– Representatives from Sigma-Tau Pharmaceuticals Inc., Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc., and Deloitte Consulting LLP Take New Board Seats –
– Charles Morton Becomes New Venable LLP Representative on Board while Mike Baader Stays on as Board Member (Now as Greenspring Associates Representative) –
ROCKVILLE AND BALTIMORE, MARYLAND, August 11, 2014 – BioHealth Innovation, Inc. (BHI) announced today the appointment of four new members to its Board of Directors. Dave Lemus, Chief Executive Officer, Sigma-Tau Pharmaceuticals Inc.; Joel S. Marcus, Chairman, Chief Executive Officer, and Founder, Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc. (Alexandria Venture Investments); and Beth Meagher, Principal, Deloitte Consulting LLP, have joined the BHI Board of Directors, effective August 7, 2014, based upon their organizations’ newly committed support of BHI. Charles “Chuck” Morton now represents Venable LLP on the Board, as another new Board member, while Mike Baader, formerly with Venable, will continue to hold a seat on the Board, but now as a representative of Greenspring Associates. Cynthia L. Collins, CEO, Clarient, who had served on the BHI Board since early 2013, is stepping down from her Board position after relocating to the West Coast
“The expansion of and continued diversity within the BHI Board, based upon new key industry and service provider representatives who are all deeply involved in life sciences, is a testament to the positive impact BHI has made on the Central Maryland biohealth community to date,” said Richard Bendis, BHI President & CEO.
“We look forward to the contributions from the new Board members representing these organizations. We’re also pleased to welcome a new Venable representative to the Board and that Mike Baader will continue to add value to the organization now that he is on the Greenspring Associates team,” said Douglas Liu, Chair, BHI Board of Directors, and Senior Vice President of Global Operations for Qiagen. “And, on behalf of the BHI staff and Board, I would also like to offer gratitude to Cynthia Collins for her service and contributions to the BHI Board over the last year and half.”
A few days after their state’s primary elections, Chinese-American community leaders in Maryland woke up to an email in their inboxes.
It was from Lily Qi – director of special projects for the government of Montgomery County, an affluent suburb of Washington – thanking them for their support in the reelection campaign of County Executive Ike Leggett, whose primary victory cleared the way for a third term.
“In a low turnout election like this one, every vote counts and the immigrant community holds great sway in tipping the balance,” Qi said in her note. Throughout the campaign, Qi had tirelessly reached out to the Chinese-American community, which accounts for 5 percent of
Rockville-based electronic prescription software service provider DrFirst on Wednesday announced $10 million in debt financing from Silicon Valley Bank.
The health IT company has expanded its products over the years to include software in medication management, adherence and care coordination. The company said the financing will go toward product development and an anticipated international expansion in the next year.
Emergent BioSolutions Inc. EBS -1.39% today announced that it has submitted a Biologics License Application to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for Anthrax Immune Globulin Intravenous (Human) [AIGIV] as part of a development contract with the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA). AIGIV, which was acquired in the Cangene acquisition completed earlier this year, is being developed as an intravenous therapeutic treatment for inhalation anthrax.
“This accomplishment is a testament to the diligent work of our employees within the recently acquired Cangene operations and their years of successful collaboration and partnering with the U.S. government,” said Adam Havey, executive vice president and president biodefense division at Emergent BioSolutions. “We commend BARDA for their steadfast commitment to advancing this key anthrax countermeasure program and remain dedicated to supporting their mission to protect our civilian and military population.”
Getting a shot is only a few seconds of discomfort, but that’s the first line of defense against an infectious disease.
It’s a process Emergent Biosolutions in Lansing knows well, as the only company that produces a licensed anthrax vaccine.
“Phase one is safety, phase two is selection and dose ranging, phase three we try to evaluate does it really work do we get the immune response we want,” said President of the Biodefense Division at Emergent Adam Havey.
Public health officials have just one tactic to battle the unrelenting Ebola virus outbreak in West Africa — quarantine — but as the disease continues to spread, scientists in Maryland are among those close to discovering other weapons.
Baltimore companies Profectus BioSciences and Paragon Bioservices, as well as researchers at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute for Infectious Diseases at Fort Detrick in Frederick and the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, have been part of efforts that have shown a handful of Ebola vaccine candidates are effective in monkeys.
In the August 18, 2014 issue of Forbes Magazine, the University of Maryland, College Park was ranked as one of the nation’s most entrepreneurial research universities. These rankings are based off of the number of alumni and students who have identified themselves as founders and business owners on LinkedIn against the school’s total student body which includes undergraduates and graduate combined.
Aspiring entrepreneurs in Maryland have two great options for higher education, according to ranking website College Choice.
The University of Maryland, College Park snagged the No. 20 spot on website’s list of the 50 best U.S. colleges for entrepreneurs, while Johns Hopkins University came in a bit lower, at No. 36.
Johns Hopkins University is teaming up with Google on a project aimed at speeding up technology commercialization.
Under a new partnership agreement with Google, Hopkins will work on the search engine giant’s Advanced Technology and Projects (ATAP) group, which focuses on developing new technology and moving it quickly to the marketplace.
The following funding opportunity announcements from the NHLBI or other components of the National Institutes of Health, might be of interest:
NIH Guide Notices:
Notice on Annual Reporting Requirements and Revised Financial Closeout Requirements for NIH Administrative Supplements Awarded to Recover Losses Due to Hurricane Sandy under the Disaster Relief Appropriations Act (NOT-OD-14-112) National Institutes of Health
Notice of NHLBI Discontinuation of Grant Program “Ancillary Studies in Clinical Trials (R01)” (NOT-HL-14-232)National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute
Notice to Extend the Response Date for the NOT-HL-14-030 “Request for Information (RFI): NHLBI Whole Genome Sequencing Project (NHLBI-WGS)” (NOT-HL-14-233)National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute
Program Announcements (PA):
NHLBI Career Transition Award for Intramural Fellows (K22) (PAR-14-302) National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute Application Receipt/Submission Date(s): Multiple dates, see announcement.
Wrap up a great summer with one last BioBuzz networking event on August 27th from 5:00 – 7:30 p.m. at American Tap Room in Rockville, MD. This location is a short walk from the Metro located in the Rockville Town Center so there are no excuses not to come.
New this month, join us for Table Talks at BioBuzz.
For a new twist to the networking events, starting this month we will be hosting “Table Talks at BioBuzz”. We have enlisted industry experts on various topics who will be joining us to facilitate discussions around their industry related topics of choice. They will be strategically situated at a few tables at our venue so that you will be able to join which ever conversations interest you throughout the evening and participate in some stimulating discussions; while still enjoying the usual, casual atmosphere that BioBuzz offers each month.
This month’s Table Topics and discussion leaders will be announced later this week so keep an eye out.
At a laboratory in Baltimore, hairless mice kept in racks of plastic crates are labelled with yellow cards, each identifying a person fighting cancer. These mice are cancer “avatars”—the lumpy tumors visible under their skin come from actual patients.
The animals serve as personalized, living test tubes. Each mouse will eventually be treated with a different drug and its tumors measured. Results showing which medicine worked best will be sent back to a doctor trying to treat a difficult cancer case.
The Swiss pharmaceutical giant Roche is set to pay $450 million for a Danish biotech company that develops drugs that silence microRNAs (something considered key to tackling certain diseases).
Roche is targeting the Danish biotech firm Santaris Pharma, according to The Wall Street Journal. Santaris Pharma A/S is a biopharmaceutical company founded in 2003 in Copenhagen. Santaris Pharma A/S has become a leading clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company that develops RNA-targeted medicines. Santaris works on developing drugs for a wide range of diseases using microRNA and mRNA. Their research focuses on infectious disease and metabolic disorders.
The University of Maryland has launched an unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) test site in southern Maryland. With support from the University System of Maryland, the site will bring together leaders in academia, industry and government to accelerate UAS research.
Based in St. Mary’s County, a few miles from Naval Air Warfare Center Aviation Division at Patuxent River and the Naval Air Systems Command headquarters, the UMD UAS test site has been set up as a catalyst for research and development, according to its sponsors.
ATCC, the premier global biological materials resource and standards organization, announced today that it has received ISO 13485:2003 certification for the development, manufacture, and distribution of standards, controls, reagents and in vitro diagnostic test kits.
Every day researchers in life science, medical diagnostics, applied sciences, and clinical drug development leverage ATCC’s expansive collection of cell lines, microorganisms, cellular and microbial panels, genomic and synthetic nucleic acids, biological products, and associated derivatives to generate quality research and reproducible results. ISO 13485 enhances ATCC’s existing Quality Management Program as an ISO 9001:2008 certified and ISO 17025:2005 and ISO Guide 34:2009 accredited organization.
Wall Street may or may not be going through its long-awaited correction these days, but regardless, it still seems to have a hearty appetite for digital health initial public offerings. That appetite is provoking venture capitalists to fund ever-more startups. Through June of this year, $2.3 billion has been sunk into digital health offerings compared with $2 billion in all of 2013, reports digital healthcare accelerator Rock Health.
“We think there’s going to be four to five IPOs each year for the next five years.” said Steve Kraus, the lead healthcare partner at Bessemer Venture Partners, Cambridge, Mass.
As a small company, you have a number of things going for you because of your size: You’re agile. You can react quickly to market changes. You can still innovate on a whim.
Big businesses know this all too well, which helps explain what’s driving an increase in the number of corporate venture capital arms cropping up in the past few years. If the old chestnut is correct, a rising tide floats all boats. So as the economy recovers and some sectors like technology seem like they’re heading toward irrational exuberance, corporate VC firms are eager to get in on the action.
With an aging Baby Boomer population and broadband bandwidth improved a hundredfold from a decade ago, telemedicine is exploding as a convenient and less costly alternative to the traditional visit to the doctors’ office.
This year in the U.S. and Canada, 75 million of 600 million appointments with general practitioners will involve electronic visits, or eVisits, according to new research from Deloitte.
Linda Wittbrodt was perusing Michigan Technological University’s website when she stumbled across a faculty project seeking funds to teach senior citizens online skills.
Wittbrodt thought that was cool, so she donated $25 through a new approach the Upper Peninsula university is using: pitching of an idea online and asking people to make a donation, a strategy known as crowdfunding.
IT deal flow remained steady in 2Q. About $17 billion of PE capital was invested through 89 transactions, with both figures in line with previous quarters. The software segment of the industry is particularly active, with 2014 on pace to surpass the annual deal flow totals of any year following the financial crisis. Software has become industry-agnostic in some respects, as everything from colleges to hospitals to industrial conglomerates have incorporated software solutions into their operating models. For PE investors, software providers offer strong recurring revenue streams and also boast greater add-on potential for platforms.
A study conducted by the Economic Alliance of Greater Baltimore Foundation (EAGB) to estimate Baltimore Gas and Electric’s (BGE) economic contributions to the region in 2013 found that its operations generated a total economic impact of $3.81 billion of output and supported 8,686 jobs. This resulted from the company’s direct effect, the effect of companies that provide services to BGE and the effect of employees of both BGE and the service companies. BGE’s activities contribute more than 2 percent of the entire economic output of the BGE service area in central Maryland.
“We are proud to be able to support our partners in their goal of measuring and understanding their importance to the region’s workforce and economy,” said Tom Sadowski, President and CEO of the EAGB. “Our Chief Market Analyst, Patrick Dougherty, did a tremendous job of assessing and articulating the impact of BGE’s economic contributions to the region.”
A new collaboration between the USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) Small Business Innovation Research Program (SBIR) and the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service (ARS) encourages SBIR applicants to license ARS technologies and be considered for a SBIR grant.
The relevant language in the SBIR’s “Request for Application” states: “Additional factors that will be considered in the review process include whether an application involves a CRADA with a USDA laboratory, or a license to a USDA technology, or is a resubmission. In the event that two or more applications are of approximately equal merit, the existence of a CRADA with a USDA laboratory or a license to a USDA technology will be an important consideration. If one application is a resubmission, this will also be an important consideration.” The SBIR Website can be found at: http://www.nifa.usda.gov/fo/sbir.
Accelerator Corporation, a US-based biotech investment and management company, has attracted a total of $51.1m for its Accelerator IV fund. The three major investors’ cash, Eli Lilly, Pfizer Venture Investments and Johnson & Johnson Development Corporation, make up $50m of the investment.
The three pharmaceutical companies and other existing investors Alexandria Venture Investments, WRF Capital and Arch Venture Partners, are joined by two new strategic investors. These are Harris & Harris, a venture capital firm, and The Partnership Fund for New York City, an evergreen fund by the city’s business and finance leaders.
Orgenesis Inc. (OTCQB: ORGS), a leader in the emerging fields of cellular therapy and re-generative medicine, today announced the appointment of industry veteran Scott Carmer as CEO of the company’s North American subsidiary. Carmer has more than 25 years of diverse industry experience within both pharmaceutical and biotech companies. Orgenesis is a pioneer in the field of “cellular trans-differentiation,” a technology that has potential to regenerate glucose-responsive insulin production and restore glycemic homeostasis for patients suffering from various insulin-dependent disorders. By transforming a patient’s own liver cells into new insulin producing cells, Orgenesis hopes to develop a breakthrough therapy for people living with Type 1 Diabetes. In his new role, Carmer will oversee the Orgenesis drug development and commercialization strategy in North America, focusing on the near-term initiation of Phase I and Phase II clinical trials in the United States.
The National Center for Engineering Pathways to Innovation (Epicenter) is accepting proposals for its Pathways to Innovation Program.
The Pathways to Innovation Program is designed to help institutions fully incorporate innovation and entrepreneurship into undergraduate engineering education. The program is run by Epicenter, which is funded by the National Science Foundation and directed by Stanford University and the National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance (NCIIA).
As the dust settles from this past week’s mammoth $1.3 billion merger, Siemens Health Services CEO John Glaser tells Healthcare IT News what led up to the Cerner deal, how his experience as a health system CIO could help smooth integration challenges and what to expect – from the two companies and electronic health records in general – over the months and years to come.
Dr. Marvin Malek has been yearning and advocating for a publicly financed, single-payer health care system for at least two decades. Now, as Vermont stands on the threshold of being the first state to launch such a plan, he’s confessing to trepidation.
“I am pretty damn nervous,” he confided before bounding off for rounds at the Vermont Central Medical Center, still clutching the bicycle helmet he wore on his ride to work.
Grand Challenges Canada, funded by the Government of Canada, has announced funding of seven projects implemented in ASEAN member countries. This funding, totalling $784,000, will support projects that combine scientific/technical, social and business innovation to solve pressing global health challenges.
The funding was announced by Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird during a visit to Burma, where he is participating in the ASEAN-Canada Post Ministerial Conference. As one of ASEAN’s longest-standing dialogue partners, Canada has enjoyed positive and fruitful relations with the ASEAN region, cooperating on many issues, including regional integration, economic interests and innovation.
Anne Wojcicki bounds into a conference room in Mountain View, California, straight from a five-mile ride from home on an elliptical bike. The 40-year-old cofounder and CEO of the consumer genetic testing firm 23andMe is breathless, and not just because of the workout. On this warm day in mid-June, Wojcicki is “super-excited” about an announcement scheduled for two days hence: the Food and Drug Administration has agreed to review a health-related genetic report the company wants to make available to customers.
BioHealth Innovation (BHI) is a regionally-oriented, private-public partnership functioning as an innovation intermediary focused on commercializing market-relevant biohealth innovations and increasing access to early-stage funding in Maryland.
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Anne Wojcicki bounds into a conference room in Mountain View, California, straight from a five-mile ride from home on an elliptical bike. The 40-year-old cofounder and CEO of the consumer genetic testing firm 23andMe is breathless, and not just because of the workout. On this warm day in mid-June, Wojcicki is “super-excited” about an announcement scheduled for two days hence: the Food and Drug Administration has agreed to review a health-related genetic report the company wants to make available to customers. 
