336th Edition – January 10, 2019

Many thanks to Dan for his leadership of Emergent, his service as a loyal BHI Board Member, and for helping to accelerate the growth of the BioHealth Capital Region.

Emergent BioSolutions Inc. (EBS) today announced that its CEO Daniel J. Abdun-Nabi will be retiring and that its board of directors has unanimously appointed Robert G. Kramer, Sr., the company’s current president and COO, to succeed him as president and CEO, effective April 1, 2019. Mr. Abdun-Nabi has also indicated that he plans to step down as a member of the Emergent board of directors, and Emergent expects the board of directors to appoint Mr. Kramer to fill the board vacancy created by Mr. Abdun-Nabi’s retirement.

Read More

Congratulations to Bahija on making MedImmune the leading BioHealth company in Maryland and accelerating its growth. Also many thanks for MedImmune’s longtime support of BHI and for helping the BioHealth Capital Region become the 4th largest Biopharma Cluster in the country.

Six years after AstraZeneca’s then new CEO Pascal Soriot named Bahija Jallal president of the big MedImmune subsidiary in Gaithersburg, MD, putting her at the center of the company’s R&D turnaround plans, the longtime pharma exec is joining the great migration of industry professionals to biotech.

Read More

Congrats to Alexandria a BHI partner and Board Member for their commitment to early-stage BioHealth investing.

Alexandria Venture Investments, the strategic venture capital arm of Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc. based in Pasadena, was recognized by Silicon Valley Bank as the most active biopharma investor by new deal volume in 2017-2018.

Read More

The University of Maryland Robert E. Fischell Institute for Biomedical Devices celebrated its official launch on Thursday, January 3, 2019. The event included presentations by researchers at the Institute and supported by the the Institute taking place at the A. James Clark School of Engineering, the University of Maryland School of Medicine, Children’s National Health Center, University of Maryland Insitute for Bioscience and Biotechnology Research.

Read More

What are the top universities in the United States? The list is decided by the CEOWORLD magazine university ranking which considers 7 important factors to help make a balanced comparison. These include influence, reputation, specialization, recruiters Responses and employers Feedback, which in turn help to rate and rank the top unis.

Read More

Why Rockville Video, produced by Rockville Economic Development, Inc., featuring BioHealth Innovation’s Judy Costello.

Read More

BrainScope Receives FDA Clearance for Multi-Modal, Multi-Parameter Concussion Assessment

New Concussion-Specific FDA Labeling Adds to Existing BrainScope Claims Complements Multi-Modal Technology Platform and Extensive Intellectual Property Portfolio To Address New Brain and Behavioral Health Conditions

Read More

Personal Genome Diagnostics is starting off the year with news of a pair of partnership agreements as it looks to expand its approach to cancer testing.

Read More

University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) Dean E. Albert Reece, MD, PhD, MBA, announced today that Claire M. Fraser, PhD, a pioneer in the field of microbialgenomics, who is the Dean’s Endowed Professor, Department of Medicine, and Director of the Institutefor Genome Sciences (IGS), has been chosen as president-elect of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). AAAS is the world’s largest multidisciplinary scientific society and a leading publisher of cutting edge research through its Science family of journals.

Read More

In wrapping up the year, AGT was proud to be featured as a State of Maryland “Success Story” for its growth in Maryland and achievements in the gene and cell therapy industry.

Read More

Wednesday, January 23, 2019, 12:00 – 4:00pm

Are you a young company or thinking of starting up a new firm.  What do you need to know related to taxes?  –tax credits? Filing? Tax liability? Other accounting issues? Learn the answers to these questions and more.

Register by noon, 1/22 to participate in person / by video conference**       

• 12:00 p.m. – Networking Lunch   
• 12:30-1:30 p.m. – Panel and Q&A with experts
• 1:30 p.m. – 1:1 meetings*

*Attendance at Panel is required to participate in 1:1 meeting with expert.

**In person at BHI HQ, 1 Church Street, Rockville, MD or by videoconference.

Read More

Maryland placed third on think tank Milken Institute’s 2018 State Technology and Science Index, ranking innovation pipelines. Maryland also placed third in 2016’s report.

Read More

Here is a significant opportunity for MARYLAND to grow in SBIR success.

One of the best ways to measure the effectiveness of state programs intended to encourage the success of SBIR applications is the approval-rate of their submissions. Although this data has been historically unavailable across every federal agency, it is now accessible for the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the second largest provider of SBIR/STTR awards, according to a 2018 Digest report. The NIH distributed $446.2 million in SBIR/STTR awards in 2017, with every state except North and South Dakota receiving an award. Although California and Massachusetts had the most successful SBIR/STTR applications in 2017, accounting for roughly one-third of the total when combined, neither state ranked among the top 10 in success rate.

Read More

Now in its 37th year, the conference has ballooned from a small event with 150 attendees that was essentially the ” birth of biotech,” to an event attended by everyone from the biggest pharma company to the smallest biotech. JPMorgan said more than 485 companies are scheduled to present this year.

Read More

Tuesday, January 15, 2019 8:30AM – 10:30AM

GSK 9911 Belward Campus Drive Rockville, MD 20850

The Maryland Life Sciences, a division of the Maryland Tech Council, brings together vaccine leaders to discuss current breakthroughs in the world of vaccines and immunotherapeutics. This breakfast meeting will address innovating strategies to meet current health threats, changing technology for vaccine manufacturing and provide a snapshot of where vaccine development stands today.

Join us for breakfast, networking and a discussion to hear about the experiences and insights on the current state and projected future of treatments. Local leaders will also discuss challenges and opportunities that come with vaccine and immunotherapy development used by companies in our State.

Read More

Different places have different levels of educational achievement.

The American Community Survey is an annual survey run by the Census Bureau to allow the government, corporate and academic researchers, and anyone who is curious about demographics to better understand the US population. Among many other subjects, the ACS includes questions about respondents’ education levels.

Read More

Though federal agencies are hungry for new technology solutions, a report from the Government Accountability Office says they may be missing out on a key avenue of innovation.

Read More

“If you can look into the seeds of time, and say which grain will grow and which will not, speak then unto me,” Banquo beseeches the witches in Shakespeare’s “Macbeth,” seeking insight into the future for himself and his closest friend Macbeth.

Read More

The Pistoia Alliance announced key trends for the life science industry in 2019 based on The Life Sciences Innovation Report developed with Clarivate Analytics.

Read More

The STSI’s 107 individual indicators are sorted into five composites: research and development (R&D) inputs, risk capital and entrepreneurial infrastructure, human capital investment, technology and science workforce, and technology concentration and dynamism.

Read More

The first Food and Drug Administration approvals for cell and gene therapies are already more than a year out, but 2019 is likely to be a significant year for the field, particularly in areas like international interest, industry consolidation and pricing. That was the theme of a panel discussion Monday morning at Biotech Showcase in San Francisco, which coincides with the 2019 J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference.

Read More

BioSpace is proud to present its NextGen Bio “Class of 2019,” a list of 20 up-and-coming life science companies in North America that launched* no earlier than 2017.

Read More

Bristol-Myers Squibb Co.’s $74 billion planned purchase of Celgene Corp. puts it in line to lead the drug industry’s hottest market, cancer, as early as next year.

Read More

A biotechnology venture capital firm is ringing in the new year with its latest fund, having raised a quarter of $1 billion.

Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Atlas Venture said Wednesday that it closed its first Opportunity Fund, or AVOF I, with an oversubscribed fund raise of $250 million. The firm plans to invest the money in companies already in its portfolio.

Read More

Having analyzed the trends and the shifting winds in the payer marketplace, it’s time to gaze into the crystal ball and see what the future has in store.

Read More