Gaithersburg-based biotech WellStat Therapeutics Corp. received Food and Drug Administration approval for Vistogard, an emergency treatment for an overdose of certain chemotherapy drugs, it was announced Friday.
It is the second FDA approval the company has received for one of its drugs this fall.
Sweden’s eHealth Agency (eHälsomyndigheten) selected woman-owned Get Real Health’s electronic personal health patient engagement platform to help its citizens access and manage their own health data.
Get Real Health, a Montgomery County, Maryland health IT pioneer, is partnering with Swedish technology consulting company Capgemini Sverige AB to bring a complete patient engagement solution, called HälsaFörMig, to Sweden’s publicly owned Swedish eHealth Agency. Capgemini will run the service, while Get Real Health’s two core products, InstantPHR® and CHBase™ (Connected Health Base), will provide the consumer health data platform.
University of Maryland (UM) Ventures and Pataigin, LLC, announced today that the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) has granted Pataigin worldwide, exclusive licensing rights to UMB patents and technology to develop a method to quickly and accurately identify dangerous pathogens. Robert Ernst, Ph.D., professor of microbial pathogenesis at University of Maryland School of Dentistry, and David Goodlett, Ph.D., professor of pharmaceutical sciences at University of Maryland School of Pharmacy, are patent inventors. The University of Washington is also a co-owner on one of the patents Pataigin (the Irish word for pathogen) is licensing. Erik Nilsson, who has headed software and mass spectrometry companies for nearly 20 years, will serve as Pataigin’s CEO and President.
Infectious diseases remain a major global killer, responsible for 18 million deaths worldwide every year. And yet, detecting potential infectious agents remains hampered by current technological methods that are slow, require cell culture and are expensive and labor-intensive. The licensed technology exploits the presence of lipids in the outer membranes of pathogens that are unique to each pathogen strain. A “barcode” for each lipid coating is created that allows laboratory staff to quickly use available mass spectrometry methods to identify specific strains of bacteria, fungi and yeast that cause disease. The technology will allow pathogen identification directly from tissues like blood, urine, and wounds, without the need for cell culture. And importantly, the technology can differentiate between drug-susceptible and drug-resistant variants; thereby allowing for quicker medical treatment decisions as well as containment of dangerous pathogens.
GlycoMimetics, Inc. (NASDAQ: GLYC) announced that preclinical data on its novel E-selectin antagonist drug candidate GMI-1271, shared via an oral presentation at the 57th American Society of Hematology (ASH) annual meeting, showed the compound could be used in combination with G-CSF (filgrastim) to mobilize and enrich progenitor T cells known as T memory stem (Tscm) and T central memory (Tcm) cells, which provide improved reconstitution and persistence. The company also announced that the first healthy participant has been treated with an intravenous (IV) formulation of GMI-1271 in a Phase 1, multiple-dose clinical study to evaluate the investigational drug’s ability to mobilize and enrich Tscm or Tcm cells. In addition, the trial will evaluate safety and tolerability of the drug, alone and in combination with filgrastim, a treatment for neutropenia that is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
AstraZeneca and its global biologics research and development arm, MedImmune, today announced a three-year collaboration with the newly established Wallenberg Centre for Protein Research (WCPR). The collaboration aims to develop new technologies for biologics production and to identify new targets for disease research in the ground-breaking area of the Secretome – research into all proteins that are secreted by a cell or that are exposed to the outside of the cell from within the cell membrane.
Roche, a leader in research-focused healthcare, announced regulatory clearance to finalise acquisition of Kapa Biosystems, Inc. (Kapa), a privately-held company headquartered in Wilmington, Massachusetts. Kapa Biosystems is a provider of genomic tools in the life sciences sector that employs proprietary technologies to optimize enzymes for next-generation sequencing (NGS), as well as polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and real-time PCR applications.
U.S. health regulators on Friday said they have granted accelerated approval to Roche Holding’s drug for advanced lung cancer in patients with a specific genetic mutation.
The drug, alectinib, to be sold under the brand name Alecensa, was approved to treat patients with advanced ALK-positive non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) whose disease has worsened after, or who could not tolerate, treatment with Pfizer’s Xalkori.
In a tiny office in a high-rise building in the Rockville Towncenter that houses the Innovation Center, two Montgomery County men toil to unlock what they believe will be the future of the way all of us will consume entertainment.
“This is the next revolution, absolutely,” says Sergio Reyes.
Roche will join Pieris Pharmaceuticals in an up-to-CHF 415 million ($409 million) cancer immunotherapy collaboration designed to develop new drug candidates based on Pieris’ Anticalin® technology platform against an undisclosed target.
Under its first partnered immune-oncology program, Pieris will discover, characterize and optimize Anticalin-based drug candidates. Pieris will then work with Roche to assess various drug formats against the target, and advance them through preclinical development.
Johns Hopkins University spent more on research and development than any other high education institution for the 36th year in a row.
The Baltimore institution spent a total of $2.2 billion in fiscal 2014 on research and development — nearly twice the amount as the second highest spender, University of Michigan, which spent $1.3 billion, according to an annual report by the National Science Foundation.
Biopharmas come and go, but the places to find jobs remain largely the same 10 regions highlighted by GEN last year and in 2013. The cornerstones of their success are hardly secrets: they include strong research universities, anchor biopharmas, younger startups, and networks that connect those budding businesses to expertise and, especially, capital.
Paris-based venture capital firm, Sofinnova Partners, has closed its Sofinnova Capital VIII fund with €300 million ($324 million) that will be dedicated toward adding 15 to 20 more biotech companies to its portfolio, two thirds of which will reportedly be in Europe, the rest in North America.
Back in 2012, the firm raised €240m, and with this new fund it brings the current amount under management at Sofinnova Partners to €1.5 billion ($1.6 billion). The company’s focus will remain in the biopharmaceutical and medical device sectors.
AstraZeneca confirmed Monday morning that it is “exploring potential strategic options” with Acerta Pharma BV.
Acerta is a privately held biopharmaceutical company with offices in California and The Netherlands. Its lead product is an experimental blood cancer drug, called acalabrutinib, which is in late-stage clinical testing.
Amidst the rhetoric of Campaign 2016, the reality of escalating health costs, and the acceleration of consolidation across the industry, healthcare headlines in 2016 will highlight major changes that will reshape the future for the next decade and beyond.
Here’s the top 10 you can expect to read next year:
Dr Martine Rothblatt and Cyndi Lauper were the recipients of this year’s Billie Jean King Leadership Initiative (BJKLI) awards on Wednesday night.
The tennis legend launched the non-profit BJKLI in 2014 with her partner, Ilana Kloss, to promote and celebrate inclusive leadership. This year’s awards gala, in partnership with Teneo, took place Wednesday night at World Trade Center 4 in New York.
Although the University System of Maryland, at its core, is a collection of 12 colleges, new Chancellor Bob Caret says he sees it as a business — a business that the state needs to invest in. Caret said that for every $1 the state spends on USM, he can bring the state back $6.
Springboard’s Health Innovation Hub is a year-long program for women-led healthcare and life science companies seeking seed and growth funding to fuel expansion and product development. Companies selected for one of the program’s two tracks – Pharma and Health IT/Devices – will be matched with a team of relevant, targeted advisors and participate in several in-person and virtual workshops and presentation sessions throughout the year that provide exposure to influencers, active investors, and potential strategic partners.
Becton, Dickinson and Company (BDX), or BD, operated under three business segments until 2014. It then underwent organizational restructuring, effective October 1, 2015, to better align its business model to the strategic vision and goals of the company. Consequently, the company operates under two business segments: BD Medical and BD Life Sciences.
If you are interested in submitting a NSF Innovation Corps Sites Program (I-Corps Sites) proposal, send an abstract no more than three pages in length to esoto2@iit.edu by the internal deadline of Tuesday, May 10, 2016 at noon. Follow Illinois Tech’s guidelines for internal competitions available here.
Institutional Limit: One Internal Deadline: Tuesday, May 10, 2016 at noon Full Proposal Deadline Date: Tuesday, June 14, 2016
The digital revolution continues to transform healthcare fundamentally, and many people believe that a tipping point is finally within reach. In 2014, digital health investments topped $6.5 billion, compared with $2.9 billion a year earlier.
The critical question now for pharmaceutical companies is how to stay ahead of these changes. To answer it, we sought to learn the trends and implications of digital health by interviewing 20 thought leaders across a variety of segments, including analytics, biotech, data, pharma, providers, technology, and venture capital.
Baltimore will be well-represented at a “Shark Tank”-inspired event focusing on teacher professional development this week.
The virtual competition, organized by Edsurge and the Gates Foundation, is set for 8 p.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 8. Three companies will pitch four educators. But it’s the audience who decides the winner.
Physician entrepreneurs come in several basic flavors and medicine needs to change to make room for them.
The young and the restless These are the millenials and others who are medical students, residents, fellows and those who have been in practice less than 5 years. While I think stereotyping generations is stupid , work-life balance, debt repayment and lack of loyalty to an employer or career seems to figure into the psychographic calculus
Google Life Sciences got a rebrand today: It’s now called Verily. A new site is up as well to illustrate the company’s emphasis on wielding technology “to create a true picture of human health” – and “effecting prevention.”
Just as Google formed parent company “Alphabet” earlier this year, it’s clearly sticking to a literary theme with “verily,” which is a florid, Shakespearean way to say “truth, truly, confidently.”
Standing in a virtual-reality lab at the University of Maryland here, Ramani Duraiswami passed around a standard pair of headphones.
Music played over them — but to the wearer, the source of the sound seemed to move around the room. As the music quieted down, it sounded as if it came from farther away. As it got louder on one side of the headset, it sounded as if it came from that side. “We’re able to perceive the world in all dimensions using our ears,” said Mr. Duraiswami, a computer-science professor and co-founder of the start-up company VisiSonics.
Prince William County is in a race to establish itself as the center of bioscience research and commercialization and it’s making progress. The county’s science accelerator, established two years ago, now has three companies and will add two more in the next few months. Prince William’s head of economic development, Jeff Kaczmarek, says the accelerator is aiming to be at full capacity by the end of next year, as more companies take up its 9,100 SF, which is the only commercially available wet lab space in the region.
Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ:ILMN) announced today that Illumina Accelerator—the world’s first business accelerator focused solely on creating an innovation ecosystem for the genomics industry—has selected four new investments from a competitive pool of highly qualified applicants to be a part of its third funding cycle.
“Illumina Accelerator is pleased to have such a promising group of startups join our growing genomics community,” said Mostafa Ronaghi, Ph.D., Illumina’s Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer and co-founder of Illumina Accelerator. “We’re here to provide access to our best-in-class sequencers, a support team of genomics professionals and entrepreneurial coaches, and the tools each of these startups need to advance breakthrough applications in genomics.”
The selected startups for the third funding cycle are:
Virginia’s Mach37 cybersecurity accelerator gained an important endorsement this week with a four-year platinum sponsorship from General Dynamics Mission Systems.
The agreement will help further Mach37’s public-private partnerships that leverage Virginia’s university, industry and government cybersecurity assets to produce new innovative products and companies.
Holiday Celebration Time is Coming! Join us as we remember this amazing year of WIB-DC/Baltimore on December 15, 2015, from 6:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., at Paladar Latin Kitchen & Rum Bar in Rockville. Food, drinks, and music will be provided – and of course networking opportunities with all our members and guests. Also the WIB scholarship award winner sponsored from our chapter will be announced!
Not only are we thankful for all you members’ support and engagement, we are also looking forward to hearing your feedback for what we can do better in 2016!
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