The story of MedImmune, the Maryland startup that British pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca bought for $15.6 billion in 2007, is an example for entrepreneurs striving for their own blockbuster deals. But MedImmune leaders say they want to go beyond leading by example.
The company, now responsible for half of AstraZeneca’s pipeline of drug candidates, has signed a flurry of partnerships with federal and nonprofit labs in recent months, including deals to share resources and researchers with the National Cancer Institute, the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the Joslin Diabetes Center at Harvard University. Through the partnerships, the company can tap the labs’ brainpower and expensive equipment, and share its own resources.
MacroGenics, Inc. (NASDAQ: MGNX), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering and developing innovative monoclonal antibody-based therapeutics for the treatment of cancer, as well as autoimmune disorders and infectious diseases, today announced the initiation of a Phase 1 study with MGD010, its first Dual-Affinity Re-Targeting (DART®) molecule being developed for patients with autoimmune disorders. MGD010 is a bi-specific molecule that simultaneously targets CD32B and CD79B, two B-cell surface proteins, for the treatment of autoimmune disorders. MGD010 is designed to inhibit B-cell activation by exploiting the inhibitory function of CD32B, a checkpoint molecule expressed by B cells. As a result of the study initiation, MacroGenics will receive a $3 million milestone payment from its partner, Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited.
Austria-based diabetes app company mySugr has raised $4.8 million from Roche Ventures and iSeed Ventures. Existing investor XLHealth also contributed to the round, which will help mySugr scale up its user base in the US and other other countries. iSeed Ventures is a new fund that has only made a half dozen investments so far, and it is led by former iHealth Lab head Adam Lin.
MySugr offers a handful of apps, but its flagship is called Diabetes Logbook, which is designed for people with type 1 or type 2 diabetes and includes logging, graphing, analysis, “exciting challenges”, “smile-inducing feedback”, and Apple Health integration. If users sign up for a month-to-month or annual subscription, pro features include additional challenges, automatic blood glucose logging from connected devices, reminders, and more report formats. Its Logbook app is registered as a class 1 device with the FDA and has similar status in Europe.
The Food and Drug Administration said it approved United Therapeutics Corp’s drug to treat neuroblastoma, a rare cancer that typically occurs in children below 5 years.
Unituxin is the first drug approved to treat high-risk neuroblastoma patients who have a greater chance of tumors recurring or progressing after chemotherapy.
This year’s Top 10 U.S. Biopharma Clusters List features the same 10 regions as last year’s GEN List, but the top seven occupy slightly different positions than they did in the 2014 list.
One factor in the changes this past year has been a recovering venture capital market, which pushed numbers above last year’s totals for most, though not all regions (three showed declines and one was flat over 2013). For example, the top region racked up $1.82 billion in 2014, versus $1.447 billion in 2013.
The institution has been promising — threatening — to be a bigger player in technology commercialization, the process of turning millions of dollars of federal research funding into startup companies, patents and licenses.
It’s time once again to fill out those March Madness brackets, and what better way to predict the winner of this year’s National Collegiate Athletic Association men’s basketball tournament than to compare how the teams succeed in the classroom?
Here’s how Inside Higher Ed’s bracket works: to determine the winners, we first look to the Academic Progress Rate, the N.C.A.A.’s multiyear measure of a team’s classroom performance. When two teams tie, we turn to the N.C.A.A.’s Graduation Success Rate, which measures the proportion of athletes on track to graduate within six years. In the event of a G.S.R. tie, we then turn to the Federal Graduation Rate, a slightly different formula that the government uses to track graduation rates.
The Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2014-2015 list was released Friday, effectively depicting the best universities from across the globe. The D.C. area made a good showing this year with Johns Hopkins University once again landing the No. 15 spot, but most local schools named to Times Higher Education’s ranking in the past ended up losing some ground this time around.
A total of five colleges and universities from across the region were included in the 2014-2015 ranking. Four of the five ended up with lower rankings than they received on the 2013-2014 list, falling down more than a few notches.
Maryland has received $7.6 million from the U.S. Treasury Department to support small business financing programs.
The award to Maryland’s Department of Business and Economic Development is part of the State Small Business Credit Initiative (SSBI), a $1.5 billion treasury department program launched in 2010. The federal government has committed to $23 million in SSBI funding to Maryland, to be awarded in three tranches. The $7.6 million award announced Wednesday is the second tranche and brings the total funding Maryland has received through the program to $15 million since 2011.
In 2013, Johns Hopkins University President Ronald J. Daniels laid out 10 goals, grouped under four priorities, that add up to one vision the university seeks to achieve by the year 2020. Now the Johns Hopkins community is invited to review the Ten by Twenty progress report, which was released today, to see where Johns Hopkins stands on its ambitious path for the future.
From the beginning, Daniels said that the plan is bold and the road is not an easy one. The original Ten by Twenty report outlines a number of challenges, including the need for interdisciplinary research and education in a highly decentralized environment; changing expectations for undergraduate education; declines in research and clinical funding; and pressing economic needs in Baltimore and communities across the country.
Each year, millions of people lose billions of dollars in NCAA March Madness basketball pools. Still, most return the following year for another pummeling.
But flipping a coin yields better results than carefully selecting brackets, says Dae Hee Kwak, assistant professor of sport management at the University of Michigan School of Kinesiology.
We strongly suggest that you meet with a member of the MIPS staff before writing your proposal, even if you are familiar with the MIPS program. A staff member can advise you on planning a proposal and assist you with submitting the application. A preliminary review could be invaluable; for example, some applicants fail to include readily available information that might make the difference in qualifying for an award.
MIPS personnel and other professionals in the Maryland Technology Enterprise Institute (Mtech) can assist companies in finding and selecting appropriate faculty researchers for the companies’ projects.
Silicon Valley may have coined the ‘big data’ buzzword, but genomic scientists have been working with massive datasets for decades. Due to recent breakthroughs in DNA sequencing technology, genetics is moving from the laboratory into the market, and just about everyone is taking a keen interest.
In January, President Obama requested $215 million to fund his precision medicine initiative — $130 million to back a national research program that will track the data of 1 million volunteer donors, and another $70 million for a National Cancer Institute initiative to identify the genetic drivers of cancer.
The Centers for Disease Control recently acknowledged for the first time three digital health programs for their ability to help counter the onset of Type 2 diabetes, leading to better outcomes and reduced spending.
The three digitally-centered programs that were recognized include startups Omada Health and Noom Health, as well as DPS Health, which was founded in 20014. All three programs aim to assist in the prevention or management of chronic diseases, ranging from obesity and diabetes and nutrition and weight loss.
The Universities at Shady Grove (USG) officially broke ground on the campus’s second parking structure, a $20 million “green” garage to support the USG’s addition of the Biomedical Sciences and Engineering Education Facility.
The garage will open in early 2016 and is being funded by Montgomery County, according to a press release about the event. The new parking will support the planned addition of a 220,000-square-foot biomedical sciences and engineering academic complex, which is scheduled to begin its construction in 2016 and open in fall 2018.
Compete for $500 and earn credibility by winning a prestigious competition from one of the top entrepreneurship schools in the country. The University of Maryland is ranked No. 21 among universities for entrepreneurship by The Princeton Review and Entrepreneur Magazine.
Connect with award-winning faculty, staff, and students in entrepreneurship who are passionate about helping students fulfill their entrepreneurial dreams. The University of Maryland has helped hundreds of students launch successful companies.
It’s not exactly news that the San Francisco Bay Area is a hot spot for tech startups, but let’s say you’re ambitious, talented and armed with a great idea but you don’t want to move there. What other places should you consider?
Or let’s say you’re ambitious, talented and looking to land a job at a tech startup. Where, outside San Francisco and Silicon Valley, are prospective tech employers?
Virginia’s Center for Innovative Technology is teaming up with the Department of Homeland Security to create a new business accelerator programfor creating wearable technology for first responders.
The EMERGE! program is designed to help business accelerators find entrepreneurs with ideas for wearable technology useful to first responders, whether federal law enforcement or local police, EMTs and firefighters. Putting advanced sensors, communication and other electronics into equipment that they can wear on the job could be a major boon for them.
The District will enter a partnership with Howard University to offer below-market rent for on-campus space to venture capital firms, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser announced Wednesday. The details right now are a little scarce, but here’s what is known so far:
Healthcare organizations have typically invested less in IT, including security technologies, than other industries and the number of people affected by breaches supports this. Over 80 million people were affected by the Anthem cyber-attack, nearly 42 million have had their health data compromised in HIPAA breaches, and over 130 million were affected by the Heartland Payment Systems breach back in 2008. With the increased use of cloud computing and mobile devices and an unclear understanding of HIPAA and HITECH, keeping data safe is a moving target. Our expert panelists will discuss best practices and ways that healthcare organizations and their employees can assist in keeping patients’ data safe from future cyber-attacks.
Get answers now from experienced entrepreneurs and legal/business professionals on how to build a successful startup company. Receive free and impartial advice, brainstorm business strategies, investigate funding opportunities and learn about the vast resources available to entrepreneurs.
The state of Maryland is home to more than 500 core bioscience companies, representing the second largest per capital cluster in the U.S. These companies are involved in biotherapeutics, research services, diagnostics, medical devices, and more. So what exactly do these companies do and how do they differ from one another? Two renowned industry experts will explain the terminology and help you understand the types of work these companies are involved in. They will also discuss where the opportunities are for service providers, and how best to connect with the right people at the right time.
The Mid-Atlantic Life Sciences Showcase is the new name for the ISPE-CBA Vendor Night. We’re continuing to improve the event and this year will not disappoint! Table selections will be made by the order in which you register. Register early to ensure your pick of locations.
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