News Archive

As we go into the last few weeks of the year, my office is busy working up the final numbers on application data for this year. Although the complete set of application data, tables, and graphs will not be available until later in January, I thought I would provide an early snapshot on success rates for 2013 competing research project grant (RPG) applications and awards.

We received 49,581 competing RPG applications at NIH in fiscal year 2013, slightly declining compared to last year (51,313 applications in FY2012).

A 15-minute commute from Baltimore to Washington, D.C., might be a possibility after all.

The Greater Baltimore Committee in 2012 supported a plan to use maglev trains to produce the next generation of high-speed rail in the Northeast corridor.

But the love affair eventually faded and talk of maglev trains coming to the Baltimore area waned. But the Japanese government is promising to lend the United States half the cost of building the first “Super-Maglev” train. The high-speed train would reduce the 37-mile commute between Baltimore and D.C. from one hour to a blazing-fast 15 minutes

The Tech Council of Maryland (TCM), Maryland’s largest technology trade association, released its 2014 Policy Platform, which outlines the organization’s specific priorities in the areas of advanced technology, life sciences, taxation, transportation, higher education and workforce development. TCM’s advocacy efforts during the 2014 session of the Maryland General Assembly, which begins January 8, will focus on further improving the business climate to encourage technology and biotechnology companies to grow and flourish in the state.

Specifically, TCM’s 2014 Policy Platform urges policymakers to increase funding for innovation incentives, such as the Research and Development Tax Credit, the Biotech Tax Credit and the Stem Cell Research Fund, and reject onerous changes to the tax structure, such as combined reporting, to provide more certainty for the technology and life sciences business communities. In addition, TCM would like to see implementation of continued long-term funding and policy solutions for development of Maryland’s transportation infrastructure, higher education institutions and next-generation workforce.

BD (Becton, Dickinson and Company) (NYSE: BDX), a leading global medical technology company, announced today that it has acquired Alverix, Inc., a privately-held diagnostic instrument company known for its optoelectronics expertise. Since 2008, BD and Alverix have collaborated in the point-of-care diagnostic market with the design and development of the BD Veritor™ System, which has been very well received in hospitals, laboratories, physician offices and clinics.

“Point-of-care testing is increasingly an integral part of patient healthcare in both developed and developing countries and BD is committed to expanding in this space,” said William A. Kozy, Chief Operating Officer and Executive Vice President, BD. “This acquisition enables BD to continue to strengthen and grow our point-of-care testing position.”

From President George W. Bush’s embrace of healthcare IT to the opening of HealthCare.gov, hard work, government incentives, political battles and more have made for broad and rapid changes in healthcare in the past 10 years.

The growing popularity of cyber security is leading the University of Maryland, Baltimore County’s research and development park to look into expanding its CyberHive incubator.

The new space would be an additional 3,500 to 3,600-square feet and would cost anywhere from $300,000 to $500,000.

Scientists at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center will receive $90 million in new funding as part of a $540 million gift from Ludwig Cancer Research to six institutions, the school announced Monday.

The gift is among the largest for a single private gift to cancer research, according to the school. The five other Ludwig Centers to share in the current award are Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, Stanford University, and the University of Chicago.

As leaders of Montgomery County life science companies, we have a stake in whether local students like science. If they do, they are more likely to work for companies such as ours. If they don’t, our pipeline of future workers gets slimmer. So we have taken special note of a science education gap in our region that we believe will have a long-term impact on our minority students, our communities and our businesses.

University of Maryland Ventures (UM Ventures) announced today that Dr. Martha J. Connolly has been named director of bioentrepreneurship, a new program supported by the Maryland Technology Enterprise Institute (Mtech) and the A. James Clark School of Engineering, designed to enhance collaboration between the University of Maryland, College Park (UMD) and the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) as part of the MPowering the State initiative.

“UM Ventures creates an integrated innovation ecosystem that includes entrepreneurial support resources,” said James Hughes, Chief Economic Development Officer and Vice President at UMB. “Experts like Martha help turn novel ideas into sustainable businesses, and I’m pleased to have her as part of our enterprise.” 

With billions to be made on the back of ill health and notable scandals and cover-ups in its history, it’s fair to say that many see the public face of the pharmaceutical industry as a mask for darker machinations. We rely on the drugs for myriad conditions, but do we trust big pharma?

Pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) is no stranger to accusations of unethical drug marketing tactics. But recent news coverage has included its support for the AllTrials campaign – which calls for clinical trials to be registered and results to be published – and a package of other initiatives, including a new commitment to end direct payments to doctors (and other key opinion leaders – KOLs) that have been one of the industry’s most powerful marketing tools.