News Archive

As hospitals work to boost their efficiency and the quality of care they deliver, many are finding they need new ways to go about finding and creating solutions to their post-Affordable Care Act challenges. They’re also looking for new revenue streams.

With that in mind, one California health system put up $40 million to seed an independent, for-profit company that will help commercialize ideas that come from physicians and staff members while also feeding them promising new technologies and concepts from the outside.

The next event in Tech Transfer Speaker Series will be taking place on February 13, 2013 in the William E. Hanna, Jr. Innovation Center (9700 Great Seneca Highway Rockville, Maryland 20850).

TEDCO has undergone a number of changes over the past two years. These changes have resulted in a variety of new programs and changes to old programs. The talk will provide an overview of TEDCO’s new programs, including its affinity funds, and where TEDCO is headed as a funding organization.

Speaker:
Stephen Auvil is the senior vice president for technology transfer and commercialization at the Maryland Technology Development Corporation (TEDCO). In this role, he is responsible for overseeing TEDCO’s funding programs.

After its outstanding success in Boston in 2012, AdvaMed 2013: The MedTech Conference is back in our nation’s capital, Washington, DC. AdvaMed 2013 is the leading MedTech Conference in North America, bringing more than 1,000 companies together in a uniquely multifaceted environment for business development, capital formation, innovative technology showcasing, world-class educational opportunities and networking. This must-attend event for the MedTech industry will be held September 23 – 25 at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center. Please visit www.advamed2013.com for more information on the MedTech Conference.

This infographic from DrugPatentWatch shows that Sanofi Aventis, Merck, and GlaxoSmithKline face the most patent expirations this year. Perhaps not surprisingly, GlaxoSmithKline and Sanofi Aventis are also among the firms with the most drug patents.

Blue Button Plus (Automated and Interoperable Blue Button) can provide a technology path for startups and innovators to build new products and services to help Americans with their health. But beyond, technology startups and small businesses have to think about practical matters like funding. What are ways that the federal government is trying to help health startups, particularly health tech startups, develop and commercialize businesses?

The Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program is a federally-funded program encourages domestic small businesses to engage in Federal Research/Research and Development (R/R&D) that has the potential for commercialization. Through a competitive awards-based program, SBIR enables small businesses to explore their technological potential and provides the incentive to profit from its commercialization. By including qualified small businesses in the nation’s R&D arena, high-tech innovation is stimulated and the United States gains entrepreneurial spirit as it meets its specific research and development needs.

Drug-resistant bacteria are a growing problem at hospitals across the country. The bacteria, such as Staphylococcus and Clostridium difficile, are difficult to prevent and impossible to treat.

“The problem is expanding, and it’s going up and up and up,” explains Dr. Trish Perl of Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. “We’re running out of antibiotics to treat, and so the challenge is can we prevent?”

Personalized medicine was supposed to be the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. It was going to be the payoff our society would see after investing in the Human Genome Project and so much other biomedical research. While most people on the street can’t say what it means, anybody can understand the standard definition on Wikipedia. It’s about “the customization of healthcare, with decisions and practices being tailored to the individual patient by use of genetic or other information.”

But just as the concept started gaining impressive momentum last year, a movement is afoot to redefine it under a new banner of “Precision Medicine.”

New Enterprise Associates Inc. is likely to open a Boston office within the next half a year, General Partner David Mott told the Boston Business Journal.

The fact that it’s Mott – former MedImmune chief and a prominent life sciences investor – saying this suggests the move is all about biotech. His comments to the Boston paper back up this notion: “Boston is winning the biopharma innovation race, versus other geographies.” Mott is based in Maryland.

State officials are seeking some changes in the $84 million InvestMaryland program, including allowing the Department of Business and Economic Development to acquire a greater ownership interest when investing in a venture firm.

Current law prohibits DBED from acquiring an ownership interest of more than 25 percent in a business in which it invests. Legislation filed by Sen. Edward J. Kasemeyer (D-Dist. 12) of Columbia on behalf of DBED would allow the state to acquire a larger interest if the investment is in a venture or private equity firm.