News Archive

The total potential payout for the winner will be $2 million — pocket change for the biggest defense company on the globe. And yet, Lockheed Martin Corp. is leading one of 25 teams in the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s annual Robotics Challenge. And it’s the only large contractor to do so.

The teams will vie for a chance to win one of three cash prizes totaling $3.5 million at the DARPA Robitics Challenge finals — the second crop of 14 teams, many of which are international, was just added last week. The finals, which will take place June 5-6 at Fairplex in Pomona, California, will require robots to attempt a circuit of consecutive physical tasks, with degraded communications between the robots and their operators.

MorphoSys AG (FSE: MOR; Prime Standard Segment, TecDAX, OTC: MPSYY) and Emergent BioSolutions Inc. (NYSE: EBS) today announced the initiation of a Phase 1 clinical study to evaluate the safety, tolerability, and clinical activity of MOR209/ES414 in patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC). Under the terms of the companies’ co-development and commercialization agreement, the achievement of this milestone triggers a payment of US $ 5 million by MorphoSys to Emergent.

Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake’s State of the City Address will take on economic issues Monday, touting job creation and introducing initiatives like a $1 million innovation fund, doubled Small Business Resource Center budget and new online maps tracking development projects. Expect the mayor to compare economic conditions in the city today to those that existed when she first took office in 2010. She plans to note a drop in unemployment and a rise in jobs before pitching new and expanded programs geared toward boosting businesses, city officials said.

BIO is surveying members and non-members on their interactions with the FDA during the various stages of drug development prior to submitting an NDA/BLA. The survey can be accessed here.

Why is it important for you to share your feedback? In an increasingly competitive and fiscally-constrained environment, it is more important than ever for all stakeholders to work together to promote effective R&D for innovative medicines.

Next Due Date June 19, 2015; Submit Your Letter of Intent by May 19, 2015 Informational Webinar Coming Soon – Stay Tuned!

NHLBI’s Phase IIB Bridge Award provides up to $3M to support the continued development of your innovative technology requiring regulatory oversight. Applicants are expected to leverage NHLBI funding to attract matching third-party financing. For NHLBI-related technologies focused on rare diseases or pediatric populations, the Phase IIB Small Market Award (RFA-HL-14-012) provides up to $3M, with an expectation of partial matching funds from third-party investors. The next due date for RFA-HL-14-012 is June 19, 2015. Both Phase IIB programs are open to Phase II SBIR or STTR awardees from any agency.

Baltimore health IT startup Emocha Mobile Health Inc. is taking its medication-tracking mobile app to one of the largest counties in the country — Harris County, Texas. Emocha on Friday announced a year-long, $65,000 contract with the Houston-area county to help health workers make sure tuberculosis patients are taking their medication. The contract can be extended for up to a total of five years.

emocha Mobile Health launched its video-based directly observed therapy application, miDOT, in Harris County, Texas. miDOT will be used to bridge the distance between healthcare workers and the tuberculosis (TB) patients that are dispersed across the nearly 1,800 square miles surrounding Houston, which has one of the nation’s highest Tuberculosis rates. The roll-out began in early February after emocha won a competitive bidding process based on a head-to-head pilot with competing technologies.

Johns Hopkins University officials have been talking about putting more energy into fostering more entrepreneurship among the Baltimore institution’s vast research megalith. This week, they put a plan in writing.

On Wednesday, Hopkins President Ronald J. Daniels released a 20-page report that lays out plans for $40 million in new investment over five years. Officials want the new money to fuel the growth of an “innovation ecosystem.”

The interest in adopting digital health tools such as clinical wearables and smartphone diagnostics has been hindered in some ways by the rapid growth in the number of these devices and relatively little clinical validation. GE Ventures and Stanford Health Care have partnered to launch a company called Evidation Health to validate and optimize digital health tools, according to a company statement.