Maryland Venture Fund and The Abell Foundation Top Investors in Round of Financing
Perceptive Navigation, LLC, a privately-held, Maryland-based medical device company developing solutions for the rapidly growing image- guided market, today announced the closing of its $500,000 seed round of financing, led by the Maryland Venture Fund (MVF) and The Abell Foundation. The proceeds will accelerate the development of Vu-Path, Perceptive Navigation’s ultrasound probe for minimally invasive interventional procedures, as well as enable its regulatory submission to the FDA.
Perceptive Navigation also announced the appointment of Todd Chappell as Chief Executive Officer. Chappell comes to Perceptive Navigation with fifteen years of experience working withearly-stage, venture-backed biotechnology companies. Most recently, he managed a portfolio of start-up pharmaceutical and medical device companies at BioHealth Innovation, Inc. (BHI), a regional innovation intermediary focused on commercializing market-relevant life science innovations, as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence. Perceptive was incubated at BHI under the leadership of Chappell prior to his appointment as Chief Executive Officer.
The company is just so much better known its medical countermeasures against biological threats like anthrax than for its cancer work, and that’s a problem.
United Therapeutics (Nasdaq: UTHR) is selling a voucher designed to speed up approval for rare pediatric disease treatments to Chicago-based pharmaceutical company AbbVie Inc. for a record $350 million.
The Wall Street Journal reports the Silver Spring-based biotechnology company landed the voucher when it received approval from the Food and Drug Administration for Unituxin, its drug designed to treat neuroblastoma.
This event is to gather interested small businesses seeking assistance from the Small Business Innovation Research grants program from the National Institutes of Health. This is a free event brought to you by BioHealth Innovation. Hear from the SBIR managers on current Institute funding priorities. Meet one-on-one with program managers regarding your current project. Learn of SBIR assistance provided by BioHealth Innovation.
Most consumers are familiar with the idea of probiotics — particularly when it comes to gastrointestinal health. But could they actually benefit HIV and AIDS patients?
That’s a question being examined in a medical probiotic product created by Gaithersburg startup ExeGi Pharma LLC. That product, Visbiome, is planned for launch this fall and was originally designed to help the treatment of patients with ailments such as ulcerative colitis or irritable bowel syndrome.
Novartis has agreed to buy all remaining rights to Ofatumumab from Britain’s GlaxoSmithKline for up to $1 billion, boosting the Swiss drugmaker’s stable of multiple sclerosis (MS) treatments.
Basel-based Novartis had previously acquired the rights to Ofatumumab for oncology indications, but it is currently being developed for relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis and other auto-immune conditions.
The world’s first malaria vaccine got a green light on Friday from European drugs regulators who recommended it should be licensed for use in babies in Africa at risk of the mosquito-borne disease.
The shot, called RTS,S or Mosquirix and developed by British drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline in partnership with the PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative, would be the first licensed human vaccine against a parasitic disease and could help prevent millions of cases of malaria in countries that use it.
Cloud-based data company Inovalon Holdings will acquire D.C. health research and advisory firm Avalere Health in a deal worth $140 million, the companies announced Monday.
The move will enable Bowie-based Inovalon (Nasdaq: INOV) to expand into the pharmaceutical market and fuel growth in the use of big data analytics at life sciences companies, officials said. The deal is expected to close Sept. 1.
September 8th, Cattail Creek Country Club, Glenwood, MD
Biotech execs play for free in the tournament that will benefit The Little Things for Cancer & the Zaching Against Cancer Foundation organizations.
Welcome to the 2015 Biotech Invitational, a DogDenGolf managed event that is being supported by top executives at Medimmune, other Biotechnology companies and Vendors in the region. This year’s event will be held on September 8, 2015, at Cattail Creek Country Club in Glenwood, MD and will determine the Biotech Executive Golfers of the Year.
Proceeds from this event will benefit The Little Things for Cancer, a local non-profit providing support and services to cancer patients, and their caregivers. For detailed information on the programs and services that The Little Things provides, visit their website at www.tlt4c.org.
We are looking for the Most Rockin’ Business in the City!
Is it yours?
The 2nd Annual “Rockin’ in Rockville” Award is set to be handed out at this year’s REDI Resource Meetup (R2M) event in September.
This award, created to highlight the success, community engagement, and innovative practices of a Rockville-based company, is given out during Maryland Economic Development Week.
“The startup scene is starving for seed-stage investment right now.”
If you’ve ever spent time around a startup hub then you’ve probably heard some version of this comment before. Whether it’s currently the case in the D.C. area may be a fair question, and one that we’ve put to venture capitalists from some of the region’s most prominent firms—Revolution, New Atlantic Ventures and New Enterprise Associates.
TOPIC: “Innovating through the U.S. Economic Development Administration”
PRESENTER: Julie Lenzer Kirk, Director Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurship U.S. Economic Development Administration
ABSTRACT: Housed within the U.S. Economic Development Administration, the Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurship (OIE) works to foster a more innovative U.S. economy focused on turning new ideas and inventions into products and technologies that spur job growth and competitiveness while promoting economic development. Ms. Kirk will discuss OIE programs including: • Promoting and supporting high-growth entrepreneurship. • Accelerating commercialization of federally funded research. • Working with other agencies and the White House to collaborate on policies and programs to support entrepreneurship and commercialization. • Supporting the National Advisory Council on Innovation and Entrepreneurship (NACIE), which is chaired by the Secretary of Commerce. • Leading the $15 million 2014 Regional Innovation Strategies Program competition.
BrainScope Company, Inc., a privately held neurotechnology company with an initial focus on traumatic brain injury (TBI) and concussion assessment, is feeling a lot of positive momentum these days as it recently announced an additional $500,000 funding from GE and the NFL, and a host of new appointments intended to move the company forward.
In July, the company announced that it had received an additional $500,000 award from GE and the National Football League (NFL) to further enhance its portable concussion assessment system, as one of six final winners of the GE NFL Head Health Challenge I. In February 2014, Brainscope was selected as one of the initial 16 recipients from more than 400 entries from 27 countries of the up to $10 million Challenge, which was created by GE and the NFL to award entrants for proposals focusing on “identifying breakthrough technologies and approaches that will improve the diagnosis and prognosis of mild traumatic brain injury (TBI).”
Startup Maryland and LAUNCH! Annapolis today announced a teaming relationship under which both organizations present the 2015 Maryland Open Bloody-Mary and Crab-Soup Competitions. Contested over two rounds, the Maryland Open will be held during the Pitch Across Maryland tour and celebration of innovation and entrepreneurship.
Round One begins on Saturday, September 12 during a tailgate at the University of Maryland. Round One continues the following week Saturday, September 19 during a tailgate at the United States Naval Academy. The Final Round will be announced during the Pitch Across Maryland tour.
The WIB-DC/Baltimore Mentors, Advisors, and Peers (MAPs) Committee is thrilled to announce the initiation of our 1:1 Mentoring Program. This program is designed to match mentees in the early stages of their careers to mentors who can help guide them based on different areas of interest. We are looking for volunteers interested in being part of this new program.
Sara Nayeem will participate in the Biotechnology Industry Organization webinar entitled, “Capturing Investor Interest in a Hot Biotech Climate,” on Tuesday, August 18th at 1PM EST. The panel will explore the strong biotech market and answer questions from start-ups seeking funding in their venture.
The biotech market is stronger than ever with more than $5B invested in 2015 so far. With the influx of capital flowing in the biotech pools, the panel will advise startups on what to look for when interviewing investment firms, what due diligence is needed to find appropriate investment partners, and what steps a company should take to ensure that the partnership runs smoothly.
Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) is a major consumer technology developer and Internet services giant which is involved in an incredibly diverse array of innovative tech fields. The company is best known for its Internet search engine, which processes an average of about 40,000 search queries every second, but in our Companies We Follow series we’ve seen them develop everything from robots with humanoid personalities to medical emergency response drones. We’ve covered Google acquisitions that have pulled the company into the sphere of digital wallet tech as well as patenting activities in the field of autonomous vehicles. It’s clear that the tentacles of the corporate octopus that is Google stretch wide and far away from each other.
With the financial aid of a biotechnology executive whose daughter may need a lung transplant, U.S. researchers have been shattering records in xenotransplantation, or between-species organ transplants.
The researchers say they have kept a pig heart alive in a baboon for 945 days and also reported the longest-ever kidney swap between these species, lasting 136 days. The experiments used organs from pigs “humanized” with the addition of as many as five human genes, a strategy designed to stop organ rejection.
In the May 15, 2014, edition of the journal Nature, Floyd Romesberg’s chemistry lab at San Diego’s Scripps Research Institute published a paper titled “A Semi-Synthetic Organism with an Expanded Genetic Alphabet.” Romesberg and his colleagues had created a bacterium incorporating chemical building blocks that, as far as anybody knows, have never been part of any earthly life form.
There had been previous claims to “creating life.” Genome pioneer Craig Venter led a team that manufactured a genome for a germ that causes pneumonia in cows, but their effort used the familiar chemical bases of DNA, known by the letters A, G, C, and T. Romesberg’s group, on the other hand, added two additional letters, dubbed X and Y. When the bacteria successfully replicated X and Y in succeeding generations, Romesberg’s lab could claim to have made the first living thing with an expanded genetic code.
Bayer HealthCare has launched its own digital health accelerator program in Berlin, Germany called “Grants4Apps,” selecting five digital health startups from around the globe that will advance their business ideas and technology in areas such as hormone tests, patient adherence, breathing patterns, clinical trials and vitamin deficiency. The selected five digital health startups will receive financial support of up to 50,000 Euro and will work out of the company’s pharmaceutical division in Berlin. Over the next four months, the startups will work with Bayer executives and seasoned entrepreneurs
Durham venture capital fund Hatteras Venture Partners plans to announce Monday that it has raised more than $90 million for its fifth investment fund, giving it roughly 60 percent of its $150 million goal.
“We’re humbled and gratified that people would continue to have this level of confidence in us,” said Clay Thorp, co-founder and general partner.
The information contained in this website and newsletters is for general information purposes only. The information is provided by BioHealth Innovation via its newsletters, but not written or endorsed in any way by BioHealth Innovation unless otherwise noted. While we endeavor to keep the information up to date and correct, we make no representations or warranties of any kind, express or implied, about the completeness, accuracy, reliability, suitability or availability with respect to the website or the information, products, services, or related graphics contained on the website for any purpose. Any reliance you place on such information is therefore strictly at your own risk.
