News Archive

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.”

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 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.

Leaders from 3D printing, fab labs and laser technologies will participate in a Digital Fabrication Summit to open the new Potomac Digital Fabrication Center at BWTech@UMBC in Baltimore, Maryland (US). The event will be held on 6 May 2014 and is being organised by Potomac Photonics, Inc. in cooperation with the non-profit FabLab Hub. The summit will bring together visionaries who are leading the next industrial revolution.

Avi Reichental, chief executive officer (CEO) of 3D Systems Corporation, will deliver the keynote, “Manufacturing the Future.” 3D Systems has been at the forefront of digital fabrication since company founder Chuck Hull invented stereo-lithography in 1983. Reichental has been one of those responsible for the dramatic shift from a technology for specialised applications to tools for mainstream markets. Potomac is an authorised 3D Systems equipment reseller and service provider and is creating a 3D printing equipment showcase in the new facility.

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.

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.