News Archive

When it comes to dividend income, there are few industries more sought after than pharmaceutical stocks. More specifically, investors tend to focus on the 10 largest companies by market cap in pharmaceuticals because they’re likely to have established product portfolios, deep drug development pipelines, and significant cash flow that allows them to pay dividends regularly higher than the S&P 500 average of 2%. In fact, of the 10 largest companies by market cap in pharmaceuticals, there isn’t one with a dividend yield lower than 2.2%, and the combined operating cash flow of these 10 companies over the trailing-12-month period equaled — get ready for this — $91.3 billion!

The decline in first quarter digital health investment was a notable shift from the steadily rising levels since 2010. That’s probably the most striking development in StartUp Health’s latest report which otherwise highlighted some pretty consistent trends. In the the first three months of 2015, big data attracted the most investment (led by Health Catalyst, which raised $70 million). Plus, more venture capitalists are moving into the sector – at least 20 made two digital health investments. But the second half of the report, which looks at digital health subsectors and deals relevant to the graying market – ie. almost every aspect of consumer health – was a promotional, business-intelligence look at what’s happening with the constituents of one of its sponsors, AARP. Reading the report, I wonder if it really provides enough firepower for innovators to help that 50+ population.

The Institute of Medicine has tapped Dr. Margaret Hamburg, former commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, to serve as its next foreign secretary. Hamburg stepped down from the FDA last month after nearly six years at the agency, the longest term served since Dr. David Kessler, who served in the presidential administrations of both George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton. Dr. Stephen Ostroff has been named acting commissioner at the FDA. In her new, part-time role as the IOM’s foreign secretary, Hamburg will serve as a senior adviser on international matters to the IOM president and council, as well as a liaison to other countries’ academies of medicine and science. A part of the National Academy of Sciences, the Institute provides independent advice to policymakers, health professionals, businesses and the public.

U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker announced the first 26 recipients of the 2014 Regional Innovation Strategies program grants. Managed by the Economic Development Administration, the Regional Innovation Strategies (RIS) program is designed to advance innovation and capacity-building activities in regions across the country through three different types of grants.

We have a few critical updates for you as well as news on many other issues. How about breaking the DoD SBIR program out from the others and making it permanent? How about breaking the DoD services (Army, Navy Air Force) out from under the OSD? We’ve got this and much more for you.

BALTIMORE, April 1, 2015 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — University of Maryland School of Medicine Dean E. Albert Reece, MD, PhD, MBA, announced today that the School of Medicine (UM SOM) plans to establish a major new Institute for Global Health (IGH), bringing together decades of UM SOM research, treatment and vaccine development around the world, and expanding the School’s platform as the premier, leading center for global health research, treatment and prevention. The new Institute will focus on vaccine development and malaria research, and will house the UM SOM’s reconfigured Center for Vaccine Development (CVD) as well as a newly-formed Center for Malaria Research (CMR).

Johns Hopkins University is set to open a new branch of FastForward in East Baltimore. The incubator’s new location, called FastForward East, is located in a building just north of the university’s medical campus, at the corner of Wolfe and Ashland Streets. The original FastForward space, near JHU’s Homewood campus, is currently at capacity with 12 startups. FastForward also runs an accelerator program, which has helped 41 startups. University officials have openly acknowledged that JHU lags behind other universities of similar stature when it comes to tech transfer. The expanding physical space offers the university the chance to nurture companies that have grown directly out research at the university, and become a more visible player in the local startup scene.

British drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline announced plans Thursday to open a new vaccine research center in Rockville by this fall, a project that could bring up to 700 new jobs to Montgomery County. The center — at the site of the former Human Genome Sciences, which Glaxo acquired in 2012 for $3.6 billion — would combine two Glaxo research facilities on the East Coast and is expected to employ 1,000 people by 2016, a company spokeswoman said.

M&A may seem hot in the life sciences, but that and IPO activity is starting to cool across all sectors, according to a new report from the National Venture Capital Association. The first quarter of 2015 saw less than 20 venture-backed IPOs since the first quarter of 2013. Independent of sector, when it comes to deal size, this quarter was the slowest in M&A since the first quarter of 2013. But the bulk of the IPOs completed were, of course, in the life sciences – 13 of the 17 exits were in the medical and biotech sectors.

The Tech Council of Maryland (TCM), Maryland’s largest technology trade association, today announced the finalists for its 27th Annual Industry Awards. Winners will be revealed at a celebration on May 13 at the Bethesda North Marriott Hotel & Conference Center. This year, the Industry Awards Celebration recognizes the achievements that inspiration can bring. Achievements in technology and life sciences that were nurtured locally, and grew to have a global impact.