283rd Edition – December 12, 2017

Ashish K. Kulkami, PhD of Avantor, Anne S. Lindblad, PhD of The Emmes Corporation, and Kurt Newman, MD of Children’s National Health System, Join BHI’s Board

BioHealth Innovation, Inc. (BHI) announced that its Board of Directors has unanimously approved the appointments of three new board members, Ashish K. Kulkarni, PhD, Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer of Avantor, Anne S. Lindblad, PhD, President and CEO, The Emmes Corporation, and Kurt Newman, MD, President and Chief Executive Officer, Children’s National Health System.

“I am honored to welcome our new members to the board,” said Richard Bendis, BHI President and CEO. “Ashish, Anne, and Kurt bring years of biohealth experience and fresh perspectives to our board.”

Ashish K. Kulkarni, Ph.D., has been Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer of Avantor since 2016. Dr. Kulkarni has extensive experience serving as Chief Technology Officer for other large global companies. Prior to joining Avantor, Dr. Kulkarni acted as Chief Technology and Innovation Officer at Celanese Corporation, from 2012 to 2016, and Vice President of Research and Development for the Advanced Engineering Materials and Emulsions business units, from 2010 to 2012. Dr. Kulkarni also previously acted as Vice President of Global Engineering, Building Systems and Services division of United Technologies Corporation, from 2007 to 2010. In addition, Dr. Kulkarni served in various leadership roles with American Standard. He started his career with General Electric Company on their Technical Leadership Program (TLP).

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Johnathan Cohen., Founder, and Chief Executive Officer, 20/20 GeneSystems Inc. joins Rich Bendis to discuss cancer diagnostics, crowdfunding, and where his company is headed. Under Mr. Cohen’s leadership, 20/20 GeneSystems has brought in approximately $7.5 million in grant funding and launched two successful products, a kit for suspicious powders used by hundreds of emergency responder organizations worldwide and a blood test for the early detection of lung cancer.

Listen now on iTunes , Google Play , and TuneIn. 

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A pitch competition held in Annapolis last week had an eye toward innovation on the farm – whether the growing was on land or water.

For the first time, the Rural Maryland Council Summit included the AgPitch Competition. Westminster-based MidAtlantic Farm Credit was an organizer of the Dec. 1 event. The pitch competition featured five entrepreneurs.

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British pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline PLC said it finally has a full team in place at its vaccine hub in Rockville and is ready to take on some of the region’s most well-known biotech competitors with part of its product lineup.

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University of Maryland, Baltimore startup Harpoon Medical was acquired by Edwards Lifesciences for $100 million, Edwards announced Wednesday. The deal could rise to $150 million if Harpoon meets pre-specified milestones. Harpoon’s primary product is a device designed to facilitate beating-heart, minimally invasive, echo-guided mitral valve repair. Clinical trials have shown that the product leads to positive safety

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BioHealth Innovation is partnering with Johns Hopkins Tech Ventures to provide assistance to faculty innovators and entrepreneurs interested in applying for federal SBIR/STTR funding.   Whether you are located at Johns Hopkins, another university off campus location, don’t miss the the opportunity to learn more information about this type of funding, sign up now for office hours at JHU Fast Forward, December 12th, 11-2pm, 1812 Ashland Ave, by appt: Book Time or contact BioHealth Innovation for more information.

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A new innovation space from the University of Maryland, Baltimore is opening inside the historic Lion Brothers building on Hollins Street.

About 6,200 square feet of the 38,000-square-foot building will be dedicated to offices, class/meeting rooms and coworking space geared toward supporting entrepreneurship and technology startups. The new space will be called the GRID, an acronym for Graduate Research Innovation District, and will be housed in the revamped former Lion Brothers Co. clothing and embroidery factory near the university’s BioPark campus.

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The Emmes Corporation today announced its statistical and data management support of a clinical trial that offers new hope for children with cerebral palsy (CP).  Stephen Wease and Dr. Beth Blackwell joined a team of prominent researchers from Duke University Medical Center to test whether umbilical cord blood would improve motor skills function in children suffering from the disorder. 

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Proteros biostructures GmbH today announced that the Company’s Supervisory board had appointed Dave Lemus, previously a non-executive director at Proteros, as Executive Vice Chairman, Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer of Proteros Biostructures GmbH. Additionally, he will serve in the role of Non-Executive Board Chairman of Proteros USA, Inc., the Company’s newly formed subsidiary in the U.S.A., where he will be based.

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The Maryland Technology Development Corp. announced $800,000 in investments to six companies, including four in the Baltimore area.

State-backed TEDCO funnels hundreds of thousands of dollars into young, growing companies through its multiple investment funds and is backed by an annual budget of about $18.5 million. The organization’s seed fund portfolio continues to grow statewide.

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A reindeer with a red glowing nose.

A heart, two sizes two small, that suddenly grows three sizes.

A trip to the past and to the future — all in one night.

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Wound monitoring technology startup Tissue Analytics has established an eight person office in Kansas City, Kansas following its hire of former Cerner staffer there who set up the office as part of his new role as vice president of sales, according to a story by the Kansas City Business Journal. It marks an expansion for the company which previously was based out of one office in Baltimore.

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A Rockville-based research and development company working on a cheap and fast diagnostic test for infectious diseases will be the first tenant of Inova Health System’s new accelerator that officially opened Thursday.

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TearSolutions, a Charlottesville-based biotechnology startup just received an $8.5 million shot in the arm, courtesy of the VTC Innovation Fund and Pharmstandard International, one of Russia’s largest pharmaceutical companies.

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VLP Therapeutics was established in 2013 with the mission to develop innovative medical treatments which can transform traditional vaccines and targeted antibody therapies to address global unmet medical needs. Its vision is to combat 21st century global public health problems through its revolutionary next generation i-αVLP technology platform. VLP is currently developing vaccines to treat cancer and infectious diseases such as Malaria and Dengue Fever.

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BioBuzz: What is ATOM and why should people know about it?

Jim: It is a public–private consortium designed to improve the oncology drug discovery process by bringing together the expertise and resources of the FNLCR, the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), GSK, and the University of California–San Francisco (UCSF).

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Even though the federal government avoided a shutdown last week — at least temporarily — continued uncertainty in the nation’s budget process could hurt Maryland’s economy.

Congress agreed Thursday night to a spending bill that will keep the government funded and running through Dec. 22, but the short-term extension may not do much to ease concerns in a state where so many workers and jobs are tied to federal spending.

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GlaxoSmithKline will scout for deal opportunities in cancer medicine, as well as immunology, as the drugmaker seeks to rebuild its presence in oncology, its new head of pharmaceuticals told Reuters.

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“The American Angel (pdf),” a new comprehensive national study released yesterday, provides a detailed picture of angel investors–who they are, where they live, and how they make investment decisions.

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For the first time in five years, federal funding for higher education research and development increased in both current and constant dollars, according to recently released data from the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics within the National Science Foundation. In FY 2016, universities reported $72.0 billion in total R&D expenditures, a 4.8 percent increase from FY 2015. Of this amount, more than half (54 percent) came from the federal government. Institutionally financed research represented 16 percent, the second largest source of R&D funds at universities in FY 2016.

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Epidarex Capital (“Epidarex”), an early-stage, transatlantic life science venture fund, today announced that its portfolio company, Harpoon Medical, Inc. (“Harpoon”), a pioneer in beating-heart repair for degenerative mitral regurgitation (DMR), has been acquired by Edwards Lifesciences for up to $250 million. Under the terms of the merger agreement, Edwards paid $100 million in cash for Harpoon at closing on December 1, 2017 with a potential for up to an additional $150 million in pre-specified milestone-driven payments.

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The move is welcome news for Prime Minister Theresa May, who has struggled to win over large sections of industry as Britain prepares to leave the European Union.

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When the 13 teams that made up Fed Tech’s fall 2017 cohort took the stage for their first pitch night in September, it wasn’t entirely smooth sailing.

The entrepreneurs, some of whom had been introduced to their assigned technology just days earlier, struggled to pronounce long scientific words or, in some cases, explain what the technology is at all. The task wasn’t easy, but the entrepreneurs didn’t get a pass either. “You gotta tell me what you do,” the group of rowdy mentors lobbed at one team. “Tell me who cares.”

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Steve Case’s Rise of the Rest seed fund has raised $150 million from a cavalcade of high-profile investors.

Investors in the new fund, named after Case’s yearslong effort to draw more attention to nontraditional areas outside of Silicon Valley and New York, include Amazon chief and Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos, The Carlyle Group co-founder David Rubenstein, Google CEO Eric Schmidt, Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz and members of the Koch, Pritzker and Walton families, according to a release.

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The landscape for the delivery of health care in the United States is changing, but the traditional care-delivery players are not the change agents. The recent announcement of CVS’s $69 billion deal to acquire Aetna brings an insurer together with a large network of primary care providers: CVS has built more than 1,100 Minute Clinic locations inside its pharmacy stores in 33 states and the District of Columbia.

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Johnson & Johnson Innovation, today announced a collaboration with the Shanghai Municipal Government, Pudong New Area Government, and Shanghai Pharma Engine Company, Ltd. to launch a new Johnson & Johnson Innovation, JLABS in Shanghai (JLABS @ Shanghai), China. The 4,400-square-meter facility will be located in Shanghai’s Zhangjiang Hi-Tech Park and will open in Q2 2019.

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For many companies, universities have become essential innovation partners. However, companies often struggle to establish and run university partnerships effectively.

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