Founders Fund already stands out for backing startups with radical ideas, including Counsyl, Hampton Creek, Planet Labs, and SpaceX. Now the venture firm is making a formal commitment to funding startups in aeronautics, life sciences, nanotechnology, and other geeky realms. Founders Fund has dedicated a small percentage of its new $1 billion fund to a new initiative called FF Science, through which the firm will make seed-stage deals.
Kaiser is well known healthcare delivery model and outcomes, but, it turns out, it’s also among the best at engaging members via the web and mobile apps. The organization says in its 2013 annual report (just released) that about 4.4 million of its 9.1 million members use its online health management platform My Health Manager.
While considerable attention has been heaped on the public health insurance exchanges over the year, private health insurance exchanges “are experiencing hyper-growth” and enrollment could exceed that of public exchanges by 2017, “if not sooner,” according to Accenture.
Qiagen has acquired an exclusive global license from the University of Tokyo for the biomarker SF3B1. The company said it sees potential for developing companion diagnostics to guide myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) treatment with new anticancer compounds under development that target the SF3B1 gene.
The Intellectual Property Owners (IPO) recently published a list of the top 100 universities worldwide granted U.S. patents in 2013, and among them were three local schools: Johns Hopkins University, the University of Maryland and the University of Virginia.
Inside sources reveal that Indian pharmaceutical generics firm Lupin, along with other U.S. pharma firms, is considering bidding for GlaxoSmithKline’s auctioned mature and generic drugs.
GSK seeks to divest its lineup of mature drugs in an effort to improve its growth profile by getting rid of its off-patent drugs in North America and Western Europe. The drugs are estimated to bring in annual sales of 1 billion pounds and are expected to fetch two to three times the price on the auction block.
The startup world will perk up to hear that RockthePost and CoFoundersLab recently merged to form Onevest. Together the two companies will provide a single source for startup founders to not only find investors but also find the right co-founders all online.
Jennifer Hammaker has watched biotech company respEQ Inc. grow from an experiment in a Johns Hopkins lab to a fledgling startup now looking for investors.
RespEQ is a prime example of what Hammaker, who leads the Maryland Innovation Initiative, hopes the state’s research commercialization program will produce more of in the future.
Apollo Hospitals today announced a partnership with Strand Life Sciences to launch the latter’s genomic tests across its hospitals.
The partnership in gene-based diagnostics with the Bangalore-based healthcare research company will help doctors at Apollo to develop personalised medicine for targeted treatments and better patient outcomes.
GSK has submitted an application for the world’s first malaria vaccine to the European Medicines Agency (EMA).
The vaccine candidate, RTS,S, is produced in yeast cells and targets the Plasmodium falciparum malaria parasite, most common in sub-Saharan Africa. It uses GSK’s proprietary AS01 adjuvant system, containing QS-21 Stimulon adjuvant licensed from Antigenics, a subsidiary of Agenus, as well as monophosphoryl lipid A (MPL) and liposomes.
