253rd Edition – May 16, 2017

Emergent BioSolutions Inc. (NYSE:EBS) today held a ribbon-cutting ceremony led by Dr. Rick Bright, director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), and Daniel J. Abdun-Nabi, Emergent’s president and chief executive officer, to mark the formal opening of the company’s newly expanded Center for Innovation in Advanced Development and Manufacturing (CIADM) at its Bayview Campus in Baltimore. The facility is one of three centers designated by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to provide advanced development and manufacturing of medical countermeasures to support the U.S. government’s national security and public health emergency needs.

Collaboration across academia, government, non-profits, and the biopharmaceutical industry fosters innovation and groundbreaking discoveries in science and research. During the 2017 BioHealth Capital Region (BHCR) Forum held at our Gaithersburg, Maryland campus, world-renowned speakers and local leaders convened to showcase the benefits of continued collaboration that can help us prevent, treat, and find cures for deadly diseases.

Smithers Avanza, a contract research organization supporting the pharmaceutical industry, announced that its Bioanalytical Services Division has completed the second expansion of its bioanalytical laboratory in the last two years. The expansion doubles the size of the Gaithersburg, Maryland lab, which now offers 15,000 square feet of space, and continues the trend of growth in support of client demand for services. Smithers Avanza plans to celebrate the completed expansion with clients, employees and community friends with an Open House.

Immunomic Therapeutics negotiated an exclusive license to Annias Immunotherapeutics’ platform covering technology for targeting cytomegalovirus (CMV) antigens in cancer. The CMV immunotherapy platform was developed by John H. Sampson, M.D., Ph.D., and Duane A. Mitchell, M.D., Ph.D., at Duke University and licensed to Annias. Immunomic will combine the CMV platform with its own nucleic acid-based immunotherapy LAMP-Vax™ technology as a potential treatment for cancers that express CMV, including glioblastoma multiforme (GBM). Financial details of the licensing agreement were not disclosed

The Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association (HBA) announced that its 2017 Woman of the Year is Bahija Jallal, PhD, executive vice president, AstraZeneca, and head of MedImmune. MedImmune is the global biologics research and development arm of AstraZeneca.

Yes, we’re still going to have networking with a few drinks and snacks as usual!

Join us on May 18th in the back lot at Johns Hopkins Montgomery County campus to explore local biotech careers w/ Employers who have open jobs, and two great workforce training organizations that can help you advance your career – Worksource Montgomery & BioTrain. As an added bonus you get to explore the brand new Mobile Exploration Lab (MXLab).

Even if you’re happy with your current position and aren’t looking for something new. Spend some time with your peers and friends to network along with seeing what these organizations have to offer.

Come by for the whole event or just a part of it. We’re looking forward to seeing you there!

Awards Recognize Achievements by Current Clients and Graduates of Maryland Incubators

Twenty-one of the State’s leading incubator companies have been selected as finalists for the 2017 Maryland Incubator Company of the Year Awards. The team from BioHealth Innovation, Inc. (BHI) is proud to recognize that four of these companies are currenting operating out of either the BHI managed Rockville Innovation Center or the Germantown Innovation Center. Leverege, LLC., and Seraxis, Inc. are located at the Germantown Innovation Center. ReveraGen BioPharma, Inc., and Speak Agent, Inc. reside at the Rockville Innovation Center.

“These four companies are a strong representation of the cross-section of growing technology enterprises in Montgomery County from Biotechnology to IoT and EdTech.” said Ethan Byler, BHI Managing Director. Congratulations to all the finalists from both the Germantown Innovation Center and the Rockville Innovation Center. The recognition is a testament of their success.”

• Leverege, LLC. is a systems integrator and end-to-end solutions provider that offers a simulation-centric IoT platform that reduces time to market, lowers costs, and results in better IoT services for customers.
• ReveraGen BioPharma, Inc. is a privately held, clinical-stage pharmaceutical company developing therapeutics for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy.
• Seraxis Inc. is a privately-owned Biotechnology company working to provide a cure for the devastating disease of diabetes.
• Speak Agent, Inc. is an education company delivering game-based learning resources that can be customized to fit the exact academic vocabulary needs of learners.

Biogen (NASDAQ: BIIB) announced today that it has completed an asset purchase of Remedy Pharmaceuticals’ Phase 3 candidate, CIRARA™ (intravenous glyburide). The target indication for CIRARA is large hemispheric infarction (LHI), a severe form of ischemic stroke where brain swelling (cerebral edema) often leads to a disproportionately large share of stroke-related morbidity and mortality. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently granted CIRARA Orphan Drug Designation for severe cerebral edema in patients with acute ischemic stroke. The FDA has also granted CIRARA Fast Track designation.

Montgomery College is hosting a STEM Student Research Conference on its Germantown campus on Thursday, May 17, 2017, from 3:00-7:00 pm. The complete schedule is attached here, but I wanted to make you aware of the opportunity to hear Dr. Rebecca Goldin, our keynote speaker. Dr. Rebecca Goldin is a professor of mathematics at George Mason University and the Director of STATS, a program of Sense About Science USA aiming to support journalists’ quantitative and statistical understanding. Her one-hour presentation, which will be about the (mis)use of statistics in the media, begins at 3:00 pm, is free, and is open to the public. Please plan on joining us if your schedule will allow. – Margaret Latimer, VPP Germantown Campus, Collegwide STEM Unit

Conference Schedule:

Keynote Address 3 to 4 p.m., BE 151

Student Research Presentations ~ 4:15 to 5:15 p.m., BE Conference Center

Dinner, Awards Ceremony, and Panel Discussion ~ 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. RSVP required for dinner only: Tonya.Baker@montgomerycollege.edu

Keynote Address Statistics in the Media: Should You Believe Them? News accounts of science and scientific ideas are filled with numbers and implicit advice. They also tell a story. Do violent video games lead to violence? Does being overweight put one at risk for dementia? Can brain scans read our minds? Does chocolate make us smarter?

The Maryland Stem Cell Research Commission (Commission) approved funding for 29 awards for a total of $8,533,987. These awards will be distributed between 6 different research institutes and 6 companies and will address over 20 different diseases and conditions. “The high level of work that our stem cell researchers and companies are performing is a testament to Maryland’s status as a national leader in the life sciences industry,” said Governor Larry Hogan. “Our administration’s commitment to this and other lifesaving therapies is in line with the Commission’s work to accelerate the path to develop cures for all.”

US venture capital fund of funds Greenspring has hit $595m for its latest flagship fundraise, AltAssets can reveal.

The firm has registered the amount for Greenspring Global Partners VIII across a string of affiliated vehicles according to filings made with the US securities regulator.

Five proposals submitted this spring to Johns Hopkins’ Idea Lab crowdsourcing website will receive funding by virtue of garnering the most support in online voting.

Funding will be awarded to a health care innovation conference that expands upon the popular MedHacks event, a science-themed summer camp for Baltimore fifth-graders, and a place for students to get free food left over from events, among other creative concepts.

The Inova Health System and the University of Virginia announced today that they have awarded $450,000 to nine UVA-Inova joint research teams for projects focused on how to better predict, prevent and treat disease. In the fall of 2016, Inova and UVA announced a comprehensive research and education partnership to accelerate joint discovery and the application of translational medical research. The seed grant awards mark the first of many joint research collaborations. UVA’s Translational Health Research Institute of Virginia, which facilitates translational health research across UVA, and Inova’s Translational Medicine Institute, are helping support these research projects.

What’s the definition of “doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting a different result?” If you said “a good idea,” you might want to consider a career in politics.

Many in Congress want to impose price controls on medicines that result from federally funded research. We’ve tried this before, and it nearly brought medical research and development to a halt.

During the 2017 FLC national meeting in San Antonio, Texas, the FLC held its annual elections for open positions to serve on the Executive Board and as regional officers. While absentee ballots were available from March 24 – April 18, onsite voting took place April 25 – 26 and was open to Consortium Representatives whose memberships are registered with the Consortium Recording Secretary.

The Big Idea CONNECTpreneur Summer Forum Tysons Corner – June 13, 2017

“The Best Networking Event in the MidAtlantic.”

This will be our 24th consecutive SOLD OUT event over the last 6 years!

Over 70% of previous attendees surveyed say that CONNECTpreneur is the “Number One” tech and investor event in the Mid-Atlantic region!

DCInno calls CONNECTpreneur “The Best Networking Event in DC” and a “NETWORKING JACKPOT” of the Region’s TOP Entrepreneurs, Business Leaders, CXOs, Angels, and VCs.

This UNIQUE EVENT is like NONE OTHER in our region, because of the high quality of our attendees, speakers and presenters.

And YES, the networking is unprecedented!

Pharmaceuticals and life sciences companies are experiencing a wave of competing challenges as part of what could be called the New Health Economy. They include consolidation among providers, especially hospitals, intended to produce efficiency gains; the changing demands and expectations of patients, who seek a greater role in their own care; increasing cost pressures from payors leading to calls for pricing reform; and the declining autonomy of the individual physician as rule-based, protocol-driven care becomes ascendant. The resulting healthcare system will focus increasingly on paying for the value rather than the volume of medical care; in other words, it will be a more consumer-facing industry.

The U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration (EDA) today published the Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA) for its 2017 Regional Innovations Strategies (RIS) program. The application period will close June 23, 2017.

The $17 million being made available through the RIS NOFA will help to spur innovation capacity-building activities in regions across the nation. Under this competition, EDA is seeking applications for two separate funding opportunities: the i6 Challenge and the Seed Fund Support (SFS) Grant competition.

Thursday, June 01, 2017 5:30 PM – 8:30 PM EST

Bethesda North Marriott Hotel & Conference Center 

5701 Marinelli Road 

Rockville, MD 20850

Sponsors

Award: AstraZeneca/MedImmune, BDO, BioMarker Strategies, Houlihan Lokey, JLL, PwC, UBS Financial Services Inc. and VWR

Gold: Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO), CDW, Emergent BioSolutions, Inc., Immunomic Therapeutics, Iron Bow Technologies, Montgomery College, Novavax, Pillsbury, Social & Scientific Systems, Inc., and Sucampo Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Silver: Glass Jacobson

STEM Scholarship Sponsor: Alexandria Real Estate Equities

The 2017 Industry Awards Celebration will be our 29th year of recognizing the companies and individuals in the Washington, DC region who make a difference. The Tech Council ignites the power of three by bringing together a trio of industries that are accelerating our local ecosystem—technology, life sciences, and healthcare/health IT. It’s our mission to make this region a top three innovation economy by 2023, so we’re redefining what’s possible and helping to shape the future through ideation, collaboration, and innovation. Join us in celebrating the veteran companies and startups, the CEOs and CFOs who are lighting the way and inspiring us all.

For more information, please visit www.TCMIAC.com

**If you are an MTC member but do not have member login information, contact Emily Pool at emily@mdtechcouncil.com to register