21st Edition – November 20, 2012

Happy Thanksgiving from the BHI Team

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The Global Innovation Imperative – Presented by BHI CEO Richard Bendis at AUTM

Download the full presentation

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CoFounders Lab Wins Startup Maryland "Pitch Across Maryland" Competition – Baltimore Citybizlist

 Startup Maryland is proud to announce that CoFounders Lab (Rockville, Md.) has claimed the top spot in its Pitch Across Maryland competition. The company was named the winner in the video pitch competition at the Maryland Entrepreneur Expo on November 13, by a panel of distinguished judges. The judges also named Woofound (Baltimore, Md.) as the runner-up.

As the winner and runner-up, CoFounders Lab and Woofound will receive free entry and bypass the first round of judging in the InvestMaryland Challenge, a national seed and early-stage business competition hosted by the State of Maryland. All Pitch Across Maryland participants are encouraged to apply.

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GlycoMimetics Addresses Fundraising in Challenging Times

On November 8, 2012, the BioPark hosted Rachel King, CEO of GlycoMimetics, as part of its Business of Bio speaker series. Ms. King spoke before an active, question-filled audience from the University of Maryland campus in Baltimore and from bioscience companies throughout the region.

Opening her discussion with a review of the venture financing climate within the life sciences industry during 2012, Ms. King said, “There is a challenge today with respect to the risk level that a venture capitalist is willing to take. Investments are going towards later-stage programs. That’s not to say early deals don’t get done – but they are harder to secure.”

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BHI Featured in "Why Rockville" Ad Campaign

BioHealth Innovation, Inc. and Rich Bendis were recently featured in the “Why Rockville” ad campaign which runs in The Gazette of Politics and Business. This campaign is sponsored by Capital Bank and serves to introduce the businesses and business owners that are located in Rockville.

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MedImmune maintains its roots while building AstraZeneca drug pipeline – baltimoresun.com

When Gail Folena-Wasserman joined Gaithersburg biotechnology startup MedImmune in 1991, she was its first employee in research and development, and dreamed of what the company might be "when it grew up."

Two decades later, the senior vice president for biopharmaceutical development is helping to test new drugs at a dramatically different MedImmune. Five years since a $15 billion acquisition by British pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca, the company is funneling a pipeline of potential therapies that has grown three times over and covers a wider spectrum of diseases.

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Rockville startup for entrepreneur match-ups wins state contest – Gazette.Net

There is a host of websites for people who want to link up for personal relationships.

CoFoundersLab of Rockville wants to do something similar, but for business relationships — specifically launching a new venture.

The company has attracted notice from many local entrepreneurs. Judges who viewed the video that CoFoundersLab submitted to the Startup Maryland pitch contest in September liked the concept enough to name it the winner of the “Pitch Across Maryland” contest this week over almost 200 competitors.

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Anthrax Drug Effective, FDA Staff Finds – MedPage Today

The FDA seemed to tentatively support the benefits of the investigational monoclonal antibody raxibacumab for treating inhalational anthrax following new animal studies, documents released before a Friday advisory committee meeting showed.

Rabbits that received the antibiotic levofloxacin (Levaquin) in combination with raxibacumab tended to show a greater survival rate (about 17%, P=0.0874) compared with those treated with levofloxacin alone, the FDA said Wednesday.

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University of Maryland, UMB venture to focus on patient data research – Baltimore Business Journal

The latest joint venture between the University of Maryland, College Park and University of Maryland, Baltimore will combine computer know-how from College Park and Baltimore’s wealth of medical researchers.

The Center for Health-related Informatics and Bioimaging will focus on projects that use technological advancements to improve medicine and patient care. The overarching goal will be to advance the idea of personalized medicine, through which doctors use advance technology and biomedical information to tailor treatment decisions to individual patients.

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Maryland Is Nation’s 2nd Best Educated State – Baltimore Citybizlist

Maryland is the nation’s second best educated state with 36.9 percent of its population aged 25 or over holding a bachelor’s degree or higher, 24/7 Wall St. reported, citing data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s’ American Community Survey.

Additionally, 16.5 percent of the population holds a graduate or professional degree of some kind, ranking only behind Massachusetts, the business news site said.

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Maryland Department of Business & Economic Development Annual Report 2012

Commemorating a year that positioned Maryland as a national leader in the innovation economy, DBED has released its FY 2012 Annual Report. Highlights include the continued progress of InvestMaryland, the passage of the Maryland Innovation Initiative, successful trade missions to India and Asia, and the development of interactive tools for businesses including a mobile-friendly website, an online site selection database, an interactive map and Finance Tracker. DBED helped create or retain more than 7,335 jobs and leveraged $661 million in capital investment through 111 projects. In addition, Maryland visitors spent $13.1 billion on travel expenses and the Maryland State Arts Council awarded more than $11 million in grants.

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Three MD Start-Ups Tapped for $1.1M through InvestMaryland Program

As part of today’s Maryland Entrepreneur Expo 2012 hosted by TEDCO, Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development (DBED) Secretary Christian S. Johansson announced that the State has invested $1.1 million in three start-up companies through the InvestMaryland program. Rockville-based Maxtena will receive a $560,000 investment, and two Baltimore companies – Bambeco and PathSensors – will receive investments of $400,000 and $200,000, respectively. The investments are among the first made through the State’s $84 million venture capital program. The first investment was $250,000 to Bethesda-based Brainscope in September.

“When we make strategic investments in cutting-edge companies like Maxtena, PathSensors and Bambeco, we are strengthening Maryland’s leadership in the Innovation Economy,” said Governor Martin O’Malley. “With a total of $84 million to invest in the State’s best and brightest start-ups, we are stimulating our economy and creating jobs not just for today, but for generations to come.”

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SAIC names heads of post-split companies – Washington Business Journal

McLean-based SAIC Inc., which said in August it would split its operations into two separate, publicly traded companies, says current chief executive John Jumper will continue to head the national security and health and engineering business, the larger of the two new companies.

SAIC insider Tony Moraco, who currently heads SAIC’s intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance business, will be chief executive of the newly formed government technical services and enterprise IT business.

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Brenda McKenzie to be named Baltimore Development Corp. president – Baltimore Business Journal

Brenda McKenzie, a high-ranking economic development official in Boston, is expected to be named on Monday as the next president of the Baltimore Development Corp., according to multiple sources.

McKenzie joined the Boston Redevelopment Authority in 2008 and is currently the agency’s director of economic development. Prior to her time in Boston, she managed government and external affairs in Starbucks Coffee Co.’s corporate social responsibility division. McKenzie also spent 11 years working in city government in Chicago, rising to the role of deputy commissioner of the Chicago Planning and Development Department.

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Commercialization Assistance Program (CAP) For Phase II SBIR & STTR Awardees

Applications Deadline EXTENDED: November 14, 2012 Program Selection: November 21, 2012

What is CAP?

The NIH Commercialization Assistance Program (CAP) is a specialized technical assistance program for SBIR/STTR Phase II awardees. CAP is designed to help promising small life science companies develop their commercial businesses and transition their SBIR/STTR – developed technologies into the marketplace.

Assisting small businesses is a top priority for the NIH in ensuring the success of the SBIR/STTR programs and maximizing the agency’s investment. Since the program’s inception in 2003, NIH has provided approximately 700 participants with individualized assistance toward accomplishing their commercialization goals. This is achieved through training workshops, individual mentoring and consulting sessions, as well as public events in which companies present their technologies to the investment community, potential strategic partners and licensees.

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Angels in Life Science America – Xconomy

What happens when the FDA approval process slows down and imposes higher hurdles, when cost-reduction becomes central to the healthcare provider business model, when clinical trials and commercialization costs for medical devices and biotechnology products spiral through the roof, and when exit returns are compressed by general economic conditions and the decline of the IPO market?

Venture capital funding for early stage life science companies markedly contracts. In fact, venture capital funding for these companies declined consistently over the last few years. Even if federal grant funding for basic research increases, there will still remain the proverbial “valley of death” in funding the necessary first steps of translating research into products and ideas into companies. The emerging life sciences company must find a bridge to the development and commercialization of new life-saving technologies.

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Who Are Biotech’s New Go-To Investment Bankers? – Xconomy

Not that long ago, biotech executives weren’t sure who to call on Wall Street, or whether anyone would answer the phone. In late 2008 and early 2009, nobody could say for sure who would still be around in a couple years to supply capital to aspiring drugmakers.

Partly inspired by all the recent election-year reflection, I decided to look back at what biotech executives were saying about the financial crisis during some of the darker moments in January 2009. It was a scary time for the industry. Check this comment from an interview with Richard Pops, the CEO of Alkermes (NASDAQ: ALKS) at the JP Morgan Healthcare Conference that year:

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