U.S. Sen. Barbara Mikulski says a new state roundtable on cyber security will focus on keeping the fast-growing industry’s jobs in Maryland, rather than going to Northern Virginia.
The Maryland Cybersecurity Roundtable will hold its first meeting on Thursday. The group includes Mikulski, Gov. Martin O’Malley, KEYW Corp. CEO Len Moodispaw and Jeffrey Wells, who oversees cyber for the Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development.
A bipartisan initiative known as “21st Century Cures,” spearheaded by the House Energy and Commerce Committee, is aiming to keep the U.S. at the forefront of biomedical innovation.
The U.S. bio-phrama industry’s distinction as No. 1 hasn’t gone unnoticed in the rest of the world, says “A Path to 21st Century Cures,” a white paper that describes the initiatives main objectives. “[O]ther nations are now actively working to gain a competitive edge in various elements, whether through a focus on basic research or a streamlined approval process to bring new treatments to market more quickly,” according to the report.
IAN READ, the chief executive of Pfizer, is not a man easily rebuffed. His attempt to woo AstraZeneca, a British drugs firm, included politesse—appearances before Parliament, web videos on Pfizer’s strategy—and, more importantly, a sweetened offer on May 18th worth around £70 billion ($120 billion). However, AstraZeneca’s board has rejected the bid and, as we went to press, it seemed dead in the water.
Imperial Innovations Group plc (AIM:IVO, ‘Innovations’), the leading technology commercialisation and investment company and S.R.One Ltd, GlaxoSmithKline’s venture captial fund, announce today that they have led, alongside co-investor UCL Business PLC (UCLB), an £850,000 seed financing for Puridify, a newly formed company providing purification solutions for biotherapeutic manufacturing.
Puridify’s technology was developed in the world-leading Advanced Centre for Biochemical Engineering at UCL (University College London). UCLB, the technology transfer office for UCL, licensed this technology to Puridify in 2014. It was the winner of the 2013 OneStart competition (founded by SR One and the Oxbridge Biotech Roundtable, http://www.oxbridgebiotech.com/onestart), which is designed to encourage young entrepreneurs. The company has received additional matched-funding awards totalling £780,000 from the UK’s innovation agency, the Technology Strategy Board, to support advancement of the technology.
Immunotherapy, a new, promising therapeutic approach that leverages the power of the immune system to fight cancer, is the cornerstone of MedImmune’s oncology portfolio. As the biologics research and development arm of AstraZeneca, MedImmune is striving to push the boundaries of science to deliver life-changing medicines to patients.
By targeting the immune system, immunotherapy may lead to durable and prolonged response rates across a range of cancer types. Tumours are heterogeneous in that there many different cells that often mutate and grow in different ways. In lung cancer, for example, there may be more than 60 different mutations. Cancer often manages to continue replicating and becomes resistant and returns to growth, making it challenging to treat. This happens despite chemotherapy, surgery and other targeting therapies. Even worse, some of the existing therapies – especially chemotherapy – actually diminish the immune response, thus limiting the body’s own natural defence mechanisms to fight tumours.
The changing face of Frederick County’s economy is reflected in the rapidly growing field of bioscience and biotechnology companies locating or expanding here.
Agriculture and tourism may still be the leading economic factors in Frederick County, but the life sciences are becoming an integral part of the local economy. Additionally, many Frederick residents work for life science companies in Montgomery County and Washington. They may not be in the lab or doing administrative work for a bioscience firm in the county, but they benefit from the growth of local firms, as many of the companies collaborate on innovations and research.
Bloomberg’s Drew Armstrong reports on the failed Pfizer and AstraZeneca merger on Bloomberg Television’s “Bloomberg Surveillance.”
Investors keen to capitalise on British science have poured nearly £50m into a new venture capital fund.
Epidarex, a specialist life science venture capital group, will on Thursday unveil a new £47.5m fund dedicated to UK start-ups, including university spin-outs.
Register for the Spring National SBIR/STTR Conference and take your pick of 1-on-1 meetings with Agency principals on a first-come, first-serve basis. More than 300 meeting slots filled in a week at last year’s conference, so don’t delay. Once you register, you’ll receive access to descriptions of all 23 participating Agencies and Institutes to make your 1-on-1 meeting choices.
The conference, held at the Gaylord Convention Center in National Harbor, MD on June 16 – 18, will feature the SBA Administrator, representatives from all participating NIH institutes and key leaders from across the Federal government. The event is the nation’s largest annual gathering of SBIR/STTR Agencies, industry leaders, and awardees.
The Biotechnology Industry Organization today issued the following statement in response to Senator Patrick Leahy’s announcement that he will remove current patent legislation from the Senate Judiciary Committee’s agenda for now:
“BIO applauds Chairman Leahy’s decision to remove the controversial patent bill from the Senate Judiciary Committee’s agenda until greater stakeholder consensus can be achieved.
