235th Edition – January 10, 2017

Formed in 1997, the Greater Rockville Partnership, now Rockville Economic Development, Inc. has evolved and grown to be an organization that has helped thousands of businesses and entrepreneurs in the City of Rockville. And we are so excited to hit 20 years of support and growth that we are going celebrate ALL YEAR LONG!

We have events and promotions planned throughout the year including our Business Appreciation Week, the REDI Commercial Broker Breakfast , the REDI Resource Meet up (R2M), as well as special 20th Anniversary events —you won’t want to miss any of them.

We are also offering 20th Anniversary sponsorship opportunities for companies looking for exposure by supporting our events throughout the year. If interested, you can contact Michael Steifvater via email or 301.315.8096.

Vtesse, Inc., a company committed to developing medicines to benefit patients with ultra rare, life-threatening diseases, announced today the appointment of Jason Meyenburg as Chief Commercial Officer. Mr. Meyenburg joins the company from Alexion Pharmaceuticals, Inc., where he most recently served as Senior Vice President, Commercial Operations, The Americas.

“As we near completion of enrollment in our pivotal Phase 2b/3 clinical trial of our lead drug candidate, VTS-270, our primary goal is to advance regulatory submissions. Assuming we receive favorable responses from U.S. and European regulatory agencies, our next goal will be to rapidly provide access to VTS-270 for the children suffering from NPC and its debilitating symptoms,” said Ben Machielse, Drs., President and Chief Executive Officer of Vtesse, Inc. “As someone with deep experience supporting the roll out of rare disease medicines, Jason has the know-how, passion and dedication required to help us to quickly make VTS-270 available for patients in need, pending regulatory approvals.”

MaxCyte®, Inc., a developer and supplier of cell engineering products and technologies to biopharmaceutical firms engaged in cell therapy, drug discovery and development, biomanufacturing, gene editing and immuno-oncology, announces data to be presented at the Keystone Symposia on Precision Genome Engineering summarizing in vitro and long-term preclinical toxicity and engraftment studies following targeted gene correction aimed at reversing mutations to wild-type sequence at clinically relevant levels in CD34+ hematopoietic stem cells (HSC) obtained from individuals with X-CGD. The oral and poster presentations will highlight use of MaxCyte’s proprietary, cGMP-compliant delivery platform in development of ex vivo gene-corrected cell therapies as a potential treatment for monogenic diseases. The Symposia is taking place January 8 to 12, 2017 in Breckenridge, Colorado.

MdBio Foundation is hiring a team of enthusiastic individuals to operate the Verizon Innovative Learning explorer lab, a custom designed 45-foot bus that will travel to middle schools in the Washington, DC metropolitan area. In addition to providing instruction to middle school students aboard the bus, the team will also assist in the development of associated curriculum, coordinating school visits, and moving and placement of the vehicle.

The explorer lab is currently being built in Burbank, California and will travel across the United States for a “road show.” The road show will include a series of school visits and PR events between March and August 2017. In August 2017, the explorer lab will arrive in Washington, DC and will serve the DC Public School system for the 2017/2018 school year.

Funding and Research Opportunities

The following funding opportunity announcements from the NHLBI or other components of the National Institutes of Health, might be of interest:

Notices:

• NIH & AHRQ Update Font Guidelines for Applications to Due Dates On or After
• January 25, 2017
• (NOT-OD-17-030) National Institutes of Health
• Technical Assistance Videocast for RFA RM-16-019 “NIH Health Care Systems Research Collaboratory – Demonstration Projects for Pragmatic Clinical Trials (UG3/UH3)”
• (NOT-RM-17-005)
• NIH Roadmap Initiatives
• Notice of Availability of Frequently Asked Questions and a Recording of the Pre-application Webinar on the NIH Illuminating the Druggable Genome (IDG) Program Website for RFA-RM-16-024, RFA-RM-16-025, and RFA-RM-16-026
• (NOT-RM-17-006)
• NIH Roadmap Initiatives

Requests for Applications:

• National Centers for Cryoelectron Microscopy (U24)
• (RFA-RM-17-002)
• NIH Roadmap Initiatives
• Application Receipt Date(s): June 30, 2017, by 5:00 PM local time of applicant organization. All types of non-AIDS applications allowed for this funding opportunity announcement are due on this date.

Program Announcements:

• Research on the Health of Women of Underrepresented, Understudied and Underreported (U3) Populations An ORWH FY17 Administrative Supplement
• (Admin Supp)
• (PA-17-101)
• Office of Research on Women’s Health
• National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences
• National Eye Institute
• National Human Genome Research Institute
• National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute

The NHLBI’s Strategic Vision rests on four mission-driven goals that will benefit from sustained Institute focus. Eight objectives organize the 132 Research Priorities.

Human Longevity, Inc. (HLI), the genomics-driven, health intelligence company, today announced Cynthia Collins as the new Chief Executive Officer effective January 9, 2017. Collins, who has a successful track record and extensive leadership experience in the life sciences sector, will lead HLI and be responsible for all functions of the company including commercialization of HLI key products and strategic operations. She will also join the Board of Directors.

Venter, who is a co-founder, will relinquish the CEO role but will continue to serve as Executive Chairman of the HLI Board of Directors and will remain in a daily role leading the scientific strategy and direction of HLI.

Johnson & Johnson Innovation LLC, New York State and the New York Genome Center today announced a collaboration to launch a new JLABS in New York City. Called JLABS @ NYC, the 30,000-square foot facility will be located at the New York Genome Center (NYGC) in SoHo and will open in 2018. The project is receiving $17 million in New York State funding. The site will be open to biotech, pharmaceutical, medical device and consumer health companies. A QuickFire Challenge seeking companies working in these areas, particularly startups working on cross-sector solutions to prevent, intercept or cure diseases, will be launched by Johnson & Johnson Innovation, with the winner(s) eligible for one year of residency at JLABS @ NYC.

Imagine that you found a drug at a government lab that others passed over which promises to cure, not just treat, certain blood cancers. You entered into a cooperative R&D agreement where your funding doubled the lab’s budget in a critical research area while they leverage the expertise of your company. You’re a small American company taking on the big boys, with a state of the art facility hoping to be first to market with a revolutionary therapy.

Dickson Data is back at it. On Thursday it released a new infographic [below] showing which drug patents are set to expire in 2017.

It follows the template of its popular 2016 infographic, which highlighted several major biopharma threats and trends. Times were tough for AstraZeneca, which had $7.4 billion in sales under threat as Crestor and Seroquel XR lose patent exclusivity.

Blood cancer treatments may one day include special dietary restrictions: researchers have found that an essential amino acid plays a crucial role in the creation of blood stem cells—a discovery the scientists say could lead to a potential alternative to chemotherapy and radiation.

Boston Scientific has made a name for itself with devices that are implanted into the body to prevent heart attacks. But through its Connected Patient Challenge, launched last month, the company is looking to get more involved in the kind of preventative medicine that’s based on the data generated by doctors, patients and the growth of wearable devices.

The healthcare industry’s transition toward value-based care is forcing providers to adopt new and emerging business models in lieu of traditional fee-for-service payment. At their core, these business models have the principle of value-based reimbursement, in which providers must meet certain quality care standards while controlling costs in order to get paid.

WHAT: The Maryland Technology Development Corporation (TEDCO) will host a meeting of the board of directors of the Maryland Innovation Initiative (MII).

Created by the General Assembly and administered by TEDCO, the MII promotes the commercialization of research conducted in five qualifying Maryland universities. The initiative encourages universities to partner on commercialization proposals, strategies and funding sources. The MII program facilitates technology transfer from university labs to start-up companies and boosts economic development in Maryland.

NOTE: The MII board of directors may, in open session, follow the required procedures to go into closed session, which will be limited to matters that are permissibly discussed in closed session under the Maryland Open Meetings Act. For more information, please refer to www.oag.state.md.us/opengov/index.htm.

WHEN: Thursday, January 12, 2017

TIME: 1:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.

WHERE: TEDCO 7021 Columbia Gateway Drive, Suite 200 Columbia, MD 21046

DIRECTIONS: Visit http://tedco.md/contact-us/122-2/for directions.

Tuesday, January 17, 2017, 10:30am – 12:00pm

Location: 

UM BioPark, Life Sciences Conference Center

801 W. Baltimore Street

Baltimore Maryland 21201

Time: 10:30am to 12:00pm

Coffee Hour Seminar with Bob Dass, Ph.D., Field Applications Scientist Pall ForteBio

• Powerful Research Platform

• Antibody and Antibody Fragment Characterization
• Protein-protein and protein-peptide interactions
• Protein-DNA/RNA interactions
• Virus and vaccine research
• Protein-small molecule interactions
• Biotherapeutic Development/Biopharma Workhorse

• Cell line development
• Pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics
• Target identification and validation
• Lead identification
• RSVP to Mahasti Alavi

January 19, 2017 4pm – 8pm

Governor Calvert House

58 State Circle

Annapolis, Maryland

Maryland Health Information Management Systems Society (MDHIMSS) is pleased to announce our 10th Annual Advocacy event being held in Annapolis, Maryland on Thursday, January 19, 2016 at Governor Calvert House from 4-8pm. This event focuses on balancing the need for information exchange for Population Health and responsibility to protect and secure that information. In addition to legislative updates a panel discussion and technology showcase will be on display.

You will have the opportunity to meet and network with legislators from the House of Delegates, Senate and the Office of Governor Hogan during our evening event including hors d’oeuvre and cocktails. 

Your legislators are very interested in hearing your suggestions to further improve our State’s healthcare. This years’ 90-day legislative session is set to have a fast start on Jan. 11th with numerous bills already being drafted for introduction; many that will impact healthcare. Join us in being a resource to our legislators by helping to further educate and provide resourceful information related to healthcare IT.

To attend you MUST REGISTER by January 16.

There is NO FEE for MDHIMSS Members. For Non-Members the fee of $60 covers admission plus a ONE YEAR free membership to MDHIMSS!

Thank you for your participation and we look forward to seeing you on January 19th.

Tuesday, January 24, 2017, 05:30pm – 08:30pm

Host: Tech Council of Maryland

Location: Loews Annapolis Hotel, 126 West Street, Annapolis Maryland 21401

Time: 5:30pm to 8:30pm

Each year TCM’s Leadership Dinner in Annapolis connects business leaders from technology and life science with policymakers in Annapolis. This is a must-attend event where executives, TCM’s Board of Directors and members from the Maryland General Assembly get together and discuss important policy issues.

For more information and sponsorship opportunities, email Wendy Worm or call 240-243-4050