11th Edition – July 30, 2012

Nancy At Large: Celebrating BioHealth Innovation’s New Headquarters

County Executive Ike Leggett (center) and Councilmembers Nancy Floreen (second from right) and Hans Riemer (right) visited BioHealth Innovation’s Open House on July 23. BioHealth Innovation (BHI) was established as a public-private partnership to accelerate the technology transfer and commercialization of biohealth research in the Central Maryland region. At the event were BHI Chairman Scott Carmer (left) and CEO Rich Bendis (second from left).

I was happy to help celebrate the opening of the BioHealth Innovation’s new headquarters at the historic Wire Hardware Building in Rockville. BHI was established as a public-private partnership to accelerate the technology transfer and commercialization of biohealth research in Maryland, and that’s a great thing for Montgomery County. Congratulations BHI. We’re glad to have you in Rockville.

-Nancy Floreen, Montgomery County Council Member

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BioHealth Innovation, Inc. Caps Next Phase Of Development With Move To New Headquarters And Addition Of Staff – MarketWatch

BioHealth Innovation, Inc. (BHI), a regional private-public partnership focusing on commercializing market-relevant biohealth innovations and increasing access to early-stage funding in Central Maryland, announced today that it has located its corporate headquarters in the historic Wire Hardware Building at 22 Baltimore Road in Rockville. BHI also announced the creation of two new staff positions filled by recent hires Ethan Byler as Director of Innovation Programs and Amanda Wilson as Operations Manager.

"Choosing the historic Wire Hardware Building as operational headquarters for BHI is symbolic of the marrying of the deep roots of this region with the untapped potential for truly inspirational advancement of the biohealth industry here, which is a primary goal of BHI," said Richard Bendis, BioHealth Innovation, Inc. President & Chief Executive Officer. "Opening our new offices in Montgomery County and welcoming our new staff are key steps to ensuring the success of BHI and demonstrate our firm commitment to Central Maryland."

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BioHealth Innovation, Inc. Moves to New HQ in Rockville

BioHealth Innovation, Inc. (BHI), a regional private-public partnership focusing on commercializing market-relevant biohealth innovations and increasing access to early-stage funding in Central Maryland, has located its corporate headquarters in the Wire Hardware Building at 22 Baltimore Road in Rockville.

BHI also announced the creation of two new staff positions filled by recent hires Ethan Byler as Director of Innovation Programs and Amanda Wilson as Operations Manager.

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BioHealth Innovation seeks to help Maryland companies secure more funding – Baltimore Business Journal

BioHealth Innovation Inc. is adding staff and office space to expand its operations in central Maryland.

The Rockville-based organization has created a new position, director of innovation programs, to lead the organization’s effort to help Maryland companies get a greater share of federal funding intended for near-commercialization projects. BioHealth Innovation is a public-private nonprofit organization that helps biohealth companies access funding to commercialize research and connects research outlets with the biotech industry.

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Executive Breakfast Brings Campus Companies Together

When it comes to the Johns Hopkins Montgomery County Campus, membership truly does have its privileges. And the 26 attendees of the recent Executive Breakfast can certainly tell you a thing or two about it. Representatives from 10 of the companies housed on the campus, as well as one potential new company, gathered to provide updates on company activities and to learn more about BioHealth Innovation, Inc., from the organization’s CEO, Rich Bendis.

After a period of networking amongst the attendees, which included Dr. Theodore Abraham, Associate Dean for Research in the Capital Region, Johns Hopkins Medicine, attendees provided information about their research on campus. And each presentation made it clear that members of the community are applying their expertise to solve some of the world’s toughest problems. They are reaching across the borders of not only Maryland but the United States and the world. International activities included Open Health Systems Laboratory’s ties in India and TruBios’ work in Latin and South America.

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Congratulations to BioHealth Innovation Inc. on Its New Home

Yesterday it was a pleasure to attend the BioHealth Innovation Inc. (BHI) open house at the historic Wire Hardware Building in Rockville to celebrate the opening of the organization’s new headquarters. At the Open House, BHI President & CEO Rich Bendis welcomed guests and introduced Montgomery County Executive Ike Leggett who talked about the important role of BHI and this industry – not just for the county, but for the entire state of Maryland.

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Richard Bendis of BHI interviewed at BIO International Convention

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GlaxoSmithKline to buy Human Genome Sciences for $14.25 per share – Washington Business Journal

Rockville-based Human Genome Sciences Inc., which rejected a $13-per-share takeover offer from GlaxoSmithKline PLC as too low, has accepted a $14.25 per share offer from its lupus drug development partner. The handshake brings to a close a monthslong, sometimes tense struggle for control of the company.

Glaxo announced Monday that Human Genome Sciences (NASDAQ: HGSI) had agreed to its offer to acquire the company in a $3.6 billion squirt transaction that values Human Genome at $3 billion net of cash and debt.

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MedImmune to close Santa Clara and Mountain View sites, but will keep Hayward open as it cuts 200 jobs – San Jose Mercury News

MedImmune will chop 200 jobs and close its Mountain View and Santa Clara locations, but will beef up its Hayward site, the provider of vaccines said.

The changes are part of a wrenching restructuring of the MedImmune infectious disease and vaccines research and development operations.

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Noble Partners with BioFactura to Offer Cell Line Development and Preclinical Protein Production Services

Noble Life Sciences, Inc., a preclinical drug development contract research organization (CRO), announced a partnership with BioFactura, Inc. (Rockville, MD), a developer and provider of proprietary technologies and services for production of biologicals.

The collaboration expands Noble’s CRO services to include the development and production of monoclonal antibody and other protein-based drugs. Through the partnership, Noble becomes the exclusive commercial contract services provider of BioFactura’s technologies and capabilities.

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New Enterprise Associates closes 14th fund at $2.6 billion, amid shift in leadership – Washington Business Journal

Chevy Chase-based New Enterprise Associates has closed on what appears to be the largest venture fund in history at $2.6 billion, the firm announced Wednesday.

NEA’s 14th fund gives the VC titan a fresh pool of capital to inject into tech companies along a wide array of stages, sectors and geographies, and comes two and a half years after the firm closed on a thirteenth fund that was only slightly less mammoth. NEA is among the most prolific startup funders in the D.C. region, both in biotech and information technology.

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QIAGEN Reports Second Quarter 2012 Results, Raises Full-Year Outlook and Announces Share Repurchase Program – MarketWatch

QIAGEN N.V. announced results of operations for the second quarter and first half of 2012, delivering a solid performance and making significant progress on strategic initiatives to drive innovation and growth. QIAGEN also raised the outlook for full-year net sales and adjusted EPS targets and announced a program to repurchase up to $100 million of its shares.

In the second quarter of 2012, net sales grew 9% (+14% at constant exchange rates, or CER) to $307.2 million from the same period in 2011, as all customer classes, particularly Molecular Diagnostics and Applied Testing, and all regions recorded growth. Adjusted operating income rose 10% to $86.4 million, as the adjusted operating income margin was steady at 28% of net sales. Adjusted diluted earnings per share (EPS) grew to $0.25 from $0.23 in the 2011 quarter.

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Baltimore biotechs seek staff

If you’ve recently asked yourself, or someone standing next to you, “Where are all the biotech jobs?” it’s a good thing you’re reading this now.

While surveying for our latest annual Top 25 List of biotechnology companies in the Baltimore area, I asked each company whether they’re hiring any time soon, and all of these below said yes:

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Undergrads Invent Cell Phone Screener to Combat Anemia in Developing World

Could a low-cost screening device connected to a cell phone save thousands of women and children from anemia-related deaths and disabilities?

That’s the goal of Johns Hopkins biomedical engineering undergraduates who’ve developed a noninvasive way to identify women with this dangerous blood disorder in developing nations. The device, HemoGlobe, is designed to convert the existing cell phones of health workers into a “prick-free” system for detecting and reporting anemia at the community level.

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Venture capital falls off its own fiscal cliff in Maryland

Venture capital investment in Maryland companies in the second quarter plummeted to its lowest level in almost 16 years, according to a new report.

In eight deals, investors pumped $25.5 million into state businesses during the quarter. It was the first time such investments have fallen below $30 million since the fourth quarter of 1996, when eight deals totaling $16 million were made, according to the new MoneyTree Report by PricewaterhouseCoopers and the National Venture Capital Association, based on data from Thomson Reuters.

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Baltimore’s first accelerator class ready to graduate; one company heads to San Francisco

How time flies.

Just last year, many of us in the Baltimore technology community were talking about whether our city needed an accelerator program. The Emerging Technology Center, with the help of the Abell Foundation, stepped up and provided one.

The first class of four companies graduate tomorrow. And one of the graduates, NoBadGift.com, is moving out to San Francisco for three months to be a part of the NewMe accelerator program. Great news for that team of three entrepreneurs.

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How a "Serious Game" Could Transform Bioscience Education

Admit it. You enjoy working in science, but weren’t always captivated by how it was taught. You aren’t alone. Studies show that when students lose interest in science coursework the problem is often how science is taught – not science itself. Teachers lack the interesting curriculum and adequate support needed to provide engaging and intriguing coursework. The lack of interest among science students leaves them disinterested, bored, and unprepared to meet the challenges of a technology-driven future.

These findings have real-world consequences. Despite the heroic efforts of talented U.S. science teachers, many of our brightest young students migrate away from the science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) career paths that could power America’s 21st century competitiveness.

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BCCC wins $600,000 grant to prepare students for STEM careers – Baltimore Business Journal

Baltimore City Community College has won nearly $600,000 in federal funding to recruit and prepare minority students for careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

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Scheer, JBG resurrect $100M real estate fund – Washington Business Journal

Scheer Partners Inc. and The JBG Cos. are reviving a $100 million real estate fund they established in 2008 to invest in life science properties.

Rockville-based Scheer, a broker for biotech and medical real estate, and the Chevy Chase developer had set up the Greater Washington Life Sciences Fund just as the recession kicked into gear. After buying one 53,000-square-foot property at 21 Firstfield Road in Gaithersburg, the partnership essentially went into hibernation.

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5 Best (and Worst) Places in the U.S. To Find a Tech Job

Technology job openings surged by 8.2% in June, according to job-search site SimplyHired, but some places remain better than others if you’re looking for a tech job. The site’s top and bottom five contain a few surprises.

SimplyHired bases its ranking on the number of tech job openings compared to the number of people who are working in the region. The numbers below are based on metropolitan areas as defined by the U.S. census bureau.

1. Baltimore, Maryland (46,150 people employed, 14,093 tech job openings): Hunter Sherman, the chief engineer at Sparks, Maryland-based BizBrag, Inc., said the company is struggling to find qualified people to fill its jobs. As a result, BizBrag is planning to move. “A big part of our issue is that we’re just north of the city, and a majority of the engineers are located to the south, closer to the D.C. area,” Sherman said. “This is one of the major reasons that we plan on moving our business into the city in the coming months.”

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The University of Maryland goes smoke-free – Washington DC College admissions

This week, the University System of Maryland (USM) announced that smoking would no longer be permitted on any of the 12 USM campuses, including the flagship University of Maryland at College Park.

The policy, which will take effect on June 30, 2013, prohibits smoking on campus grounds, outdoor structures, and in school vehicles. Each university president, however, will be able to designate a “very limited area” where smoking may occur without interfering with the health of others.

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Patent Docs: Grants for Funding University Technology Transfer Introduced in Congress

Companion bills were introduced in Congress on April 25th of this year with little fanfare (particularly in comparison to the Leahy-Smith American Invents Act) but they have the potential to provide significant funding for university-related start-up companies.  The bills, H.R. 4720 and S. 2369, are entitled the "America Innovates Act of 2012" and are sponsored by Reps. Rush Holt (D-NJ) and Timothy Bishop (D-NY) in the House of Representatives and Sens. Frank Lautenberg, Jerrod Brown (D-OH), and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) in the Senate.  They have been referred to their respective committees (the House Sub-Committee on Technology and Innovation and the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation), but to be frank it is unlikely that they will receive positive action in this election year.

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SBIR rules could open R&D funds to foreign-owned companies

Proposed rules for the Small Business Innovation Research program could allow foreign-owned companies to compete for these federal R&D awards, according to the Small Business Technology Council.

“This change has the potential of sending hundreds of millions of American taxpayer dollars to businesses overseas,” SBTC Executive Director Jere Glover wrote in letters to Congress and President Barack Obama. “Products developed and manufactured by foreign firms with U.S. tax dollars are likely to benefit their own countries, to the detriment of American businesses.”

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Humana Sponsors Blueprint Health Accelerator Program

Humana Inc. continues its commitment to innovation, health and well-being by partnering with Blueprint Health and working together to spark change and make a meaningful impact on the health care community.

As the exclusive health insurance platinum sponsor of the summer 2012 Blueprint Health Accelerator, Humana will work closely with program participants and other health care entrepreneurs, investors, executives and innovators that serve as mentors to the community. Blueprint Health kicked off its summer session on July 16; the intensive program provides seed capital, office space, and most critically, access to a broad range of mentors with deep healthcare, start-up and technology experience.

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Johns Hopkins joins venture to offer free online courses – Baltimore Business Journal

Johns Hopkins University and 11 other universities are teaming up with a for-profit company founded by two Stanford University computer science professors to offer free Internet courses worldwide, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday.

The schools joined four others already working with Coursera, a for-profit education technology company, which will offer over 100 online courses beginning this fall, the WSJ reported.

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