News Archive

It’s hard for most people to find time to work out to stay fit, but when fitness has been part of your life since high school and you’ve served in the military, it’s a problem that can be especially vexing. That is what happened to Gregory Coleman, Chief Operating Officer of Nexercise, a Business Innovation Network member. A three-season high school athlete who graduated from the Air Force Academy, served as an Air Force and Air National Guard pilot, was enrolled in the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, plus was married and had a family, Greg felt like he was too busy to make it to the gym. Fellow Wharton student Ben Young, Chief Executive Officer of Nexercise, felt similar pain, and thought they could solve that problem in 2010 by taking advantage of the technology of Apple’s new iPhone.

Three years after Michael Davidson and his colleagues sold the omega-3 drug Epanova to AstraZeneca ($AZN) in the $443 million Omthera buyout, the biotech exec has rounded up some fresh support from a seasoned ally in the venture world to begin building a new biotech focused on cardiovascular disease.

CC Biotech LLC, Rockville MD, developing advanced separations technologies for large molecules, is awarded an SBIR phase I grant from the National Science Foundation for the project ‘Spiral Countercurrent Chromatography for the Separation of Carbon Nanotubes’. The new technique has been applied for the first time to successfully purify single wall carbon nanotube species which are semi-conductors. The application will enable the processing of potent semi-conductors to be added to sensor circuits. The implications of this R&D have wide application to not only bio-sensor devices, but also in the preparation of nanotech molecules as therapeutic nanoparticles and conjugates for drug delivery.

PapGene, Inc., a privately-held company commercializing advanced molecular tests, announced that it was recently awarded a highly competitive Fast-Track Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant from the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health to commercialize a test to detect ovarian and endometrial cancers.

The funds for this Fast-Track grant will be released in two phases, which together have the potential to provide a total of nearly $2.3 million in resources to PapGene’s test commercialization efforts. Phase I will provide $297,000 to the company to demonstrate the accuracy of the test and its clinical validity. Upon successful completion of Phase I, Phase II will provide approximately $2 million to demonstrate the clinical utility of the test and to launch its regulatory approval process.

Roche ($RHHBY) and AstraZeneca ($AZN) picked up FDA breakthrough therapy designations for their top pipeline assets, moving forward in multiple sclerosis and cancer with treatments tabbed as potential blockbusters.

A Symposium for manufacturers, scientists, entrepreneurs, and educators to explore new bio-medical applications of additive manufacturing and 3D Printing. Keynote by Congressman Andy Harris, M.D. Featuring presentations from top thought leaders in government, industry, and academia. Download the event flyer and agenda: Biomedical Symposium Flyer and Agenda

For the second straight year, state legislators from Baltimore are backing an effort to create a tax credit for angel investors in Maryland.

The bills, filed by State Sen. Catherine Pugh and Del. Brooke Lierman, would create a tax credit of 50 percent of an investment made in a startup. The bills create a reserve fund to distribute the tax credit, which could be up to $5 million per year, an analysis states.

When: Tuesday, March 1, 2016

Where: University of Maryland Biopark

This workshop is intended to help make you a smarter entrepreneur…A good accounting process and system can help you identify and track key metrics of your business REAL TIME to help you make better decisions. Plus, all investors and banks want to see your financial projections. In the first part of the workshop, Mike Lynch and Jim Jenkins from SC&H will lead attendees through an educational presentation on:

The National Science Foundation plans to expand its innovation ecosystem by funding new hubs of what it calls the Innovation Corps — a set of training programs and other initiatives to rapidly translate progress made in labs to the commercial world.

In testimony to the U.S. International Trade Commission, Stephen Ezell explained why the biotech industry is a key driver of the U.S. economy and global life sciences innovation, and he argued that robust intellectual property standards in the Trans-Pacific Partnership will be critical to both. Ezell notes that the U.S. provides 12 years of IP protection for clinical test data, so it is disappointing that the TPP commits U.S. trading partners to provide eight at most.