Finding funds for early stage companies has always been a great challenge. In past venture financing cycles, it’s been the gap between the first venture financing (Series A) and the growth capital or mezzanine financing that many emerging companies were unable to bridge. This gap, called the “valley of death,” was attributed to a number of factors, but that valley of death has shifted in important ways in the recent past.
Curator: Stephen J. Williams, Ph.D
I am intending to do a series of posts highlighting interviews with Philadelphia area biotech startup CEO’s and show how a vibrant biotech startup scene is evolving in the city as well as the Delaware Valley area. Philadelphia has been home to some of the nation’s oldest biotechs including Cephalon, Centocor, hundreds of spinouts from a multitude of universities as well as home of the first cloned animal (a frog), the first transgenic mouse, and Nobel laureates in the field of molecular biology and genetics. Although some recent disheartening news about the fall in rankings of Philadelphia as a biotech hub and recent remarks by CEO’s of former area companies has dominated the news, biotech incubators like the University City Science Center and Bucks County Biotechnology Center as well as a reinvigorated investment community (like PCCI and MABA) are bringing Philadelphia back.
Campus Technology is looking for innovative colleges and universities that have deployed unique technology solutions to campus challenges.
Nominations are now open for our tenth annual Campus Technology Innovators Awards, recognizing institutions, technology project leaders and vendor partners that have used technology in new ways to support teaching, learning, administration and operations. The deadline for entries is Feb. 17.
Health Canada has accepted US-based Sucampo Pharmaceuticals’ New Drug Submission (NDS) for Amitiza (lubiprostone), 24mcg capsules, to treat chronic idiopathic constipation (CIC) in adults and opioid-induced constipation (OIC) in adults with chronic non-cancer pain.
The pharmaceutical giant Roche has paid an undisclosed price to acquire Bina Technologies, a bioinformatics company. The move sees Roche expand further into the life sciences sector.
For obvious reasons, hospitals are a hotspot for germ exposure, which can increase the risk of infection for those making a visit by up to 10 percent, according to a recent study. What might be surprising though, is that researchers found more bacteria colonization on the hospital elevator buttons than even on the facility’s toilets.
Imagine, a quick pinprick on the sidelines of a football game that could tell athletes whether they’ve concussed. Arizona startup BioDirection is developing a point-of-care device that diagnoses minor brain injury quickly – in 60 to 90 seconds – with just a single drop of blood.
Two-thirds of a wide variety of cancer kinds are largely rooted in undesirable genetic luck and not simply the benefits of traits passed down from parents or risk components like smoking or diet program, according to a new study. Random mutations in DNA are largely accountable for the majority of cancers in humans, according to researchers at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.
On Thursday, January 15, 2015 from 4-6:30 pm there will be an open house for the spring courses in the “Advanced Studies in Technology Transfer” program at the Foundation for Advanced Education in the Sciences (FAES) Graduate School at NIH in the new Classroom & Bookstore complex in NIH Building 10 / B1 level. For the semester beginning on January 26, 2015 there will be 14 courses offered with details available in the new 2014-15 course catalog ( www.faes.org ). The Advanced Studies in Technology Transfer is an open enrollment program with class credits transferable into various university MBA & MS degree programs. The technology transfer classes will be held at the offices of the NIH Office of Technology Transfer in Rockville as well as the NIH main campus in Bethesda.
U.S. drug approvals in 2014 hit their highest level in 18 years and recommendations in Europe also came at a rapid rate, driven by expensive new treatments for cancer and rare diseases.
