News Archive

If you think the term “government invention” is an oxymoron—well, think again. You may be surprised to learn that many of the breakthrough technologies that shape our lives today are the brainchildren of government researchers—including those at FDA.

Alice WelchTake the Internet and that GPS in your car or on your cell phone. Both technologies were developed by the U.S. Department of Defense —as were the turbine engines that power the wind farms generating some 6% of our nation’s electrical energy. Those long-lasting radial tires on your vehicle? They’re reinforced with a material five times tougher than steel that was developed by a NASA partnership. And you can thank the government for your flu shot and the development of many other life-saving vaccines such as those for hepatitis A and B and HPV.

The cash keeps flowing in digital health.

Venture funding invested into the digital health realm has surpassed $3 billion through the first three quarters of 2014, up from $2 billion through midyear and up 100 percent over the year, according to the latest report from Rock Health.

New information technologies and innovative business models are transforming the health care industry in several ways. The industry is beginning to focus on creating seamless interoperability among organizations, greater efficiencies in the delivery of care and increased consumer engagement through access to electronic health records and use of mobile health devices and apps. “While creating forward movement and excitement in the industry, the very innovations that are driving growth and system improvement may also expose organizations to potentially more threats to security and privacy,” says Russ Rudish, Global Health Care Leader, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited.

Odds are good you’ve seen your doctors using computers a lot more in the past three years. During appointments or while at the hospital, they’ve stopped at a desktop computer or taken a tablet out of their pocket. It’s not because technology lets them provide better care, it’s because federal legislation is changing the way health care providers and insurers use computers.

Juan Montesinos is a doctor who has a passion for mobile and web applications.

Daniel Gil Castillejo is an electronics engineer proficient in the technical aspects of software.

Both moved from Mexico to Rockville in August to pursue their graduate degrees at Johns Hopkins University’s Montgomery County Campus, where they are studying in the Master’s in Biotechnology, Enterprise and Entrepreneurship program.  They both are on full scholarships from the Mexican government and supplementing their coursework with internships at TruBios, a biotechnology services company located on the JHU Montgomery County Campus. TruBios is led by Roberto Trujillo, a native of Mexico who teaches in JHU’s biotechnology program.

The next generation of the nation’s only anthrax vaccine will be made in Lansing, an executive for Emergent BioSolutions Inc. said Tuesday.

There won’t be any new jobs as a direct result of the $29 million federal contract Emergent received earlier this month for production of the new drug, Adam Havey, president of the company’s biodefense division, said. But the new version of the vaccine will help keep current employees working.

The Tech Council of Maryland presents a Lifetime Achievement Award each year to an individual who has made outstanding contributions to the success of the community. This year, we are expanding our award categories and will be recognizing three outstanding individuals in the fields of technology, life science, and education. The 2015 honorees will be:

• Norman Augustine, retired chairman and chief executive officer of the Lockheed Martin Corporation
• Wayne Hockmeyer, Ph.D., founder of MedImmune, Inc.
• William Kirwan, chancellor of the University System of Maryland

Please mark your calendar to honor these individuals at a celebratory dinner on February 19, 2015 at the Bethesda North Marriott Hotel and Conference Center.

GlaxoSmithKline has just launched a $5 million Innovation Challenge Fund to advance open-access technology in the bioelectronics space.

The funding’s aimed toward biz-savvy academics and startups that are working to create a new class of treatments that aren’t necessarily pills or injections, but rather are mini implantable devices. GSK says:”The hope is that these devices could be programmed to read and correct the electrical signals that pass along the nerves of the body, to treat disorders as diverse as inflammatory bowel disease, arthritis, asthma, hypertension and diabetes.”

For the majority of drugs, end-of-lifecycle planning usually involves a reining-in of marketing costs. But Sucampo CEO Peter Greenleaf is doing the exact opposite. In the firm’s second-quarter earnings call, he announced the company is “doubling-down” on Amitiza, the constipation treatment which has been on the market for eight years and which will soon face the threat of generic competition.

Amitiza owns just 1% of the overall constipation market, which includes a number of OTC options, a representative for the drugmaker told MM&M. Sucampo co-markets Amitiza with Takeda.

The University of Central Florida’s Business Incubation Program has pumped nearly $2.5 billion into the economy over the last 15 years.

The program — which turns 15 years old on Oct. 1 — has created 250 early-stage companies, according to a press release sent out Sept. 30. Those companies have added 3,600 total jobs, sales of $1.51 billion and $2.48 billion in regional economic output.