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.
– Effort designed to help revolutionize access to genomic interpretation services in hospitals, molecular diagnostics companies and academic medical centers throughout the U.S. –
ROCKVILLE AND BALTIMORE, MARYLAND, MARCH 25, 2014 – Strand Genomics Inc. (Strand) and BioHealth Innovation, Inc. (BHI) today announced a strategic partnership designed to expand the Strand Centers for Genomics & Personalized Medicine into the U.S. This effort is intended to help revolutionize access to genomic interpretation services in cardiovascular disease, oncology, rare diseases, and many other indications. Strand Genomics is a wholly owned subsidiary of Strand Life Sciences, a Bangalore, India-based bioinformatics, clinical genomics, and diagnostics company.
Strand operates clinical genomics and diagnostics laboratories in India that perform end-to-end clinical genomics services, such as testing and diagnostics, to healthcare systems in that country. Strand now provides diagnostic tests based on next-generation sequencing to more than 50 major hospitals in India. Strand is expanding globally and is actively seeking partnerships with hospitals, molecular diagnostic companies and academic medical centers looking to offer genomics-based diagnostics tests. In December 2013, Strand had announced its collaboration with El Camino Hospital in Mountain View, CA. BHI, a Maryland-based innovation intermediary, will be integral in supporting the market penetration of Strand’s services into the U.S. healthcare system by connecting Strand with key market channels, thus providing access to genomic services to more patients and healthcare providers.
The Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development (DBED) announced today that 12 startup companies have advanced to the final round of the InvestMaryland Challenge, the State’s national business competition. The finalists are competing for $100,000 top prizes in four categories — Information Technology, Life Sciences, General Industry, and, new this year, Cybersecurity. All companies who entered the Challenge are eligible for more than $300,000 in other prizes, including grants, software and lab and incubator space. The winners will be announced in May.
“Congratulations to the finalists and all the companies that advanced in the InvestMaryland Challenge. To stand out from the field of 260 applicants is an achievement in itself and a testament to the strength of the companies competing for the top prizes,” said Dominick Murray, DBED Secretary. “For two years in a row, Maryland has been named the #1 state in the country for innovation and entrepreneurship and companies like those competing in this Challenge are the reason why. They are the future leaders of Maryland’s Innovation Economy and we are proud to support them as they grow and create jobs.”
MedImmune, the global biologics R&D arm of AstraZeneca, is always enthusiastic about explaining how its science benefits patients’ lives. So taking part in Cambridge’s highly successful Science Festival, which finished last weekend, is a wonderful opportunity for the company to reach out and share its activities with the wider Cambridge community.
With many thousands of visitors, the Cambridge Science Festival provides the public with opportunities to explore and discuss topics of scientific interest and, importantly, is the perfect place to raise aspirations by encouraging young people to consider a career in science. Over both weekends of the Festival, firstly in the Corn Exchange and then at the Clinical School at the Cambridge Biomedical Campus, over 35 MedImmune scientists volunteered their time to demonstrate to a continual stream of visitors to understand how new antibody medicines are found using viruses which grow in bacteria.
Reading the cover story of last week’s Capital Business (“Educating tomorrow’s entrepreneurs”) echoed what I had seen at the recent South by Southwest Edu conference, where I took part in a panel called “Student Startups: The Ultimate Educational Experience.”
I was intrigued when I realized the audience for the panel was nearly 75 percent K-12 educators — not the higher ed audience I and the other panelists were expecting. Maybe I shouldn’t have been so surprised. The piqued interest for primary and secondary educators is exciting and encouraging, especially from where I sit.
Tech Council of MD presents a Bioscience Networking Reception April 3 from 6:00-8:00 p.m. with Christopher P. Austin, M.D., Director, National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences.
Don’t miss this enhanced networking reception with leaders from the Mid-Atlantic region’s life science community followed by a brief overview of the National Center for Advancing Translational Science (NCATS) from Dr. Christopher Austin. Learn about NCATS’ goals and plans to collaborate with the local life science community.
The University of Maryland kicked off today its third annual 30 Days of EnTERPreneurship, a month-long celebration of the university’s fearless ideas, innovation and impact.
“The University of Maryland has long been a pioneer in entrepreneurship and a leader in research and academic innovation. And in recent years, the university has put even greater, campus-wide emphasis on preparing faculty, students and staff to tackle the world’s toughest problems through innovation and entrepreneurship. Our ’30 Days of EnTERPreneurship’ highlights and celebrates that commitment across all schools,” says Dean Chang, UMD’s associate vice president for innovation and entrepreneurship.
RuiYi, Inc. announced today a $15 million Series B financing by existing investors: 5AM Ventures, Versant Ventures, Apposite Capital, SR One, the independent corporate healthcare venture capital fund of GlaxoSmithKline, Merck Serono Ventures, the strategic corporate venture fund of Merck Serono, and Aravis SA. RuiYi has a pipeline of innovative monoclonal antibodies to previously untargeted G protein coupled receptors (GPCRs) for important global, therapeutic needs. The financing will support the continued development of RuiYi’s lead asset, RYI-008, a novel anti-IL-6 monoclonal antibody (mAb), and the discovery and development of new therapeutic mAbs targeting GPCRs, including a first-in-class mAb to cannabinoid receptor 1 (CB-1), a commercially validated but previously intractable drug target. In addition, RuiYi expanded the leadership team, appointing Erik Karrer, Ph.D. as chief scientific officer and Brian Campion, Ph.D. as vice president of business development.
The National Science Foundation (NSF) announced a new round of funding for the Innovation Corps Sites (I-Corps Sites) Program. Housed at institutions of higher education, I-Corps Sites are intended to:
Nurture students and/or faculty who are engaged in NSF-funded research projects with commercial potential;
Provide infrastructure, advice, resources, networking opportunities, training and funding to enable groups to transition their scientific and engineering discoveries into the marketplace or into becoming I-Corps Team applicants;
Support and mentor I-Corps Teams; and,
Develop formal, active, local innovation ecosystems that contribute to a larger, national network of mentors, researchers, entrepreneurs and investors.
15-month, global online program combines academics with new web-based incubator
The University of Maryland, a national leader in entrepreneurship education and venture creation, today announces it will offer a new master’s degree program in technology entrepreneurship starting this fall.
The 30-credit, 15-month Master of Technology Entrepreneurship, available online to current and aspiring entrepreneurs worldwide, features the university’s most advanced and comprehensive entrepreneurship curriculum to date, taking students from concept development and prototyping to business model generation and customer validation, as well as legal aspects of entrepreneurship, financial and innovation management, and effective growth strategies.
GlaxoSmithKline plc (LSE/NYSE: GSK) today announced that the European Commission has granted marketing authorisation for its once-weekly diabetes treatment, Eperzan® (albiglutide). Eperzan is indicated for the treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus in adults, to improve glucose control as:
Monotherapy, when diet and exercise alone do not provide adequate glycaemic control in patients for whom the use of metformin is considered inappropriate due to contraindications or intolerance1
Add-on combination therapy, in combination with other glucose-lowering medicinal products, including basal insulin, when these, together with diet and exercise, do not provide adequate glycaemic control.1
The Tech Council of Maryland (TCM), Maryland’s largest technology trade association for life science and technology, today announced that individuals from IBM, Sucampo Pharmaceuticals and the Universities at Shady Grove (USG) were named to the board of directors.
“The Tech Council of Maryland is very pleased to welcome our newest directors to the board,” said Phil Schiff, TCM’s CEO. “These individuals bring expertise in technology, life science and higher education that will enhance the depth and breadth of TCM’s leadership.”
Susan Wojcicki, CEO of YouTube, will address graduates of Johns Hopkins University at commencement on May 22, 2014.
Named one of Fortune’s “50 Most Powerful Women in Business,” one of Forbes’ “100 Most Powerful Women,” and one of Vanity Fair’s 50 “leading innovators [that] shake the foundations of their industries,” Wojcicki became head of the video-sharing powerhouse earlier this year.
Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley will address the University of Maryland graduates at spring commencement on Thursday, May 22, the campus announced Tuesday.
Students announced the second-term governor would be speaking by posting a photo on social media of O’Malley with Testudo, the university’s mascot.
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 CyberMontgomery Forum was developed jointly by The Montgomery County Department of Economic Development and the Federal Business Council (FBC) in conjunction with leaders from federal and local government agencies, industry and academia.
Cybersecurity will be a major growth engine in the region for many years to come. With solid federal government, industry and academic assets already in place in the region, there is still a need to bring them together so that they can coalesce and elevate the cyber ecosystem to a level of national prominence. CyberMontgomery Forum events will provide clear direction on finding business opportunities, contracting, forecasted demand areas, workforce development, recruiting & staffing, legal responsibilities for businesses, updates on technologies being developed in MoCo and summary updates regarding our NCCoE neighbors, federal civilian agencies and commercial sector leaders.
A conference and career fair for current postdoctoral fellows working in Washington, D.C. area federal labs and universities, and for companies recruiting high-level S.T.E.M. (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) professionals.
What?
This event exposes area postdoctoral fellows in the S.T.E.M. fields to the many career options (e.g., government, private sector, entrepreneurship) that are available to them.
The career fair portion connects local job-seeking postdocs with companies seeking that level of talent.
When & Where?
Bethesda North Marriott / Montgomery County Conference Center 5701 Marinelli Road, Rockville, MD 20852
April 24, 2014
Time: 8:30 a.m. – 3:30 p.m.
Watch this space for more information about the next event.
MedCity News, writing about DreamIt Ventures, notes the venture capital firm specializing in incubation and seed investments is calling for applications for DreamIt Health Philadelphia in an environment where more and more applicants are developing smartphone diagnostic tools. “This trend in mHealth devices is prompting a shift in how DreamIt characterizes the accelerator to include not just health IT to health tech. It also wants startups to be more aware of regulatory requirements.”
Elliot Menschik, managing partner for healthcare with DreamIt Health, told MedCity News that DreamIt needs to educate its class members specifically about FDA guidelines and regulatory requirements concerning mobile health settings. “More and more, we will see companies that need to [know how to] navigate the FDA in an mHealth setting,” he said. “We ask them, ‘Have you thought about how the FDA will treat this?’ It’s a big, eye-opening experience for them. But we’re in a much better position to help those companies than ever.”
The size of angel financing rounds in the healthcare industry grew last year, although the share of all angel deals focused on healthcare stayed about the same.
Silicon Valley Bank, the Angel Resource Institute and CB Insights are out with their 2013 Halo Report today looking back at last year’s trends. The data showed deals rebounding from a dip in 2012 and becoming increasingly valuable.
Cardiovascular disease accounts for 52% of female deaths and 42% of male deaths in the EU. Approximately four million people in Europe and 1.9 million people in the EU die of cardiovascular disease each year, according to the European Society of Cardiology. Cardiovascular disease and strokes are usually caused by high levels of bad cholesterol, high blood pressure, obesity, unhealthy diet and physical inactivity.
The European Society for Cardiology (ESC) and the European Heart Network (EHN) estimate the cost to the EU economy at over €196 billion per year, with healthcare expenditure varying from 4% in Luxembourg to 17% in Estonia, Latvia and Poland.
This Request for Information (RFI) solicits input from the public regarding interagency research awards via competitive grants, contracts, or other vehicles provided by a Federal agency to a researcher at a Federal laboratory that is managed, owned, or operated by another Federal agency. Applicable research awards include extramural research awards awarded to intramural researchers in Federal laboratories. Federal laboratories include Government-Owned, Government-Operated laboratories (GOGOs) and Federally Funded Research and Development Centers (FFRDCs). Research awards pay for research projects and supporting resources, including the salaries of the principal investigators. The public input provided in response to this Notice will inform the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) as it works with Federal agencies and other stakeholders to develop best practices for agencies.
As the health care industry undergoes some of the most dramatic change in its history, data and innovation are key to its future.
That’s the message U.S. Department of Health and Human Services CTO and Entrepreneur-in-Residence Bryan Sivak delivered Wednesday morning at a Nashville Health Care Council briefing. Sivak, who has several entrepreneurial ventures on his resume, briefed the attendees on HHS’ IDEA Lab, a project that stands for Innovation, Design, Entrepreneurship and Action.
Contract research organizations make good money providing critical services to young biotech and drug development companies early on. But often, those companies are cash-strapped at the stage when they need a CRO. That’s why some CROs are becoming stakeholders in the companies they work with, offering cash or services for equity in life science startups.
“We fundamentally believe that we should be aligned with our clients,” said David Gee, strategic business development at Cato BioVentures, the venture capital affiliate of a CRO called Cato Research. “I think it’s reasonable, particularly with early-stage companies, that we have some skin in the game. (Then) we have reason to come to a positive endpoint and to get there as quickly and efficiently as possible, because that’s how part of our value is going to be generated.”
BioSTL announced today a five-year, $2.5 million grant from the Monsanto Company that will support the nonprofit’s work to promote regional economic growth and advance St. Louis’ standing as a leader in bioscience. Funding from Monsanto will allow BioSTL to step up its collaborative efforts to build a strong bioscience ecosystem that capitalizes on St. Louis’ world-class plant and medical science strengths. The announcement came during InvestMidwest 2014, a venture capital conference that showcases 40-45 companies from throughout the Midwest in the three industry tracks of life sciences, technology, and food/ag/bioenergy.
“St. Louis is home to a unique convergence of corporate, university, and entrepreneurial strengths that place our region among the world’s great bioscience centers. Monsanto has been a longtime collaborator with local universities and research institutions as well as an early supporter of regional entrepreneurial activities,” said Donn Rubin, President and CEO of BioSTL. “This contribution will help to advance St. Louis’ economy by further expanding the infrastructure necessary to grow St. Louis’ bioscience community.”
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 Executive Isiah Leggett today announced his recommended $4.97 billion operating budget for fiscal year (FY) 2015, that begins July 1, and includes a tax-supported County government budget of $1.478 billion. The budget funds education beyond what is required by the State Maintenance of Effort Level law to meet future needs created by the skyrocketing number of Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) students, puts more police on the beat and reduces the County’s property tax rate.
Leggett has made creating Montgomery County’s jobs of the future one of his top priorities and over the past two years of economic recovery, Montgomery County jobs are up three percent. His FY15 recommended operating budget includes funding to repurpose the William Hanna Innovation Center to become the National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence. It increases Life Sciences and Incubator support by $400,000 and increases by $500,000 County funding for BioHealth Innovation, the public-private partnership to enhance the commercialization of critical research conducted in the County. This budget also increases County support for the successful Local Small Business Reserve Program and for the American Film Institute.
– Effort designed to help revolutionize access to genomic interpretation services in hospitals, molecular diagnostics companies and academic medical centers throughout the U.S. –
ROCKVILLE AND BALTIMORE, MARYLAND, MARCH 25, 2014 – Strand Genomics Inc. (Strand) and BioHealth Innovation, Inc. (BHI) today announced a strategic partnership designed to expand the Strand Centers for Genomics & Personalized Medicine into the U.S. This effort is intended to help revolutionize access to genomic interpretation services in cardiovascular disease, oncology, rare diseases, and many other indications. Strand Genomics is a wholly owned subsidiary of Strand Life Sciences, a Bangalore, India-based bioinformatics, clinical genomics, and diagnostics company.
Strand operates clinical genomics and diagnostics laboratories in India that perform end-to-end clinical genomics services, such as testing and diagnostics, to healthcare systems in that country. Strand now provides diagnostic tests based on next-generation sequencing to more than 50 major hospitals in India. Strand is expanding globally and is actively seeking partnerships with hospitals, molecular diagnostic companies and academic medical centers looking to offer genomics-based diagnostics tests. In December 2013, Strand had announced its collaboration with El Camino Hospital in Mountain View, CA. BHI, a Maryland-based innovation intermediary, will be integral in supporting the market penetration of Strand’s services into the U.S. healthcare system by connecting Strand with key market channels, thus providing access to genomic services to more patients and healthcare providers.
Fourteen of 40 companies at the William Hanna Center for Innovation at Shady Grove already have moved to new space, and county employees are working with the rest to find new homes, county economic development head Steven A. Silverman said Wednesday.
The new sites include the Germantown Innovation Center and the Montgomery campus of Johns Hopkins University in Rockville, as well as private space, he said. The county is in the process of replacing its oldest business incubator with a national cybersecurity center aligned with the National Institute of Standards and Technology of Gaithersburg. That plan has been met with opposition from not just tenants, but several Montgomery state legislators and former County Executive Douglas M. Duncan, who is running against County Executive Isiah Leggett in the Democratic primary in June.
As a direct result of Montgomery County’s ongoing partnership with Chungbuk Province, which includes a Chungbuk Exchange Official who has worked at DED since February 2013, three Korean companies have launched U.S. operations at the County’s Germantown Innovation Center (GIC).
More than 21 startups presented their technology offerings to Exelon executives and IT employees at “Dancing with Startups,” a two-day event hosted by Exelon and the Economic Alliance of Greater Baltimore at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and the Cyber Point Technology & Innovation Center last week.
The event is part of Exelon’s continuing effort to reach out to technology innovators in search of new ideas that have the potential to transform the energy industry. From cybersecurity software to smartphone technology, participating companies pitched their ideas and products during rapid-fire, 20-minute sessions. Exelon employees peppered the groups with questions, seeking to identify new technologies that Exelon might be able to pilot.
Small technology companies could get help hiring interns through a proposed program aimed at strengthening ties between businesses and universities.
Under a General Assembly bill, the Maryland Technology Internship Program would give 40 small businesses up to $3,000 a year to hire interns. The bill (HB1317) to create the program was approved by the state House of Delegates and is being considered by the Senate. If approved, Gov. Martin O’Malley would need to authorize funding for the program, estimated at $190,000 in fiscal 2015.
Seth Goldman and Barry Nalebuff founded Honest Tea in 1998. In the recently released Mission in a Bottle, the co-founders tell — in comic book form — the story of building a successful mission-driven business. Goldman, now president and “TeaEO” of Honest Tea, joins Motley Fool CEO Tom Gardner to discuss sustainability, entrepreneurship, and what it means for a socially responsible, health-oriented business to be bought by Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO ) .
In addition to his work with Honest Tea, Goldman co-founded Bethesda Green to help green businesses get off the ground, and has been involved with healthy food companies Beyond Meat and Happy Baby.
Join us at another BioBuzz event with Sponsor BioHealth Innovation, Inc. (BHI) on March 26th from 5:00 – 7:30 p.m. at BlackFinn American Saloon in Bethesda, MD. This location is only a few blocks away from the Bethesda Metro station near the corner of Norfolk Ave and Fairmont Ave. We’re excited to see a big crowd out for the last day of Winter and the first BioBuzz of the year.
This special event in Bethesda is being held to celebrate the hard work and commitment to innovation by our local business leaders and entrepreneurial innovators who often partner to drive the commercialization of new technologies and medical innovations.
For startup CEOs, there’s probably nothing more nerve wracking than giving a presentation to prospective investors. Dr. Lisa Beth Ferstenberg knows about that first-hand.
A serial biotech entrepreneur, Ferstenberg was founding CEO of Cellective Therapeutics, a Gaithersburg biotech that raised $28 million in Series A funding. MedImmune bought the company in 2005 for as much as $160 million. She is currently chief medical officer for Sequella Inc., a Rockville biotech that develops drugs to fight tuberculosis.
New Enterprise Associates is up to its neck in initial public offerings these days. But even for NEA, a chipmaker IPO isn’t exactly common.
One of the Chevy Chase-based venture capital firm’s portfolio companies, Milpitas, Calif.-based Aquantia Corp., this week announced a $16 million Series G financing led by Xilinx Inc., a possible prelude to a public offering for the decade-old semiconductor company, an executive told The Wall Street Journal.
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:
Europe has shown the world over the past half century how countries with centuries of conflict can finally cast aside their differences and work together. The European Union has created a single currency, a common patent office, a single public funding source for basic research, and a single legislative body for issues reaching across the continent.
But if there’s one area where the countries of Europe continue to compete vigorously—other than in soccer and other sports—it’s in their efforts to attract and build up communities or “clusters” of biotechs, pharmaceutical employers, universities, and independent research institutions.
“The greatest danger in times of turbulence is not the turbulence; it is to act with yesterday’s logic.” Peter Drucker
In a period of massive change, franchises die and are born, previously unimagined models emerge, and incumbents that are too focused on “protecting share” find themselves closing their doors. The healthcare industry represents nearly a fifth of U.S. GDP and it is going through such a period of dramatic change as we speak. The product companies that dominate the marketplace today find themselves cash rich but growth poor. At the same time an army of inventors and visionaries in biotechnology, medical devices, diagnostics, health care services, healthcare IT, and consumer health fields are eager to provide a new model for the future.
The Hive is an immersive and informal social environment, dedicated to exploring and showcasing transformative startups and the inspiring entrepreneurs that power the ideas shaping the future of health and medicine.
Our second location will allow us to host The Hive on both coasts – increasing the number of game-changing startups who will join us this coming September 10-12 in either Washington, DC or San Francisco, CA. To help support a growing community of Hive entrepreneurs, we’re re-opening the Hive Application process for two short weeks and applications will be accepted today until April 1.
People who are prone to bleeding due to poor blood clotting, such as those with hemophilia or on anticoagulants, are often required to take blood tests. These test are usually done in clinics and hospitals, adding to the patient’s burden and expense of extra travel just to make sure that blood is adequately anticoagulated. New technology that is being developed at Qloudlab, a startup based at École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland, uses capabilities already present in today’s smartphone screens for blood coagulation testing.
Video games have been used in a number of therapeutic applications, such as managing pain in burn victims and helping youngsters deal with depression. A new project in Australia is bringing together video game technology with gesture recognition and some other components to create a virtual reality interactive environment for dementia patients and their caretakers. The project is still in the development stage, and is looking for crowdsourced funds, but the video below shows off the current prototype that will eventually include a 10 m x 10 m projection screen, a touch display, and special lighting.
Pharmaceutical companies have long relied on successfully launching new drugs to drive growth. This pressure is only likely to increase. Patents are expiring and product pipelines are shrinking. Austerity measures in many countries are increasing local and national hurdles for market access. And, at the same time, launches are becoming more numerous, smaller, and more competitive. We estimate that pharmaceutical companies will launch some 400 new products in the next three years, up 146 percent from 2005. Given this changing external landscape, awash with more products of ever greater diversity, it’s never been more important for pharmaceutical companies to crack the new-product launch code.
Ambient Clinical Analytics is a new startup, founded by Mayo Clinic researchers with help from Silicon Valley investors, that aims to bring data assimilation, communication and analytics to the bedside.
Backed by Rock Health and the Social+Capital Partnership, the venture develops decision support tools for intensive care units, operating rooms and emergency departments. Its technologies, which were developed at the Mayo Clinic, enable real-time access to process-of-care information and analytics.
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.
The 8th Annual Entrepreneurial University Startups Conference is organized annually by the National Council of Entrepreneurial Tech Transfer (NCET2.org). The University Startups Conference is a unique conference series dedicated exclusively to the best practices for creating and funding globally-competitive, venture-backable university startups.
We bring together universities creating startups with VCs, angel investors, SBIR program managers and Fortune 500 technology scouts funding them. The conference also includes NSF, NIH, NIST, DOD, DOE, DHS and other government agencies working on improving the Innovation Economy by increasing the quality and quantity of startups coming out of universities.
The GLOBAL 1000 Meet | Partner | Deal :: Startups Showcase + Conference is an important transaction-based conference for Global 1000 corporates, and for universities, angel investors, VCs, accelerators, incubators, state startup investment programs, and SBIR programs, who want to do deals with them. The conference has multiple showcases by Global 1000 corporates, state programs, universities, VCs and angel investors. Sophisticated meeting software allows for real-time meetings between conference attendees to facilitate deal-making at the conference.
AstraZeneca’s global biologics R&D arm MedImmune and the University of Cambridge have entered into a three-year oncology research collaboration in order to advance cancer research by using imaging technologies to measure key biologic changes within growing tumors.
University of Maryland students will host Bitcamp, the university’s first Major League Hackathon, April 46, 2014 in Cole Field House on the university’s College Park, Md., campus. More than 750 college and high school students from across the country are expected to attend the innovative technology summit at UMD.
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and MedImmune, the global biologics research and development arm of AstraZeneca, will collaborate through MD Anderson’s Moon Shots Program to develop therapies that unleash patients’ immune systems to attack their cancers.
Every day on my way to work, I walk past the “Deepthroat Garage,” the once-secret spot where The Washington Post’s Bob Woodward met FBI Associate Director Mark Felt to swap info that eventually brought down President Richard Nixon in The Watergate scandal. It is a spot that resonates deeply with people in Washington, marked with a historical placard for those who are passing by.
There is another historical marker 100 feet from that location that is nowhere near as popular but arguably more significant. Across the intersection where Wilson and Clarendon boulevards meet marks the spot where the Internet was invented.
Commercializing technology doesn’t have to be all about patents, licenses and startups.
Universities looking to grow their influence in the technology sector often focus on patenting their own ideas, starting companies from faculty research and other strategies that keep new ideas in-house or on a leash. But Maryland’s technology industry relies on the talent coming out of local universities. And in order for the industry to grow and thrive, technology companies and universities will need to forge stronger bonds.
Featuring Chris Sasiela, PhD, RAC, Regulatory Strategist, Office of Translational Alliances and Coordination, NHLBI, this inaugural Hangout, “Navigating the FDA website,” will provide biomedical innovators with an overview of the types of information available on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration website including: organization charts, contact info, guidance documents, and more! Key take-away points will include: -A guide to finding organization charts for the FDA’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health, Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, and Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research -Contact information for various Offices and Divisions -Contact information for Small Business Assistance contacts -Guidance documents -Public information related to product approvals that can be applied to your technology Tune in and share out using the hashtag #SBIRChat .
MIT professor Yael V. Hochberg revealed the most effective startup accelerators in the country Tuesday at SxSW in Austin. DreamIt Health showed up in slot #15 and was the only health focused accelerator on the list.
Hochberg is a professor of Finance at the Sloan School of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She and professor Susan Cohen of the University of Richmond and the Batten Institute at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business, used original research and data from CrunchBase to rank the 15 accelerators.
According to financial services firm Ernst&Young, global venture capital investment in 2013 increased 2 percent compared to 2012, to $48.5 billion. Meanwhile, economic conditions improved in many geographic markets due to increased levels of liquidity and a boost in investor confidence.
The upshot: More investors are competing to invest in promising startups and entrepreneurs, especially outside the U.S.
2014 will continue to be a year of transformation as the implementation of the Affordable Care Act and the changes it represents ripple through the healthcare industry. From conversations with healthcare providers across the country, Vree Health has identified four key issues providers face in the coming year–and beyond.
1. Healthcare reimbursement is due for a reboot
Healthcare systems, hospitals and providers are caught between two widely divergent business models: fee-for-service versus pay-for-performance. While dependent on the former, they must restructure their businesses to improve quality and manage costs across the entire care continuum to prepare for the latter. It’s an about face that Dr. David Nash, Founding Dean of the Jefferson School of Population Health, likened to turning an aircraft carrier around in the Panama Canal, when he spoke at MedCity CONVERGE last year.
Last year the California HealthCare Foundation (CHCF) put out a report on healthcare accelerator programs that we covered at the time. It is still the best summary of the health accelerator space. CHCF also created an infographic on how healthcare accelerators can maximize their value. The report focused on Rock Health, Startup Health, Blueprint Health, HealthBox, StartX Med, and TigerLabs.
Since that report was published, other health accelerators have launched and had classes, DreamIt and Wildcatters being the largest ones that come to mind. The accelerator landscape is getting attention right now with SXSW going on and accelerators are active at and around conferences. I thought it was time to revisit the subject.
The Tech Council of Maryland (TCM), Maryland’s largest technology trade association, is pleased to announce that three members of its board have been named to a statewide private sector economic development commission. They are Douglas Doerfler, CEO of MaxCyte and TCM chairman; Dr. DeRionne Pollard, president of Montgomery College; and Christy Wyskiel, senior advisor for Enterprise Development at Johns Hopkins University.
COLLEGE PARK, Md. — The $100K ACC Clean Energy Challenge, a business plan competition supported by the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) encouraging students from universities in the southeastern United States to develop business plans for new clean energy companies, today announces its Elite Eight Plus Two, with nine winners from ACC schools and one winner from the at-large, non-ACC pool of entrants.
Imagine a world in which everyone is empowered to take charge of their own health care by discovering their personal genetic risk factors. That’s the vision of Anne Wojcicki, founder and CEO of the personalized gene-testing company 23andMe.
“How many people love the health care they’re getting today?” Wojcicki asked a large audience here Sunday (March 9) at the South By Southwest Interactive festival. Only a handful of people raised their hands.
Health technology startups shone this year at South by Southwest Interactive.
Pedicab bikers raved about TumorPaint (the inventor of the “molecular flashlight” delivered a rousing talk), and Misfit Wearables piqued excitement by giving out 100 of its free fitness devices to attendees. And a mental health startup called ThriveOn beat out social networking apps to win Best of Show at the accelerator competition.
Here’s a testament to how 3D printing is making rapid prototyping more accessible to startups and entrepreneurs. Pictured here is a smartphone case designed and 3D printed by 15-year-old Suman Mulumudi, a student at Lakeside School in Seattle (where Bill Gates attended).
Mulumundi is also the CEO of Stratoscientific, a company he co-founded with his father, a cardiologist, to commercialize the case and another cardiology device he developed.
Don’t take $5,000 from all your friends, Fortify Ventures Managing Director Jonathon Perrelli warns a founder over lunch in the second episode of “Startupland,” or “you’re going to have 20 pains in the asses.”
If “Startupland” — a documentary on early-stage entrepreneurship that premiered last week in D.C — does one thing well, it’s depicting the complex and uneasy relationship founders have with outside capital. The above quote, in particular, is a particularly blunt reference to the pitfalls of the friends-and-family round, where a startup CEO risks adding a horde of impatient, inexperienced micromanagers to his cap table. It’s a tension that runs throughout the first two episodes of “Startupland,” which was screened on March 13 at Landmark’s E Street Cinema. Founders need early money, yet early money is expensive.
Perhaps one of the most persistent struggles when dealing with anxiety is what people get wrong about the disorder.
According to Joseph Bienvenu, an associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Johns Hopkins University, there are many fallacies when it comes to anxiety disorders, and that can make dealing with it more difficult. These misconceptions are a common reality for those who either have the condition, know someone who is battling it or think they may be on the brink of a diagnosis. We’ve debunked the 10 of the most common myths about anxiety and panic disorders.
The DC regional Innovation Corps (I-Corps) program is now accepting university research teams from the DC, MD, and VA area for the 5-week Lean LaunchPad, technology commercialization and customer development workshop beginning March 24th. UMD is the lead institution running the NSF-funded program, and as such, teams from UMD will be given priority in this 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.
Fourteen of 40 companies at the William Hanna Center for Innovation at Shady Grove already have moved to new space, and county employees are working with the rest to find new homes, county economic development head Steven A. Silverman said Wednesday. The new sites include the Germantown Innovation Center and the Montgomery campus of Johns Hopkins University in Rockville, as well as private space, he said. The county is in the process of replacing its oldest business incubator with a national cybersecurity center aligned with the National Institute of Standards and Technology of Gaithersburg. That plan has been met with opposition from not just tenants, but several Montgomery state legislators and former County Executive Douglas M. Duncan, who is running against County Executive Isiah Leggett in the Democratic primary in June.
As cars zoom along Darnestown Road, drivers can glimpse the gently sloping pastures of historic Belward Farm, a wide swath of green in the middle of Montgomery County that has seen little change since the Civil War.
Even as tract mansions, shopping centers, roads and office parks have sprouted nearby, Belward has endured, looking today much as it did in the 19th century. Not long ago, Belward Farm was home to an 80-head herd of black Angus cattle, two miniature horses and a donkey, whose owner, Elizabeth Beall Banks, was a feisty opponent of development.
Silver Spring-based United Therapeutics (NASDAQ: UTHR) finished off 2013 with a strong showing, collecting revenues of over $1.1 billion for the first time in its corporate history as well posting a net profit for the full-year 2013 and upbeat 2014 outlook.
Hidden beneath all the earnings news is a very important line segment on the balance sheet called “Cash and Cash Equivalents”. These are assets that have high liquidity and can be easily converted to cash or are cash themselves; that being said United Therapeutics has amassed nearly $1.14 billion worth of it. The amount is over $350 million more than the company held at the end of 2012.
The University of Maryland just announced a new relationship with Lockheed Martin where the two will partner to develop an integrated quantum computing platform. The duo signed a memorandum of understanding Wednesday putting into effect the establishment of the Quantum Engineering Center at the UMD.
“Classical computing can only take us so far,” Dr. Ray O. Johnson, Lockheed Martin senior vice president and chief technology officer, said in an interview with the university. “In the future, critical systems will become so complex that problems will take too long or become too expensive to solve using even our most powerful supercomputers. We believe the next computational revolution will stem from applied quantum science—a discipline that connects physics, information science, and engineering.”
A new teacher “pipeline” at the University of Maryland, College Park, is expected to help with difficult-to-fill teacher positions in Prince George’s County.
“It absolutely bolsters our available pool of STEM [science, technology, engineering and mathematics] teachers. And because we’re partners with the university, it gives us ready access to those students coming through the program,” Debra Sullivan, recruitment and retention officer in Prince George’s County Public Schools Department of Human Resources, said of Terrapin Teachers, a new program designed to encourage more undergraduate students in STEM fields to go into teaching.
Governor Martin O’Malley announced today that the State, through the BioMaryland Center, has awarded nearly $1.5 million to seven innovative life sciences companies and one educational institution through its Biotechnology Development Awards program. The companies, which received up to $200,000 each, will use the funding to accelerate the commercialization of a wide range of treatments and technologies; including a device that detects concussions in youths engaged in sports; a tool that takes a minimally invasive approach to mitral valve repair; and a drug to reduce eye injections for macular degeneration. An award was also given to a Johns Hopkins University researcher who is developing a device to lessen certain risks involved with cardiac ablation.
Johns Hopkins University and MedImmune, one of the largest biotechnology companies in the region, have teamed up for an innovative, $6.5 million research collaboration, and eight students in the Master’s in Biotechnology Enterprise and Entrepreneurship practicum are directly involved. They will be doing their practicum projects with MedImmune.
“The partnership between JHU and MedImmune is a wonderful opportunity for MBEE students to gain real-world experience,” said Lynn Johnson Langer, director, Enterprise & Regulatory Science Programs for the university’s Center for Biotechnology Education. “Their work will be highly valuable to the company, and a great learning experience for the students. Truly a win-win.”
Then tell us! Share with the Frederick business community all the great things your company offers its employees. Great health insurance? Company picnics? Job training? Philanthropic efforts? Service awards? No detail is too small. Take home the coveted Best Places to Work award and window cling. Let everyone know just how great your company is.
New this year: All winners and the event will be covered in Frederick Magazine.
You may remember him best for his hit song “She Blinded Me With Science,” which rose to No. 5 on Billboard’s Hot 100 Chart in 1982, but Thomas Dolby is more than just an ’80s pop star with an interest in blending technology with sound. He is a legendary artist who has been on the forefront of digital music. Now, the synthpop musician will have a chance to share his passion with students by serving as Johns Hopkins University’s first Homewood Professor of the Arts, a position that will allow him to create a new incubator on campus for technology in the arts.
Writing Commercialization Plans for BioTech Thursday, March 13, 2014, 12:00pm – 01:15pm
Before your bio-tech product goes to market you need to write a commercialization plan. Join expert Elizabeth Anne Smith from SoMax Consulting as she reviews:
Purpose of a Commercialization Plan
Differentiation from Business Plan
Biotech Commercialization Plan Outline and Key Elements
Sources for Assistance
This event is for business owners who want to effectively communicate product value and vision.
The 8th Annual Entrepreneurial University Startups Conference is organized annually by the National Council of Entrepreneurial Tech Transfer (NCET2.org). The University Startups Conference is a unique conference series dedicated exclusively to the best practices for creating and funding globally-competitive, venture-backable university startups.
We bring together universities creating startups with VCs, angel investors, SBIR program managers and Fortune 500 technology scouts funding them. The conference also includes NSF, NIH, NIST, DOD, DOE, DHS and other government agencies working on improving the Innovation Economy by increasing the quality and quantity of startups coming out of universities.
Fundrise, a crowdfunding start-up that finances commercial real estate projects for investors, will be debuting its latest offering on Wednesday morning on its site: a vacant commercial building on 1539 7th Street NW, in Washington, DC that the developer hopes to turn into a boutique retail site. The project is $2 million and $350,000 will be available to the general public.
This will be Fundrise’s 18th project and while in many respects it is similar to the ones that came before it, there is something new. Maryland residents can invest in the project–in as little as $100 increments—for the first time. Prior to this, these projects were only open to DC and Virginia residents.
Juxtopia®’s (www.juxtopia.org) team, Juxtopia® Imhotep, formed as a program to create minority telemedicine companies to address telemedicine marketplace needs. The global telemedicine market grew from $9.8 billion in 2010 to $11.6 billion in 2011 and will almost triple to $27.3 billion in 2016, a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 18.6% over the next five years, according to a report from BCC Research.
Juxtopia® Imhotep officially entered the Qualcomm Tricorder X PRIZE http://www.qualcommtricorderxprize.org/ in January, 2014. In this X PRIZE competition, Juxtopia® Imhotep will compete with 31 teams around the world to engineer a consumer-friendly mobile telemedicine device that will measure vital signs and diagnose 15 health conditions including, but not limited to, diabetes, anemia, atrial fibrillation, stroke, tuberculosis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), pneumonia, and hepatitis.
J. Craig Venter is the latest wealthy entrepreneur to think he can cheat aging and death. And he hopes to do so by resorting to his first love: sequencing genomes.
On Tuesday, Dr. Venter announced that he was starting a new company, Human Longevity, which will focus on figuring out how people can live longer and healthier lives.
J. Craig Venter, the human genome pioneer, today unveiled a new San Diego-based venture with an ambitious goal of providing whole genome sequencing and cell-therapy-based diagnostic services for patients.
Venter said he co-founded the company, Human Longevity Inc., or HLI, with Robert Hariri, who oversaw Celgene Cellular Therapeutics and Peter Diamandis of the X Prize Foundation. The company already has raised $70 million in Series A venture financing that includes a Malaysian investment fund that also is the lead investor of another Venter venture, Synthetic Genomics, San Diego-based Illumina (NASDAQ: ILMN), and other individual investors.
March 13th, 2014 8:00am-10:00am at the Shady Grove Innovation Center, 9700 Great Seneca Highway, Rockville, MD 20850
The Maryland/Israel Development Center and The Tech Council of Maryland invite you to join us on March 13, 2014 at 8:00 am, for an informational session to discuss business growth opportunities for U.S. companies nterested in potential partnerships with companies in Israel.
A representative of the Israel Bi-national Industrial R&D Foundation (B.I.R.D Foundation) will be presenting information on the foundation’s technology collaboration grants of up to $1 million. If you are working with a company in Israel or could be looking to partner with one, you could be eligible. Join us to learn about the application process and timelines. You will also have an opportunity to hear about an upcoming Israel trade mission. This is a great way to explore partnership opportunities with Israeli companies. Learn about a trade mission to Israel’s premier Innovation Conference — featuring Israel’s renowned Biomed Conference side-by-side with a groundbreaking High Tech Conference.
Startup incubator DreamIt Ventures Austin is kicking off a new microfund this week that will benefit the companies involved with its second accelerator program.
The microfund, which will run through a partnership with AngelList, allows accredited investors to crowdfund money for startups. Everyone who participates in DreamIt Austin’s microfund will need to make a $2,500 minimum investment that will fund all nine companies within DreamIt’s Austin program — that means you can’t just pick and chose to fund only the companies you like.
DreamIt Ventures continues its investment in the health tech space by launching its third DreamIt Health program. We’ve previously covered the 2013 DreamIt Health Philadelphia program and the 2014 DreamIt Health Baltimore program, which is ongoing. Applications for the third class, which will be in Philadelphia from July 18th till November 9th, are currently being accepted until May 16th. If you have the next great startup idea for health, you can apply here….
We had the opportunity to speak with DreamIt Health Managing Partner, Elliot Menschik, MD, PhD, about the program and where he sees opportunities in health tech entrepreneurship.
China Fortune Land Development Co., Ltd. (CFLD), a leading expert in investment and operation of industrial zones in China, officially launched a high-tech incubator in Silicon Valley on February 28. The incubator marks a new way to upgrade China’s industries, a new platform to connect Chinese and US high-tech industries and a key step of CFLD’s global expansion.
The US has the richest technological resources, the most sophisticated educational system, and the best innovative environment in the world. It fosters a large number of international giants and innovative startups that provide services and products to customers around the world.
Phlebotomy. Even the word sounds archaic—and that’s nothing compared to the slow, expensive, and inefficient reality of drawing blood and having it tested. As a college sophomore, Elizabeth Holmes envisioned a way to reinvent old-fashioned phlebotomy and, in the process, usher in an era of comprehensive superfast diagnosis and preventive medicine.
That was a decade ago. Holmes, now 30, dropped out of Stanford and founded a company called Theranos with her tuition money. Last fall it finally introduced its radical blood-testing service in a Walgreens pharmacy near company headquarters in Palo Alto, California. (The plan is to roll out testing centers nationwide.) Instead of vials of blood—one for every test needed—Theranos requires only a pinprick and a drop of blood. With that they can perform hundreds of tests, from standard cholesterol checks to sophisticated genetic analyses. The results are faster, more accurate, and far cheaper than conventional methods.
Debt isn’t always a dirty word in the world of startups.
Yesterday I heard John Hoesley from Silicon Valley Bank give a brief presentation on venture debt as a funding mechanism for startups at a capital connections event hosted by BioOhio. He mentioned that SVB has seen an uptick in its venture debt business over the last few years as venture capital dollars have become more scarce and companies have turned to alternative sources of funding.
A number of devices now exist that turn smartphones into medical monitors, but they tend to focus on specific vital signs and you’d have to carry a number of separate components to measure a variety of parameters. A new iPhone case called Wello from Azoi Inc. is planned to be released later this year combines a one lead ECG, thermometer, pulse oximeter, and supposedly even a cuffless blood pressure sensor in one device. It will also come with an optional spirometer for measuring airway flows and volumes.
Though other components are available in existing devices, cuffless blood pressure measurement is not trivial and has never been demonstrated to be as accurate as traditional cuffed BP monitors. And since FDA clearance is still required to release the Wello in the U.S., it will be interesting to see just how accurate it really is. Coincidentally, the Scanadu Scout, a device with similar claims, including cuffless blood pressure monitoring, is set to be shipped this month to all those who invested in it through an Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign.
Fierce Biotech today published the top 15 sites in the US for biotech venture capital in 2013. This according to figures from the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) as compiled by Thomas Reuters. The findings are not terribly surprising in terms of the rankings — except it might be a mild surprise that San Francisco outspent Boston/Cambridge on the VC front last year. Otherwise, the rankings look to make sense. Here is the summary below in terms of place, dollars and numbers of deals. The total dollars for the US was $4.5 B.
The rumors were true – kind of: The Founders Fund has been out raising a massive amount of cash for a fifth fund, but it’s not $750 million as originally thought. It’s $1 billion, the fund said today.
Most known for backing Facebook, Spotify and Elon Musk’s SpaceX, FF is a “stage agnostic” fund that focuses on aerospace, artificial intelligence, advanced computing, energy, health and consumer Internet.
In his $3.9 trillion fiscal year 2015 budget proposal released Tuesday, President Obama asked for $1.8 billion to support health information technology incentive payments — the same amount he requested last year. Actual spending for this category came to $1.07 billion in 2013.
The budget also included $77.1 billion in discretionary funding to support HHS’s mission, $800 million below the 2014-enacted level.
The IPO wave kept rolling for venture-capital-backed biotech as two life science companies held their first trading day Friday, while another estimated a price range for its public debut and a fourth publicly filed its paperwork.
Reuters Shares of Aquinox Pharmaceuticals Inc. rose 8.6%, while Recro Pharma Inc.‘s stock rose 3.8%.
Alejandro Zaffaroni, a prolific biotechnology entrepreneur and Silicon Valley legend who played a significant role in the development of the birth control pill, the nicotine patch, the DNA chip and corticosteroids, died on Saturday at his home in Atherton, Calif. He was 91.
The cause was complications of dementia, Ana Leech, his longtime assistant, said.
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 Executive Isiah Leggett today announced that investors in 10 local biotech companies will receive $500,000 in return for investing more than $7 million in local companies that qualified for the County’s local biotech tax credit supplement program. “Again in 2013, our biotech sector will benefit from the County’s local biotech tax credit supplement program,” said Leggett. “It is another indication that our biotech companies are thriving and that Montgomery County supports their ongoing growth and success financially, along with targeted programmatic support.”
William G. “Bill” Robertson plans to leave his post as president and chief executive of Gaithersburg-based health system Adventist HealthCare in April to lead MultiCare Health System, a not-for-profit organization based in Washington state.
Robertson has led Adventist — one of the largest private employers in Maryland, with more than 6,200 employees — since 2000. His last day will be April 4, Adventist HealthCare Board of Trustees Chairman David E. Weigley announced Monday.
Fifteen university research teams from Maryland will receive a total of $4.1 million to work with local companies to turn their research into products that could one day be sold on the commercial market.
The grants were awarded by the Maryland Industrial Partnerships (MIPS) program to projects that pair researchers at University System of Maryland schools with local businesses. The $4.1 million is a combination of MIPS grants and matching funding provided by participating companies.
NexImmune, an immunotherapy company developing products for the treatment of cancer, today announced a new scientific publication by NexImmune co-founder Dr. Jonathan Schneck and colleagues that provides an important advance in the use of its proprietary Artificial Immune (AIMä) Technology for cellular therapy of cancer. The study, published this week in ACS Nano, demonstrated the use of nanoparticle artificial Antigen Presenting Cells (aAPC), a key component of the AIM technology, with applied magnetic fields to activate and expand naive, normally poorly responsive T cell populations. Significantly, activated cells were highly effective for treating cancer in a mouse model system.
Activating naive T cells has been a key, but elusive goal of immunotherapy as these cells are more effective than differentiated T cell subtypes for treating cancer. Once activated, naive T cells have a higher proliferative capacity and a greater ability to generate strong, long-term T cell responses important for immunotherapy. Thus, this study describes a novel approach whereby AIM aAPC can potentially be coupled to magnetic-field-enhanced activation of T cells to increase the yield and activity of antigen-specific T cells expanded from naive precursors, thereby improving cellular therapy for cancer.
As cars zoom along Darnestown Road, drivers can glimpse the gently sloping pastures of historic Belward Farm, a wide swath of green in the middle of Montgomery County that has seen little change since the Civil War.¶ Even as tract mansions, shopping centers, roads and office parks have sprouted nearby, Belward has endured, looking today much as it did in the 19th century. Not long ago, Belward Farm was home to an 80-head herd of black Angus cattle, two miniature horses and a donkey, whose owner, Elizabeth Beall Banks, was a feisty opponent of development.
GSK is inviting academic scientists to enter their most innovative drug research proposals into its 2014 Discovery Fast Track Challenge– a program designed to accelerate the translation of early-stage research into game-changing new medicines.
Building on the success of its first program in 2013, which ran in the United States and Canada, GSK is implementing the challenge for a second year and expanding it to include Europe. Scientists who participate in the challenge are asked to submit details about the biological targets or pathways they are researching and the scientific rationale detailing how this early stage research could direct future drug development.
The University of Maryland (UM) BioPark and UM Ventures announced today that Advanced Metrics, a successful early-stage UM, Baltimore (UMB) startup has moved from offices on the University’s campus to the BioPark. Advanced Metrics is leveraging software development and data expertise to provide solutions for the healthcare industry. It has moved quickly into commercialization since establishment only a year ago. Two employees will develop the company’s technologies at the BioPark. The company also has additional staff in Mountville, Pennsylvania.
“Moving to the UM BioPark allows us to grow in an innovation-rich environment, where a variety of scientific companies operate,” said Steven Herr, Ph.D., CEO of Advanced Metrics. “We aspire to be innovative and agile, and to work in a smart way for healthcare practitioners and families. Moving to the BioPark and surrounding ourselves with innovative peers is an ideal step towards accomplishing our
BD Diagnostics, a segment of BD (Becton, Dickinson and Company), a leading global medical technology company, announced today that it received 510(k) clearance and Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA) Waiver from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the BD Veritor™ System for Rapid Detection of Group A Strep . This is the first commercially available rapid Group A Strep test system that incorporates a digital result to receive CLIA Waiver. The new assay is cleared for use in hospitals, outpatient clinics and other patient-care settings.
Group A Strep is the most common bacterial cause of pharyngitis. More accurately determining the etiology of pharyngitis can help providers make more appropriate antibiotic treatment decisions.
Dennis Truong and Jody Crane have reinvented the traditional house call.
The Kaiser Permanente doctors are responsible for the creation and implementation of a new program called HouseCalls, in which patients can schedule 20-minute appointments with physicians via video. The foray into mobile health saves the patients a visit to urgent care centers and saves those centers money, the doctors said. It’s just one new initiative underway at the national health provider aimed at improving care while lowering costs.
D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray’s administration plans to establish a new fund to aid tech startups and designate a stretch of Northwest D.C. as a “technology corridor” under its Digital DC initiative, according to an email obtained by the Washington Business Journal.
Digital DC — known until this week as Digital District — is the latest in a series of efforts by Gray to elevate the city’s status as a startup hub. It appears to mirror fairly closely some of the recommendations on Gray’s five-year economic development roadmap.
PricewaterhouseCoopers recently released the breakdown of its MoneyTree report by region. While we’ve know for about a month now what fourth-quarter venture capital in D.C. looked like, we weren’t completely sure what the total region looked like broken down by specific tech verticals and how much each received.
In total, the D.C./Metroplex region slipped a bit from the third quarter when it was ranked fifth in amount of funding. In Q4, however, we fell back to the ninth spot behind Texas and the Southeast. Yikes. That may have to do with an absence of huge deals that we saw earlier in 2013, such as Clarabridge’s $80 million raise and Evolent Health’s $100 million raise.
The excitement reached a new peak with the first successful mapping of a human genome at the turn of the millennium.
What if doctors could predict, based on your genetic makeup, which diseases you had a predisposition to so you could prevent them before you ever developed a single symptom? If you did get sick, what if they could tailor a specific drug that your DNA would best respond to?
Dramatic change in angel investing means both threats and opportunities for the angel investment community and the tens of thousands of entrepreneurs they support, according to the Angel Capital Association (ACA), the world’s leading professional association for angel investors. The global angel investing community will debate and assess this new environment at the 2014 ACA Summit, “Angel Impact: Entrepreneurial and Economic Success,” March 26-28, 2014, in Washington, D.C.
U.S. angel investors – individuals who support startup companies with passion, experience and funding – in 2012 invested nearly $23 billion in about 67,000 ventures, according to estimates by the Center for Venture Research at the University of New Hampshire. Their impact on the economy is huge, as the kinds of innovative startups angels invest in create all of the net new jobs in the country, according to reports by the Census Bureau and Kauffman Foundation.
Accelerator programs and incubators are growing rapidly in number within the health care industry, with most replicating standard tech incubator models. But one organization has worked to redefine what an accelerator program can look like in the health space by joining one of the country’s largest and most influential associations in its landmark effort to court healthcare innovation. Dr. Ross Tonkens, a cardiologist and Chief Medical Officer in Cary, North Carolina has directed the creation of the Science and Technology Accelerator Program inside the American Heart Association (AHA), that targets and supports ground-breaking ideas from residents to senior clinicians.
It pays to have a college diploma — and preferably more than one.
A worker who holds a bachelor’s degree will typically earn 77 percent more than a colleague who didn’t go beyond high school, says a new U.S. Census Bureau report. And a person with a master’s degree will earn 17 percent more than an individual with a B.A. or B.S.
If the rounds that Health Catalyst and Zephyr Health have put together are any indication of how the rest of the year might go for fledgling healthcare data analytics startups, we can expect to see bigger, mid-stage deals this year, and not in the places you might expect.
New analysis from research firm CB Insights found that venture funding for companies developing predictive and prescriptive data analytics for healthcare more than doubled from 2012 to 2013, while deal volume rose 40 percent. These are companies that are working with providers or payers to convert all of the data they’re collecting into insights that will hopefully guide more effective and less costly care.
The recent federal mandates for healthcare information technology have increased demand on the field, boosting the need for educated and knowledgeable staff for health IT projects. But with the emergence and recent popularity of graduate education in healthcare informatics, we are seeing an influx of students entering these programs who do not have clinical or information technology backgrounds.
These individuals have a great desire to work in informatics and recognize the enormous impact the field can have on healthcare, but they lack the hands-on experience that many employers seek. Some of these students have even reported challenges getting hired after obtaining their master’s degree, for lack of ‘experience.’
Dr. Lucian Iancovici is an investment manager at Qualcomm Ventures with a focus on the Qualcomm Life Fund, a $100 million digital health fund. He manages the fund’s investments in Fitbit and PracticeFusion. This week at HIMSS, Iancovici was a keynote speaker at a venture forum to explore investment trends in healthcare and the different approaches digital health startups are taking to take on pain points in the industry.
In an interview with MedCity News, Iancovici identified a few emerging patterns he sees in digital health centered around mobilizing, organizing and analyzing patient data to catalyze changes in healthcare.
The U.S. experiences cycles in liquidity because, well, we just aren’t that creative. In 2006 to 2007 we saw waves of consumer tech IPOs, then the inevitable ebb, followed by the flow of enterprise tech IPOs from 2010 to 2013. But while high profile brands like Twitter and FireEye dominated the news, did you know that 38 healthcare firms went public, compared to 28 in technology? In 2013 we saw healthcare IT investments break records, exceeding $1.9 billion in total investments. And digital health has only scratched the surface: I believe that healthcare IT IPOs will quadruple enterprise tech IPOs this year.
The healthcare IT market is ripe for IPOs for several reasons.
Twenty-somethings can be a tough crowd to please. They’re glued to their smartphones, opinionated, and entirely dependent on technology. When facing an illness, they’ll jump head-first into the information-abyss of a Google search. By the time they make it to the doctor’s office, they’ve already digested 15 academic studies and 10 online articles.
As the Pew Center points out, this hyper-connected behavior is a double edged sword — on the one hand, millennial patients have the resources to be their most empowered and informed. The problem? These young information-seekers risk falling prey to poorly researched online articles, bad advice on social media, and the impulse to self-medicate to avoid expensive ER visits. Not to mention, some members of this demographic are deluded enough to think that they’re ‘too healthy for healthcare.’
Long ignored in favor of enterprise software, social networking and other sexy Internet technologies, biotech has roared back in the past year.
With drug companies desperate to replace expiring drug patents, and President Barack Obama’s new health care law demanding cuts in medical costs, Wall Street has shown a seemingly insatiable appetite for initial public offerings of stock. Last year’s 35 IPOs, including seven in the Bay Area, represented the most in the sector in nearly a decade. In the first two months of this year, 17 others have launched — shattering records.
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.
As we heard at our big MoCo Forecast event this morning in Bethesda, growing jobs there will require wooing those you already have. (If you have leftover Valentine’s chocolate, put it to work.)
BioHealth Innovation CEO Rich Bendis (far left, as well as on the big screen as an ace ballplayer) says variety should be a big part of job growth: “A balanced portfolio of new, existing, and large anchors.” Going international should also be a focus; Rich feels the county should lock down foreign tech companies who might otherwise look to Boston, Silicon Valley, Philly, or the NC Research Triangle. Rich was joined on our first panel by Ike, Technology Council of Maryland CEO Phil Schiff, and Foulger-Pratt VP Brigg Bunker.
Emergent BioSolutions Inc. (NYSE: EBS) announced today that it has completed its acquisition of Cangene Corporation for $222 million in cash. After payment by Cangene of transaction related costs, Emergent expects to receive approximately $40 million of cash from Cangene in connection with closing. The completion of the acquisition follows the successful conclusion of all closing conditions, including approval by the Ontario Superior Court of Justice and a positive vote by Cangene shareholders at a special shareholder meeting held on February 12, 2014. The transaction is consistent with Emergent’s growth plan in that it diversifies the company’s revenue mix, adds commercial product sales and contributes to earnings growth.
Roger Jeffs hopes that someday all medicines will be classified as orphan drugs. Allow the president and COO of United Therapeutics (Nasdaq: UTHR) to explain. He wants the pharmaceutical world to get to a place where every drug is so specifically targeted that it would apply to only a few people worldwid
20/20 GeneSystems, Inc. (“20/20”) announced today that the National Cancer Institute has awarded the company a cost-sharing Phase II Small Business Innovation and Research (SBIR) contract to develop, optimize, and validate (analytically and clinically) a test to help predict whether a patient with advanced stage kidney cancer (renal cell carcinoma) is likely to benefit from anti-angiogenic therapy. The anticipated end result is a diagnostic test that will indicate to oncologists the appropriate treatment for patients.
AnthroTronix (www.atinc.com), an award-winning research and development (R&D) company that designs human-inspired products that define the future of mobile technology, recently awarded the Department of Psychiatry at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine a subcontract to use AnthroTronix’s technology to study ways to improve clinical care in the treatment of major depressive disorder (MDD). This subcontract is in support of a U.S Army Rapid Innovation Fund project at AnthroTronix.
Researcher Adam Kaplin, M.D., Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Neurology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, will lead the research. The subcontract supports the work designed to enhance patient care, specifically related to the application of AnthroTronix’s Defense Automated Neurobehavioral Assessment (DANA), mobile brain vitals health assessment tool.
Faculty researchers from the University of Maryland, Baltimore and Johns Hopkins University were recognized for their groundbreaking research and its impact on human health with 2014 BioMaryland LIFE (Leading Innovative Faculty Entrepreneurs) awards. Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development Secretary Dominick Murray and BioMaryland Center Executive Director Dr. Judy Britz presented the awards to Dr. Jonathan Powell of the Johns Hopkins University Kimmel Cancer Center to further develop a new therapeutic agent for diabetes type II; and to Dr. Eduardo Davila of the University of Maryland, Baltimore for his T-cell based universal immunotherapy platform to fight cancer. First awarded in 2010, the LIFE prizes are two $50,000 grants funded by the BioMaryland Center along with the two universities to help advance research in biotech and biopharma, medical devices, or diagnostics that have the greatest potential for commercial application.
An entrepreneurial culture is alive and well in the nation’s capital, bolstered by a wave of successful startups of various shapes and sizes that are creating jobs and improving the world. In pursuing continued economic growth that is not dependent upon federal funds, the D.C. community must focus on encouraging and supporting more entrepreneurs. One clear path to accelerating the evolution of a startup culture, highlighted by the University of Maryland’s recent recognition as the top public university for technology entrepreneurship in the 2013 StartEngine College Index, is through our local institutions of higher education. Their curricula, access to space and technology, and vast alumni networks make universities the perfect home for entrepreneurship, and their efforts to create a new generation of entrepreneurs need our community’s support.
Federal and Maryland officials signed an agreement on Tuesday with the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Gaithersburg to develop new cyber security technology and provide opportunities for students in the state.
The agreement plans to expand on a February 2012 collaboration agreement signed by NIST, Maryland officials and Montgomery County officials to establish the National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence.
Just what is a “National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence,” anyway?
I’ve heard this question muttered repeatedly, in one form or another, in the course of covering the ongoing bio vs. cyber dispute over the future of the William Hanna Center for Innovation at Shady Grove.
University of Maryland (UM) Ventures and Harpoon Medical, Inc. announced today that Harpoon Medical has obtained exclusive rights to a portfolio of technologies for cardiac valve repair from the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB). The licensed technology was developed in the Division of Cardiac Surgery at The University of Maryland School of Medicine. A $200,000 award from the BioMaryland Center and a $50,000 BioMaryland LIFE (Leading Innovative Faculty Entrepreneurs) Prize supported the company’s early development efforts. Since the company’s formation in early July 2013, the Harpoon Medical team has secured more than $300,000 in competitive grants and additional award funding from the BioMaryland Center and TEDCO.
“Harpoon Medical is a particularly exciting UMB startup and the minimally invasive technology for mitral valve repair – without the need to open the chest or stop the heart – has the potential to dramatically improve patient care,” said Phil Robilotto, the University’s Assistant Vice President, Office of Technology Transfer. “Harpoon’s management team has a well-established track record, and Harpoon has already made significant progress on both the product development and fundraising fronts.”
Please join Montgomery County’s business, nonprofit, philanthropic, government, education and resident leaders in a discussion about building the workforce of the future.
To begin, Montgomery Moving Forward is focusing on jobs – learning together, advocating together and experimenting together– so that more residents achieve self-sufficiency, more local businesses find qualified workers, more communities contribute to and share in countywide prosperity and so the County can establish lasting pathways to success for our changing community. Symposium Planning Committee: representatives of A Wider Circle; CollegeTracks; Community Foundation for Montgomery County/Community Foundation for the National Capital Region; Jewish Social Service Agency; Identity; LAYC/Maryland Multicultural Youth Center; Montgomery Business Development Corporation; Montgomery Coalition for Adult English Literacy; Montgomery College; Montgomery County Collaboration Council for Children, Youth and Families; Montgomery County Council; Montgomery County Department of Economic Development, Workforce Services Division; Montgomery County Public Schools; Universities at Shady Grove; Workforce Solutions Group
Keeping your computer safe is always a top priority for students, government officials and nine-to-fivers paranoid about losing their tech investment, or worse – face a security breach. Thanks to a new product from University of Maryland-based CoolCAD Electronics LLC, though, you may not have to worry about your computer’s well-being any more.
The startup from College Park just launched a 30-day Kickstarter campaign for its new GateKeeper Chain security product, a trendy-looking little key fob that automatically locks your computer when you leave. Then, once you return, it unlocks.
Southern Maryland’s economic potential lies in the region’s higher education institutions producing highly technical and skilled workers, according to area leaders.
Military officials, educators, business leaders and others discussed Southern Maryland’s potential economic growth Monday during a forum at the Prince Frederick campus of the College of Southern Maryland.
Epidarex Capital, a leading international early-stage life science venture capital fund, has invested in Confluence Life Sciences Inc., a biotechnology company focused on the rapid discovery and development of drugs to address unmet needs in cancer and chronic inflammatory disease.
Confluence’s innovative KINect Technology Platform enables the identification and development of new protein kinase drugs in a fraction of the time of other approaches. Confluence’s team of world-class drug developers has created a pipeline of drug candidates which focus on creating kinase inhibitors targeting hard-to-treat cancers. Confluence’s lead program targets the kinase TAK1, which is important in cancer cell transformation, metastasis, tumor growth and drug resistance, especially in pancreatic and other cancers such as breast and colon.
Scott Block has always been interested in entrepreneurship. As an undergraduate , he looked for opportunities to get involved in start-ups at the University of Maryland, and he helped a few other students build Web applications for their own business ideas. Over time, he saw how difficult it was for those entrepreneurial students to connect with others like them on campus.
Two other students, Avi Eisenberger and Justin Searles, shared Block’s frustration. The three decided to work together to solve the problem by creating a place for student entrepreneurs to come together online, share ideas and track their ventures. The team created a platform and app called VentureBoard.
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) invites small businesses to submit Phase I research applications under this Federal Funding Opportunity (FFO). Firms with strong research capabilities in any of the areas listed in Section 9 of the Full Announcement/FFO document are encouraged to participate. Applications not addressing one of the Subtopics in Section 9 are not responsive to this FFO. NIST offers two types of Subtopics in Section 9 of this FFO: standard research “R” and tech transfer “TT” Subtopics. Both “R” and “TT” subtopics are intended to cultivate private sector innovation and foster and encourage participation by minority and disadvantaged persons in technological innovation.
It’s a bit surreal to go to a science fair at a hospital. But the group of health IT companies from DreamIt Venture’s accelerator coupled with demonstrations of technology from Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and University of Pennsylvania helped set the scene for a new initiative by DreamIt that’s starting at CHOP. The program is designed to help companies and institutions develop enterprise software and commercially viable companies.
DreamIt Ventures’ Open Canvas@CHOP is a one-year program at the pediatric hospital to help it further develop its reputation for pediatric innovation but in enterprise software. The program will also see two teams from the institution take part in DreamIt Health’s next accelerator class in Philadelphia this summer.
Illumina Inc. is launching what it bills as the world’s first genomics incubator, saying it has teamed up with technology billionaire Yuri Milner and Silicon Valley Bank to invest hundreds of thousands of dollars in startups.
The San Diego maker of genome sequencing equipment said that it plans to offer aspiring genomics businesses both funding and access to lab equipment. Work would take place in the San Francisco Bay Area.
For Marie Johnson, coming up with a better way to detect coronary artery disease is both a business and a personal mission.
Johnson is CEO of AUM Cardiovascular, a Minnesota medical device company that’s developing a potentially cheaper, simpler, eight-minute test to detect signs of coronary artery disease — the primary cause of heart attack.
UCSF and electronics giant Samsung are establishing a center for digital health care innovation, they said Friday, an endeavor that seeks to accelerate the development of mobile technologies for preventive health care.
The lab, to be located on UCSF’s Mission Bay campus, will function as a kind of cross-cultural exchange, the rare kind of space where technologists and innovators will be able to validate technologies like smartphone apps or wearable sensors alongside top medical researchers. At the same time, researchers and clinicians will be able to funnel ideas through Samsung designers and engineers.
Here in Washington, we woke up to a thick blanket of snow from the largest snowstorm of an already active winter season. The federal government, schools and stores have closed. It got me thinking about what a snow day can tell you about your office, agency or company. It’s a good test that reveals a lot about how you are organized, your technology and your culture.
At my company, we regularly work across multiple client sites, at home, in our D.C. office and in multiple states—snow or no snow. Flexibility is one of our core values. So when a snow day hits, we just keep going. It’s not that different than any other day working from home except for the parents of young children whose schools are closed.
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.
ROCKVILLE AND BALTIMORE, MARYLAND, February 18, 2014 – BioHealth Innovation, Inc. (BHI) and China Fortune Land Development Co., Ltd. (CFLD) announced today that they have signed an agreement to jointly manage a newly created Entrepreneur-In-Residence (EIR) position to be located at the BHI headquarters in Rockville, Maryland. This first-of-its-kind position will lead in the scouting of technologies and partnership opportunities in life science hubs in the U.S. and China.
“We’re very pleased to advance our partnership with BHI,” said Mr. Hu Zhen Yu, Vice President for CFLD, a company specializing in investment and operation of industrial areas in China, including science parks. “Our organizations first had a chance to connect in person when BHI’s CEO Rich Bendis traveled with a delegation from Montgomery County, Maryland, to China. Now, we look forward to filling this new EIR position, which will help to identify talented businesses and commercial prospects for our collaborative efforts.”
The new EIR will evaluate life science technologies in both China and the U.S. markets; provide a strategic plan for start-up companies; advise on opportunities for new ventures; and lead the commercial strategy for mature assets. This would be BHI’s 5th EIR since the program’s inception two years ago.
Where’s the nation’s second largest concentration of academic, federal and private sector research spending? California? Massachusetts? According to the National Science Foundation, it’s Maryland, equating to billions of dollars in research investment in the Maryland economy. First place New Mexico has a relatively small rural population and presence of two major federal nuclear research labs.
But Maryland has something New Mexico doesn’t — proximity to Washington, D.C.
Washington is home to the nation’s government, but also the National Academies, technology trade associations, international corporations, embassies, media, regulatory agencies, foundations, and science agencies.
Bethesda Blues and Jazz – 7719 Wisconsin Avenue, Bethesda, MD 20814
What’s next for Montgomery County? The potential for livable work, live and play environments on Metro abound. But what about the business community? What is it going to take to build an innovation economy? Is Montgomery County going to become the next tech hub?
Join us for a very special morning event featuring some of the brightest and most influential business and real estate leaders as they discuss some of the most dramatic decisions that this region will face in the upcoming year. Sign up now to join leaders of the Maryland business region for an important morning of discussion and networking!
BioHealth Innovation, Inc. (BHI), a Montgomery County, Maryland innovation intermediary which translates market-relevant research into commercial success by bringing together among other things management, funding, and markets, is seeking an experienced life science professional with entrepreneurial experience to serve as its Entrepreneur-in-Residence (EIR) financially supported by the China Fortune Land Development Company, LTD (CFLD), focused on advancing China-U.S. partnerships. The EIR will collaborate with a life science commercialization expert who has an interest in relocating to the Peptide Valley to assist CFLD in Chinese life science commercialization. BHI will work with the CFLD EIR on this recruitment as well as provide training to them. The EIR will lead in the scouting of technologies in both markets with a preliminary focus on therapeutic vaccines, antibodies, medical devices, proteins and peptides and diagnostics. Further, the EIR will build partnerships in life science hubs in the U.S. and China which support the progression of these technologies for manufacturing or at the preclinical testing stage of development, the primary focus of the Peptide Valley. This EIR will evaluate life science technologies in both markets, provide a strategic plan for start-up companies, advise on opportunities for new ventures, and lead the commercial strategy for mature assets. The EIR will oversee primary and secondary research and will provide strategic recommendations and insights on the direction of potential assets that have potential for Chinese commercialization in the Peptide Valley or other CFLD research parks.
A recent third-party economic development impact study conducted by Battelle Technology Partnership Practice (TPP), the world’s largest non-profit research and development organization, has found that the Maryland Technology Development Corporation (TEDCO) currently supports more than $565.9 million in economic contributions and more than 2,835 jobs in the State of Maryland annually, earning $200.5 million in salaries with estimated State and local government revenues of $22.8 million. The study also determined the economic contribution of TEDCO programs is projected to grow to $910.3 million and support a total of 4,527 jobs by 2018. These jobs will earn $320.3 million in salaries with estimated State and local government revenues of $36.6 million.
Bethesda-based Sucampo named former MedImmune president Peter Greenleaf to serve as the company’s chief executive starting next month, according to a news release.
The appointment brings a high-profile name to the biotechnology firm as it looks to commercialize products for glaucoma and constipation, as well as develop additional drugs to treat eye and digestive issues.
MedImmune, the global biologics research and development arm of AstraZeneca, announced it has entered into a three-year collaboration with the Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI) at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). The collaboration will focus on CTSI’s Catalyst Awards program, which solicits applications from University scientists who wish to move their translational research beyond the bench and into product development.
This marks the first industrial partnership for CTSI’s Catalyst Awards program’s therapeutic track, which focuses specifically on discovery and development of patient treatment options. The collaboration will benefit both MedImmune’s biologics and AstraZeneca’s small molecule portfolios and will call for proposals in therapeutic areas of interest to MedImmune and AstraZeneca, including cardiovascular and metabolic disease; oncology; respiratory, inflammation and autoimmunity; neuroscience and infectious disease.
Rockville-based MacroGenics Inc. plans to sell 2.5 million shares in a secondary offering, the bulk of which would go toward advancing the biotech’s oncology drug candidates through the clinic and expanding its manufacturing capacity.
Much like in MacroGenics’ October initial public offering, the chief purpose of this offering is to fund the pipeline, with 1.5 million shares offered by the company and another 1 million shares coming from selling shareholders.
Out of 260 applicants, 41 start-ups have advanced in the second annual InvestMaryland Challenge, the Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development (DBED) announced today.
The early-stage business competition—with awards provided by DBED’s Maryland Venture Fund, the BioMaryland Center and other sponsors—seeks to grow entrepreneurship and innovation in the State.
QIAGEN N.V. QGEN +0.76% (frankfurt prime standard:QIA) today announced the launch plans of several novel products designed to significantly reduce the challenges of the most significant bottlenecks in next-generation sequencing (NGS): sample preparation and bioinformatics. The solutions will enable NGS users to generate more valuable insights from any sample. The new products add to QIAGEN’s rapidly expanding portfolio of ‘universal’ solutions designed to run with any NGS platform, including QIAGEN’s GeneReader™ platform, which is being prepared for launch in 2014. Several of QIAGEN’s new NGS products will be introduced to genomics researchers this week at the 15th annual Advances in Genome Biology and Technology (AGBT) meeting in Marco Island, Florida.
The Tech Council of Maryland (TCM), Maryland’s largest technology trade association with more than 400 life science and technology members employing over 200,000 in the region, today announced that individuals from Hewlett-Packard Co., Johns Hopkins University, MedImmune, RCM&D and SoBran Inc. were named to the association’s board of directors.
“We are excited to have this impressive group of individuals on the TCM board,” said Phil Schiff, TCM’s CEO. “Their individual and collective expertise will be invaluable as the association evolves to address the changing needs of our membership.”
The DC regional Innovation Corps (I-Corps) program is now accepting university research teams from the DC, MD, and VA area for the 5-week Lean LaunchPad, technology commercialization and customer development workshop beginning March 24th. UMD is the lead institution running the NSF-funded program, and as such, teams from UMD will be given priority in this program. Interested teams can learn more and apply at http://www.dcicorps.org/. Feel free to contact info@dcicorps.org or (240) 319-9594 if you have any questions.
Looking beyond the small-molecule drugs and biologic treatments that have dominated therapeutic development over the past generation, GlaxoSmithKline’s ($GSK) all-encompassing R&D department is trying to get a jump on the future of medicine, and research chief Moncef Slaoui is betting that there’s a great deal of promise in drug-mimicking electronics.
By Suzanne Raheb, Corporate Supplier Diversity Leader, Lockheed Martin Corporation
Whether working as a subcontractor or a technology mentor, Lockheed Martin provides small businesses with various assistance during different phases of their SBIR/STTR projects. This includes supporting technology requirements, evaluation, co-development, and insertion into larger systems.
In 2008, Thierry Merquiol joined a crowdfunding effort to produce the first album of a little-known French singer named Grégoire. The investment paid off, Grégoire became a hit, and the experience inspired Merquiol to set up a similar crowdfunding platform for undiscovered companies. Nearly five years later, Merquiol and his business partner’s group, the Toulouse, France-based WiSeed, have helped finance 33 startup firms, including four in biotechnology. “Ours is democratization of equity funding,” said WiSeed associate Souleymane-Jean Galadima.
Illumina, Inc. today announced the launch of the Illumina Accelerator Program, the world’s first business accelerator focused solely on creating an innovation ecosystem for the genomics industry. Its goal is to speed the time to market and lower the barriers to entry for entrepreneurs, start-ups and early stage companies working on scientifically and commercially promising next-generation sequencing (NGS) applications.
Through the accelerator’s six-month program, Illumina will provide invited participants with technology and business guidance and $100,000 in support, including access to sequencing systems and reagents, as well as fully operational lab space in close proximity to the company’s planned R&D facilities in San Francisco’s Mission Bay. Initial partners include prominent technology investor Yuri Milner, who will offer each participating company $100,000 in exchange for convertible notes, and Silicon Valley Bank, which intends to provide banking services and credit to each participating company.
The pharmaceutical industry’s dependence on universities and small biotechs as the source of innovation is laid bare in an analysis of the origin of all the novel drugs approved by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) in the three years from 2010 – 2012.
The analysis shows that 49 per cent of the products granted marketing authorisation during this time were originally discovered by the in-house efforts of pharma companies, with the remaining 51 per cent originating elsewhere. However, of the 94 products that received approval, 87 per cent were owned by pharma companies at the point the license was granted.
Through the Open Innovation Challenge, the American Heart Association hopes to get closer to its goal of improving Americans’ cardiovascular health by 20 percent by 2020.
The key to crowdfunding success? Pull at the heartstrings of your audience.
That’s what the New York City affiliate of the American Heart Association aims to do in its first-ever Open Innovation Challenge, a program that is part of the AHA’s Health Science Innovation and Investment Forum.
Based on an exhaustive search of Apple’s AppStore and the Google Play store in September 2013, MobiHealthNews found 205 apps that were “hospital-branded” and intended for use by consumers or patients. By that we mean simply that the hospital has put its name on these apps. For this special MobiHealthNews In-Depth we are publicly sharing for the first time the topline findings from our report. If you’d like to learn more about the history of mobile initiatives at US hospitals or would like access to the entire list of 205 hospital-branded apps for patients — head over to our research store to get your copy today.
One of IBM’s first app ecosystem partners for Watson, the health optimization company Welltok Inc., became the first firm to benefit from a $100 million venture fund IBM established to promote the use of its cognitive computing technology.
Welltok has raised $22.1 million in Series C funding led by New Enterprise Associates (NEA) with new participation from IBM and Qualcomm Ventures. This brings Welltok’s funding in the last nine months to more than $40 million.
In a recent post at In the Pipeline, Derek Lowe answers a reader’s question about how best to promote drug discover in India. Given my research on the matter, I figured I would try and provide an answer as well.
In Scientific American’s Worldview, I have been ranking national biotechnology industries for the past five years. When I was recently in New Delhi I presented the Indian innovation figures and asked the audience to guess where they ranked. Much to their amazement, India was ranked with the bottom five of the 50+ countries assessed. The issues are myriad — poor patent protection, infrastructure problems, an insufficient quantity (not quality!) of skilled workers, etc.
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.
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Fourteen of 40 companies at the William Hanna Center for Innovation at Shady Grove already have moved to new space, and county employees are working with the rest to find new homes, county economic development head Steven A. Silverman said Wednesday.
March 19-20, 2014
AstraZeneca’s global biologics R&D arm MedImmune and the University of Cambridge have entered into a three-year oncology research collaboration in order to advance cancer research by using imaging technologies to measure key biologic changes within growing tumors.
University of Maryland students will host Bitcamp, the university’s first Major League Hackathon, April 46, 2014 in Cole Field House on the university’s College Park, Md., campus. More than 750 college and high school students from across the country are expected to attend the innovative technology summit at UMD.
COLLEGE PARK, Md. — The $100K ACC Clean Energy Challenge, a business plan competition supported by the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) encouraging students from universities in the southeastern United States to develop business plans for new clean energy companies, today announces its Elite Eight Plus Two, with nine winners from ACC schools and one winner from the at-large, non-ACC pool of entrants.
Montgomery County Executive Isiah Leggett today announced that investors in 10 local biotech companies will receive $500,000 in return for investing more than $7 million in local companies that qualified for the County’s local biotech tax credit supplement program. “Again in 2013, our biotech sector will benefit from the County’s local biotech tax credit supplement program,” said Leggett. “It is another indication that our biotech companies are thriving and that Montgomery County supports their ongoing growth and success financially, along with targeted programmatic support.”
