News Archive

Three years ago, MIT finance professor Andrew Lo proposed rallying private investors to raise an eye-popping $30 billion to develop cancer drugs. That idea went nowhere.

A California congressman plans to file legislation next week that would create a more modest version of Lo’s plan: A $400 million fund to finance development of drugs for rare diseases — with the federal government acting as a backstop, providing financial guarantees to attract private investment. If it works, Lo said, taxpayers could profit and patients could get access to new treatments.

It’s officially election season, which is why I’ll be firing up a big, campaign bus and traveling through Charm City on Monday, stopping for crab cakes, talking to business leaders and meeting with politicians and students. Only our campaign is not about asking for votes in Baltimore; instead, it’s about encouraging the people of Baltimore to continue rallying around startups and entrepreneurs.

For all the tragic news in recent months — and there is real heartbreak along with festering issues that have to be addressed — there’s another chapter being written in the city’s dynamic history. It centers around founders who are starting companies, creating jobs and bringing economic opportunity and growth to Baltimore.

BD Life Sciences, a segment of global medical technology company BD (Becton, Dickinson and Company) announced Thursday the availability of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) cleared BD MAX™ Enteric Parasite Panel for use on the BD MAX System.

The BD MAX Enteric Parasite Panel is the latest panel in the BD MAX Enteric suite of assays that aid in the diagnosis of infectious gastroenteritis. This panel joins the BD MAX Enteric Bacterial Panel detecting the pathogens that are responsible for up to 95 percent of the bacteria causing gastroenteritis. With the availability of the BD MAX Enteric Parasite Panel, the majority of pathogens causing this disease can be detected with a fully automated, rapid and accurate platform.

Gaithersburg-based biotech MedImmune and a division of 3M unveiled plans Friday to work together on a next-generation cancer immunotherapy drug.

Under the agreement, MedImmune — the biologics research and development arm of U.K. pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca (NYSE: AZN) – licensed an agent called MEDI9197 from 3M Drug Delivery Systems. 3M said it developed the molecule as an injectable treatment for head and neck cancer that stimulates the body’s immune system to attack and destroy tumors.

If you want to see a city with pride and passion, come to Baltimore on the Friday before a Ravens football game. The entire city is purple, our home team’s color. School kids wear purple. Working men and women wear purple. The cupcakes at local bakeries are — you guessed it — purple.

A Ravens game might be the occasion, but our pride and passion are bigger than our team. During Orioles games, we sing “Oh” as loud as we can during the national anthem that was penned right here (“Oh say can you see by the dawn’s early light”). We put Old Bay (thank you McCormick Spice, a Baltimore company) on everything from crabs to ice cream.

BioFactura proudly announces the appointment of Dr. Jeffrey Hausfeld as the newly elected Chairman of the Board and Chief Medical Officer. Dr. Hausfeld, a graduate from Yale University School of Medicine, practiced Otolaryngology and Facial Plastic Surgery in the Washington DC area for more than 23 years until he ventured into the business side of medicine. He obtained an MBA specializing in healthcare from Johns Hopkins University and a degree in Organizational Development from George Washington University. Along with having been highly acclaimed during his surgical career, Dr. Hausfeld has been a successful physician entrepreneur as well. He is the President of Memory Care Communities LLC, a syndicate which builds and operates Assisted Living facilities specifically designed for Alzheimer’s and dementia care patients. He is the Managing Director of FMS Financial Solutions, a full service debt recovery firm in Greenbelt, Maryland focusing on medical and multi-family housing debt collections. Dr. Hausfeld is one of the Founders and the Chairman of the Board of the Society of Physician Entrepreneurs (http://www.sopenet.org ), a global not for profit network focused on educating healthcare and life science professionals in Bioentrepreneurship and Innovation.

Five Johns Hopkins-affiliated tech startups were selected as finalists for the pitch competition at next week’s “Rise of the Rest” tour event, where they will vie for a $100,000 top prize.

The five-city “Rise of the Rest” roadshow, launched by AOL co-founder and former CEO Steve Case, kicks off in Baltimore on Monday. The tour is designed to bring attention and funding to startups outside of traditional tech hubs like Silicon Valley and New York City.

The Baltimore City Health Department has received federal grant funding worth up to $22.8 million over four years that will go toward strengthening the city’s HIV prevention strategy.

Baltimore plans to use the money from the Centers for Disease Control to target outreach and prevention programs to men who have sex with men and transgender individuals, two groups at high risk for HIV infection.

Roche Holding AG’s product lineup is so strong that it can grow briskly even if it meets setbacks, the chief executive of the Swiss drugmaker told a newspaper.

“Roche could have six new active pharmaceutical ingredients approved within two years. We never had this before,” Severin Schwan told Finanz und Wirtschaft in an interview published on Friday.

On September 11, representatives of Zhongshan City, China, and Montgomery County, Maryland, signed a Memorandum of Understanding launching an economic development relationship between the two jurisdictions.

Through the agreement, the two authorities agree to actively support the other’s “efforts to promote culture, art and education exchanges,” including travel programs for members of their respective communities.