News Archive

Baltimore-area companies accounted for eight of the 10 biggest venture capital deals in the state during the first quarter of 2016.

Maryland companies raised a total of $109.8 million in 19 deals during the first quarter, up from $97 million invested in 14 deals the same quarter last year, according to a MoneyTree Report by PricewaterhouseCoopers and the National Venture Capital Association, based on data from Thomson Reuters. The amount invested in Maryland is up 13 percent and the number of deals is up 36 percent, compared to the year-ago quarter.

Maryland legislators recently approved a $42.3 billion fiscal year 2017 spending bill that incorporates many of the funding levels included in Gov. Larry Hogan’s proposal. Gov. Hogan made education a main focus of his proposal, and the final bill would hold university tuition increases to no more than 2 percent. In addition, legislators formalized the growing strategic partnership between University of Maryland campuses in Baltimore and College Park. The unification is intended to bolster the state’s research profile, and drive high-tech industries in the Baltimore region.

Much has been made of China’s efforts to close the gap between western high technology sectors, and in the case of certain spaces, to actually bridge the gap and become a global leader.  In form, these efforts represent the potential – but not the inevitability – of similar outcomes in other high technology sectors.  One of the sectors that has received significant interest by the Chinese government are life sciences; however, as we found in a nearly two year survey of various Chinese officials, entrepreneurs and multinationals, the unique requirements to re-create the innovative ecosystem for the life science space remain immature in China.  While the potential for China to disrupt how and where life science innovation takes place globally, there are reasons to believe the country’s policies to develop domestic success stories may fall short of similar endeavors in other high technology segments such as clean-technology.

Epigenomics AG (Frankfurt Prime Standard: ECX, OTCQX: EPGNY), the German-American cancer molecular diagnostics company, today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the Company’s lead product, Epi proColon® , the first and only FDA-approved blood-based colorectal cancer screening test.

May 23-25, 2016 – Washington, DC

SBIR/STTR programs are the nation’s largest source of early stage / high risk R&D funding for small business. At this conference you’ll learn how to participate and compete for funding in these two programs that encourage small businesses to engage in Federal Research/Research and Development (R/R&D) and to commercialize your technological innovations.

The fastest-growing sector in Greater Washington is business and financial services jobs, which grew by 39 percent between 2003 and 2014. And nearly 1 in 12 jobs in the region in 2014 was in information technology.

A cadre of venture investors speaking on a panel at this week’s INVEST conference in Chicago aren’t particularly concerned about the gyrations in the life sciences public markets. Venture capital remains fairly agnostic of the troughs and peaks of the stock market, and life sciences investment will likely continue on at a strong pace, they said – largely because of the quality of the science.

Cancer doctor Cassian Yee remembers how in 2010 he was called to Los Angeles to meet the Internet billionaire Sean Parker. Parker wanted Yee to help the Hollywood producer Laura Ziskin, then fighting breast cancer, with an immune-cell treatment never before used to treat that condition. “We’ll give you whatever you need, we’ll put you on an island to do it,” Parker told Yee. A few weeks later a very big check arrived by mail to buy some crucial equipment.

Angel investors are moving upstream. So where do they get their early-stage dealflow?

Dan Kincaid, a member of Queen City Angels in Cincinnati, said his organization is making-early stage bets by helping hatch companies through increased collaboration with local technology accelerators and tech transfer offices.

In a commentary published today by Bloomberg View, Johns Hopkins University President Ronald J. Daniels calls attention to increasing strain being placed on America’s public research universities, a fact that Daniels says has left them less well positioned to fulfill their traditional missions.