News Archive

Vtesse, Inc., a rare disease company focused on developing drugs for Niemann-Pick Disease Type C (NPC) and other severe diseases with great unmet need, announced today that it has raised $25 million in Series A funding. Vtesse is the first spin-off company for Cydan Development, Inc., an orphan-drug accelerator that shares with Vtesse the same syndicate of leading life sciences investors that are committed to funding additional rare disease companies. New Enterprise Associates (NEA) led the Vtesse financing with participation from Pfizer Venture Investments, Lundbeckfond Ventures, Bay City Capital and Alexandria Venture Investments.

The University of Maryland will be applying for status as a qualified institution to give tax breaks to businesses — particularly startups — located around some of College Park’s higher-profile locales, such as the planned hotel-conference center and research park.

The “next generation of science” is at risk unless major changes are made to increase opportunities for young researchers, Johns Hopkins University President Ronald Daniels wrote in a scientific journal article published Tuesday.

Bioentrepreneurship is the process of creating customer defined value by creating, developing, deploying and harvesting biomedical and/or sick care or health and wellness innovation. The definition includes three key elements: process, value creation and innovation.

The hollow Cola tree growing in a remote area of southeastern Guinea was once home to thousands of bats routinely hunted and killed by the neighborhood children. It was also a popular spot to play. A year ago, one child in particular lived within fifty meters of the tree: a two-year-old boy who died in December 2013 and later was identified as the first person in west Africa known to have developed Ebola. The tree was one of the few that loomed over his home village of Meliandou, a hamlet of 31 houses. The question that now haunts researchers: were the tree’s occupants behind how that small boy contracted the virus in the first place?

Montgomery County Executive, Ike Leggett, has named Sally Sternbach Acting Director for the Department of Economic Development effective January 3, 2015.

The National Council of Entrepreneurial Tech Transfer (NCET2) is holding a Combined University Startups and Global 1000 Meet | Partner | Deal Conference in Washington, D.C., March 10-12. The event will bring together two dynamic conferences:

• to share best practices on creating and funding university startups,
• to showcase world-class startups from the portfolios of universities, angel investors, VCs, incubators and SBIRs,
• to find significant transactions for Fortune 500 corporates, and
• to provide great dealflow for angel investors and VCs.

GLOBAL 1000 TRANSACTION NETWORK COMPANY SHOWCASE

SUBMISSION DEADLINE: JANUARY 21

Submit your high-growth and innovative companies to individually meet with and showcase to an exclusive Global 1000 Transaction Network of Corporate Investors, Venture Capitalists, and Angel Investors at the Combined University Startups and Global 1000 Meet | Partner | Deal Conference in Washington, DC, on March 11 and 12, 2015. Know more about this powerful showcase program

Startups face huge challenges. But we can help.

We’ve helped scores of them grow by putting their CEOs in front of a live audience of investors, tech executives and media at our annual Emerging Companies Summits.

With 41 novel drug approvals under the regulators’ belts last year, 2014 represented an 18-year high for the Food and Drug Administration – including a record number of okayed meds for orphan diseases, the Associated Press says…