275th Edition – October 17, 2017

Rockville, Maryland – October 2017—BioHealth Innovation, Inc. (BHI) was founded in 2012 to accelerate technology transfer and commercialization opportunities in Montgomery County, Maryland. Since that time, BHI has expanded its scope to include similar activity in the BioHealth Capital Region (Maryland, DC, and Virginia). This region—and Montgomery County in particular— is unique in terms of the government, academic and industry assets comprising its biohealth industry sector. Montgomery County is home to U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), and local campuses of Johns Hopkins University and the University System of Maryland. The County has one of the largest clusters of biohealth companies in the United States.

Caption: Montgomery County Executive Ike Leggett (center) flanked by Montgomery County Assistance Chief Administrative Officer Lily Qi, BHI President and CEO Rich Bendis, KIC Director General Dr. Myun Han, BHI Managing Director, Judy Costello and six entrepreneurs participating in KIC-BHI partnership.

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Brian Smith joined BHI in October of 2017 as a digital marketing and IT specialist. Brian manages BHI’s information technology assets in addition to serving as a marketing specialist for BHI and its client companies. Brian comes from a background in health science having earned his bachelor of science degree in human biology from Towson University. Before joining BHI, Brian was the principal of a small business that provided web information services and IT support to businesses in and around the metropolitan Washington DC area. Brian has an enthusiasm for entrepreneurship and draws from experience working in both clinical research and biomanufacturing.

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The Association of University Research Parks (AURP) today announced the recipients of the Awards of Excellence recognized during its 2017 International Conference hosted by Cummings Research Park in Huntsville, AL. Additionally, AURP announced the results of the election for its 2018 Board of Directors.

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When someone’s body parts are donated, it’s a life-or-death race against the clock as hearts, lungs, livers and hands rapidly deteriorate outside the body.

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VLP Therapeutics, LLC (“VLP”), a biotechnology company focusing on the research and development of therapeutic and preventative vaccines announced today the receipt of a Phase I grant from the National Cancer Institute under auspices of the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program of the National Institutes of Health. The $298,729 grant under the Award Number R43CA217445 is focused on “the development of a novel Virus-Like Particle vaccine-based cancer immunotherapy targeting PD-L1” and will also explore broader immune checkpoint inhibition mechanisms.

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Immunomic Therapeutics, Inc. (ITI), a privately held, Maryland-based biotechnology company is proud to announce a travel fund for patients enrolled in a Phase II clinical study that employs their investigational LAMP-Vax™ technology to treat glioblastoma multiforme (GBM).

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Lupin said today it has acquired Symbiomix Therapeutics for $150 million cash, in a deal designed to expand the buyer’s branded women’s health specialty drug business.

In acquiring Symbiomix through its U.S. subsidiary, Lupin has exercised an option it retained earlier this year to buy the privately held developer of treatments for gynecologic infections.

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Emergent BioSolutions Inc. EBS announced that it completed the acquisition of FDA-licensed smallpox vaccine’s business of Sanofi SNY – ACAM2000. The company paid an upfront payment of $97.5 million and $20 million in milestone payments. The deal also includes a potential milestone payment of up to $7.5 million, tied to the achievement of remaining regulatory

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Osiris Therapeutics, Inc. (Pink Sheets: OSIR), a leading regenerative medicine company focused on developing and marketing products for wound care, orthopedics, and sports medicine, announced today that a new peer reviewed manuscript entitled “Placental Membranes for Management of Refractory Cutaneous Sinus Tracts of Surgical Origin: A Pilot Study” has been published in The Journal of the American College of Clinical Wound Specialists and is available online.

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This semester, FastForward U (FFU) will begin offering entrepreneurial advising to students looking to start a company or business venture. FFU is an initiative from Johns Hopkins Technology Ventures (JHTV), an office that facilitates licensing and patents for Hopkins researchers and supports technology startups.

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The conference focuses on collaborative innovation and networking to achieve empowered cooperation between Korean and US life science professionals and industries.

The three-day conference will attract over 250 biotechnology and life science leaders in Korea & US, who join together for networking and partnering meetings to discover new opportunities and promising partnerships in the area of R&D, commercial business of Bio, Medical, and Pharmaceuticals.

Visit http://www.kuccls.org/ to learn more.

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Academic research is often full of ideas that can form the foundation of startups.

So institutions like the University of Maryland, Baltimore and Johns Hopkins are putting considerable effort to help launch young companies that license that research in a way that can bring acclaim and dollars. But just about everyone still thinks we need more CEOs and scientists working together.

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What began as a kind of business experiment in innovation has acquired a life of its own.

The idea in 2011 was to create a space at what was then Johnson & Johnson’s pharmaceutical research and development facility in San Diego for an “innovation center,” a place where 18 to 20 life sciences startups could incubate, replete with lab space and equipment. J&J would screen applicants and charge them to lease the space, but would not require an ownership stake or impose licensing requirements on the startups. It would be a “no strings attached” deal.

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For years, proponents of increased downtown development and innovation districts have spoken of the important interplay between universities, startups, and local jobs. Cities such as Pittsburgh, which has seen its stock rise as a center for technology and innovation, found that local universities such as Carnegie Mellon served as catalysts for commercial and creative growth.

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Emma started work as a massage therapist at NovaHealth TCM Clinic yesterday.

Emma – short for Expert Manipulative Massage Automation – is a robotic massager, developed by a team of researchers, engineers and programmers at AiTreat, a start-up incubated by Nanyang Technological University (NTU). It is particularly good for neck and knee massages.

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Diabetics who have been pricking their fingers for years finally have another option. Freestyle Libre is a small patch that can be easily applied to the upper-arm. With a simple scan, the sensor can read your glucose levels, no needles or blood necessary.

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Dreamit has teamed with Accenture, one of the world’s leading professional services companies, to connect Accenture’s strategy and innovation leadership to the startup founders at Dreamit working on transformational products in health tech and urban tech.

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Monday, December 11, 2017

Apella, Alexandria Center for Life Science 6:00 – 7:30 PM

Brick by brick, and startup by startup, the New York biotech scene is slowly being built up. More startup incubators are either up, or in development, than ever before. Several pieces necessary to a functional life sciences ecosystem are now in place, and many other milestones will simply take time to develop and succeed. Yet industry and government leaders, investors, and entrepreneurs can’t get complacent—there is much more that New York can do, right now, to gain ground on other hubs and further establish the region as a top center for life science. If the right progress is made, 2018 could be a signature year for the city—or, if progress proves elusive, the momentum could slip away.

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