News Archive

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.

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.

It looks like Clarus Ventures is planning to reload with investment capital for life science companies.

The Boston- and San Francisco-based venture firm revealed in a SEC filing it’s looking to raise up to $375 million for a third fund.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Declines in budgets across the public health community were just one reason the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention began looking at innovative approaches for employees and partners to collaborate online.

With the agency’s health informatics partners stretching to state and local public health departments, academics, educational institutions, standards organizations, as well as other countries, CDC in 2009 began examining how it could develop a more cost-effective and efficient way for these key stakeholders to meet, collaborate and advance new ideas.