News Archive

The low-interest loan program called the BioFund has issued more than $2 million in loans to 12 businesses that account for 135 jobs in Southeast Louisiana, said a progress report released Wednesday (Aug. 27) by the New Orleans BioInnovation Center, which runs the fund.

The federal Department of Housing and Urban Development provided the funding to support businesses in a 12-parish area impacted by Hurricane Katrina. The Louisiana Office of Community Development, Disaster Recovery Unit, channeled the money to the program at the BioInnovation Center.

According to CB Insights data, funding to digital health/health IT companies has already topped $2.2B in the first half of 2014.

With the space becoming increasingly crowded and well-funded, one effective way innovation trackers can understand which areas (and likely companies) will play a key role in future of the digital health space is by following the smart money.

Two Washington entrepreneurs with a history of building successful companies have teamed with a local businessman to start a venture capital fund focused on seed stage companies focused on applications that run on mobile devices.

The fund, called Kiwi Venture Partners I , has raised $2.5 million from 24 limited partners, including 12 from the Washington area. The LP investments range from $25,000 to $500,000.

Emergent BioSolutions Inc. (EBS) announced today that it has signed a contract with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), to develop a dry formulation of NuThraxTM (Anthrax Vaccine Adsorbed with CPG 7909 Adjuvant), also known as AV7909, the companys next generation anthrax vaccine candidate. This five-year contract, valued at up to $29 million, provides funding for manufacturing and non-clinical activities through the preparation of an Investigational New Drug application to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The dry formulation of NuThrax is intended to increase stability of the vaccine candidate at ambient and higher temperatures, with the objective of eliminating the need for cold chain during shipping and storage.

Swiss drugmaker Roche Holding AG said on Monday the European Union has approved the use of its drug RoActemra in patients with early-stage rheumatoid arthritis.

Roche said the European Commission has backed RoActemra as a treatment for patients with severe, active and progressive rheumatoid arthritis who have previously not been treated with methotrexate.

MIMETAS, in a consortium with Radboudumc and FHNW, has received 1.6 million USD funding for development of a kidney-on-a-chip for toxicological applications. A panel of experts from GlaxoSmithKline, Pfizer, Roche, NC3Rs and renowned academic institutions selected MIMETAS’ solution from a strong line-up of competing technologies.

The funding is awarded in the context of the NephroTube Crack-it Challenge to support development of a microfluidic renal model predicting renal toxicity during pre-clinical development. In collaboration with the Radboudumc Pharmacology-Toxicology Department and the Swiss FHNW, MIMETAS will use the funds to develop a high-throughput kidney-on-a-chip model by combining its OrganoPlate™ 3D-culturing technology with the human renal cell line ciPTEC™, analyzed and validated in three separate sites. The resulting model will be used to detect renal tubular injury observed in drug-induced nephrotoxicity. The model’s early prediction of nephrotoxicity will help to reduce animal experiments.

This Monday September 1st marked the beginning of when investors with Angel Venture Forum D.C. started looking at submissions from companies for the Nov. Showcase.

AVF screeners do start reviewing plans as soon as submissions are made and some companies who have submitted to date have already received assistance and invitations to angel groups. Since we typically get a large number of applications and it does take the screeners a while to get through them all. Thus, the sooner an application the better.

The initial screening will occur through Sept. 15th. So you may still make submissions and corrections on applications up until Sept. 15th if needed. However, it is recommended that you complete your submission as soon as possible so that you get in the queue.

To submit an application – no later than Sept. 15th – visit www.angelventureforum.com. For any questions, please feel free to contact Mike Gildea, AVF COO at mgildea@braingainllc.com or 814-451-1151.

A group of UC Berkeley students launched what they call the first-ever student-run health tech incubator Thursday at the office of Downtown Berkeley’s Skydeck, which fosters campus startups.

The incubator, Catalyst@Berkeley, aims to provide a framework for students to bring viable prototypes to the market and open doors of entrepreneurship to undergraduate students interested in health care innovation.

The Food and Drug Administration on Thursday approved the first of an eagerly awaited new class of cancer drugs that unleashes the body’s immune system to fight tumors.

The drug, which Merck will sell under the name Keytruda, was approved for patients with advanced melanoma who have exhausted other therapies.