland. When built in 2011, 5 companies occupied the incubator’s 10,000 square foot Class-A office space. Today the incubator houses over 30 companies and consists of an additional 3,000 square foot co-working space called the CyberHive.
Thousands of school-age children who visited the Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Biotechnology Education booth at the USA Science & Engineering Festival Expo got to try their hands at extracting DNA from strawberries, treating yellow fever and comparing DNA sequences to determine which animals are related to one another.
The Center for Biotechnology Education participated in the third biennial USA Science and Engineering Festival Expo, held this year in the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C. The three-day event, considered the largest science festival in the country, featured more than 3,000 hands-on activities presented by hundreds of universities and public and private organizations.
Merck & Co Inc (MRK.N) is considering selling a big portfolio of mature drugs that could fetch more than $15 billion, according to people familiar with the matter, as the U.S. drugmaker continues to streamline businesses to focus on high-growth areas.
Merck, which is also in the process of selling its $14 billion consumer healthcare unit, is working with an investment bank on the potential sale of the off-patent drugs, which could draw interest from generic drugmakers, the people said.
In the face of rising drug research and development costs and continued pressures against increasing prices for medicines and health care services, the biopharmaceutical industry must find ways to increase innovation and efficiencies. The Association of University Research Parks (AURP) today announced that leaders from industry and academia will come together at the Janssen Research & Development West Coast Research Center in San Diego on June 23, 2014, for AURP’s BioParks 2014 Meeting . Participants will address recent shifts in pharmaceutical R&D models and the role bioparks play in this evolution.
“Research parks play a vital role in fostering collaboration between universities and the private sector. While this is important across all research-based industries, the need for such collaboration is absolutely critical in the biopharmaceutical space,” said Kevin T. Byrne, MBA, AURP President, and President, The University Financing Foundation.
MedStar Health will become the final founding partner of the 1776 tech incubator in Washington, with clinicians and administrators with the Columbia-based health system having a “significant presence” in the incubator to work alongside startups working in the health care arena.
MedStar also plans to offer educational workshops about the evolving health care delivery landscape for entrepreneurs, officials said.
Last year investments in big data dominated health IT deals as 112 deals attracted $712 million in investments, according to a new report by StartUp Health assessing digital health investment trends in 2013 and the start of this year. But in a trend that’s likely to continue this year, sectors that saw the most growth tended to fall into one of two areas. Patient engagement had a 410 percent boost in deal flow, followed by sensors and vital-sign monitoring which showed a 243 percent rise.
Although the number of deals in the first quarter has declined to 133 compared with the same period in 2013, deal size has more than doubled to $1.35 billion compared with $599 million last year.
The following funding opportunity announcements from the NHLBI or other components of the National Institutes of Health, might be of interest: NIH Guide Notices:
BioHealth Innovation (BHI) is a regionally-oriented, private-public partnership functioning as an innovation intermediary focused on commercializing market-relevant biohealth innovations and increasing access to early-stage funding in Maryland.
The information contained in this website and newsletters is for general information purposes only. The information is provided by BioHealth Innovation via its newsletters, but not written or endorsed in any way by BioHealth Innovation unless otherwise noted. While we endeavor to keep the information up to date and correct, we make no representations or warranties of any kind, express or implied, about the completeness, accuracy, reliability, suitability or availability with respect to the website or the information, products, services, or related graphics contained on the website for any purpose. Any reliance you place on such information is therefore strictly at your own risk.
Adventist HealthCare on Monday named Terry Forde its new president and CEO.
The Gaithersburg-based hospital system had already tapped Forde its interim leader following last month’s announcement of CEO Bill Robertson’s planned departure. In February, Robertson said he would leave for a new position with MultiCare Health in Tacoma, Wash. Robertson, 54, had been Adventist’s CEO since April 2000.
QIAGEN’s Annual Report on Form 20-F for the year ended December 31, 2013 has been filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on March 04, 2014, a copy of which can be found on the website of the SEC at www.sec.gov or in the “Financial Information” section of the “Investors” section of our website at http://www.qiagen.com/About-Us/Investors/ . QIAGEN will provide printed copies of the 2013 Annual Report to shareholders free of charge upon request. To obtain a printed copy of the 2013 Annual Report please contact: IR@qiagen.com.
Maryland has a lot of technology interests, but Baltimore tech leader Jason Hardebeck thinks there’s room for one more: health IT.
Hardebeck, the former executive director of gb.tc, is heading up a new accelerator, DreamIt Health Baltimore. The accelerator is wrapping up its first cycle and Hardebeck thinks the program’s early success is a sign that health IT has a big future in Baltimore.
Noble Life Sciences (Gaithersburg, MD) and IBT Bioservices (Gaithersburg, MD) announce a newly optimized cotton rat model for preclinical studies of influenza therapies and vaccines. The companies jointly developed the model of influenza infection in the cotton rat.
Cotton rats are a vital tool to study influenza infection because adaptation of human influenza strains is not required for virus replication in the respiratory tract. Moreover, virus infection results in histopathological lesions in the lungs that are similar to those seen during natural infection of humans.
GlaxoSmithKline plc today announces a major 3-part inter-conditional transaction with Novartis AG involving its Consumer Healthcare, Vaccines and Oncology businesses (the “Transaction”). In summary:
GSK and Novartis will create a new world-leading Consumer Healthcare business with 2013 pro forma revenues of £6.5 billion. GSK will have majority control with an equity interest of 63.5%
GSK will acquire Novartis’ global Vaccines business (excluding influenza vaccines) for an initial cash consideration of $5.25 billion with subsequent potential milestone payments of up to $1.8 billion and ongoing royalties
GSK will divest its marketed Oncology portfolio, related R&D activities and rights to its AKT inhibitor and also grant of commercialisation partner rights for future oncology products to Novartis for an aggregate cash consideration of $16 billion (of which up to $1.5 billion depends on the results of the COMBI-d trial)
GSK shareholders to receive £4 billion capital return funded by net cash transaction proceeds and expected to be delivered via a B share scheme
Transaction expected to be accretive to core EPS from first year, reflecting execution of intended B share scheme, and thereafter with growing contribution from 2017 as projected cost savings and new growth opportunities are delivered
Transaction is expected to complete during the first half of 2015 subject to approvals
Emergent BioSolutions Inc. today announced that it has initiated manufacturing of BioThrax® (Anthrax Vaccine Adsorbed) consistency lots in Building 55, following review by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) of the Manufacturing and Non-Clinical Study Protocols submitted by the company supporting the Building 55 comparability program. The goal of the comparability program is to generate data that will show BioThrax manufactured at large scale in Building 55 is comparable to the BioThrax currently manufactured in the approved facility, Building 12. BioThrax is the only FDA-licensed vaccine for the prevention of anthrax disease.
“Emergent is pleased to have reached an agreement with FDA that now enables the final steps towards securing approval of Building 55 for large scale manufacturing of BioThrax. This progress could not have been achieved without the successful collaboration between the company, FDA, and BARDA,” said Adam Havey, executive vice president and president, biodefense division at Emergent BioSolutions. “This multi-year effort to expand our manufacturing capability is intended to address the U.S. Government’s stated need for this critical medical countermeasure in the Strategic National Stockpile. We look forward to our continued partnership with the government to bring this program to completion.”
Montgomery County Executive Isiah Leggett will lead a business mission to India on November 13-22, visiting New Delhi and Bangalore, with opportunities for delegates to also visit Hyderabad and Raipur. The mission will offer Montgomery County companies in several technology and services sectors the opportunity to experience first-hand the substantial opportunities that exist in one of the fastest growing, large economies of the world.
PathSensors, Inc. is a growing biotechnology company headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland. The company is developing products for the rapidly evolving field of pathogen detection. We are currently seeking qualified candidates for the position of Director of Biosensor Development. The successful candidate will be responsible for design, development and continuous improvement of our portfolio of biosensor products.
A new $1.7 million lab at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County is designed to teach students about science through experience.
The 3,000-square-foot Science Learning Collaboratory in UMBC’s Meyerhoff Chemistry Building, is a partnership with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, which paid for the project. UMBC students will take classes in the new lab during the school year and Howard Hughes will use the space during the summer. The university unveiled the new space Monday.
Heart disease is the #1 killer of humans — claiming more lives than car accidents, war, famine, and natural disasters.
So it’ll come as good news that scientists at Johns Hopkins have found a drug that acts by stopping any hardening of the arteries, and prevents fat from clogging up blood vessels.
With a pinch of history, a dash of pride, and a heaping helping of collaboration, University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) President Jay A. Perman, MD, put forth a winning recipe in his first annual State of the University Address.
Speaking at a packed School of Nursing auditorium on April 24 that included dignitaries such as University System of Maryland (USM) Chancellor William E. Kirwan, PhD, Perman discussed UMB’s recent achievements and the challenges it will confront in the coming year.
In our lead up to the 2014 USA Science and Engineering Festival, we at Lux are proud to present our second TouchCast interactive video. The video excerpt below comes from Forbes/Wolfe Emerging Technology Report’s recent full-length interview with Dr. Bahija Jallal, Executive Vice President of MedImmune, the global biologics research and development arm of AstraZeneca. Dr. Jallal shares with us a bit about MedImmune, her background, and the company’s partnership with the USA Science and Engineering Festival.
Before April 16, 2014, NIH permitted one resubmission (A1) of an unfunded application (see NOT-OD-09-016). The extension on the NIH grant number could follow the pattern (A0, A1). A first-time submission is informally referred to as an A0, and the first resubmission is known as an A1. Any virtual A2s would be flagged by the NIH Center for Scientific Review.
For all application due dates after April 16, 2014, following an unsuccessful resubmission (A1) application, applicants may submit the same idea as a new (A0) application for the next appropriate new application due date (see NOT-OD-14-082).
Resubmissions (A1) must be submitted within 37 months of the new (A0) application (see NOT-OD-10-140). For more details on the Resubmission Policy, visit the Resubmissions webpage and the Guide Notice, NOT-OD-14-074.
The impact of federal budget cuts compounded by the challenges of securing funding for biotechnology companies has led to a growing trend of drug development. Scientists are turning to crowdfunding for biotechnology as a way to scrape up money.
A concept for a nonprofit crowdfunding website for medical research hatched at Lehigh Valley StartUp Weekend last fall is moving ahead.
FRIDAY, JUNE 13, 2014 8:30 am, Rockville, Maryland
The biomanufacturing industry faces an unprecedented challenge with the emergence of biosimilars. The pathway to approval for biosimilars is a fluid process and several key aspects are still not determined. The University of Maryland and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) will deliver a one-day symposium on the current trends of characterization and production of biosimilars. On Friday, June 13, 2014 at 8:30 am join the thought-leaders, policy-makers, and creators of biosimilars as we present current trends, ideas, and predictions.
For decades, large companies have gone shopping in Silicon Valley for startups. Lately, the pressure of continuous disruption has forced them to step up the pace.
More often than not, the results of these acquisitions are disappointing.
What can companies learn from others’ failed efforts to integrate startups into large companies? The answer: There are two types of integration strategies, and they depend on where the startup is in its lifecycle.
When Bryan Sivak joined then D.C. mayor Adrian Fenty’s administration as chief technology officer, he was fresh from building his own business. Five years later, Sivak has become something of a government-embedded entrepreneur. He left the District to become Maryland’s first chief innovation officer in 2011. He is now chief technology officer at the Department of Health and Human Services. There, he manages the IDEA Lab, a series of programs that reward innovation, bring private sector leaders into the agency, and provide employees with time and money to pursue ideas. The effort aims to infuse a sense of entrepreneurship in the risk-adverse temperament of government.
Herndon-based APX Labs has raised $10 million from New Enterprise Associates to bring its software platform for Google Glass and other wearables to manufacturing, health care and other enterprise customers.
The Series A investment from NEA embodies the prediction that the near-future of smart glasses lies in the enterprise, whether that be the sort of heads-up displays offered by Google Glass or more substantial augmented reality overlays provided by ( noticeably less sleek) devices like the Epson Moverio. APX, through its flagship product Skylight, provides both the user interface and the back-end software that could, for example, give assembly line workers data on an individual part as it crossed they field of view.
On an industrial park next to Liverpool’s John Lennon airport, drugs companies are involved in research that is driving a new frenzy of multibillion-dollar takeover deals. The focus on this Merseyside site is on creating what could be the next big thing for the sector: biological medicines, derived from living organisms.
In laboratories here and around the world, the quest for the latest blockbuster drug has sparked another flurry of deal activity. Last week saw GlaxoSmithKline of the UK and Swiss rival Novartis agree a multibillion dollar swap of assets, while it emerged that another British firm, AstraZeneca, has been the subject of a £60bn approach from US group Pfizer. And every participant is seeking a deal that will yield a clutch of medical bestsellers.
The EY Entrepreneur Of The Year 2014 finalists have a lot to celebrate. They’ve built their dream companies. Expanded. Innovated. And now EY is recognizing them for their achievements. Help us congratulate these outstanding entrepreneurs. Join us at this years event and see who will take home top honors.
Johns Hopkins University is among the 50 wealthiest universities across the globe.
The university’s endowment value in 2013 was $2.987 billion — good for 29th on the list of the wealthiest universities, according to higher education website nonprofitcollegesonline.com.
Maryland’s strength in the technology sector is making it one of the fastest-growing exporters of high-tech goods and services in the U.S.
Maryland ranks eighth on the list of the nation’s fastest-growing exporter of high tech goods, according to a recent report from Technology CEO Council, a public policy advocacy organization in Washington, D.C. More than 9.5 percent — or $24.425 billion — of the state’s GDP can be attributed to the tech sector.
Here I am presenting opportunities to those engaged in research for electric and other advanced vehicles, to engage in research related to their own research, earning some money for their efforts, as well as helping their country. Note: Some of these are restricted to American citizens, or certain “Permanent Resident” or “protected” foreigners. Others require watchful tracking of what the foreigners do.
The current DoD Small-Business Innovative Research (SBIR) Solicitation, 2014.2, will be open until June 25. There is a large selection of topics available. I will be selecting and rating many of these, to make it easier for readers to select topics of interest. This may take a week or so, because I first must visit the NY Auto Show and write a blog about it.
Principia Biopharma Inc., a South San Francisco-based developer of small molecule drugs within the fields of autoimmune disease and oncology, has raised $50 million in Series B funding. Sofinnova Ventures led the round, and was joined by return backers Morgenthaler Ventures, New Leaf Venture Partners, OrbiMed, SR One and Mission Bay Capital. The company previously raised $40 million.www.principiabio.com
Maryland’s efforts to build out the local cybersecurity economy seem to be working. Cybersecurity startup Luminal recently announced a move to Maryland from West Virginia, and will be rewarded by a $600,000 investment from InvestMaryland, the state’s venture fund. With this investment, Luminal closed a total of $3.82 million in a Series A round of funding including Core Capital Partners and New Enterprise Associates.
As CivSource has reported Maryland has launched several initiatives aimed at growing the local cybersecurity economy, including tax incentives, investments and a research partnership leveraging local universities and the military. Maryland is building on its proximity to a number of critical defense assets and the federal government to attract new cybersecurity entrants. The state of Virginia is also working on a similar effort.
Cultural fit, bundling potential and a focus on work force optimization.
If your healthcare startup meets all or even two of these criteria, you’ll have a better than average chance of attracting attention from GE Healthcare.
Mike Swinford, President and CEO Global Services at GE Healthcare, explained the thinking behind three recent acquisitions as well as how the companies helped GE make more money.
The pharmaceutical industry is regaining its swagger, as companies turn to big and sometimes daring deals to expand and reshape their operations.
On Tuesday alone, pharmaceutical companies announced $74 billion worth of potential deals, including an unorthodox $45.6 billion bid for Allergan, the maker of Botox, and a flurry of swaps and sales between Novartis of Switzerland and GlaxoSmithKline of Britain.
The potential for crowdfunding, as defined in the JOBS Act, to fundamentally change the nature of capital formation is tremendous, potentially opening up avenues to investment and borrowing that were previously only available to a small segment of the investing community, let along the general public. And one sector that could see truly revolutionary change is health care.
BioHealth Innovation (BHI) is a regionally-oriented, private-public partnership functioning as an innovation intermediary focused on commercializing market-relevant biohealth innovations and increasing access to early-stage funding in Maryland.
The information contained in this website and newsletters is for general information purposes only. The information is provided by BioHealth Innovation via its newsletters, but not written or endorsed in any way by BioHealth Innovation unless otherwise noted. While we endeavor to keep the information up to date and correct, we make no representations or warranties of any kind, express or implied, about the completeness, accuracy, reliability, suitability or availability with respect to the website or the information, products, services, or related graphics contained on the website for any purpose. Any reliance you place on such information is therefore strictly at your own risk.
BHI Appoints Shady Grove Adventist Hospital President John A. Sackett to Board of Directors
ROCKVILLE, MARYLAND, April 21, 2014 – BioHealth Innovation, Inc. (BHI) announced today the appointment of Shady Grove Adventist Hospital President John A. Sackett to its Board of Directors. Mr. Sackett is filling a vacancy on the BHI board left by William G. “Bill” Robertson, who recently announced that he was leaving his post as President and Chief Executive Officer of Adventist HealthCare for a position in Washington state.
“The addition of John to the BHI Board of Directors affords us with another strong healthcare leader who provides a perspective from the health system side of the business,” said Rich Bendis, President & CEO, BioHealth Innovation, Inc. “His decades of experience as a healthcare administrator will be an asset to BHI as we work with startups who are seeking to commercialize biohealth products and gain acceptance within the healthcare system.“
In April of 2013, Mr. Sackett became President of Shady Grove Adventist Hospital. He began his career at Boulder Memorial Hospital in 1982. He served as Vice President for General Services from March 1984 until being named President of Avista Adventist Hospital, formerly Boulder Memorial Hospital, in June of 1989. In 1996, when Avista Adventist Hospital became a member of Centura Health, he was named Senior Vice President for Mission and Ministry, in addition to his responsibilities as Administrator for Avista. He most recently served Centura as the Chief Executive Officer for Avista Adventist Hospital in Louisville, Colorado.
The Montgomery County Department of Economic Development is looking for a senior level professional to formulate and implement the County’s economic development strategy related to the growth of the life sciences and health IT industry sectors and to provide policy advice on technology issues in these strategic sectors. The position will foster partnerships and manage projects designed to attract new companies to the County, to enhance the presence of companies in these sectors within the County and to foster a pipeline of new companies in these sectors.
This position will evaluate and make recommendations on the technology policy issues relevant to Montgomery County, and implement creative programs that will expand the County’s technological presence in the global marketplace. This position affects the County’s economic well-being through the number of additional jobs created, number of companies established, capital raised, and commercial space occupied through new company attraction, retention and growth of existing companies, and a pipeline of startups. The candidate will work collaboratively with DED teammates to build the capabilities and competencies of the Department.
Qiagen NV, the Dutch diagnostics technology company that bought Gaithersburg-based Digene for $1.6 billion in 2007, is preparing to clear out of Digene’s old offices and move staff to an expanded Germantown headquarters.
The move has been in the works for years, but Qiagen can finally push forward following recent FDA clearance of its 270,000-square-foot Germantown site for manufacturing the company’s human papillomavirus (HPV) test. That HPV test, developed by Digene, was the impetus for the 2007 acquisition.
Two Big Pharma companies with strong ties to the Philadelphia region are the subject of the latest mega-merger rumor in the drug manufacturing industry.
Pfizer Inc. has expressed an interest in acquiring AstraZeneca for $101 billion, according to a report in London’s Sunday Times. The two companies declined commenting on the report.
Emergent BioSolutions Inc. announced today that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted Orphan Drug Designation to BioThrax® (Anthrax Vaccine Adsorbed) for post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) of anthrax disease resulting from suspected or confirmed exposure to Bacillus anthracis. Orphan status is given to drugs and biologics that are being developed to treat rare medical conditions, specifically those affecting fewer than 200,000 persons in the U.S. This designation provides incentives to the BioThrax PEP Program, including the waiver of the Biologics License Application (BLA) supplemental regulatory filing fee and marketing exclusivity of up to seven years.
“Emergent is pleased with FDA’s Orphan Drug Designation of BioThrax for post-exposure prophylaxis,” said Adam Havey, executive vice president and president, biodefense division at Emergent BioSolutions. “This designation will help streamline discussions around regulatory requirements at our pre-BLA meeting with FDA next month. We look forward to discussing our supplemental application for the expanded indication of post-exposure prophylaxis and the role of BioThrax in the treatment of inhalation anthrax.”
The rise of corporate venture capital investors, whether at the seed-stage, in the largest financings or into the billion-dollar valuation club, has been reshaping the VC ecosystem as of late. And while some VCs including Fred Wilson have been critical of corporate venture units, others have syndicated dozens of deals with corporate venture arms in just the past few years alone.
Using CB Insights data, we took a look at which VC firms have co-invested in the highest number of deals with a corporate venture unit since 2008 and how their CVC-syndicated deals added up as a percentage of their overall deal activity.
Horizon Pharma, Inc. today announced the appointment of H. Thomas Watkins, former director, president and chief executive officer of Human Genome Sciences, to its board of directors. Additionally, Jean-Francois Formela, M.D. has resigned from the Horizon board of directors.
“Tom brings valuable industry experience to our board as a highly regarded biotechnology leader,” said Timothy P. Walbert, chairman, president and chief executive officer, Horizon Pharma. “As we continue to grow our commercial business and build our organization through in-licensing and acquisitions, his strategic insights and pharmaceutical leadership experience will be important at this critical juncture for Horizon. Also, I would like to thank Jean-Francois for his years of service and counsel as a member of our board. Jean-Francois joined the Horizon board in 2010 in connection with our acquisition of Nitec and has been a valuable member of the board in helping us develop and implement the strategic direction of the Company.”
The Executive Director supports the Senior Advisor for Enterprise Development to the University President in directing and managing the short and long term critical priorities, initiatives and activities that relate to current entrepreneurship, commercialization, innovation, and translational efforts at Johns Hopkins University. The Executive Director represents the Senior Advisor to the President and ensures effective communication, coordination, and integration across various initiatives and programs where appropriate.
Qiagen has acquired an exclusive worldwide license to a promising biomarker that could aid the diagnosis of a group of blood disorders.
The biomarker calreticulin (CALR) has been found to present mutations in an estimated 15 percent of cases of myeloproliferative neoplasms, a group of blood disorders involving overproduction of blood cells that can cause severe complications.
Emergent BioSolutions Inc. today announced successful completion of the last licensure-enabling study in its BioThrax® (Anthrax Vaccine Adsorbed) Post-Exposure Prophylaxis (PEP) program. This clinical study, also known as the non-interference study, was designed to evaluate the pharmacokinetic profile of the antimicrobial ciprofloxacin when administered prior to and following the administration of a three-dose series of BioThrax. It was also designed to evaluate the immune response to BioThrax when administered with or without ciprofloxacin. The primary endpoints were the ratio of the maximum concentration (Cmax) and area under the curve (AUC) for ciprofloxacin and the secondary endpoint was the ratio of the geometric mean titer of the antibody response to BioThrax two weeks following the last dose. The study met the prospectively defined success criteria for both the primary and secondary endpoints. Data from this study show no interaction between ciprofloxacin and BioThrax.
Emergent has submitted the final clinical study report to the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Results from this study will be used to support a supplemental Biologics License Application (sBLA) seeking licensure of a PEP indication for BioThrax to be used in combination with antibiotics in people with suspected or confirmed exposure to anthrax spores. BioThrax is currently licensed for a pre-exposure prophylaxis indication only.
The University of Maryland announced today that the 2014 University of Maryland Corporate Connector of the Year Award recipient will be Dr. Michael Pecht and the UMD Center for Advanced Life Cycle Engineering (CALCE). The UMD Corporate Connect Council annually recognizes a University of Maryland researcher, staff or unit that has achieved significant engagement with the private sector in corporate research, philanthropy, or student support.
Pecht will receive his award as part of the University’s Celebration of Innovation and Partnerships on Tuesday, April 29, 2014 at University House in College Park, Maryland. Pecht’s engagement with the private sector has played a large role in making UMD CALCE, headquartered at the College Park campus, the world’s largest manufacturing consortium in electronic parts reliability engineering, accelerated testing, and supply chain management. Over 150 corporations, federal labs, universities and leading international research centers are members.
The Maryland Technology Development Corporation (TEDCO) announced today that nine finalists have been selected in the organization’s fourth annual ICE Awards. The awards program, which recognizes Innovation, Corporate Excellence and Entrepreneurship, will reward outstanding businesses and individuals from TEDCO’s diverse portfolio of more than 300 seed and early-stage companies. Winners will be announced on Thursday, May 15 from 8:30 am – 11:30 am during the awards ceremony at the Sheraton Columbia Town Center Hotel in Columbia, Md.
“TEDCO’s portfolio companies encompass an incredibly diverse range of industries, technologies and innovations,” said Rob Rosenbaum, president and executive director of TEDCO. “We are pleased to announce this year’s ICE Awards finalists and congratulate them on their continued success in some of the fastest-growing and most competitive fields out there. Most importantly, we look forward to continuing to support leading Maryland innovators.”
Now that the Maryland General Assembly has adjourned for the year, it is time to take a quick review of significant accomplishments. Amid the hotly-contested debate on honoring soft shell crabs, kudos to the legislature for passing two little-noticed initiatives to create jobs and spur local economic development by leveraging the state’s huge academic, federal and private research sectors.
The first initiative, the “E-nnovate” bill, creates a $100 million matching fund to recruit the world’s best scholars to Maryland in areas as diverse as cyber security, biotechnology, STEM education, autonomous systems, language science and food safety. The fund will require these scholars to work with other Maryland universities, federal labs or with innovative startup companies, ensuring integration of research into economic development.
The University of Maryland, College Park, has announced a new master’s degree program that will focus on technology entrepreneurship — and, appropriately, it will be offered online.
The program will be part of the university’s Maryland Technology Enterprise Institute (Mtech), and enrollees will have access to the institute’s Technology Advancement and Venture Accelerator programs in addition to their online curriculum.
If you have been around UMBC at all in the past few years and involved with the Alex. Brown Center for Entrepreneurship, you have heard about or met Greg Cangialosi. Some were even lucky enough to take the Digital Marketing class taught by him last Spring (2013).
Cangialosi is also the benefactor and namesake of the Cangialosi Business Innovation Competition getting ready to make it’s debut in a just a few weeks.
Three Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine researchers have been awarded two-year grants for their work on potential treatments for diabetes, Novo Nordisk announced this month. Of the 110 initial submissions to the new Novo Nordisk Diabetes and Obesity Biologics Science Forum Program, only four projects were funded, three of which are led by Johns Hopkins researchers. They are Jonathan Powell, M.D., Ph.D.; G. William Wong, Ph.D.; and Elias Zambidis, M.D., Ph.D.
For as long as I can remember I have been preparing for college.
And not because I wanted to, but because I was “encouraged” (nagged) by my parents. It started in middle school. I had to get good grades so I could get into a good program at my high school, where I had to get good grades so I could get into a good college.
Howard County’s Economic Development Authority on Thursday unveiled its newest workspace, a prototyping lab devoted to 3D printing and rapid technology.
The Innovation + Prototyping Lab, located at the Maryland Center for Entrepreneurship’s Columbia headquarters on Bendix Road, is an 1800-square-foot space stocked with four 3D printers, computers offering software tutorials and shelves of printed parts.
Disease Diagnostic Group, maker of an inexpensive handheld device that can diagnose malaria in one minute, was named the winner of the 2014 Cupid’s Cup Business Competition, chaired by Under Armour Founder and CEO Kevin Plank. The ninth annual event was April 4 at the University of Maryland’s College Park campus, hosted by the Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship at the Robert H. Smith School of Business. In a last-minute twist to the competition, Disease Diagnostic Group’s founder, an engineering student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, accepted Plank’s offer of an additional $25,000 in exchange for equity, bringing the company’s grand prize winnings to $100,000.
The equity will be held by Plank’s Cupid Foundation, which funds the annual competition. Plank, a graduate of the University of Maryland, started the competition with the Dingman Center to foster interest in student entrepreneurship. The competition is open to undergraduate and graduate-level students at accredited U.S. colleges and universities, and recent graduates of these institutions.
The exuberance of last year’s record D.C. region venture totals waned somewhat in the first three months of 2014, with 43 companies raising a collective $217.5 million, according to the MoneyTree report released Friday by PricewaterhouseCoopers and the National Venture Capital Association.
The total represents an 18 percent drop compared with the same period last year, and a 31 percent fall from the fourth quarter of 2013.
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 the winter of 1996, as part of my new position as president of the Baltimore Development Corp., I searched for evidence of the city’s technology scene.
There wasn’t much to see.
I first visited the BDC’s “incubator,” housed in an old — but not historic — building at 1444 Key Highway in South Baltimore. It was the only incubator in the region. As I met with the staff, I observed that several buckets had been strategically placed to catch water leaks (a seemingly insurmountable problem, as I was told).
Sarah Bergbreiter is an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Maryland, and she and her team build tiny robots.
Just how tiny? Bergbreiter calls it “ant-scale,” but said, “That’s really just a PR term. Our robots are built on the millimetre scale, less than 1 centimeter.”
For nearly a year and a half, there has been word that Cambridge Innovation Center (CIC) — the Massachusetts-based coworking space and business incubator for early-stage startups — would expand and open an office in Baltimore.
As Technical.ly Baltimore reported in July 2013, current plans for CIC Baltimore situates the incubator at 873 W. Baltimore St. near the University of Maryland BioPark. At the time real estate consulting firm Cross Street Partners told Technical.ly Baltimore that the Baltimore-based innovation center — a development project of Wexford company — would be roughly 44,000 square feet when construction is completed in late 2014.
MidAmerica Healthcare Venture Forum, to take place April 22-23 in Chicago, unites active investors with corporate business development executives to facilitate investment opportunities with promising Mid-America based startups.
The event showcases emerging innovation and technology dealflow originating in the Midwest, and has earned the reputation as the premier healthcare investing conference.
Cultivating Cultures for Ethical STEM (CCE STEM) funds research projects that identify factors that are effacacious in the formation of ethical STEM researchers in all the fields of science and engineering that NSF supports. CCE STEM solicits proposals for research that explores the following: ‘What constitutes ethical STEM research and practice? Which cultural and institutional contexts promote ethical STEM research and practice and why?’ Factors one might consider include: honor codes, professional ethics codes and licensing requirements, an ethic of service and/or service learning, life-long learning requirements, curricula or memberships in organizations (e.g. Engineers without Borders) that stress social responsibility and humanitarian goals, institutions that serve under-represented groups, institutions where academic and research integrity are cultivated at multiple levels, institutions that cultivate ethics across the curriculum, or programs that promote group work, or do not grade. Do certain labs have a ‘culture of academic integrity’? What practices contribute to the establishment and maintenance of ethical cultures and how can these practices be transferred, extended to, and integrated into other research and learning settings?
When Kathleen Sebelius took the helm of one of the largest civilian departments in the federal government, the first thorny issue on her desk was responding to the H1N1 flu virus, a new pandemic flu strain that seemed to target otherwise healthy young people. After less than week on the job her first public speech focused on how the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which oversees the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Food and Drug Administration, was responding to the public health emergency. She released millions of antiviral drugs from the national stockpile and warned against fake flu cures while calling for continual investment into research to stay ahead of future flu outbreaks. Talks about women’s and children’s health, obesity and AIDS soon followed.
On Friday, March 28th, a contingent of Johns Hopkins University Department of Biomedical Engineering (JHU BME) undergraduate students and faculty visited the University of Maryland campus in College Park, Md. to participate in the second annual JHU–UMD Undergraduate Research Day with undergraduates from the University of Maryland’s Fischell Department of Bioengineering (UMD BioE).
This event is organized by the two universities’ student Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES) chapters — under the leadership of chapter presidents Anvesh Annadanam (JHU BME), and Luke Peterken (UMD BioE).
As early as February, analysts were saying that it would be a good year for healthcare IT companies looking for venture capital.
Communications and consulting firm Mercom Capital echoed that today with results from its first-quarter investment analysis which found that healthcare IT companies raised more VC money last quarter than in any quarter before.
Governor Deval Patrick announced Thursday a plan to keep highly-skilled international students in Massachusetts post-graduation. Under his proposed Global Entrepreneur in Residence program, however, the “highly-skilled” appear to have one trait in common: technical talent. And now is not the time to be focusing solely on science, technology, engineering and math.
Patrick’s proposed legislation exploits a loophole in federal immigration law, and could bolster the number of H-1B visas the state is allotted. Students eligible for a nonimmigrant visa but unable to obtain it due to a federal cap will be designated an “entrepreneur in residence” if they have plans to start or grow a business locally.
Healthbox, which helps medical startups grow through accelerators in the U.S. and U.K., is expanding its business through a $7 million fundraising.
Healthbox CEO Nina Nashif Healthbox Healthbox and groups like Rock Health and Blueprint Health help entrepreneurs launch businesses in hot markets like health information technology and digital health. Medical software and information services startups raised $297 million in the first quarter, a 130% jump from Q1 of 2013, according to Dow Jones VentureSource.
Funding in the wider category of digital health topped $1.9 billion last year, up 39% from 2012, according to Rock Health.
Today Healthbox announces it has closed $7 million in funding to expand on its accelerator model and launch three new business verticals that will continue to drive actionable innovation through collaboration between entrepreneurs and the healthcare industry.
This is a bold vision for a healthcare accelerator. Healthbox closed the $7 million from a collaborative group of leading healthcare organizations to form Healthbox Global Partners, LLC, representing the common need to find and implement transformative solutions that will improve health outcomes.
Join us as we bring together the major players in Maryland’s startup ecosystem to celebrate entrepreneurism and award nearly $1,000,000 in prizes to the state’s most promising early-stage companies.
Who will win the Cyber, Life Sciences, IT and General Industry Categories? Join us May 19th to find out!
The most fundamental way for a nation to build its strength in innovation is to invest in its research universities because this investment brings forth new knowledge and human capital – two key aspects that help accelerate innovation, according to Dr. L Rafael Reif, President of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
“New knowledge is the foundation of all truly important innovation while human capital helps in transforming knowledge into new technologies, solutions, companies and jobs,” explained Dr. Reif, who was delivering a talk titled, ‘Science, Technology and Education: Research Universities as Engines of a Modern Economy’ at Masdar Institute in Abu Dhabi. A large number of staff and faculty members with students and other stakeholders attended the event that was organized as part of the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology’s Distinguished Lecture Series program.
BioHealth Innovation (BHI) is a regionally-oriented, private-public partnership functioning as an innovation intermediary focused on commercializing market-relevant biohealth innovations and increasing access to early-stage funding in Maryland.
The information contained in this website and newsletters is for general information purposes only. The information is provided by BioHealth Innovation via its newsletters, but not written or endorsed in any way by BioHealth Innovation unless otherwise noted. While we endeavor to keep the information up to date and correct, we make no representations or warranties of any kind, express or implied, about the completeness, accuracy, reliability, suitability or availability with respect to the website or the information, products, services, or related graphics contained on the website for any purpose. Any reliance you place on such information is therefore strictly at your own risk.
With a budget bill passed this weekend and the University System of Maryland successfully lobbying for limited cuts to its state funding, the final day of the state’s legislative session was less intense for the higher education lobby.
The most significant bills for this university and the university system received support in both chambers of the legislature and passed with little controversy.
But for what amounted to a quiet day, the university system secured significant victories, with measures that use university resources to spur economic development and a state grant program aimed at attracting talented faculty to state universities passing one right after the other on the morning of sine die.
GlycoMimetics, Inc. (NASDAQ:GLYC) announced today that data for its lead clinical drug candidate, rivipansel (GMI-1070), was highlighted via one oral presentation and one poster at the 8th Annual Sickle Cell Disease Research and Educational Symposium and 37th National Sickle Cell Disease Scientific Meeting, held April 11-14, 2014, at the InterContinental Miami.
Rivipansel is in clinical trials as a potential therapy for the treatment of vaso-occlusive crisis (VOC) in people with sickle cell disease. It has previously received both Orphan Drug and Fast Track status for the treatment of VOC from the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA), and Orphan Product status in the European Union. GlycoMimetics is developing rivipansel in collaboration with Pfizer, Inc.
A group of University of Maryland undergraduates put together a spectacular hackathon this weekend, attracting more than 750 college students from across the country to take part in the 36-hour long event. The hackathon, which went by the name of Bitcamp, lasted from April 4-6 in Cole Field House on school grounds, providing students with the opportunity to collaborate with fellow innovators in creating brilliant new hardware and applications for mobile devices, computers or the Web.
QIAGEN N.V. today announced it has acquired an exclusive worldwide license to the biomarker calreticulin (CALR), whose recently discovered mutations are found in an estimated 15% of cases of myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPNs), a group of blood disorders. QIAGEN licensed the technology from CeMM Vienna, the Research Center for Molecular Medicine of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, whose scientists led a team that discovered the presence of mutations of the CALR protein in MPNs. QIAGEN plans to develop a molecular diagnostic test for the CALR mutations to offer each patient a clearer prognostic profile and to guide disease management. Development of a CALR diagnostic test is expected to be highly complementary to QIAGEN’s kits for a key mutation of the Janus kinase 2 (JAK2) gene.
Myeloproliferative neoplasms, a group of blood disorders involving overproduction of blood cells, are chronic diseases that can lead to several complications including thrombosis (blood clots) and in some cases difficult-to-treat acute leukemia. QIAGEN already has an exclusive license for the JAK2 V617F mutation, which is present in about 75% of patients with MPNs. According to an article published in the New England Journal of Medicine in December 2013 by the CeMM team led by Robert Kralovics, patients with CALR mutations suffer from a milder form of the disease than those with the JAK2V617F mutation, including a lower risk of thrombosis and a higher survival rate.
This year has been charted with the unfolding of several White House technology initiatives that involve leveraging the groundbreaking work of the nation’s federal laboratories. In 1986, the Federal Laboratory Consortium for Technology Transfer (FLC) was mandated to pursue these initiatives by facilitating the movement of technologies from labs to the marketplace, strengthening research and development by streamlining technology transfer (T2) procedures, and increasing industry partnerships and collaborations. And, given the theme of this year’s FLC national meeting, “Accelerating Innovation for Economic Impact,” coupled with its nearby capital setting at the North Bethesda Marriott in Rockville, Maryland, this year is no exception.
DC I-Corps, in partnership with BioHealth Innovation, Inc., has developed a new, NSF-supported program designed to foster, grow and nurture the life science innovation ecosystem in the Mid-Atlantic Region and is now accepting applications for its spring cohort, beginning on May 12th. Applications will be accepted on a rolling basis up until that date.
Open to research teams and aspiring entrepreneurs from the National Institutes of Health and other federal laboratories, the free program guides researchers in exploring the commercial potential of their inventions.
Through DC I-Corps, you will:
Learn how to assess the commercial value of life science technologies through a customer discovery process;
Work closely with six or more real-world advisors that have startup, venture capital, and technology commercialization experience over a five-week period; and
Come to a clear go or no-go decision regarding the commercial potential of your technology.
BVCF, a Shanghai-based life sciences investor, has closed its third fund with $188 million to back upstart biotechs on both sides of the Pacific focused on the booming Asian market. Dow Jones’ VentureWire and other media outlets reported that the backers to this fund include Novartis ($NVS), BlackRock, NEA and International Finance, which is gambling $20 million on the fund at a when time drug development activities in China continue to heat up.
BVCF sits on the crossroads of a relatively small but fast-growing area in biotech. U.S. and European biopharma companies have been looking for new ways to enter the Chinese drug market as the Big Pharma giants build out large new R&D operations in Asia and start linking up with academic groups. And the trend is spawning new joint ventures and company startups with in-licensed development projects.
Drug research is a small world, where the main players often intersect repeatedly as they take on new roles at different institutions. And MD Anderson’s new “moon shots” program on immuno-oncology is proving that maxim yet again as GlaxoSmithKline’s immunotherapy team suits up for the last big slot in an ambitious alliance of industry giants aimed at discovering some new products in the red-hot cancer R&D field.
GlaxoSmithKline ($GSK) is taking a berth next to teams from AstraZeneca ($AZN), Pfizer ($PFE) and Johnson & Johnson ($J&J). And the pact brings together two of the key players in the development of Yervoy, the pioneering anti-CTLA-4 immune checkpoint inhibitor which helped trigger one of the most frenetic development races the industry has seen.
The Tech Council of Maryland (TCM), Maryland’s largest technology trade association for life science and technology, today praised state lawmakers for advancing key priorities for the tech community during this year’s legislative session. The 2014 session concluded on Monday.
“We are encouraged to see Maryland lawmakers and the Administration come through on our biggest pro-growth priorities: stronger incentives for R&D, biotechnology, and cybersecurity,” said Phil Schiff, TCM’s CEO. “These industries are the catalysts for innovation and job growth in Maryland, and we are grateful to see so many policy makers in Annapolis recognize the pivotal role they will play in Maryland’s economic future.”
BD Diagnostics, a segment of BD (Becton, Dickinson and Company), a leading global medical technology company, announced today the CE mark and launch of the BD MAX™ GC rt PCR assay in Europe. The BD MAX GC rt PCR assay is an in vitro diagnostic test intended for testing Neisseria gonorrhoeae (GC) positive results from the BD ProbeTec™ GC Qx Amplified DNA Assay performed on the BD Viper™ System with XTR™ Technology. The assay may be used for detection of GC DNA in residual male or female urine specimens, or residual endocervical, vaginal or male urethral swab specimens that have tested positive for GC using the BD ProbeTec GC Qx Amplified DNA Assay.
In a bid to expand its pipeline of Personalized Healthcare assays, Qiagen NV (QGEN – Snapshot Report) acquired an exclusive worldwide license for the calreticulin (CALR) biomarker from CeMM Vienna, the Research Center for Molecular Medicine of the Austrian Academy of Sciences.
Qiagen retains a strong pipeline of promising biomarkers under development for Personalized Healthcare tests pertaining to rheumatoid arthritis, lung cancer, colorectal cancer, glioblastoma, lymphoma and other cancers. Post acquisition of the license, Qiagen will develop a molecular diagnostic test for CALR mutations that will help healthcare providers to make more informed therapeutic decisions.
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center announced its new collaboration with GlaxoSmithKline to advance development of cancer immunotherapies.
The collaboration will focus on the identification of new therapeutic approaches, evaluation of patient outcomes in clinical testing, and utilization of resulting information to develop drugs that recruit the body’s own immune system against cancer.
The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) seeks feedback from the small business community regarding the current state of the science and commercial feasibility of using in vitro human cellular models as an experimental tool for predicting in vivo drug responses to cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR)-directed therapeutics for Cystic Fibrosis (CF) lung disease at the individual level. Responses to this Request for Information (RFI) will assist NHLBI staff in assessing the value of the research in areas related to advancing precision medicine approaches to treatment.
New Enterprise Associates, Inc. (NEA), a leading global venture capital firm, today announced the kickoff of a second installment of its design mentorship program, In the Studio. Building on NEA’s successful 2013 program, In the Studio will be an intensive, two-week program for up to six design teams, developed and produced in collaboration with New York City-based product studio All Tomorrows, led by Albert Lee, and with Liz Danzico, founding chairperson of the Interaction Design program at New York City’s School of Visual Arts. Applications are now being accepted for the program, which will take place June 2nd through 17th, 2014.
Led by NEA Partner Dayna Grayson, the program evolved in response to a growing community of entrepreneurially minded designers, particularly in the New York City tech ecosystem. With design increasingly central in building successful consumer and enterprise applications, the program recruits talented designers with entrepreneurial or startup aspirations and provides mentorship, resources and opportunities to collaborate.
Historic release of data gives consumers unprecedented transparency on the medical services physicians provide and how much they are paid
Today, as part of the Obama administration’s work to make our health care system more transparent, affordable, and accountable, Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced the release of new, privacy-protected data on services and procedures provided to Medicare beneficiaries by physicians and other health care professionals. The new data also show payment and submitted charges, or bills, for those services and procedures by provider.
Fifty-four weeks after it opened, 1776 serves as a packed and noisy hub for Washington’s startup community.
Evan Burfield and Donna Harris founded the business incubator in January 2013, and 1776 moved into its 12th-floor offices, which are a 10-minute walk north of the White House, on April 1, 2013.
Health care is a misnomer for our medical system. It should be called sick care. Doctors, hospitals and pharmaceutical companies only make money when we are in bad health. If we could instead prevent illness and disease, it would turn the entire medical system on its head and increase the quality of our lives.
The good news is that technology is on its way to letting us do this. It is now moving so rapidly that within a decade the small handheld medical reader used by Dr. Leonard McCoy in Star Trek — the tricorder — will look primitive. We are moving into an era of data-driven, crowdsourced, participatory, genomics-based medicine. Just as our bathroom scales give us instant readings of our weight, wearable devices will monitor our health and warn us when we are about to get sick. Our doctors—or their artificial intelligence replacements—will prescribe medicines or lifestyle changes based on our full medical history, holistic self, and genetic composition.
Today the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) released a report that outlines two potential growth trajectories for the U.S. biopharmaceutical sector and the top policy factors that enable the industry to innovate and, in turn, contribute to the U.S. economy.
Developed by the Battelle Technology Partnership Practice, the report finds that coverage and payment policies, a well-functioning, science-based regulatory system and strong intellectual property (IP) protections drive U.S. leadership in biopharmaceutical innovation, and if negative trends in these key policy areas continue, jobs supported by the industry would decrease over the next decade. However, if reasonable pro-innovation policies are pursued, the U.S. biopharmaceutical sector stands to retain and add well over 300,000 jobs to the U.S. economy by 2021.
A less-invasive brain diagnostic test, a surface so slippery bacteria can’t stick to it, and a low-cost mylar wrap to help warm babies’ heads after surgery were three of the projects on display at Boston Children’s Hospital’s first-ever Innovators Showcase Friday.
The event is part of a larger push by Chief Innovation Officer Naomi Fried’s office to seek out innovators across the organization, support them with advice and sometimes money, and help guide them towards commercialization.
If you were to ask most early-stage companies what they’d consider to be a decent prize from a group of investors for a well pitched device or service, they’d probably say money. But at an entrepreneur forum at Penn Medicine, the rewards were as varied as the groups offering them. Venture capitalists, angel investors, accelerators and incubators each offered a different take on what a reward should look like.
Philadelphia has been working to build a better entrepreneur ecosystem to grow companies and stimulate job growth. As part of that trend, institutions are looking for ways to get more investors involved.
BioHealth Innovation (BHI) is a regionally-oriented, private-public partnership functioning as an innovation intermediary focused on commercializing market-relevant biohealth innovations and increasing access to early-stage funding in Maryland.
The information contained in this website and newsletters is for general information purposes only. The information is provided by BioHealth Innovation via its newsletters, but not written or endorsed in any way by BioHealth Innovation unless otherwise noted. While we endeavor to keep the information up to date and correct, we make no representations or warranties of any kind, express or implied, about the completeness, accuracy, reliability, suitability or availability with respect to the website or the information, products, services, or related graphics contained on the website for any purpose. Any reliance you place on such information is therefore strictly at your own risk.
DC I-Corps, in partnership with BioHealth Innovation, Inc., has developed a new, NSF-supported program designed to foster, grow and nurture the life science innovation ecosystem in the Mid-Atlantic Region and is now accepting applications for its spring cohort, beginning on May 12th. Applications will be accepted on a rolling basis up until that date.
Open to research teams and aspiring entrepreneurs from the National Institutes of Health and other federal laboratories, the free program guides researchers in exploring the commercial potential of their inventions.
Through DC I-Corps, you will:
Learn how to assess the commercial value of life science technologies through a customer discovery process;
Work closely with six or more real-world advisors that have startup, venture capital, and technology commercialization experience over a five-week period; and
Come to a clear go or no-go decision regarding the commercial potential of your technology.
Rockville-based malaria vaccine development company Sanaria Inc. won the 2014 Vaccine Industry Excellence (VIE) Award for the “Best Prophylactic Vaccine” presented last week during the 14th World Vaccine Congress.
The Sanaria® PfSPZ Vaccine demonstrated complete protection against malaria in all volunteers (6/6) who received high dose immunizations in a trial at the Vaccine Research Center (VRC), National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), NIH.
After seeing how the federal agencies intend to implement the recommendations from The White House Lab to Market Summit the difference between product and process oriented people really hit home.
Product people burn with a passion to get the job done. Process people focus on rules and procedures to minimize risk. Thus, product people are like the accelerator and process people are the brakes. You need both in your car, but if the brakes run the show you’ll never get out of the driveway. Similarly, whenever deal makers are subservient in a system to process people, frustration is sure to follow.
GlycoMimetics, Inc. announced today the addition of Timothy Pearson to its Board of Directors. Mr. Pearson most recently held the position of Chief Financial Officer, Executive Vice President and Treasurer at Catalyst Health Solutions, a publicly held pharmacy benefit manager with over $5 billion in revenues. Mr. Pearson led the company’s financial activities, including performance management, investor relations, SEC compliance, capital strategy and planning, until SXC Health Solutions (now Catamaran Corporation) acquired Catalyst in 2012. Mr. Pearson had previously served as Chief Financial Officer and Executive Vice President of MedImmune, the global biologics business for AstraZeneca PLC, where he had functional responsibility for finance, information technology, strategic planning and governance, and was a member of MedImmune’s Executive Team.
“Having completed our initial public offering in early 2014, it’s ideal for us to now be adding an experienced public company CFO to our Board roster,” said Rachel King, CEO of GlycoMimetics. “The addition of Tim to our Board of Directors comes at the perfect time for our company given his financial experience at MedImmune and Catalyst Health Solutions.”
Researchers at the Institute for Genome Sciences at the University of Maryland School of Medicine have been awarded a research program contract from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to sequence, assemble, and annotate a population of bacterial pathogens using two high-throughput sequencing (HTS) technologies in support of the expansion of a vetted public reference database.
The continued development of HTS technologies for accurate identification of microorganisms for diagnostic use will have significant impact on human healthcare, biothreat response, food safety, and other areas. Developing a comprehensive, curated database of microbial genome sequences and associated metadata will serve as a valuable reference to evaluate and assess HTS-based diagnostic devices. Leading the sequencing and analysis phases of the project, the Genomics Resource Center (GRC) at the Institute is a cutting-edge genomic sequencing and analysis center with a long history of high-quality microbial genomics research that has sequenced and analyzed more than 5,000 microbial genome sequences in just the past five years.
The Tech Council of Maryland (TCM), Maryland’s largest technology trade association for life science and technology, today announced the finalists for its 26th Annual Industry Awards. Winners will be revealed at a celebration on May 15 at the Bethesda North Marriott Hotel & Conference Center.
“Our annual celebration is a phenomenal event, where our community can come together to recognize individuals and companies in the technology and life science industries that drive our state’s economy,” said Phil Schiff, TCM’s CEO. “Our finalists exemplify the spirit that propels innovation and makes Maryland a leader in tech sector nationwide.”
The National Security Agency (NSA) and University of Maryland-Baltimore County (UMBC) have announced a partnership to establish one of the first university-level hacking education and research programs in the United States.
The $750 million grant is the largest the university has ever received, and the amount dwarfs the $148.2 million total combined in extramural and federal funding received in 2013.
Seeking a university partner to cultivate their new education and research programs, the NSA has chosen UMBC after a competitive selection process. Along with developing new tools to secure the country’s cyberspace of the future, the programs are designed to train and round up armies of world-class hacking talent.
PsiKick, a company headquartered in Charlottesville and based on technology licensed from the University of Virginia, University of Michigan and University of Washington, announced a major financing milestone led by New Enterprise Associates (NEA), Osage University Partners and MINTS, a venture fund of the University of Michigan. This funding round will enable PsiKick to accelerate the development of the groundbreaking Ultra-Low-Power wireless sensing devices.
These devices, the so-called systems-on-chip or SoC, are circuits capable of integrating all components of an electric system in one small chip. PsiKick’s Ultra-Low Power Wireless SoCs are operating at a fraction of the power capacity of other energy efficient circuit platforms. In fact, these devices function at such extreme energy efficiency that they are able to continuously and entirely be powered by harvested energy sources such as vibration, thermal gradients, solar power and radio frequency.
Research and Markets has announced the addition of the “The Worldwide Market for Molecular Diagnostics – 6-Month Update” report to their offering.
Molecular diagnostics is becoming a dominant platform in clinical medicine and represents one of the fastest-growing segments of the diagnostics market.
Many molecular tests are CE Marked and FDA-cleared and many more are in development. However many more unique tests have been launched as test services, especially for cancer management and infectious disease epidemiology.
Click here to view our most recently funded E-Teams.
The E-Team Program provides early-stage support and funding of up to $75,000 for collegiate entrepreneurs working on market-based technology inventions.
Since 1995, our E-Team grants have been funding collegiate student and student/faculty teams to move ideas out of the lab and classroom and into the marketplace. The program enhances this opportunity by providing expert entrepreneurial and venture coaching, experiential workshops, and a potential investment opportunity to help realize the commercial success of the technology inventions and innovations that come through our organization.
Selected E-Team Program participants may also be invited to exhibit their technologies at Open Minds, the annual showcase of breakthrough technologies from NCIIA’s top student teams. The 2014 Open Minds exhibition will be held in San Jose, CA, March 21-22 during NCIIA’s annual conference, OPEN.
Alios BioPharma, Inc., a biotechnology company developing proprietary therapeutics for respiratory viral diseases, today announced it has completed a $41 Million Series B financing. All existing investors — Novo Ventures, SR One, Roche Venture Fund and Novartis Ventures — participated in this round, which was led by a new, undisclosed investor.
“We are pleased to welcome our newest investor and to have the continued support from our current investors for this round of financing,” stated Lawrence M. Blatt, PhD, President and Chief Executive Officer of Alios BioPharma. “This funding will allow Alios to retain ownership and control of our novel, first-in-class anti-respiratory virus development programs.”
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.
Leaving home: My father was a Chinese diplomat, posted in Peru. After Mao’s revolution, my parents opened a grocery store in Lima. They worked seven days a week, and we lived in the back. When I was 15, my parents sent me to America with $300. “Make a life for yourself,” they said.
Making the grade: In my first year at college in Iowa, I was learning a new language, attending school, and working 25 hours a week. When I got a C-minus, I told my professor Paul Uhlinger I wanted to return to Peru. He said, “Never let where you come from determine where you will go.” He had more confidence in me than I had in myself.
The IPO market for venture-backed companies is off to a much stronger start than last year, which didn’t really get going until the second quarter.
Castlight Health officials celebrate the company’s IPO at the New York Stock Exchange on March 14. Reuters There were 36 initial public offerings in the first three months of this year compared with eight a year ago, according to data from Thomson Reuters and the National Venture Capital Association. It was the strongest quarter for IPOs since the third quarter of 2000.
At this year’s BIO CEO and Investor Conference in New York, I had the opportunity to meet Annalisa Jenkins, EVP and head of global R&D, Merck Serono. Jenkins has been busy working on a game-changing, singlesource CRO collaboration model with Quintiles. Understanding how and why she did it first requires insight into the leadership approach of her risk-enabling CEO, Belén Garijo (see page 24), followed by Jenkins’ detailed explanation of creating the model, along with some pretty good advice on building game-changing collaborations (see page 30). Finalizing this collaboration model won’t make her schedule any less busy; in fact, it just got busier.
On the day of our meeting, the Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association (HBA) publicized Jenkins as a 2014 Woman Of The Year (WOTY). Just two weeks later, TransCelerate BioPharma announced Jenkins as the new chairwoman of its board of directors. When you combine her positions with TransCelerate and HBA along with her advisory roles with the Center for Talent Innovation (CTI) and PhRMA, you get a sense for her willingness to engage outside her own company. This is a pivotal first step toward embracing one of our industry’s major trends — the new innovation ecosystem, which is where Jenkins anticipates the next wave of life sciences industry R&D innovations will come from. She is not alone in her opinion.
Take advantage of this unparalleled opportunity to spotlight your company in front of thousands of potential partners from around the world.
Are you an innovative biotech company that is R&D-intensive and is developing strategic partnerships within the industry? Nominate your company to be the Buzz of BIO! Winners receive complimentary registration, a Company Presentation in the Business Forum and promotion by the Convention to industry leaders.
Act fast! Nominations are only open until April 8th 5pm ET
The idea that you can develop a concept for a company and launch it within 48 hours is at the heart of Startup Weekend. When you add healthcare to the mix it becomes a lot more challenging but no less interesting. Philadelphia hosted its third Startup Weekend for healthcare at Venturef0rth over the weekend.
Elliot Menschik, who was one of the judges to review the 12 team pitches, heads up shared workspace Venturef0rth and is a managing partner for healthcare with DreamIt Health, DreamIt Ventures’ health IT accelerator. He said it’s the longest running StartUp Weekend for healthcare in the country. About 14 cities have since hosted their own version of the event. Duke University is planning to host one in August.
A blood sample could one day be enough to diagnose many types of solid cancers, or to monitor the amount of cancer in a patient’s body and responses to treatment. Previous versions of the approach, which relies on monitoring levels of tumor DNA circulating in the blood, have required cumbersome and time-consuming steps to customize it to each patient or have not been sufficiently sensitive.
Now, researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have devised a way to quickly bring the technique to the clinic. Their approach, which should be broadly applicable to many types of cancers, is highly sensitive and specific. With it they were able to accurately identify about 50 percent of people in the study with stage-1 lung cancer and all patients whose cancers were more advanced.
At Medgadget we love artificial organs, from kidneys to hearts to skin. The pancreas is no exception. We recently had the opportunity to speak with Medtronic Diabetes’ Chief Medical Officer and VP of Global, Clinical, and Health Affairs, Dr. Francine Kaufman, about the most recent step that Medtronic has taken towards developing a fully-functional artificial pancreas.
Shiv Gaglani, Medgadget: Can you describe how the artificial pancreas works?
Dr. Francine Kaufman: A fully automated “artificial pancreas” is a system that closely mimics the insulin delivery of a working pancreas using advanced technology that continuously monitors glucose levels and automatically adjusts insulin delivery with minimal or no patient interaction.
Doctors and Life Science Professionals: Invest in what you know!
Wednesday, April 9, 2014 from 6:00 PM to 8:30 PM
The original idea for the subtitle of this meeting was “doctors don’t have to be bad investors!” Doctors have the resources to invest, but often lack the time or expertise needed to evaluate investment opportunities.
However, with healthcare now the fastest growing sector of the economy, physicians are uniquely positioned to use their knowledge to invest wisely and achieve great returns. Additionally, with all the recent SEC changes, new approaches to investing, such as crowd equity, bring opportunities to take part in investing like never before. Therefore, for doctors, it starts with investing in what you know!
May 9th, 10:30am – Bethesda North Marriott Hotel & Conference Center
The Montgomery County Department of Economic Development is pleased to announce Karen Zuckerman, Chief Creative Director and President of HZDG, as keynote speaker for the 2014 Montgomery County Small Business Awards on May 9.
Ms. Zuckerman leads both the creative and the corporate vision of HZDG, the agency she launched from her basement in the late 1980s. More than 20 years later, the company has more than 100 employees and offices in Rockville and New York. The agency’s client list includes the Washington Redskins, Bozzuto and Brooks Brothers.
Come hear Ms. Zuckerman’s insights into lessons learned as she grew her business and why Montgomery County has been a great place to grow.
The 8th Annual Postdoc Conference and Career Fair is April 24, 2013 at the Bethesda North Marriott Conference Center. The event draws and average of 500 postdoctoral fellows from federal and university laboratories who are finishing their fellowships in the STEM fields and are seeking professional employment. The conference portion of the event runs concurrently with the career fair, and focuses on such topics as preparing for an interview and exploring non-traditional careers. The conference is organized by a symposium of government, private, educational and economic development organizations. Company registration for the career fair portion is now open and starts at $500.
BioHealth Innovation (BHI) is a regionally-oriented, private-public partnership functioning as an innovation intermediary focused on commercializing market-relevant biohealth innovations and increasing access to early-stage funding in Maryland.
The information contained in this website and newsletters is for general information purposes only. The information is provided by BioHealth Innovation via its newsletters, but not written or endorsed in any way by BioHealth Innovation unless otherwise noted. While we endeavor to keep the information up to date and correct, we make no representations or warranties of any kind, express or implied, about the completeness, accuracy, reliability, suitability or availability with respect to the website or the information, products, services, or related graphics contained on the website for any purpose. Any reliance you place on such information is therefore strictly at your own risk.
June 11-12, 2014
Join business leaders, government, elected officials and the media as we celebrate leadership that energizes our community and makes it possible to declare What’s Next is Here. Five prestigious awards will be presented including the Chairman’s Award. Witness the passing of the torch from the 2013-2014 MCCC Chair of the Board Christopher Carpenito, CPA, Executive Vice President & CFO, HESS Construction to the 2014-2015 MCCC Chair Lisa Cines, CPA, Office Managing Partner, Dixon Hughes Goodman LLP and welcome the 2014-2015 MCCC Board of Directors.
Tuesday, May 27, 2014, 08:30am – 02:00pm
Join members from NHLBI’s SMARTT team for a free webinar to hear how three investigators utilized SMARTT services to advance the development of their lead candidates.
BioHealth Innovation, Inc. (BHI) announced this week its selection of George Jiang, M.D., M.B.A., PMP, as its new Chinese-American Entrepreneur-in-Residence (EIR). Dr. Jiang, a consultant with over 15 years of experience in life science research and development and in health industry business development, will lead in the scouting of technologies and partnership opportunities in life science hubs in the U.S. and China.
BioHealth Innovation, Inc. (BHI) is seeking a highly talented professional to serve as its China-USA EIR Program Intern. The China-USA EIR Program Intern will support the Chinese-American Entrepreneur In Residence (EIR) position, which manages the relationship between BHI and its partner, China Fortune Land Development Co., Ltd. The China-USA EIR Program Intern will primarily support the EIR through research and translation, but will also perform administrative tasks.
Wednesday, May 14, 2014, 06:00pm – 08:30pm
When Ron Daniels took the stage in a fourth floor auditorium inside the Johns Hopkins University Medical Center in East Baltimore, he was staring down a veritable Who’s Who of Baltimore city’s tech community: startup founders, the presidents and operators of incubators, people at the helm of deep-pocketed foundations and tech company investors.
Thursday, May 08, 2014, 09:00am – 05:00pm
PathSensors, Inc. is a growing biotechnology company headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland. The company is developing products for the rapidly evolving field of pathogen detection. We are currently seeking qualified candidates for the position of Director of Biosensor Development. The successful candidate will be responsible for design, development and continuous improvement of our portfolio of biosensor products.
With a pinch of history, a dash of pride, and a heaping helping of collaboration, University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) President Jay A. Perman, MD, put forth a winning recipe in his first annual State of the University Address.
FRIDAY, JUNE 13, 2014 8:30 am, Rockville, Maryland 
