News Archive

Threat and opportunities are two sides of the same coin here. While cancer is one of the biggest threats the healthcare sector is witnessing today, it has also thrown open a number of investment opportunities.

Cancer detection and treatment focused companies attracted almost $17 million from VC ( venture capital) investors during 2013. Norwest led the charge, which deployed $11 million in the cancer-focused medical devices maker Perfint Healthcare and $4 million in cancer-focused diagnostics chain Nueclear Healthcare. Cancer-focused drug development firm Invictus Oncology attracted $1.9 million from Aarin Capital and Navam Capital.

Earlier this month, the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA), a trade association representing the U.S. venture capital industry, released the results of its MoneyTree Report on venture funding for 2013.  The report, which is prepared by NVCA and PriceWaterhouseCoopers LLP using data from Thomson Reuters, indicates that venture capitalists invested $29.4 billion in 3,995 deals in 2013, which constituted a 7% increase in dollars and a 4% increase in deals over the prior year (see chart below, which shows total venture funding from 2004 to 2013; data from MoneyTree Reports).

A Baltimore company’s medical device that aims to reduce dialysis treatment complications was among two winners of an inaugural bioscience challenge.

Baltimore-based Hemova Medical and Arizona-based MyFuelUp were the winning companies Jan. 24 in the BioAccel Solutions Challenge in Phoenix, a contest that first identified four unmet medical needs before seeking out startups that could help solve the problem. MyFuelUp is an app that provides healthy meal plans.

Srinagar: Jammu Kashmir Innovators Forum (JKIF) is making a device that would measure glucose from the skin without taking any blood sample.

Jammu & Kashmir Innovators Forum, sole Forum from the state, which works for inventions, researches and innovations Saturday announced that it is testing a prototype of a device that would help the people with diabetes to manage this disease.

The United States Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship (USASBE) has selected the University of Maryland Entrepreneurship and Innovation Program (EIP) as the first-place winner for an Excellence in Entrepreneurship Education award in the Outstanding Specialty Entrepreneurship Program category, university officials announced today.

A joint initiative of the The Honors College and A. James Clark School of Engineering’s Maryland Technology Enterprise Institute (Mtech), EIP is a two-year, living-learning program for freshman and sophomore honors students that fosters an entrepreneurial spirit, creates a sense of community and cooperation, and develops ethical and innovative leaders.

It should come as no surprise that the University of Maryland has once again received an honorable accolade for its commitment to innovation. The College Park school has been dubbed the top most underrated public school for tech entrepreneurship by StartEngine, the state of Maryland has been named the top state for innovation and entrepreneurship, proving that UMD is chock full of talented individuals, and now UMD has been recognized with a national award for excellence in entrepreneurship education.

Announced Thursday, the United States Association for Small Business Entrepreneurship chose the UMD Entrepreneurship Innovation Program as the first place winner for an Excellence in Entrepreneurship Education Award in the Outstanding Specialty Entrepreneurship Program category.

Remember the news of Rockville-based Human Genome Sciences Inc. getting scooped up by London-based GlaxoSmithKline PLC back in mid-2012?

The acquisition news was reported internationally, but the aftermath of the $3 billion buyout is not as widely known.

Johns Hopkins University will share in a $20 million award from GE and the National Football League to improve diagnosis and treatment for concussions, which has become a major focus as more is learned about the lasting effects of mild traumatic brain injury.

The grants aim to benefit professional football players, who have been seeking compensation for their injuries and means to reduce problems. The grants also will benefit the community as a whole, officials said. Each grant recipient will receive $300,000.

Emergent BioSolutions Inc. announced today the pricing of its offering of $215 million aggregate principal amount of 2.875% Convertible Senior Notes due 2021 (the “Notes”) in a private placement to qualified institutional buyers pursuant to Rule 144A under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act”), which was upsized from the previously announced $200 million offering. Emergent also granted the initial purchasers an option to purchase up to an additional $35 million aggregate principal amount of the Notes.

Emergent intends to use a majority of the net proceeds from the offering to finance the acquisition of Cangene Corporation, announced in December 2013. The company intends to use any remaining net proceeds from the offering for general corporate purposes.

I am clearly on a digital health kick, blog-wise, as I look back on my last few posts. Having spent time at both CES and the JP Morgan Healthcare conference, where digital health was a hot topic, it seems that the subsector is definitely having its day in the sun. I was particularly honored to be named among the 2013 “Top 50 in Digital Health” by a group comprised of Rock Health, Goldman Sachs, Silicon Valley Bank, and Fenwick & West. There are some pretty smart people on the list with me and it is very gratifying to be in such great company (nice article about the list by Wade Roush at Xconomy can be read HERE).

On the other hand, I was feeling a little inadequate being on the list without my own digital health start-up to show for it. I mean, hey, there I am among the actual innovators who dreamed up such cool companies as MC10, Evolent, Pokitdok, Athena Health, and a host of others with only my investment checkbook and blog to show for it. Given that it is the year of the wearables, as anyone who went to CES could readily attest, and that the entrepreneurs in that sector were well represented in the Top 50 list (FitBit’s James Park, Misfit Wearables’ Sonny Vu, etc), I have decided to throw my own hat (wrist?) in the ring on this sector.