News Archive

AstraZeneca and Eli Lilly and Company have reached an agreement for the development and commercialization of the oral beta secretes cleaving enzyme (BACE) inhibitor, AZD3293, which might become a viable treatment for Alzheimer’s disease. The oral therapy is expected to prevent the formation of amyloid plaque, which is comprised of peptides called amyloid beta, and slow the disease progression.

The agreement established stipulates that AstraZeneca will pay up to $500 million in development and regulatory milestone payments. Lilly announced that it is planning on receiving the first milestone payment of $50 million in the first half of 2015. Future costs will be equally shared by both companies, including net global revenues post-launch.

The intersection of health and big data is getting more crowded. San Mateo, Calif.-based Lumiata is the latest company to get venture backing for technology that crunches data with the aim of improving medical care, Yuliya Chernova reports for Dow Jones VentureWire.

The company has already run an analysis of some 100,000 BlueCross BlueShield patients that found about 10,000 people who were very likely to have congestive heart failure, even though they were undiagnosed. Now the insurance provider, which is also an investor in the company, is alerting doctors who have those patients about this potential missed diagnosis.

Washington state’s Providence Health & Services today said it is launching a $150 million venture capital fund to help spur innovation across the healthcare system that lowers costs and leads to better outcomes.

Coincidentally, it’s the second VC fund announced in as many days on the West Coast, following yesterday’s announcement from the University of California.

On September 16, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences released a report entitled Restoring the Foundation: The Vital Role of Research in Preserving the American Dream. The report addresses the link between scientific research and advancing innovation and prosperity, and contains recommendations for strengthening its role to address challenges in the 21st Century. The recommendations fall under three overarching objectives: securing America’s leadership in science and engineering research; ensuring that the American people receive the maximum benefit from federal investments in research; and regaining America’s standing as an innovation leader by establishing a more robust national government-university-industry research partnership.

Accepting Applications for InvestMaryland Challenge!

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Start an application today and your business could be on its way to accepting the $100,000 Grand Prize!

AstraZeneca will jointly develop and commercialize its high-risk, Phase II/III-bound Alzheimer’s disease drug candidate AZD3293 with Eli Lilly, in a deal that could net AZ up to $500 million in development and regulatory milestone payments.

AZD3293 is an oral beta secretase cleaving enzyme (BACE) inhibitor designed to prevent the formation of amyloid plaque and eventually slow the progression of Alzheimer’s. The company cites Phase I studies that showed AZD3293 significantly and dose-dependently reduced levels of amyloid beta in the cerebro-spinal fluid of Alzheimer’s patients and healthy volunteers.

The Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and other research institutions closer to Greater Washington have received hundreds of thousands of dollars from the ALS Association in the past few years.

Early indications are that some are likely to see even more in the future as contributions to the viral “Ice Bucket Challenge” have surpassed $113 million.

As of 2014, Deloitte is the largest professional services firm in the world by revenue. What began in the 19th century as stand-alone accounting offices has merged and evolved into a partnership that encompasses 200,000 employees in more than 150 countries around the globe.

But size alone doesn’t make a company great, of course. Things like satisfying clients, increasing opportunities for personnel, and performing a vital function for society make a company great. When employees, customers, investors, and the community benefit from a company’s services, that’s what makes it stand out from the rest.

Please plan to attend and also help spread the word about some exciting technology transfer programs planned for the NIH Research Festival next week:

Monday, September 22nd from 12-2pm

“Careers for scientists in technology transfer & business development” Poster Session I Building 10 – FAES Academic Center Presenter: Steve Ferguson (NIH/OTT)

Monday, September 22nd from 12-2pm

“NIH and the Federal Laboratory Consortium for Technology Transfer” Poster Session I Building 10 – FAES Academic Center Presenters: Steve Ferguson (NIH/OTT) and Gary Jones (Federal Laboratory Consortium)

Monday, September 22nd from 2-4pm

“Commercial Development of my Research: Still More Personal Stories from former NIH Intramural Scientists” Concurrent Symposium Session I Building 10 – FAES Academic Center – Classroom 3

Co-chairs: Steve Ferguson (NIH/OTT) and Todd Chappell (BioHealth Innovation)

Medical investors once spent a disproportionate amount of their money on diseases affecting the brain, heart and skeleton. Now market pressures and technological advances are driving them to invest across the human body more broadly.

A VentureWire analysis of U.S. venture financings shows how investors have spread their dollars across a widening range of disease treatments in recent years. From 2002 to 2007 the body part that attracted the most capital–nearly always the heart–often represented 5% to 7% or more of the total venture capital deployed into all U.S. companies, according to data from Dow Jones VentureSource.