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Maryland receives 125 applications for $8M in biotech tax credits – Washington Business Journal

Maryland received more than 125 applications on Monday for $8 million available through the state’s popular biotechnology tax credit program.

The online registration for the fiscal year 2013 credits was rescheduled from July 2 due to mass power outages in the state.

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QIAGEN Achieves Personalized Healthcare Milestone with U.S. Approval of Companion Diagnostic for Colorectal Cancer – MarketWatch

U.S. launch of therascreen® KRAS RGQ PCR Kit offers enhanced approach to guide treatments for approximately 110,000 patients annually in U.S. with colorectal cancer.

First FDA approval of a QIAGEN companion diagnostic marks a milestone in its global expansion of rapidly growing Personalized Healthcare business.

Important cancer assay adds valuable content for an expanding QIAGEN automation platform QIAGEN N.V. today announced it has received U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval to market the therascreen® KRAS RGQ PCR Kit (therascreen KRAS test) to provide guidance on the use of Erbitux® (cetuximab) as a treatment in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer.

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Maryland Venture Fund names Thomas Dann as head – Washington Business Journal

Maryland has named a longtime venture capitalist to head its program for investing in startups and early-stage companies.

Thomas Dann, founder and managing director at CastleHaven Advisors LLC, a D.C. private-equity firm, was named managing director of the Maryland Venture Fund.

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University of Maryland Leadership Shows as State Named #1 in Entrepreneurship and Innovation :: University Communications Newsdesk, University of Maryland

A new U.S. Chamber of Commerce report names Maryland the #1 state in the nation for entrepreneurship and innovation. The annual report on 2012 Enterprising States, also ranked Maryland #1 in academic research and development and #3 in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) jobs and in the concentration of high-tech business locations.

"We are very pleased to see the State of Maryland receive this distinction," said University of Maryland Vice President for Research and Chief Research Officer Dr. Patrick O’Shea. "This national recognition reflects the efforts of the Governor and General Assembly to promote innovation across the state, the tireless work of the state’s successful businesses and entrepreneurs, as well as the University of Maryland’s dedication to creating a culture of entrepreneurship among our faculty, students and alumni."

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Human Genome Science looks to expand biotech sales jobs with new anthrax treatment

As more drug manufacturers fight for a share of the market, those with biotech sales jobs understand that their companies’ success lies in its ability to develop innovative new products. Now, Maryland-based Human Genome Sciences has announced its breakthrough treatment for inhalational anthrax is one step closer to commercialization.

The company said the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has acknowledged receipt of its resubmission of the Biologics License Application (BLA) for raxibacumab, a human monoclonal antibody that differs from other treatments because it targets anthrax toxins after they are released by bacteria into the blood and tissues of the body.

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Human Genome Sciences Announces Resubmission of Raxibacumab BLA to FDA

Human Genome Sciences, Inc. announced today that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has acknowledged receipt of the resubmission of the Biologics License Application (BLA) for raxibacumab, a treatment for inhalational anthrax, and has established December 15, 2012 as the Prescription Drug User Fee Act (PDUFA) action date.

The FDA has deemed the resubmission a complete, class 2 response to its November 14, 2009 complete response letter, which requested further analyses of existing data as well as additional information.

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Maryland biotech investment program sees dip from last year

Fewer prospective investors applied for a share of Maryland’s $8 million in biotechnology investment tax credits Monday morning than a year ago, state officials reported.

Last year, the state received more than 180 applications from likely investors in qualifying Maryland biotechs within the first three minutes of the program’s annual online launch. On Monday, the state reported more than 125 registrations, which actually are made by the respective biotechs, between 9 a.m. and noon — more than the 115 applications received on the first day in 2010 but fewer than in 2011.

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New Johns Hopkins center to focus on broad use of health IT tools – FierceHealthIT

Johns Hopkins University is creating a new center to help public health agencies and accountable provider or payer groups better take advantage of health IT technologies.

The Johns Hopkins Center for Population Health IT, or CPHIT, is intended to broaden the focus of health IT systems including electronic health records and e-health beyond clinicians treating individual patients, says Jonathan Weiner, director of the new center. The idea is to "harness these health IT systems to create solutions for the many population health issues facing our nation," he says in a July 11 announcement.

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Johns Hopkins Community helps scientists – Wes Blakeslee – Johns Hopkins Technology Transfer – YouTube

What kind of community does Johns Hopkins offer for a scientist?

An excerpt of an interview in November of 2011, with Wes Blakeslee, Executive Director of Johns Hopkins Tech Transfer. In this segment, Wes talks about the unique environment that Johns Hopkins offers. Have lunch with a Nobel Prize winner. Be with the best of the best.

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Wesley Blakeslee from Johns Hopkins University Tech. Transfer, “The Business Concierge to Johns Hopkins University” Video Interview at BioMaryland Booth at BIO International 2012 | Stock News Now

The Johns Hopkins Technology Transfer Office (JHTT) is the University’s intellectual property administration center, serving Johns Hopkins researchers and inventors as a licensing, patent, and technology commercialization office and acting as an active liaison to parties interested in leveraging JHU research or materials for academic or corporate endeavors. SNNLive spoke with Wesley Blakeslee, Executive Director of Johns Hopkins Technology Transfer Office at the BioMaryland booth at the BIO International Convention 2012 in Boston, MA.

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M&T tops in small business lending in Baltimore area – Baltimore Business Journal

Looking for a small-business loan? Then you might want to check out a new report from the U.S. Small Business Administration about which lenders have been the most active in the Baltimore area in the past nine months.

SBA’s Baltimore regional office found that M&T Bank was the biggest lender under SBA’s flagship 7(a) loans program for the period from Oct. 1, 2011 to June 30, 2012. That’s no surprise, since M&T, the second-largest bank in Greater Baltimore, has been the leading lender in the region for the past several years under the program. M&T wrote 157 loans totaling more than $17 million during the nine-month period under the 7(a) program, which guarantees loans for working capital, inventory and equipment.

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United snags Glaxo buildings as it completes expansion – FiercePharma Manufacturing

Even as it completes an expansion in North Carolina, United Therapeutics is picking up for future use three buildings and a large parcel of land left idle by GlaxoSmithKline.

"We haven’t finalized our plans for the properties acquired from GSK," Andrew Fisher, chief strategy officer and deputy general counsel, says in an email to FiercePharmaManufacturing.

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HHS Innovation Fellows Program

HHS has begun exploring ways to bring entrepreneurial spirit to provide fresh, innovative approaches to agencies. HHS already has the strong assets and the leadership to create and develop new products; The Innovation Fellows Program aims to bring external ideas and expertise into HHS’s own innovation process and rapidly create, develop, engage and accelerate innovation.

Startup organizations have demonstrated that rapid iteration between various versions or features of a product can yield successful results: HHS would like to boost innovation by working with external expertise to create a culture that encourages risk taking and dynamic new models of business.

Download Flyer

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Obama Signs FDA Bill | The Scientist

President Barack Obama signed the US Food and Drug Administration Safety and Innovation Act (S. 3187) into law, reauthorizing user fees that the FDA charges pharmaceutical and device manufacturers as they gain approval for their products.

The law also establishes a new user fee program—raised as part of Obama’s newly-legitimized health care legislation—that will require companies making generic versions of protein-based drugs, or biologics, called biosimilars, to pay upon approval of their generic products. The newly signed law also makes several changes to FDA policy meant to speed the approval process for drugs and devices, enacts changes aimed to increase the safety of the drug supply chain, and incentivizes the development of new antibiotics.

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MedStartr Offers Crowdfunding for Health IT Firms, Including Itself | Xconomy

A couple years ago, when Alex Fair was tossing around ideas on how to raise money for his new healthcare marketplace, FairCareMD, he knew that putting the startup on the uber-popular crowdfunding platform Kickstarter would be out of the question. Kickstarter has collected $250 million for 24,000 projects since it was founded three years ago, but virtually none of that has gone to health-related companies. “I said, ‘Hey, there’s an opportunity here,’” Fair says. “No one’s really doing health care crowdfunding.”

Enter MedStartr, Fair’s New York-based site that’s making its debut today. MedStartr allows entrepreneurs to find backers for healthcare technologies and services. The site, which Fair says ran a brief alpha test starting in April, is launching with six projects, including MedStartr itself. During that early project, which was designed to test the concept, Fair was surprised to find MedStartr was able to raise enough capital to run the company. “Of the 71 people we invited to view the alpha, six invested,” he says. It’s a sign, he believes, that “crowdfunding has hit the public consciousness.”

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Early stage fundraising by venture firms doubles, health IT companies likely to benefit

Venture capital fundraising for early stage funds doubled in the first half of the year to $3 billion compared with the same period last year, according to a report by Dow Jones.

Among the firms that have raised funds were Felicis Ventures, a well-respected early stage investment group with a new $70 million fund targeting bioinformatics, and other sectors.

Healthcare IT companies are likely to benefit from the increase as healthcare facilities shift to electronic medical records.

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Statement from HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius on the signing of the Food and Drug Administration Safety and Innovation Act

Today, the President signed into law S. 3187, the “Food and Drug Administration Safety and Innovation Act.”  This legislation, which passed both the House and Senate with overwhelming bipartisan majorities, will help speed safe and effective medical products to patients and maintain our Nation’s role as a leader in biomedical innovation.

S. 3187 is the culmination of the work of the administration and Congress, in partnership with patients, the pharmaceutical and medical device industries, the clinical community, and other stakeholders, to provide the Food and Drug Administration with the tools needed to continue to bring drugs and devices to market safely and quickly and promote innovation in the biomedical industry, and to help secure the jobs supported by drug and device development.

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From Bench to Bunker – The Chronicle Review

In a small, anonymous office in the Trump Tower, 28 floors above Wall Street, a man sits in front of a computer screen sifting through satellite images of a foreign desert. The images depict a vast, sandy emptiness, marked every so often by dunes and hills. He is searching for man-made structures: houses, compounds, airfields, any sign of civilization that might be visible from the sky. The images flash at a rate of 20 per second, so fast that before he can truly perceive the details of each landscape, it is gone. He pushes no buttons, takes no notes. His performance is near perfect.

Or rather, his brain’s performance is near perfect. The man has a machine strapped to his head, an array of electrodes called an electroencephalogram, or EEG, which is recording his brain activity as each image skips by. It then sends the brain-activity data wirelessly to a large computer. The computer has learned what the man’s brain activity looks like when he sees one of the visual targets, and, based on that information, it quickly reshuffles the images. When the man sorts back through the hundreds of images—most without structures, but some with—almost all the ones with buildings in them pop to the front of the pack. His brain and the computer have done good work.

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“Maryland, Paris Medicen to Partner on Disease Research and Translational Medicine” Video Interview at BIO International Convention 2012 | Stock News Now

SNNLive had the pleasure of speaking with Dr. Judith Britz, Executive Director of Maryland Biotechnology Center and Francois Chevillard, CEO of the Medicen Paris Region to announce the two organizations’ Memorandum of Understanding at the BIO International Convention 2012 in Boston, MA.

The Maryland Biotechnology Center is an organization within the Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development (DBED) that consolidates and coordinates a host of state, university and private sector initiatives to better showcase and support biotechnology innovation and entrepreneurship in Maryland. The Medicen Paris Region facilitates the transfer of innovation to industry, the market and patients in human healthcare sectors.

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Venture Debt: Under-Appreciated Tool for Building Biotechs – Forbes

Cash-burning R&D-stage biotechs have big appetites for cash, which is typically addressed with an equity-based diet.  It’s also supported through corporate partnerships and other less dilutive means such as grants and foundation funding.  But another important and often under-appreciated source of capital are the debt markets – taking a loan out to provide working capital for further R&D.

One might ask why and how a company that won’t have profits for a decade can raise any money through the issuance of debt, but it happens frequently, and the “venture lending” business is actually very robust.  Players like Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), Oxford Finance, Hercules Technology Growth Capital, and Horizon Technology Finance (and many others) are all very active supporters of emerging life science companies.

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East Coast accelerator DreamIt Ventures moving into healthcare IT

Healthcare IT has become a new priority for East Coast accelerator DreamIt Ventures with the hire of a veteran angel investor group director.

Karen Griffith Gryga recently joined the accelerator’s Philadelphia office. Earlier this year it added a minority-led business component and started a program to work with startups based in Israel.

She has worked as executive director of Mid-Atlantic Angel Group, which has invested in life science and technology companies.

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Mass Life Sciences Center launches new accelerator – Mass High Tech Business News

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts’ quasi-public agency, the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center, has opened its 2012-2013 Accelerator Loan Program, the agency announced Monday.

MLSC launched the program in 2009 as a way to help startup businesses who need working capital or funding to pay for capital assets. A loan of up to $1 million per company is provided, an increase from the maximum amount of $750,000 offered in the past. The decision to increase the amount available was made during a June meeting of the board of directors, according to Angus McQuilken, vice president of communications at the MLSC. Companies still will only be able to borrow a dollar-for-dollar match, he said.

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BIO Report on University and Non-Profit Inventions

On June 21 the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO), which represents biotechnology companies, issued a report on the economic impact of patent licensing from universities and non-profit institutions (PDF), analyzing data from 1996 to 2010 gathered by the Association of University Technology Managers (AUTM). The data show that patent licensing resulting from federally-funded research at universities and non-profits resulted in contributions to GDP somewhere between $86 billion and $388 billion in 2005 U.S. dollars, and between 900,000 to 3,000,000 person-years of employment in that period.

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Gates Foundation, pharma cos to spur TB care | Deccan Chronicle

Seven pharmaceutical companies and four research institutions, working with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, have launched a groundbreaking partnership, to expedite the discovery of new treatments for tuberculosis. The partnership, known as the TB Drug Accelerator (TBDA), will target the discovery of new TB drugs by collaborating on an early-stage research. The long-term goal of the TBDA is to create a drug regimen that cures patients in just one month. Existing drugs, which are all at least 50 years old, require six months to cure the disease — a lengthy process, during which at least 20 to 30 per cent of patients end up discontinuing the treatment before the completion of the course.

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Who’s Still Active Among the Early-Stage Biotech VCs? | Xconomy

Imagine for a moment you’re a hotshot biomedical scientist at a university. You have invented a technology in your lab that you think has potential to make a big difference for the world of medicine. Despite all the accolades you might be getting in Nature, you are savvy enough to know you still have a pretty raw concept. Your idea needs someone who can build a business around it, and invest a lot of time, money, and talent to prove it’s the real thing.

Who would you call?

There aren’t that many people who you can call anymore, and the number is shrinking. This question has been gnawing at me for a while, as I’ve sought to understand the historic contraction that’s occurring in the biotech venture capital business, and what effect it will have on the biotech industry’s ability to turn bright ideas into valuable new healthcare products.

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Md. launches a venture capital initiative | WashingtonExaminer.com

Maryland’s secretary for business and economic development rallied Lower Shore leaders behind a state venture capital initiative that seeks to invest millions of dollars into companies and entrepreneurs with innovative ideas.

The state is poised to award a total of $84 million raised through an online tax credit auction earlier this year, but Lower Shore companies that don’t apply cannot benefit from the infusion known as InvestMaryland, Christian S. Johansson, secretary of the Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development, told leaders gathered in Salisbury on Monday to unveil the new facility of the Tri-County Council for the Lower Eastern Shore of Maryland.

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Annual Postdoc Conference & Career Fair – Postdoc Conference and Career Fair

July 12, 2012 – Bethesda North Marriott/Montgomery County Conference Center

A conference and career fair for current postdoctoral fellows working in Washington, D.C. area federal labs and universities, and for companies recruiting high-level S.T.E.M. (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) professionals.

This event exposes area postdoctoral fellows in the S.T.E.M. fields to the many career options (e.g., government, private sector, entrepreneurship) that are available to them.

The career fair portion connects local job-seeking postdocs with companies seeking that level of talent.

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HHS Innovation Fellows Program

HHS has begun exploring ways to bring entrepreneurial spirit to provide fresh, innovative approaches to agencies. HHS already has the strong assets and the leadership to create and develop new products; The Innovation Fellows Program aims to bring external ideas and expertise into HHS’s own innovation process and rapidly create, develop, engage and accelerate innovation.

Startup organizations have demonstrated that rapid iteration between various versions or features of a product can yield successful results: HHS would like to boost innovation by working with external expertise to create a culture that encourages risk taking and dynamic new models of business.

Download Flyer

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Economic Alliance of Greater Baltimore Inks Business Partnership with BioHealth Innovation to Bring Health and Life Sciences Research to Market – MarketWatch

The Economic Alliance of Greater Baltimore (EAGB) announced today that it has completed a formal agreement to serve as Greater Baltimore’s primary business partner with BioHealth Innovation (BHI), Maryland’s private-public collaborative that focuses on commercializing market-relevant bio health innovations and increasing access to early-stage funding in central Maryland.

BHI is the first regionally focused innovation intermediary created to connect the university and hospital bio health research strengths of Baltimore with the bioscience industry and federal laboratory strengths of Montgomery County.

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Bendis brings entrepreneurial bent to Maryland’s bioscience sector

Innovation and creation are at the heart of the biotech industry and close to the heart of international business development consultant Richard A. Bendis.

Bendis, 65, has devoted almost 40 years to helping enterprises grow, in both the public and private sector.

Most recently, Bendis was named CEO of the new regional effort to foster commercialization of federal and university laboratory innovations and increase access to early-stage funding for biotechs. BioHealth Innovation of Rockville is a nonprofit private-public partnership that leverages the resources of several biotechs and research institutions, including the University System of Maryland and Johns Hopkins University, in the Baltimore-Washington, D.C., region.

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THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY AND FRAUNHOFER HEINRICH HERTZ INSTITUTE SIGN MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING

The Johns Hopkins University (JHU), America’s first research university, in Baltimore, Md., USA, and the Fraunhofer Heinrich Hertz Institute (HHI), a mobile and information technology development leader based in Berlin, Germany, have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to jointly research the innovative medical applications of integrated optical sensors: small, highly sensitive devices with disease-recognition capabilities.

Under the terms of this agreement — signed on June 19 at the 2012 BIO International Convention in Boston, Mass., USA — the two entities will study how the technology developed by HHI can be used in the detection, diagnosis and treatment of medical conditions. Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine researchers with clinical expertise in a variety of specialty areas, including oncology and infectious diseases, will collaborate with HHI’s scientists and engineers.

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UMB BioPark signs Biogen Diagnostics, Global Scientific as tenants – Baltimore Business Journal

Two new companies are moving in to the University of Maryland    BioPark, university officials said Tuesday.

Biogen Diagnostics Ltd., based in the United Kingdom, has opened a satellite office at the BioPark. Global Scientific Solutions for Health Inc., a new laboratory testing company that operates in southeast Asia and Africa, has set up its headquarters there.

The 12-acre west side BioPark houses life sciences companies that work with University of Maryland researchers. BioPark leaders said they want to attract international companies to broaden the reach of the university’s research and the BioPark’s development beyond the Baltimore region.

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Montgomery County biotech initiatives, companies shine at BIO 2012

As you may know, the Montgomery County Department of Economic Development (MCDED) led the County’s participation at the 2012 BIO International Convention held June 18-21 in Boston, MA.

Our team of business development professionals participated in dozens of business partnering forum meetings with national and international biotech companies during the course of the Convention.  On June 19,  MCDED held a press conference from the floor of the BIOMaryland Pavilion, kicked off by Human Genome Sciences CEO and Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) Board Chairman Tom Watkins and Montgomery County Executive Isiah Leggett.  The press conference highlighted the success of the County’s biotech investment incentive program – the nation’s ONLY such local program which helped spur more than $6 million in investments to 10 County-based biotech companies in 2011 –  and the creation of the County-inspired, regional biotech intermediary BioHealth Innovation, Inc. (BHI).  BHI is chaired by Scott Carmer, Executive Vice President, Commercial Operations, MedImmune and sponsored by Human Genome Sciences and several other local private-sector companies and academic institutions.  The press conference also featured a panel, moderated by MedImmune CEO Peter Greenleaf, of County-based, serial biotech entrepreneurs discussing why and how they started companies in Montgomery County.

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Maryland reaches for spotlight at Biotechnology Industry Organization convention

Maryland’s biotechs continued to leave their mark on the industry at this week’s global convention in Boston, with several executives claiming prominent board positions and a new report showing the state outpacing national growth in life science employment.

More than 15,000 executives and others were expected at this year’s Biotechnology Industry Organization International Convention, which started Monday and ended Thursday. More than 31 state companies sought the world’s attention at the Bio Maryland 2012 pavillion, which the state also had at last year’s convention in Washington, D.C.

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Maryland forms biotech partnership with Paris – Baltimore Business Journal

Maryland’s economic development office has formed a partnership with a Paris region to team on disease research and translational medicine.

The letter of intent for the partnership was signed Wednesday at the Bio 2012 International Convention in Boston by Christian Johansson, secretary of the Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development, and Paris Medicen Del. Gen. Francois Chevillard. The Paris Medicen region is considered a life sciences hub in France’s capital city.

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Emergent BioSolutions to develop HHS innovation center – Washington Business Journal

Rockville-based Emergent BioSolutions Inc.    has formed a public-private partnership with the Department of Health and Human Services to establish a Center for Innovation in Advanced Development and Manufacturing.

The contract has an initial run of eight years worth $220 million with up to 17 additional one-year options. The partnership, with HHS’s Biomedial Advanced Research and Development Authority, will initially develop a new pandemic influenza vaccine and construct facilities to produce it.

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United Therapeutics Announces Additional $100 Million Share Repurchase Program

United Therapeutics Corporation (NASDAQ: UTHR) today announced  that its Board of Directors authorized the repurchase of up to an additional $100 million of the company’s common stock.  This program will become effective on July 31, 2012, and will remain open for up to one year.  Purchases may be made in the open market or in privately negotiated transactions from time to time as determined by United Therapeutics’ management and in accordance with the requirements of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

The company also announced that it had recently completed its previously-announced $300 million repurchase program by purchasing 2,045,192 shares of common stock for $88 million during the second quarter of 2012.

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QIAGEN Unveils Initiative to Create Next-Generation Sequencing Portfolio for use in Clinical Research and Molecular Diagnostics – MarketWatch

Aim to expand next-generation sequencing beyond current focus on life sciences research.

QIAGEN plans to offer sample-to-result workflows that integrate its sample preparation and assay products with a next-generation benchtop sequencer and new bioinformatics

Initiative combines broad range of QIAGEN products with acquisition of sequencing specialist Intelligent Bio-Systems, Inc. and a new strategic collaboration with SAP AG QIAGEN N.V. QGEN today unveiled an advanced initiative to enter the field of next-generation sequencing (NGS) that aims to establish these technologies as routine processes used in new areas such as clinical research and molecular diagnostics.

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MEDIMMUNE MANUFACTURING FACILITY RECOGNIZED AS 2011 FACILITY OF THE YEAR IN PHARMACEUTICAL ENGINEERING « MedImmune Social Media Press Room

MedImmune, the global biologics arm of AstraZeneca, today announced that the company’s expansion project at its Frederick, Md., Manufacturing Center (FMC) won the International Society for Pharmaceutical Engineering’s overall 2011 Facility of the Year Award.  This is the first time MedImmune has won this prestigious internationally renowned accolade.    

The annual Facility of the Year Awards (FOYA), sponsored by the ISPE, INTERPHEX and Pharmaceutical Processing magazine, recognizes state-of-the-art projects utilizing new, innovative technologies to improve the quality of products, reduce the cost of producing high-quality medicines, and demonstrate advances in project delivery.

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Human Genome Sciences sets acquisition deadline – Pharmaceutical Technology

US biotechnology firm Human Genome Sciences (HGS) has set a deadline of 16 July 2012 for offers to acquire the company, but has failed to tempt GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) into the process.

HGS has undertaken the strategic alternative review to sound out potential buyers who now have until the deadline to submit definitive proposals to purchase all outstanding common shares in the company.

The company adopted the strategy immediately after GSK made its offer to acquire HGS, valuing the company at $2.6bn.

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Academics, entrepreneurs represent Md. at BIO MDBIZNews

Each year, the University of Maryland business development team looks forward to spending three days in early summer at arguably the most significant annual event for the life sciences industry: the BIO International Convention. Held this year in Boston, the convention brings together industry executives with corporate and academic scientists in an ideal forum for networking and marketing within the biotech industry.

The audience is ideal for the work of the university, the BioPark and the state. One of our primary objectives as attendees and exhibitors is to market the pipeline of UM bioscience technologies available for licensing. Over the course of the convention, one-on-one partnering sessions will allow our tech transfer team to conduct as many as 20 key meetings to market therapeutics; vaccines; drug targets in oncology, neurodegenerative disorders, autoimmune disorders, infectious disease; and devices. We’ll also engage with existing bioscience and pharma partners to promote and expand funding of research and clinical trial contracts with UM’s bioscience faculty and clinicians. Our final focus will be marketing the BioPark as an ideal location for bioscience companies and promoting the Park’s existing base of nearly two dozen bioscience companies. Several existing tenant companies, including Paragon Biosciences, SNBL, Vigilant Bioservices, Gliknik and Ablitech will join us at the show.

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JHU Center for Biotechnology Education Hosts Inaugural Bioentrepreneurship Education Conference

The Johns Hopkins Center for Biotechnology Education (CBE) welcomed more than 20 academicians onto campus last weekend for the 1st Annual International Bioentrepreneurship Education Conference (BEC). During the one-day event, bioentrepreneurship education leaders from as far away as South Africa, South Wales, Sweden and Denmark – as well as a number of stateside leaders – met to share information and assess where bioentrepreneurship education currently stands.

One of the biggest takeaways: Similar to entrepreneurs, academic leaders are concerned about funding resources. In the case of academia, the concern was identifying resources that can help support these exciting, and in many cases, new programs.

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University of Baltimore gets $1M gift from Go Daddy founder Bob Parsons – Baltimore Business Journal

University of Baltimore is getting a new digital communication program, courtesy of a $1 million donation from Go Daddy founder and UB alum Bob Parsons.

The gift will establish a new professorship in digital communication and support on-campus and online lectures by Parsons.

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Startup Maryland to host biz plan competition MDBIZNews

The entrepreneur support and advocacy group founded this spring will crisscross the state on a two-and-a-half-week bus tour in September. The trip starts Sept. 11 with a trek to Ocean City and is scheduled to wrap up Sept. 28 in Howard County after canvassing the rest of the state.

At stops along the way, Startup Maryland will roll out the first round of its business pitch competition. Organizers said they are still working out how much prize money will be distributed and how it will be divvied up.

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Johns Hopkins Medicine Awarded $19.9M Innovation Grant from CMS for its J-CHiP Program

The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, in collaboration with the Johns Hopkins Health System (together known as Johns Hopkins Medicine, or JHM), has been awarded a $19.9 million grant by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), over a three-year period, to improve the quality and efficiency of health care delivered to JHM patients.

The grant is part of CMS’s $1 billion Healthcare Innovation Challenge, a competitive initiative that seeks to identify and support innovative opportunities to improve care delivery and achieve its three-part aim of “improving the individual experience of care, improving the health of populations, and reducing the per capita costs of care for populations.”

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New video game from MdBio targets biotech’s next-generation work force

Trying to meet the future work force where it is, some Maryland biotech executives are backing a unique strategy to help market an educational video game to students.

A version of one game, developed by Hunt Valley gaming company BreakAway Ltd., is being previewed at the annual Biotechnology Industry Organization International Convention this week in Boston. The MdBio Foundation, an affiliate of the Tech Council of Maryland, will offer the game to science teachers free of charge beginning next year, with help from financial partners.

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MedStartr Thinks Crowdfunding Will Work For Med-Tech – Venture Capital Dispatch – WSJ

Crowdfunding—the new, hip way to raise money for early-stage technologies and interesting projects—has found a happy home in the world of high-tech, where many people are eager to experiment with new models and new approaches.

But can the same model work for the much stodgier health-care industry?

The founders of MedStartr, a crowdfunding platform for medical technologies, say that it will. On the 4th of July, the site will go live, with dozens of health-related technologies and services looking for benefactors.

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Pharma Seeks a Drug Discovery Fix  – Technology Review

The drug discovery business is going through tough times. Drug candidates aren’t moving through the pharmaceutical industry’s pipelines fast enough. Meanwhile, entrepreneurs struggle to get the funding they need to bring their new ideas to fruition. These issues are driving new alliances and partnerships between academic researchers, venture capitalists, and big pharma, but whether the new models will solve the problem was a question on the minds of many of the 15,000 attendees at this week’s BIO International Convention in Boston.

The themes are familiar: venture capitalists are limiting their investments in biotech, in part because it’s hard for fledgling life-science companies to go public, and although big pharma is desperate for innovative ideas and depends heavily on small biotechs for new drug candidates, these larger companies don’t want to take on risky, early-stage projects. The new alliances, some of which involve direct collaborations between pharmaceutical companies and academics, are a response to what one panelist called this "crisis."

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Where digital deals are done: A list of digital health investments by state

At least 68 “big” deals — investments of at least $2 million — have been done in digital health so far in 2012, according to a new report by the healthcare accelerator Rock Health. Nineteen states were in on the action.

Not so surprising, California lead the way in both the number of deals done and the overall investment. And traditional healthcare investing strongholds like Massachusetts were among those that did the most deals. But there were lesser known regions involved as well that invested significant dollars and did a notable number of deals, namely Texas, Illinois, Georgia and Connecticut.

Here’s a list of every region that did digital health deals so far this year.

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These are the 5 biggest digital health investments in 2012 (so far)

At least 68 digital health companies have raised $2 million or more so far this year for a total of $675 million in digital health investments, according to a new report by healthcare accelerator Rock Health.

Look closer, though. Five companies accounted for nearly 40 percent of those total dollars.

It’s clear that patient shopping tools and home health technologies are where the big bets are going. Here’s the breakdown of the Big 5 deals.

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Submitting an SBIR/STTR to NIH? Find the Right “House” | BBC’s Blog

If you are planning to submit an SBIR/STTR proposal to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) before the August 5 deadline, one of your first considerations should be which of its many Institutes/Centers (IC) will be a fit for your project.

The NIH is an umbrella organization with 27 Institutes/Centers within its purview. Even though you submit a single SBIR/STTR application to NIH, your application is typically “housed” in one of the ICs after funding decisions are made. The program managers at each of the ICs are able to provide some feedback on the fit between your SBIR/STTR project and the IC. So here are two BBC tips to get you started.

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Industry Experts Recruited to Grow Bioscience Companies in St. Louis

Four new Entrepreneurs In Residence (EIRs) have joined the BioGenerator, a nonprofit subsidiary of BioSTL, to create, lead, and support new bioscience companies St. Louis. The EIRs will work with existing start-up companies across the region to further their growth and with researchers and entrepreneurs to launch new enterprises.

In just the last two years, BioGenerator’s new programs for pre-seed funding (Spark Fund and i6 Project) and shared laboratory facilities (Accelerator Labs), along with its historical seed funding program, have supported the creation of 17 new bioscience companies in St. Louis, validating the rich supply of bioscience innovation locally. These new EIRs will help to advance the growth of existing companies and assist in the creation of additional regional startups.

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Biotech Tesaro sets terms for $81 million US IPO – NASDAQ.com

Tesaro, a biotech focused on the treatment of chemotherapy-induced symptoms, announced terms for its IPO on Tuesday. The Waltham, MA-based company plans to raise $81 million by offering 6.0 million shares at a price range of $12 to $15. At the midpoint of the proposed range, Tesaro would command a market value of $360 million.

The company’s lead product candidate, rolapitant, is in Phase 3 trials, the results of which are expected in the 2H13. No revenue has been generated to date. Venture capital firms New Enterprise Associates, InterWest Partners and Kleiner Perkins will hold 39%, 10% and 7% post-IPO stakes, respectively. Certain undisclosed insiders have expressed an interest in purchasing approximately $25 million of stock in connection with the offering.

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BioHealth Innovation, Inc. Names Richard Bendis President & Chief Executive Officer

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 its Board of Directors has named former Interim CEO Richard Bendis as the organization’s first President & Chief Executive Officer.

Scott Carmer, BioHealth Innovation, Inc. Chairman of the Board and Executive Vice President of Commercial Operations at MedImmune, said, "The Board unanimously supported the appointment of Rich Bendis as BHI’s President and CEO. As the interim CEO, Rich has been instrumental in establishing BHI, securing significant private and public sector support and funding, and developing and executing on long- and short-term strategic goals. Rich possesses unique knowledge and experience that will allow him to continue BHI’s tremendous momentum to accelerate biohealth commercialization opportunities for Central Maryland."

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MedImmune CEO Peter Greenleaf, Human Genome Sciences CEO Tom Watkins, Montgomery County, Maryland Executive Isiah Leggett Come Together

The Montgomery County Department of Economic Development will host a press event highlighting the nation’s first local biotech investment incentive program, initiated by Montgomery County government, the role local biotech entrepreneurs, many from County-based federal labs like NIH and FDA, play in the success of the sector and a new, regional, industry-sector led intermediary created to bolster technology transfer into commercial success during the BIO International Convention in Boston.

WHEN: Tuesday, June 19, 2012 from 3:00-4:30pm EDT.

WHERE: The Boston Convention and Exhibition Center, MA – Maryland Pavilion

WHAT: Press event featuring: MedImmune CEO Peter Greenleaf discussing the growth and success of that company in Montgomery County and that company’s leading role in supporting the newly formed BioHealth Innovation, Inc. (BHI) – an industry-lead biotech intermediary; Human Genome Sciences CEO Tom Watkins discussing the growth and success of that company in Montgomery County and the supportive local government and innovative initiatives and policies that support the sector; Montgomery County Executive Isiah Leggett discussing the success of the County’s local biotech investment incentive program and BHI Board Chair Scott Carmer, Executive Vice President, Commercial Operations for MedImmune and BHI CEO Rich Bendis discussing the early initiatives and successes of that new regional entity in bolstering the success of the region’s biotech sector.

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Human Genome sets deadline for buyout offers – CBS News

Biotech drugmaker Human Genome Sciences Inc. is giving all bidders until July 16 to submit their final buyout offers and appealed to GlaxoSmithKline PLC to participate even though its prior bid was rejected.

The Rockville, Md.-based company said Friday that it is committed to exploring its strategic options.

Human Genome rejected the British pharmaceutical giant’s $13 per share offer last month, saying it was inadequate. At that time the company also adopted a "poison pill" shareholder rights plan in order to ward off any unsolicited takeover bids.

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Maryland entrepreneurs urge culture change – MDBIZNews

A panel of entrepreneurs told the Maryland Economic Development Commission on Tuesday that Maryland needs to commercialize more discoveries made in academic and government labs and improve the entrepreneurial culture if the state hopes to compete with traditional hubs of innovation.

“You ain’t gonna replicate Silicon Valley and Boston in many places around the world. What Maryland has is unrivaled research assets that, basically, most states cannot compete with,” said Rich Bendis, interim CEO of BioHealth Innovation Inc. “The difference is, we’re talking about culture. It’s the entrepreneurial culture that’s different in those other cities.”

Bendis said Maryland’s stature is improving in the eyes of entrepreneurs and those tasked with supporting startups.

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U. of Maryland to Count Patents and Commercialization in Tenure Reviews – Administration – The Chronicle of Higher Education

The University System of Maryland is about to adopt a new policy to formally give credit in tenure and promotion decisions for faculty work that leads to patents and other intellectual property applied in technology transfer.

The new policy, slated for final Board of Regents approval on June 23, is part of the system’s broader push to promote the commercialization of academic research.

Maryland institutions receive a lot of research money but have been "very run of the mill" when it comes to transforming that research into useful products and services, said William E. (Brit) Kirwan, chancellor of the system, in an interview on Wednesday. "The culture of commercializing intellectual property just hasn’t existed in Maryland."

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MdBio Foundation to Launch National Gaming Initiative to Improve U.S. STEM Education – MarketWatch

In response to the declining state of science education in America, MdBio Foundation, Inc. today announced it will provide science teachers and students nationwide with an innovative and immersive educational video game platform free of charge beginning in 2013. The online platform, called MdBioSphere(TM), seeks to advance student comprehension in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) and revitalize student interest in science-related careers through the use of innovative gaming technology. The serious game is being developed by Hunt Valley, Md.-based BreakAway, Ltd., and will be previewed at the BIO International Convention (June 18-21, 2012, Booth 0753 in the Maryland Pavilion) in Boston.

"The Foundation believes that creating a globally-competitive U.S. workforce begins in the classroom," said J.J. Finkelstein, chairman of the MdBio Foundation. "The MdBioSphere platform, which will be the first serious game platform to be mapped to the new U.S. science education standards, can be a breakthrough application that helps inspire the next generation of scientists that America needs if we are to compete in the 21st century. The MdBioSphere platform merges the captivating elements of online gaming with educationally-driven STEM curricula to deliver an exciting classroom experience that enriches both students and teachers."

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InvestMaryland preps to dole out $56M to venture capital firms – Washington Business Journal

Maryland officials are preparing to dole out the first investments of the $84 million InvestMaryland program this summer, but they must first whittle down a list of 37 venture capital firm applicants to about half a dozen.

The funding will essentially make the state a limited partner in five to eight VC firms, which will be tasked with routing the funds back into Maryland tech and biotech startups in a traditional VC role. A list of recommended firms is due to be released later this month.

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NCATS Funding Opportunities for Industry Partnerships to Develop Repurposed Drugs

NCATS at the NIH has released two RFAs on Discovering New Therapeutic Uses for Existing Molecules (UH2/UH3).  Applications are due on December 17, 2012.  

The National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) seeks to develop a therapeutics discovery pilot program that will explore new therapeutic uses for proprietary drug candidates (Agents) across a broad range of human diseases. This innovative program will match Agents and associated data from pharmaceutical company partners with the best ideas for new therapeutic uses from the biomedical research community.

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Loh Launches UMD Innovation Outreach to Taiwan, Korea :: University Communications Newsdesk, University of Maryland

University of Maryland President Wallace Loh is extending his Asia strategy with an innovation tour of Taiwan and South Korea. In his third trip to the region, Loh is laying the groundwork for new research and educational partnerships through sessions with high-level government, industry and academic officials.

Follow Loh’s live blog from Asia: http://ter.ps/vt

"Science and education transcend borders," Loh says. "A premier innovation and entrepreneurship university needs to operate in a global context today if it is to serve the state and the nation. By building new research collaborations, bringing Asian companies to our international incubator, and fostering intercontinental student exchanges, we keep Maryland plugged into the economic and intellectual currents."

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HHS names Sivak new chief technology officer – Washington Business Journal

The Department of Health and Human Services has named Brian Sivak as the department’s next chief technology officer, according to Federal News Radio.

Sivak, currently chief innovation officer for Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley and the former chief technology officer for the District of Columbia, will join HHS next month and also serve as tech entrepreneur-in-residence.

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University of Maryland continues cyber push with Northrop partnership – Washington Business Journal

Thanks in part to its proximity to the federal government, the University of Maryland has shaped itself into one of the few institutions that specialize in cybersecurity — contributing its own resources, while also relying on financial contributions and expertise from the Washington area’s biggest government contractors.

The university’s latest announcement came Monday from Falls Church-based Northrop Grumman Corp. , which will provide UMd. a $1.1 million grant to create the nation’s first cybersecurity honors program for undergraduates, dubbed the Advanced Cybersecurity Experience for Students. The program will kick off this fall, and Northrop will support it for an additional two years.

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Shady Grove Office Center lands Tech Council of Maryland headquarters – Washington Business Journal

The Tech Council of Maryland has moved into its new headquarters in the Shady Grove Office Center, Citybizlist.com reports.

The new location, at 9210 Corporate Blvd. in Rockville, is a short distance from the Tech Council’s previous offices on Key West Avenue. The group has more than 400 biotechnology and technology members.

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PhaseBio Pharmaceuticals Closes $48.4M Series B -peHUB

PhaseBio Pharmaceuticals Inc., a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing drugs to treat diabetes, metabolic disease and cardiovascular disease, has closed its Series B round with a total of $48.4 million, the company announced. The round closed after a third tranche.

PhaseBio is backed by New Enterprise Associates, Astellas Venture Management, Johnson & Johnson Development Corp., Hatteras Venture Partners and Fletcher Spaght Ventures.

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Lynn-Ann Gries: With Organized Angels on Their Side, Can Start-ups Really Start Up Anywhere in the Country?

Raise your hand if you realized the Midwest has become a hotbed of angel group activity — and a well-respected resource of nationally respected investment knowledge. This spring, Tony Shipley represented the Angel Capital Association, a professional alliance of angel groups in the United States and Canada, in front of a Congressional subcommittee discussing equity finance as a catalyst for small business growth. The software entrepreneur, who founded the Cincinnati-based angel network, Queen City Angels= in 2000, testified about the financial and intellectual capital angel investors provide, while making suggestions on how Congress can use legislation and public policy to bolster the entrepreneurial ecosystem.

Shipley’s presence at this meeting illustrates the growing national attention given to Midwest angels, who are making the region a hub for innovation. According to the 2011 HALO Report, 79 percent of angel group investments occurred outside of traditional funding mecca California. Of these investments, the Great Lakes region received the biggest proportion of them — 15.9 percent, a percentage greater than the shares of innovation-rich regions such as New England and the Southeast.

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Maryland’s 18 Most Promising Incubator Companies – Citybizlist Baltimore

The 12th Annual Maryland Incubator Company of the Year Awards, supported by the Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development (DBED), the Maryland Technology Development Corporation (TEDCO), McGladrey, Inc. and Saul Ewing, is coming up.

The ceremony will recognize the achievement and potential among 18 current and graduate companies within Maryland’s incubator network. Chris Brandenburg from Millennial Media, who received the 2008 information technology Incubator Company of the Year award, will be the keynote speaker. The event will also feature technology demonstrations by the finalist companies.

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UMBC Incubator Gets New Cyber Security Firms

The incubator at University of Maryland, Baltimore County has gotten an influx of new tenants, the majority of whom are responding to the increased demand for cyber security. 

bwtech@UMBC Research and Technology Park currently hosts 86 incubator and early-stage tenants and 14 affiliated companies and organizations, according to Gregory Simmons, the park’s vice president for institutional advancement.

Of the tenants, nearly 20 have joined the park in the past 18 months alone. They include Fearless Solutions, Rogue Technology, AIS (Assured Information Security) Inc., all of which are in the cyber security field.  Simmons says that most of the new tenants are also in that field, often in the area of securing data and networks, in medical, defense and financial services, among others.

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Immunomic Therapeutics’ CEO, Dr. William G. Hearl, to Present at 2012 BIO International in June

Immunomic Therapeutics, Inc., ("ITI") a privately-held biotechnology company with laboratories in Rockville, MD, announced that it has been accepted to present at the Business Forum during the 2012 Bio International Convention. ITI’s CEO, Bill Hearl, will present progress in internal development of LAMP-vax™ vaccines as well as opportunities for co-development.

JRC-LAMP-vax vaccine incorporates Immunomic Therapeutics’ proprietary LAMP Technology™. LAMP (Lysosomal Associated Membrane Protein) is a normal and important component of the immune system that is present in the lysosome of all mammals. Incorporating LAMP Technology into vaccine design enables direct presentation of

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Immunomic Therapeutics Receives IND Authorization from FDA for Phase I Study of Japanese Red Cedar LAMP-vax Vaccine

Immunomic Therapeutics, Inc., ("ITI," Lancaster, PA) a privately-held biotechnology company with laboratories in Rockville, MD, announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has completed its review of the Investigational New Drug Application ("IND") filed for the allergy immunotherapy, JRC- LAMP-vax™.  On April 12th, the FDA notified ITI that there will be no clinical hold and that ITI may now proceed with its clinical trial in June for JRC-LAMP-vax in Atlanta with subjects sensitive to Japanese Red Cedar pollen.

JRC-LAMP-Vax is a plasmid-based DNA vaccine that will be studied for the treatment of patients with rhino-conjunctivitis (runny nose) symptoms caused by allergic reaction to Japanese red cedar pollen. Almost 45% of the Japanese people are allergic to Japanese red cedar pollen. In North America, there is allergic rhinitis to mountain cedar pollen, which is 80% cross-reactive with Japanese red cedar pollen allergen.  ITI intends to partner with a Japanese pharmaceutical company for studies in Japan and will seek FDA approval of the vaccine in the US.

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Morning Read: VC sees opportunities in areas where Pharma is pulling back

Counter-intuitive as it may be, investing in areas that pharma is abandoning could yield great returns for investors. Just look at anti-bacterials in the ’90s and 2000s, says VC Bruce Booth in a Forbes column. So where should investors be looking today? Neuroscience, heart failure and obesity.

The shortage of cancer drugs that’s plagued hospitals for almost two years now has eased, although not completely, according to cancer doctors.

A recent study by Johns Hopkins researchers brings a reality check to the potential (and the limits) of genome sequencing in predicting disease.

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To Neuroscience Drug Discovery and Preclinical Development Researchers:

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Government Unveils First Map Of All The Germs In The Human Body – Forbes

Today, in two of the world’s top medical journals, scientists are publishing the results of a $173 million government-funded project to sequence the vast bulk of bacteria, fungi, and viruses in and on the human body.

The results might at first seem anticlimactic. There’s no news about which germs cause or prevent disease, or even a clear message about how they make people different from one another. What we know is there are a lot of them. We have ten times as many microbial cells in our body as human ones, and though they are tiny, that still means that a 200-pound man is carrying two to six pounds of microbes, mostly bacteria. And there are tantalizing hints that they might play a role in all sorts of diseases. Patients who are at risk for difficult-to-treat hospital infections might have a particular kind of bacteria in their digestive systems; those who are obese might have another; children who can’t get enough nutrition might have a third.

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Opinion: What’s Wrong with COI? | The Scientist

Advances in medical and surgical care are hard-won. They require rigorous, carefully interpreted laboratory research. Equally important is the painstaking clinical work to translate basic discoveries into useful diagnostics, drugs, and devices.  Despite the odds, the achievements made in the past half century are unmistakable: a 50 percent reduction in cardiovascular mortality despite an epidemic of obesity; a dramatically decreased cancer mortality rate; and the conversion of AIDS from a death sentence to survival with good life quality.

The key to such success has been the growing number and complexity of collaborations between academics, physicians, regulatory agencies, and—not least—industry. Unfortunately, over the past 20 years, a mania has taken hold that discounts the social value of collaboration and has mounted an inquisition against it, encapsulated by the epithet “financial conflict of interest (fCOI).” Critics’ unwarranted allegations that such conflicts cause bias have limited the sources of intellect that can contribute to a given project.

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CMS ANNOUNCES PRIVATE-SECTOR COMMITMENTS TO IMPROVE PRIMARY CARE FOR PATIENTS, SAVE MONEY FOR MEDICARE

In a strong show of support for more effective, more affordable, higher quality health care, 45 commercial, federal and State insurers in seven markets today pledged to work with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to give more Americans access to quality health care at lower cost.

Under the Comprehensive Primary Care initiative, CMS will pay primary care practices a care management fee, initially set at an average of $20 per beneficiary per month, to support enhanced, coordinated services.  Simultaneously, participating commercial, State, and other federal insurance plans are also offering an enhanced payment to primary care practices that provide high-quality primary care.  

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NCI: SBIR & STTR – Resource Center – Innovative Partnerships for Commercializing Health IT

The National Cancer Institute (NCI) recently announced a new Program Announcement, aimed at accelerating the development and commercialization of consumer health information technology products that translate the behavioral and communication science evidence base for the prevention and control of cancer and other chronic diseases. The NCI and the National Library of Medicine (a co-funding partner) are interested in supporting the development and dissemination of evidence-based health information technology (health IT) products that have the potential to:

• Prevent or reduce the risk of cancer 
• Facilitate patient-provider communication and/or 
• Improve disease outcomes in consumer and clinical settings

A non-exclusive list of product examples relevant to the FOA are provided below.

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HHS harnesses the power of health data to improve health

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), along with the Institute of Medicine (IoM) and other members of the Health Data Consortium, are co-hosting the third annual “Datapalooza” focusing on innovative applications and services that harness the power of open data from HHS and other sources to help improve health and health care.

The Health Data Initiative Forum III is featuring more than 100 new or updated solutions, up from 45 solutions last year, that help serve the needs of consumers, health care providers, employers, public health leaders, and policy makers.

“The innovators present today are a great example of how data and technology can be used in powerful ways to help consumers and providers improve health,” said HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. “We’re not just creating new technology, but we’re empowering Americans to make better decisions about health and health care by putting information at their fingertips.”

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Judge sides with HGS on poison pill

The latest chapter in Human Genome Sciences’ battle to fend off a hostile takeover bid by British pharma giant GlaxoSmithKline played out in a Rockville courtroom Thursday morning.

A Montgomery County Circuit Court judge shot down an HGS shareholder’s request for a temporary restraining order to invalidate the “poison pill” the Rockville biotech enacted last month to make it a less attractive acquisition target.

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Johns Hopkins’ High Tech Hospital: Interview with President Ronald R. Peterson

Johns Hopkins has had many milestones since it first opened its hospital in Baltimore in 1889. It pioneered the acceptance of women to medical school and the use of rubber gloves in surgery, discovered restriction enzymes and the brain’s natural opiates, birthed multiple medical specialties including neurosurgery and pediatrics, and developed life-saving procedures such as renal dialysis, CPR, and the “blue baby” operation that paved the way for modern heart surgery. May marked another major milestone for the nation’s best hospital for 21 years in a row: the opening of its brand new high-tech clinic.

We had the opportunity to sit down with The Johns Hopkins Hospital and Health System’s President, Ronald R. Peterson, to discuss their new clinical building. Peterson has an impressive and storied background at Johns Hopkins, which is why he’s ideally positioned to talk about the milestone.

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Montgomery County Innovation Network

If you are an emerging advanced technology, life sciences or professional services company or a foreign business looking for a soft landing in the U.S. market, the Business Innovation Network of Montgomery County, Maryland has the perfect place for you.  The Innovation Network business incubators are located throughout Montgomery County adjacent to Washington, D.C.  with its talented workforce and strategic access to the federal and commercial marketplace, all in a sophisticated, diverse community. The Network was founded by the Montgomery County Department of Economic Development in 1999 with the opening of the Shady Grove Innovation Center and specializes in helping young companies realize their potential.  Since its inception the Business Innovation Network has worked with over 250 teams of entrepreneurs and graduated about 100 companies. Over the last 10 years the Network has grown to five business incubation centers that offer the critical combination of highly flexible, modern office and lab space and business support services. 

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MedImmune creates new Cambridge hothouse

MedImmune in Cambridge UK is reaching out to academics and biotech companies in a bid to improve the industry’s poor neuroscience track record.

Together with AstraZeneca in Boston, Massachusetts, MedImmune – the global biologics unit of AstraZeneca – is setting up a collaborative unit at its Granta Park HQ with the aim of producing drugs to treat neurodegenerative conditions, long term pain and neuropsychiatric conditions.

Iain Chessell, vice-president R & D Neuroscience said: “There have been no new approvals of completely novel mechanisms for treating pain for at least a decade – if not more – and current treatment only works in a third to half of patients.

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Why we need a Federal Lab Innovation Authority: Unlocking Our Federal Lab Resources for Economic Growth

Below is an editorial suggesting the nation could become more economically competitive by helping remove barriers to connect our federal lab technology, human and physical resources to the private sector. Without question, Maryland has the most to gain from this national initiative. We are home to the nation’s largest concentration of federal laboratories and many federal lab researchers live in Maryland. To its credit, the state has launched new programs to support commercialization and partnering among the state’s considerable academic research and development assets. Since federal labs are creatures of federal legislation, these efforts need to extend to federal labs, augmented with federal policy reforms. Now is the time for the state to lead the Maryland Congressional delegation, working with other state congressional delegations, to work on a bi-partisan basis to enact pathways for better connecting the human, physical and technology assets of our federal labs with their regions.

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InvestMaryland Forum

Thursday, June 14, 2012 from 10:00 AM to 12:00 PM (ET)
Rockville, MD

A free and open forum to:

• Discuss InvestMaryland implementation progress and investment strategy
• Detail state venture funding resources to seed and early-stage companies
• Address questions from the business community

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Rockville Economic Development Inc. appoints executive director

Laurie Boyer, president of the Maryland Economic Development Association, is the new executive director of Rockville Economic Development Inc.

Boyer has more than 15 years of government and economic development experience, according to a statement from REDI.

She served more than five years as director of the Frederick County Office of Economic Development and earned her certified economic developer designation from the International Economic Development Council in 2006.

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BioPulse – New cancer center breaks ground

The State of Maryland’s Pulse on the Bio Industry.

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Fulfilling the promise of bioscience: report from Milken Institute outlines steps for overcoming barriers to innovation in medical research

It’s been almost a decade since the Human Genome Project was completed, yet despite the best efforts of thousands of scientists around the world, hopes for cures for a wide range of diseases remain unfulfilled.

Last fall, a remarkable group of leaders came together to find new ways of overcoming the barriers that have prevented more progress in medical research. A report from the Milken Institute, released today, Accelerating Innovation in the Bioscience Revolution, recaps the discussions from that gathering – the 2011 Milken Institute Lake Tahoe Retreat.

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The Johns Hopkins University Names New Carey Business School Dean

Bernard T. “Bernie” Ferrari, an accomplished corporate strategist and management consultant to Fortune 50 companies, has been named the next dean of The Johns Hopkins University’s Carey Business School.

Ferrari, whose appointment is effective July 1, is the second dean to lead the Carey Business School since it was established in 2007. He succeeds Yash P. Gupta who stepped down last June.

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iTEC Webinar Series – Research Commercialization and SBIR Center

Private Sector Entrepreneur-in-Residence Program in partnership with the NIH/OTT Monday, June 11, 12:00 pm to 12:30pm ET

Presenters: Richard Bendis Founding President and CEO Innovation America and Mark L. Rohrbaugh, Ph.D., J.D. Director Office of Technology Transfer National Institutes of Health Department of Health and Human Services

BioHealth Innovation, Inc.’s (BHI) Entrepreneur-in-Residence (EIR) program is designed to be an active partner with research institutions to source, fund, and grow high-potential, early-stage products through project-focused companies. The entrepreneurs in the program support the formation of new companies based upon innovative discoveries in the areas of drugs, vaccines, therapeutics, diagnostics, and medical devices from the intramural research programs at the NIH and Food and Drug Administration (FDA), as well as from universities and businesses. The EIR will find, evaluate, and support the development of new start-up companies based upon technology license agreements from technology transfer offices or equivalent units within the research institutions.

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Demand for Biotech Tax Breaks | The Scientist

United States Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ) has introduced legislation that will revive the Therapeutic Discovery Project Tax Credit, which funneled $1 billion in tax breaks and grants to biotech companies across America in 2010. The program impacted about 3,000 small US companies that year. “Biotech labs employ dedicated scientists and researchers, whose discoveries could lead to a ground-breaking cures for cancer, diabetes, Alzheimer’s, or HIV/AIDS,” Menendez said in a statement released last week. “Manufacturing these breakthrough therapies is already creating thousands of high-paying jobs, and extending this critical tax credit will not only create more good jobs here in America, but keep us at the forefront of life-saving innovation.”

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Academic and Tech Transfer Community to be Spotlighted at the 2012 BIO International Convention

Universities have historically been on the front lines of translating innovative research into novel medicines and technologies useful to patients. With that in mind, the 2012 BIO International Convention will look to highlight the role of academia in the advancement of the biotechnology field through the BIO Academic Park and the Translational Research Forum. Hosted by the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO), this year’s global event for biotechnology will take place June 18-21, 2012 at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center in Boston, MA.

"The BIO Academic Park will give Convention attendees the opportunity to connect and start conversations that could lead to partnerships, and most importantly, establish a tighter link between academic, industry representatives and investors," said Dr. Abigail Barrow, Founding Director of the Massachusetts Technology Transfer Center and Program Co-Chair of the 2012 BIO International Convention.

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Why doctors won’t stop PSA testing anytime soon

Johns Hopkins researchers say it’s going to be a hard sell to get physicians to stop screening healthy men routinely for prostate cancer with PSA testing, despite recommendations from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) that the cancer screening does more harm than good.

Patient expectations, malpractice fears cited The researchers surveyed physicians, 74.4% of whom said patients expect PSA testing.

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The “Valley of Death” Looms for 8 Kids with a Rare Disease | Guest Blog, Scientific American Blog Network

The pharmaceutical industry rightly calls the stage in drug development between basic research and clinical trials the “Valley of Death.” This is when a potential treatment that’s worked in mice, monkeys, and the like catapults to a phase 1 clinical trial to assess safety. It’s rare.

Francis Collins, MD, PhD, director of the National Institutes of Health, calls this period “where projects go to die.” The reason: $.

Matthew Herper writes in Forbes that the cost of developing a new drug is $4-11 billion, not the $1 billion that Pharma often claims. Yet even that $1 billion is unimaginable, especially when you put a face on a rare disease and witness what the family goes through to leap to phase 1.

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Lilly invests in $150 million Canada life sciences fund

Eli Lilly is participating in a new investment fund which will focus primarily on early-stage drug development opportunities in Canada as a whole and Quebec in particular.

The fund, which will be operated by investment investment group TVM Capital, will have an initial size of $150 million. As well as Lilly, other backers include Teralys Capital (which is putting in $65 million), BDC Venture Capital, Fondaction and Advantus Capital Management.

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Accelerator Looks to Expand, With an Eye on the Big Apple | Xconomy

Accelerator, the venture-backed biotech startup machine, has made its name over the past decade as a hotspot for financing life sciences companies in Seattle with big dreams and potential. Now it’s considering expanding its model for starting biotech companies in other life science clusters around the world, including New York.

Plans are still in the exploratory stage, but the idea is that Accelerator would remain headquartered in Seattle and build a network of satellite labs in four or five other locations around the world, says Carl Weissman, the co-founder and CEO of Accelerator. Accelerator’s existing venture backers, and some potential new investors, have expressed interest in a more far-reaching version of Accelerator, Weissman says.

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Rock Health reveals six startups for its Boston class | mobihealthnews

San Francisco-based digital health incubator Rock Health revealed the six startups that will take part in its “pop up” incubator in Boston this summer. The Boston program is a bit different from those that took place at Rock Health headquarters in California: Those were five-month long spring and fall programs and the Boston program’s duration will be just under three months. The startups will present at a demo day on August 24, 2012. Harvard Medical School will play host to Rock Health’s third class and the institution’s community of clinicians and industry experts will work with the startups to refine their strategy.

Here’s how Rock Health describes the six startups (we had only heard of one previously) in its first Boston class:

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Events: Boston by the Numbers

BIO International Convention organizers are hoping for the usual surge in attendance provided by the Boston biotech community at the event scheduled for June 18-21 at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center. While it may not reach the 22,000 level achieved at the last Boston BIO in 2007, it should surpass the 15,600 who came to last year’s event in Washington, D.C. Exhibitors will occupy more than 215,000 sq. ft of exhibit space.

Attendance for the event has been off its historic highs since the Atlanta event in 2009 which drew about 14,000. Organizers attribute the drop that year to the H1N1 influenza epidemic which surfaced a few weeks before the convention and to the economic downturn. Attendance has been slowly recovering since 2009.

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Want Better Odds? Get a Pharma Corporate VC to Invest – Forbes

Pharma corporate venture was back in the biotech news today with the release of Burrill & Company’s June 2012 report.  An interesting article by Vinay Singh evaluated the impact of Pharma corporate venture capital (CVC) investing, and the key takeaway is that CVC-backed companies have a higher rate of overall success than those without their involvement.

While a similar takeway has been published before by Windhover’s StartUp about a year ago, these data suggests a fairly robust effect from a large dataset.  The analysis includes 2907 therapeutics companies that raised venture capital dollars between 2000-2010 across 5100 rounds of financing.  Corporate VCs were investors about 10% of companies, and this pool of 286 companies had what appears to be a markedly higher hit rate: a ~60% higher rate of licensing deals, M&As and IPOs. 

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Physicians still use mobile for support, not so much with patients yet | mobihealthnews

Smartphone adoption among physicians has started to level but there’s been an “explosion” of adoption in tablets, Manhattan Research’s VP of Research Monique Levy said during a recent webinar. Levy said that Manhattan’s survey of physicians in the US found that 62 percent now have some kind of tablet device, almost twice as many as last year.

“I still cannot believe some of this data. I had to double and triple check it because it is just astounding,” Levy said. The majority of these tablet toting doctors are iPad owners, but even among that group Levy was surprised to find that even they are planning to buy an additional tablet device in the next few months.

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Who’s on Biotech’s Endangered Species List? Mid-Sized Drug Developers | Xconomy

Only a few companies have ever been successful enough to call themselves Big Biotechs. If boards and shareholders lack vision and guts, we’ll look back in few years and wonder why the Big Biotechs went extinct.

The group of Big Biotechs includes companies like Amgen, Gilead Sciences, Biogen Idec, and Celgene. They grew from scrappy venture-backed startups with a dream into big, independent, profitable, diversified enterprises. They have enduring ability to create new jobs and new medicines. They are like ballasts in a stormy industry.

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Cleveland Clinic to help Notre Dame commercialize medical innovations

Following on the heels of two hospitals, the University of Notre Dame has become the first university to strike a collaboration with Cleveland Clinic aimed at commercializing medical innovations from its faculty and researchers.

Through the collaboration, Cleveland Clinic Innovations will essentially do for Notre Dame what it does for the Clinic — help turn employee ideas into marketable products that generate financial returns for the organization.

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National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute to Establish NHLBI Centers for Accelerated Innovations

The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) intends to publish a Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) in the Spring 2012 NIH Guide for Grants and Contracts to establish Centers for Accelerated Innovations (CAI). The CAI will address the problems that hinder the critical early steps necessary to translate novel scientific advances and discoveries into commercially viable diagnostics, devices, therapeutics, and tools that improve patient care and advance public health.

The Need for Accelerated Innovation

Despite the remarkable success of NHLBI in enabling the development of interventions that have greatly reduced the health burdens due to cardiovascular, lung, blood and sleep disorders, much remains to be done. Cardiovascular and lung diseases still account for 3 of the 4 leading causes of death; 4 of the 10 leading causes of infant death; $392 billion in health care dollars, and 22% of the total economic costs of illness, injuries, and death.

Unfortunately, the pace of translating discoveries from NHLBI-supported research into medical products that can further reduce the public health burden of heart, lung, and blood (HLB) diseases appears to have slowed. Major pharmaceutical firms have announced their intention to abandon drug development efforts for cardiovascular diseases and venture capital and angel investors have shown a decreased interest in the healthcare and biotechnology sectors.

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Human Genome Sciences Board of Directors Unanimously Determines GlaxoSmithKline Unsolicited Tender Offer is Inadequate and Not in the Best Interests of Stockholders – MarketWatch

Human Genome Sciences, Inc.oday announced that its Board of Directors, after careful review and consideration with the assistance of the Company’s management and financial and legal advisors, has unanimously determined that the unsolicited tender offer from GlaxoSmithKline ("GSK") to acquire all outstanding common shares of HGS for $13.00 per share in cash (the "Offer") is inadequate, undervalues the Company and is not in the best interests of HGS and its stockholders.

Accordingly, the Board recommends that stockholders reject GSK’s tender offer and not tender any of their shares to GSK. The basis for the Board’s decision is set forth in the Schedule 14D-9 being filed by HGS today with the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"), which will also be mailed shortly to stockholders.

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Human Genome Sciences adopts stockholder rights plan – Baltimore Business Journal

Human Genome Sciences Inc, which has rejected a hostile $13-per-share offer from GlaxoSmithKline, has adopted a short-term stockholder rights plan to fend off such unwanted attention.

Rockville-based Human Genome (NASDAQ: HGSI) said in a statement announcing the plan that it had declared a dividend of one share purchase right for each share of the company’s common stock held of record at the close of business on May 29.

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Emergent gets FDA approval for modified vaccine dosing – Washington Business Journal

Rockville-based Emergent BioSolutions Inc. , which makes the only vaccine licensed by the Food and Drug Administration to protect against anthrax infection, has received FDA approval for a new, shorter-dosing schedule.

The new, supplemental biologics license application, follows trials to determine if the company’s BioThrax vaccine would be effective with as few as three doses over six months.

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United Therapeutics to Own Even More of Downtown Silver Spring

United Therapeutics, which has has greatly expanded their downtown Silver Spring presence as of late, is reportedly set to purchase from the county the parcel located at the corner of Colesville Rd. and Spring Street. The parking garage that current occupies this space abuts an existing UT building, and has been closed for some time due to safety issues. (Surprisingly, it has its own Yelp page. Who uses their limited time on Earth to rate a public parking garage?)

I’m a big fan of the existing United Therapeutics buildings, what with their skybridge and giant external TV’s and all. I also like the touch of the ground lights representing individual elements from the periodic table. The planning and construction of the new building could take five years (or more, because construction delays tend to happen around here), so we won’t be seeing it anytime soon. Hopefully they will choose to incorporate some street-level retail into their design.

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Osiris becomes first company to market stem-cell therapy – Baltimore Business Journal

Osiris Therapeutics Inc. in Columbia has become the world’s first company to receive market approval for a manufactured stem cell product.

Health Canada, the country’s department responsible for overseeing pharmaceuticals, approved for commercial sale Osiris’ Prochymal, which uses stem cells from healthy donors to treat a fatal children’s disease.

“While today marks the first approval of a stem cell drug, now that the door has been opened, it will surely not be the last,” Osiris CEO C. Randal Mills said.

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Global Perspective on Regional Collaboration

On any given weekend, there are countless community events throughout the Greater Washington region, many in ethnically diverse immigrant communities.  A Korean church service, an Indian American business conference, a Chinese choral concert and an Iranian Nowruz celebration, whether held in Maryland or Virginia, all draw crowds from the Region’s many counties and cities on both sides of the Potomac River.  These “new communities,” as we are often called, frequently travel across county and state lines to be connected with our own communities to worship, to learn, and to have a good time.  These activities and events add much vitality to local living.

The Washington Metropolitan area is one of the most transient metropolises in the country, with transplants and migrants defining and redefining much of the local demographic landscape.  In fact, in Montgomery County, where I live and work, one in three residents are from other countries and three out of four are from other states. What attracted many of us from other states or countries to this region was economic and career opportunities and a good quality of life afforded by a metropolitan area.  Immigrants like me have no roots in this country and will pursue opportunities wherever they are.

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Two INNoVATE Students Take First Place in Maryland Business Plan Competition ‹ Hopkins Happenings

When Adam Steele worked at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), he and two other colleagues invented a technology that Steele believed had commercial potential. But Steele, a physicist, didn’t have a business background. He said he had no idea how to take the technology out of the lab and build a company around it. His colleagues recommend he apply for the JHU Carey Business School INNoVATE program. He did so, and was soon accepted into the program’s Class of 2011.

Now he and fellow INNoVATE student Brenton Knuffman, who is one of the technology’s inventors, are quickly becoming a success story for the program. The duo, who both currently work for the University of Maryland NanoCenter, recently won first-place – and $10,000 – in the Maryland Technology Enterprise Institute’s 2012 Business Plan Competition in the Graduate Student, Faculty and Researchers Category.

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University of Maryland Hosts First UM Ventures Symposium on Entrepreneurship

The first symposium on "the notion of entrepreneurship" by the newly formed University of Maryland (UM) Ventures was a breakthrough event for technology collaboration between the Baltimore and College Park campuses, said Jay A. Perman, MD, president of the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB).

UM Ventures is a joint effort among the technology transfer offices at the two campuses and the entrepreneurial business services programs at College Park, and is a core initiative of the new collaboration called MPowering the State.

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Baltimore Fishbowl » Johns Hopkins’ Carey Business School Announces Major Shift

The Carey Business School, an offshoot of Johns Hopkins, has tended to be the institution’s least glamorous sister. Founded in 2007 (but with origins dating back a century before that) thanks to a $50 million donation from William Polk Carey, the freestanding school is too new to have established itself as an MBA powerhouse; instead of banking on a storied history, the program has opted to make its name through innovative programs. And now they’re revamping that system yet again.

The reorganization, announced this week, will shift the school’s focus to business as it relates to health care and the life sciences. The move seems like a smart one, both because Hopkins is such a medical powerhouse and because more and more business is happening in the health care arena.  “Health care is approaching 20 percent of the national gross domestic product, and it’s a key factor in the costs of any economic model, whether in manufacturing or services,” said the school’s interim Dean Phillip Phan. “Understanding the complexities of the modern health care industry is a crucial skill for any business manager. For those who manage in the health care sector, Johns Hopkins is the place to learn.”

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Q1 2012 DC Venture Capital Risk Tolerance – Forward Thinking

If you raised seed capital from a DC VC last quarter you are part of an exclusive club.  Only 3 firms raised seed capital from DC firms last quarter from VCs headquartered in our region and 2 of those companies got money from Virginia’s CIT. CIT is a state-sponsored fund chartered to make early stage investments and doesn’t represent the standard risk profile of a traditional VC.

John Backus and the New Atlantic Venture team were the only greed-based, non-state-sponsored fund laying down startup seed-stage bets last quarter with two investments of $3.2M each in American Honors College and Quad Learning Inc.

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Johns Hopkins secures $15M NIH grant for AIDs research center

The National Institutes of Health announced Friday it has awarded Johns Hopkins University $15 million to help establish the school’s new Center for AIDS research.

The Center will tap researchers from Hopkins’ Bloomberg School of Public Health, the school of medicine and school of nursing to address HIV in Baltimore. It will also be supported financially by Johns Hopkins Provost Lloyd Minor and the deans of the Bloomberg School, the School of Medicine and the School of Nursing.

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Federal Telemedicine News: Moving Research Forward

TATRC within the Army’s Medical Research and Materiel Command is taking steps to move research forward according to the article “TATRC: Translating Research into New Medical Products” published in the May 2012 issue of “Mercury”.

Ron Marchessault, Director of Technology Transfer and Commercialization for TATRC, is busy developing a comprehensive commercialization program for more than 1,800 research projects funded since 2000. So far, 2.3 percent have resulted in commercial products, generating $209 million in sales from a total federal investment of $74 million. TATRC manages these projects at universities, government laboratories, and high-tech start-up companies.

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We Can’t Wait: HHS announces first 26 Health Care Innovation awards

Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius today announced the first batch of organizations for Health Care Innovation awards. Made possible by the health care law – the Affordable Care Act – the awards will support 26 innovative projects nationwide that will save money, deliver high quality medical care and enhance the health care workforce.  The preliminary awardees announced today expect to reduce health spending by $254 million over the next 3 years. 

“We can’t wait to support innovative projects that will save money and make our health care system stronger,” said Secretary Sebelius. “It’s yet another way we are supporting local communities now in their efforts to provide better care and lower cost.”

The new projects include collaborations of leading hospitals, doctors, nurses, pharmacists, technology innovators, community-based organizations, and patients’ advocacy groups, among others, located in urban and rural areas that will begin work this year to address health care issues in local communities.  This initiative allows applicants to come up with their best ideas to test how we can quickly and efficiently improve the quality and affordability of health care.

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Supernus moves from IPO to FDA – Washington Business Journal

Supernus Pharmaceuticals Inc. capped off its first week on the Nasdaq up nearly $1 from its initial public offering price. With its IPO in the bag, the Rockville biotech now turns to a bigger gamble: seeing two drugs through Food and Drug Administration approval and onto the commercial market.

The modestly successful May 1 offering marks the first time a Washington-area biotech has gone public since 2007 and leaves Supernus with a pile of cash to shovel into its lead product candidates — epilepsy drugs SPN-538 and SPN-804.

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State biotech firms hoping Congress will act – baltimoresun.com

A proposal to speed the approval of new prescription drugs has patient advocates and biotech firms — including many based in Maryland — hoping that Congress will deliver a rare dose of bipartisanship this year.

Lawmakers are proposing a 6 percent increase in the fees that pharmaceutical firms pay the Food and Drug Administration to offset the cost of approving new drugs. If the measure is not signed into law by the end of September, the FDA would lose the ability to charge any fees and be forced to lay off 2,000 workers, significantly slowing review times.

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Should the FDA Approve More Drugs after Phase II? A Response to Matthew Herper – Forbes

Last Friday, Forbes health care editor Matt Herper and I sat down to talk about my proposal, which I detailed in a paper for the Manhattan Institute, to encourage the FDA to approve more drugs after mid-stage phase II testing, using a process called “conditional approval.” (You can read my proposal, in three parts, here.) Matt put forth some very perceptive critiques of the idea, which I respond to in today’s dispatch.

As a refresher, my proposal builds on an existing FDA procedure called accelerated approval in which the FDA approves drugs that show great promise in phase II, with the caveat that the drug sponsor must still perform confirmatory phase III studies. If the phase III studies ultimately show that the drug doesn’t work as advertised, or has previously unknown safety issues, the FDA can revoke its approval. This is exactly what happened when the FDA revoked the approval of Avastin in breast cancer, after phase III tests did not reproduce the early signal of benefit that the drug had shown in phase II studies.

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Biotech Venture Funding Drops 43% in First Quarter | McDonnell Boehnen Hulbert & Berghoff LLP – JDSupra

Last month, the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA), a trade association representing the U.S. venture capital industry, released the results of its MoneyTree Report on venture funding for the first quarter of 2012.  The report, which is prepared by NVCA and PriceWaterhouseCoopers LLP using data from Thomson Reuters, indicates that venture capitalists invested $5.8 billion in 758 deals in the first quarter, which constituted a 19% decrease in dollars and a 15% decrease in deals as compared with the fourth quarter of 2011, when $7.1 billion was invested in 889 deals.

The report notes that the Life Sciences sector (biotechnology and medical device industries) and the Clean Technology sector saw marked decreases in both dollars and deals in the first quarter, with the drop in Life Sciences funding mostly due to decreased funding for the biotech industry.  While the biotechnology industry still managed to place second among the industries tracked by the NVCA in terms of dollars invested in the first quarter, with $780 million invested in 99 deals, this constituted a 43% drop in dollars and a 14% drop in deals over the fourth quarter.  The medical device industry picked up some of the slack for the Life Sciences sector, with $687 million invested in 72 deals, which constituted a 33% increase in dollars and a 6% drop in deals.  The number of deals in the Life Sciences sector dipped to its lowest point since the first quarter of 2009.  Overall, eleven of the seventeen sectors tracked by the NVCA saw decreases in dollars invested in the first quarter.

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The top 5 complications of FDA medical device trials

“You do a really good job with complex trials.”

We’re lucky to say that we’ve heard this from several clients over the years. But, while we’re glad for the recognition, it made us ask ourselves a key question. What is it that makes a trial complex?

For pharmaceuticals, trials can be relatively simple. A company makes the drug, the drug is administered to the trial patients and the effects are monitored. There are very few moving parts involved. Medical devices, which can be complex machines in and of themselves, will require training and retraining of all parties that are involved with implementation and monitoring of the device– there are numerous moving parts and numerous opportunities to fall out of FDA compliance.

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Ablitech Hires Director for Research Advisory Board

Ablitech, Inc., a biotechnology company developing delivery systems for gene silencing and cancer-fighting treatments, today announced that Dr. Daniel Bednarik has been named the Director of the Research Advisory Board.  

In his part-time role, Bednarik will assemble and manage a committee of scientists who will provide guidance to the corporation’s research efforts, enhance funding, and create partnering opportunities.  

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3 Start-Ups Join Loyola Business Accelerator – North Baltimore, MD Patch

The first three start-ups have been selected to participate in a new business accelerator program started by Loyola University Maryland.

CodePupil, PointClickSwitch.com and Vidstructor were selected by the university and its partner Wasabi Ventures to participate in the accelerator located in Govans, according to the Baltimore Business Journal.

In March Loyola announced it was creating the business accelerator to partner with local entrepreneurs to help create new businesses.

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RHT Consulting to Come Up with Steps to Spur Research at NIH

Right now there are probably thousands of late-stage cancer patients waiting for drugs that could prolong their lives. Where do they look? Research labs all across the country. In a process called technology transfer, drugs go from the lab to the market, with a few steps in between, and the push is on to speed up the process, without leaving any loose ends.

Recent technology transfers have resulted in treatments for fibromyalgia, a joint and muscle pain illness, called Lyrica; a form of fatal breast cancer, now leaving the disease undetectable, Herceptin, and new chemotherapy agents.

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Public Policy Institute releases new report on New York’s bioscience sector

The Public Policy Institute (PPI), the research arm of The Business Council of New York State, today released an in-depth study on the challenges in attracting and retaining private-sector jobs and companies in New York’s lucrative bioscience sector.

Based on interviews with 30 industry experts as well as existing research, Cultivating the Next Generation of Discoveries and Development in New York Bioscience explores the opportunities and barriers facing companies in various stages of development and offers three public policy recommendations to foster public-private partnerships and make New York more competitive with other states:

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2012 BIO International Convention to Highlight the FDA and Regulatory Environment

The U.S. regulatory environment strongly impacts innovation and the development of new drugs and biologics. With this in mind, the Achieving Regulatory Approval and Compliance educational track at the 2012 BIO International Convention will tackle the most pressing regulatory issues facing the industry, specifically the reauthorization of the Prescription Drug User Fee Act (PDUFA V), implementation of the new biosimilars pathway, and efforts to modernize and expedite drug development. Hosted by the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO), this year’s global event for biotechnology will take place June 18-21, 2012 at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center in Boston, MA.

"Attendees can expect to hear from a distinguished group of speakers from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), as well as major biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies," said BIO CEO and President Jim Greenwood. "Sessions will address the steps involved in research and development of healthcare products and how to successfully bring these products to market, all while maintaining rigorous standards for safety, effectiveness, and compliance."

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Breaking the Genome Bottleneck – Technology Review

The genomic data generated from next-generation sequencing machines doesn’t amount to much more than alphabet soup if it’s not subjected to significant computational processing and statistical analysis. For the data to be useful, the trick is to turn those As, Ts, Gs, and Cs into a manageable description of disease risks and other genetic predispositions. That requires a lot of computational power and time—already a significant bottleneck for some genomic analysis companies.

Several companies are looking to the cloud as a way to help them analyze all the data. The idea is that researchers can send their data to a Web-hosted analysis service that will process raw data into a genetic profile. However, the data files generated by sequencing machines are so massive that the mundane issue of uploading large files to the cloud becomes its own issue. The strategy of a Redwood City, California-based startup called Bina Technologies is to divide and conquer: give customers an in-house data-crunching machine that will turn a mountain of raw sequence into easily shared genetic profiles. Those profiles can then be quickly uploaded to Bina Technologies’ cloud-hosted site for data management, sharing, and aggregation.

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Tech Transfer Speakers Series – May 9th

Tech Transfer Speaker’s Series FREE monthly program (2nd Wednesday of each month) offered through the Gateway to Innovation: Montgomery County Welcome Center for Federal and Academic Tech Transfer. For more information and additional calendar items, please visit www.techtransferconnection.com.

Engage with others in the tech transfer field by joining the Gateway to Innovation LinkedIn Group.  To register go to http://www.linkedin.com/groupRegistration?gid=3805575

Location: Shady Grove Innovation Center 9700 Great Seneca Highway Rockville, Maryland 20850

Time: May 9, 2012 3:30 – 5:00pm

Presenters: Richard A. Bendis, Interim CEO BioHealth Innovation, Inc. and Mark L. Rohrbaugh, Ph.D., J.D., Director National Institutes of Health, Office of Technology Transfer

Topic: What is a BioHealth Innovation Ecosystem and How is it Supposed to Work?

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BioHealth Innovation, Inc. Appoints Qiagen’s Douglas Liu to Board of Directors

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 the appointment of Douglas Liu, Senior Vice President of Global Operations at Qiagen, to its Board of Directors.

“Doug is an outstanding addition to our board,” said Scott Carmer, BioHealth Innovation, Inc. Chairman of the Board and Executive Vice President of Commercial Operations at MedImmune. “His in-depth experience in strategic planning, operations and R&D in immunodiagnostics, molecular diagnostics, and other healthcare market sectors will prove invaluable as BHI drives biohealth commercialization opportunities in Central Maryland.”

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QIAGEN Acquires AmniSure International to Add Unique Assay to Emerging Point of Need Portfolio – MarketWatch

QIAGEN expands Point of Need portfolio with unique AmniSureassay to detect rupture of fetal membranes (ROM) – checked in up to 30% of U.S. pregnancies

Novel FDA-cleared test is highly synergistic with QIAGEN’s clinical sales channels

QIAGEN N.V. QGEN -1.92% (frankfurt prime standard:QIA) today announced the acquisition of AmniSure International LLC, a privately owned Boston company that markets the AmniSure assay for determining whether a pregnant woman is suffering rupture of fetal membranes (ROM), a condition in which fluid leaks from the amniotic sac prematurely.

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Zyngenia, Inc. Recruits David Parkinson, M.D., as Board Member, Clinical Advisory Board Head, and Interim Chief Medical Officer

Zyngenia, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company developing Zybodies(TM), next-generation multi-specific antibody-based drugs in oncology and immunology, announced today that it has appointed David Parkinson, M.D. as a member of its Board of Directors and head of its Clinical Advisory Board. Dr. Parkinson will also serve as Interim Chief Medical Officer (CMO).

"Since our start in September 2009, we at Zyngenia have validated our technology platform and developed a suite of novel multi-specific biological drug candidates. We have also built an outstanding drug discovery and development team," said Zyngenia President and CEO Peter A. Kiener, D.Phil. "We have been working with David Parkinson as a member of our scientific advisory group for some time now and, as we head toward clinical testing of our Zybodies, are thrilled to be able to get such an accomplished drug developer, company builder and leader in oncology and immunology more directly involved with Zyngenia.

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Human Genome Sciences cuts losses – Washington Business Journal

Rockville-based Human Genome Sciences Inc., which last week rejected an unsolicited $2.6 billion acquisition offer by GlaxoSmithKline PLC, reported higher revenue and cut losses on sales of its new lupus drug.

Human Genome Sciences had first-quarter revenue of $47.1 million, compared with $26.6 million a year earlier. Benlysta sales accounted for $32.1 million in revenue. Sales of its anthrax treatment to the U.S. government stockpile contributed $6.1 million.

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Maryland 12th in Venture Capital Dollars in First Quarter

Venture capital dollars flowing to Maryland companies were down almost 30 percent last quarter compared to a year ago, and 16 percent less than the prior quarter, according to Money Tree stats.

Maryland ranked 12th overall in venture capital dollars in Q1 2012, behind Minnesota and Illinois with $71 million and $87 million respectively.

California took is customary place atop all states with a mountainous $3 billion in venture capital. Massachusetts followed with $628 million.

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Maryland Establishes New Tech Transfer Fund

The state and five universities are spending upwards of $5.8 million to help startups move from a concept to a company.  

Senate Bill 239/House Bill 442 establishes the Maryland Innovation Initiative Fund under the aegis of the Maryland Technology Development Corporation, or TEDCO. The bill passed the Maryland House and Senate and awaits the signature of Gov. Martin O’Malley, who is expected to sign it. 

“Maryland has premiere research universities but it ranks low on technology transfer,” Brian Levine, vice president, government relations, Tech Council of Maryland, says of the fund, which is intended to remedy that situation.

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Supernus Pharmaceuticals readies D.C. region’s first biotech IPO since 2007 – Washington Business Journal

Supernus Pharmaceuticals Inc. is slated to go public this week, more than a year after first filing paperwork to list its stock on the Nasdaq. The Rockville biotech is expected to start trading on Wednesday.

When we wrote about the planned public offering two days before Christmas 2010, we noted that Supernus would be the region’s first biotech IPO since 2007. That’s still true today.

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Nabi Biopharmaceuticals to merge with Australian company – Baltimore Business Journal

Nabi Biopharmaceuticals, which began exploring strategic alternatives after failed late-stage clinical trials of its experimental smoking cessation vaccine, plans to merge with Australia’s Biota Holdings Limited.

If approved, the newly merged company will be named Biota Pharmaceuticals, and will be headquartered in the U.S., the companies said. Biota Pharmaceuticals will be listed on the Nasdaq stock exchange.

Under terms of the deal, Rockville-based Nabi (NASDAQ: NABI) will acquire all outstanding shares in Biota in exchange for newly issued shares of Nabi common stock.

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Johns Hopkins tops the list for expenditures in research & development

High-profile research institutions, many of which are members of Association of American Universities, provide many benefits for undergraduates on the fast-track to professional or graduate school programs.  In part, this is because of the level of funding these schools receive from the federal government as well as from industry and nonprofit organizations.

And despite an anemic economy, it appears that big money continues to flow to big name national research universities.

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NIH’s Collins Lauds “Unprecedented” Partnership at NY Bio Confab | Xconomy

Yesterday at the New York Biotechnology Association’s 21st annual meeting, National Institutes of Health director Francis Collins was beamed in by videoconference to a keynote lunch at the Times Square Marriott Marquis. Collins, who was the featured speaker, apologized for his virtual appearance at the event, but he had a good excuse: Just two hours earlier he was at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., making an announcement about an ambitious new program being undertaken by the NIH and drug giants Pfizer, AstraZeneca, and Eli Lilly. The NIH said it will collaborate with the companies to make existing compounds available to outside scientists who want to find new uses for them.

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Maryland Proton Treatment Center: Construction to start on Baltimore’s west side – Baltimore Business Journal

The University of Maryland School of Medicine    and Advanced Particle Therapy LLC of San Diego plan to start construction Tuesday on a new $200 million-plus proton treatment center on Baltimore’s west side.

The Maryland Proton Treatment Center will be located inside a new 110,000-square-foot building that is part of the University of Maryland BioPark.

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Entrepreneurship Ready to “Pop” in Maryland – Citybizlist Baltimore

Maryland has the foundation on which it can grow a robust environment of high-tech, innovative start-ups, but needs a stronger angel and venture capital network, more support for entrepreneurs and better programs to nurture young, creative minds, a group of business leaders said Tuesday.

"There’s no reason Maryland can’t be an entrepreneurial hotbed like Austin or Boston or Silicon Valley," said John M. Wasilisin, executive vice president of the Maryland Technology Development Corporation (TEDCO). "We have our challenges, but our assets are off the charts, our education system and our quality of life, our access to federal facilities."

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Loyola University Maryland and Wasabi Ventures Name First Business Accelerator Participants – Citybizlist Baltimore

Loyola University Maryland and Wasabi Ventures, a California-based venture capital firm with a presence in Baltimore, named the first three companies participating in the business accelerator program the two organizations operate in the Govans community of North Baltimore. They are:

– CodePupil, an educational technology system that teaches software coding;

– PointClickSwitch.com, an energy choice platform that gives residential customers the ability to compare supplier offers, enroll, and save;

– and Vidstructor, a software company enabling interactive video training platforms for businesses.

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New Enterprise Associates Grabs Four Spots on Forbes Midas List of Top Tech Investors – cbl – Citybizlist Washington DC

Four New Enterprise Associates (NEA) venture capitalists were named to Forbes Midas List of Tech Investors, which aims to single out the top 100 venture capitalists that provide "the best returns for their investors, while helping create the most valuable and impactful technology and life science companies."

Scott Sandell from the firm’s Menlo Park office ranked highest at 14th. He was joined by Chevy Chase, Md. based Harry Weller (17), Peter Barris (23), both stalwarts on the Midas list, and "newcomer" James Barrett.

Weller’s and Barris’ biggest deal was in Groupon while Barret’s was in Pharmion.

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Bioeconomy Blueprint Embraces Public-Private Efforts, Avoids Grand Challenges

President Barack Obama’s administration rolled out its National Bioeconomy Blueprint last week, on April 26. It details measures by which Washington intends to apply biological innovations toward national challenges that include health, food, energy, and the environment.

At the top of the Blueprint’s five priorities is supporting “R&D investments that will provide the foundation for the future U.S. bioeconomy.” Also on the list: increasing the focus on translational and regulatory sciences, reforming regulations, updating training programs, and identifying and supporting opportunities for public-private partnerships.

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States would be wise to emulate New York health accelerator model – FierceMobileHealthcare

It was exciting to see the creation this week of the New York Digital Health Accelerator in New York. The New York State Department of Health, the New York City Investment Fund and the New York eHealth Collaborative all have partnered to provide funding, mentoring support, development expertise and more to health app startups in the state. 

The group is awarding $300,000 each to 12 startups that are producing apps for care coordination, patient engagement, analytics and messaging. The deadline to apply is June 1. What we’ll really be watching for, though, is to see if other states follow suit, and fund health startups in, say, Nebraska or Mississippi. Such localized startup/development support really could be a boon for hospitals trying to develop their own clinical apps. Most incubator programs thus far have been in New York or California, leaving hospitals in the rest of the country out of the running.

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University of Maryland BioPark Announces MedImmune’s Dr. Bahija Jallal as Newest Member of Board of Directors for UM Health Sciences Research Park

BALTIMORE, MARYLAND, April 24, 2012 – The University of Maryland BioPark announced today thatBahija Jallal, Ph.D., Executive Vice President of Research and Development at MedImmune, has been appointed as the newest member of the UM Health Sciences Research Park Corporation (RPC) Board of Directors.

“The BioPark leadership team is thrilled to welcome Dr. Jallal – a seasoned life science research and development leader ¬– to the Research Park Corporation’s board of directors,” said RPC President James Hughes, who also serves as the Vice President and Chief Enterprise & Economic Development Officer for the University of Maryland. “Her experience within leading biopharmaceutical companies will bring additional industry perspective to our project. It’s a privilege to have Dr. Jallal on our board.”

Dr. Jallal is a member of both MedImmune’s executive team as well as the R&D leadership team of parent company AstraZeneca. She joined MedImmune as Vice President, Translational Sciences, in March 2006 and has since held positions of increasing responsibility. Dr. Jallal now oversees research, development, regulatory and clinical activities conducted by a team of more than 2,500 employees based at MedImmune’s Maryland, California, and Cambridge, UK sites. Dr. Jallal has guided the MedImmune R&D organization through unprecedented growth and expansion of its biologics pipeline from 40 drugs to more than 140. Dr. Jallal is passionate about leading and shaping MedImmune’s rich pipeline of drugs targeting cancer, infections, respiratory and inflammatory diseases, cardio-vascular and gastrointestinal disorders and pain to ultimately develop new medicines for patients.

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Healthcare execs to mentor digital startups in NY ‘accelerator’ program

In a move that combines an interest in improving health outcomes with a desire to create jobs and boost the state economy, the New York eHealth Collaborative (NYeC) and the New York State Department of Health (DOH) have partnered with the New York City Investment Fund to launch the New York Digital Health Accelerator (NYDHA). The program will subsidize health IT startups and link them with "senior advisors" from New York healthcare organizations to accelerate the development of useful new products.

Within the next few months, the program will choose 12 "early- and growth-stage companies" that are developing products in the areas of care coordination, patient engagement, data analytics and message alerts for healthcare providers. In addition to the mentoring, each selected company will receive up to $300,000 to help create solutions designed to improve quality of care for the state’s Medicaid recipients, according to a NYDHA announcement.

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AstraZeneca CEO to retire amidst double digit losses

David Brennan’s move to retire as AstraZeneca’s (NYSE:AZN) CEO in June did not come as a surprise to those who had been urging for a change at the top over the company’s drug development shortcomings. In an industry that walks a tightrope between innovation and regulation and the financial considerations that frame them, there are two critical characteristics that can undermine a CEO:being too bold or not bold enough. Brennan was a bit of both.

His leadership was bookended by two acquisitions — a $15.2 billion deal for MedImmune, a drug developer with a focus on influenza vaccines and the $1.26 billion purchase of biotechnology business Ardea Biosciences.

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NATIONAL BIOECONOMY BLUEPRINT

“The world is shifting to an innovation economy and nobody does innovation better than America.”
—President Obama, December 6, 2011

Economic activity that is fueled by research and innovation in the biological sciences, the “bioeconomy,” is a large and rapidly growing segment of the world economy that provides substantial public benefit. The bioeconomy has emerged as an Obama Administration priority because of its tremendous potential for growth as well as the many other societal benefits it offers. It can allow Americans to live longer, healthier lives, reduce our dependence on oil, address key environmental challenges, transform manu- facturing processes, and increase the productivity and scope of the agricultural sector while growing new jobs and industries.

Decades of life-sciences research and the development of increasingly powerful tools for obtaining and using biological data have brought us closer to the threshold of a previously unimaginable future: “ready to burn” liquid fuels produced directly from CO2, biodegradable plastics made not from oil but from renewable biomass, tailored food products to meet specialized dietary requirements, personalized medical treatments based on a patient’s own genomic information, and novel biosensors for real-time monitoring of the environment. Increasingly,scientists and engineers are looking to augment biological research with approaches from other scientific disciplines for solutions to our most demanding scientific and societal challenges and seeing exciting options that will profoundly affect our future.

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Nodality loses leader to NEA as medical diagnostics model morphs – San Francisco Business Times

Growing diagnostic test developer Nodality Inc. is losing its first CEO, but the venture capital world is gaining another experienced life sciences entrepreneur.

Dr. David Parkinson will join New Enterprise Associates as a venture partner. He initially will be interim chief medical officer of NEA-backed Zyngenia Inc., a young Gaithersburg, Md., company targeting cancer and autoimmune diseases.

Parkinson leaves Nodality — named “Most Promising Company” at the Personalized Medicine World Conference last year — as the 40-person South San Francisco company forges ahead with a hybrid strategy of selling its tests into clinics and striking deals with drug developers. In the face of changes in the medical diagnostics industry, it’s a model that just might be used by more companies.

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Foundation Seeks Help Identifying Innovators in Vaccine Delivery | Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is now accepting nominations for the second annual Gates Vaccine Innovation Award. The award aims to recognize, celebrate, and spur transformative ideas for achieving health impact through the delivery of vaccines. Nominations will be accepted through August 31, 2012.

“Vaccines work to give children a healthy start in life,” said Steve Landry, interim director of vaccine delivery at the Gates Foundation. “New ways of thinking about age old vaccine delivery problems are essential to ensure that all children have access to the vaccines they need.”

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Fine-tuning Nanotech to Target Cancer – Technology Review

The results of the human trials are startling. Even at a lower-than-usual dose, multiple lung metastases shrank or even disappeared after one patient received only two-hour-long intravenous infusions of an experimental cancer drug. Another patient saw her cervical tumor reduce by nearly 60 percent after six months of treatment. Though the drug trial—by Bind Biosciences in Cambridge, Massachusetts—of an experimental nanotechnology-based technique was designed simply to show whether the technology is safe, the encouraging results revive hopes that nanomedicine could realize its elusive promise.

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Drug research: All together now | The Economist

IT WAS once only drug firms that developed drugs. But this is changing. Take the case of the Michael J. Fox Foundation, a Parkinson’s disease charity. On April 19th it announced that it would pay for a clinical trial of a drug developed by Sanofi, a French pharmaceutical giant, that might treat the mental symptoms of the disease.

The deal is the latest sign of a broader shift—one that is driven by desperation. Patents on blockbuster drugs are expiring. Research and development (R&D) have grown less productive, with billions of dollars yielding only a trickle of drugs.

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Genome entrepreneurs say their data will help you live longer | VentureBeat

The cost of sequencing the human genome continues to fall, reaching a low of $1,000 this year due to a new microchip and machine designed by genetics company Life Technologies Corp. And unleashed by those lower costs, a small cadre of entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley is exploring ways to harness this data to enable us to live longer and healthier lives.

Dr. Dietrich Stephan, a human geneticist, has spent the better part of a decade trying to achieve that goal. Until recently, it has been costly and time-consuming to map the 3 billion units of DNA, known as base-pairs, which make up the human genetic code. But now, he said, with the low cost of gene sequencing technologies, we are on the brink of banishing a one-size-fits-all approach to medicine.

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Human Genome Sciences rejects $2.59B bid from GlaxoSmithKline, but is exploring options – The Washington Post

Biotech drug developer Human Genome Sciences Inc. has rejected an unsolicited $2.59 billion takeover offer from GlaxoSmithKline PLC, saying it undervalues the company.

But the Rockville, Md., company said Thursday that it has decided to explore its strategic options, which could include a potential sale of the company. It invited GlaxoSmithKline to participate in its exploratory process.

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Catalyst Health Solutions agrees to $4.4 billion buyout – Washington Business Journal

Rockville-based Catalyst Health Solutions Inc.    (NASDAQ: CHSI) has agreed to be acquired by fellow pharmacy benefits manager SXC Health Solutions Corp. (NASDAQ: SXCI) in a transaction valued at approximately $4.4 billion.

Under the terms of the agreement, Catalyst shareholders will receive $28 in cash and 0.6606 shares of SXC stock for each Catalyst share. That implies a purchase price of $81.02 per Catalyst share–a 28 percent premium to the closing price of Catalyst stock on April 17.

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BioBuzz Rockville – April 25. 2012

Join us on April 25th at Stella Restaurant for another BioBuzz in Montgomery County!  

This month’s corporate sponsor, BioHealth Innovation, inc. (BHI) is an innovation intermediary that translates market-relevant research into commercial success by connecting management, funding and markets. BHI’s vision is to transform the Central Maryland region into a leading global bio-health entrepreneurial and commercialization hub. BHI will identify and translate market relevant research into commercial success by connecting research assets to appropriate funding, management and markets.

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Creating Jobs and Saving Lives in Maryland – From Sen. Barbara Mikulski’s April 2012 Newsletter

Over the past few weeks and months I have been out and about in the state listening to Marylanders who are developing new drugs and manufacturing lifesaving medical devices.

They are also creating jobs. In Maryland, biotech means jobs, jobs, jobs. Biotech supports nearly 90,000 Maryland jobs, keeping our innovation economy rolling.

This month, the Senate HELP Committee will meet to discuss and markup legislation, the Medical Device User Fee Act and the Prescription Drug User Fee Act to ensure the safety and availability of new drugs, medical devices and treatments. As a senior member of the committee and a member of the Drug Shortage Working Group, I want to hear how government is helping, how it’s hurting and when it needs to get out of the way.

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Merger news: Rockville’s Catalyst sells for $4.4 billion, Human Genome Sciences up for sale

Like a one-two punch, two major Maryland employers in the health care service and pharmaceutical industries were the targets last week of multibillion-dollar acquisition deals.

Both homegrown companies — Human Genome Sciences Inc. and Catalyst Health Solutions Inc. — are based in Rockville. Both were courted by out-of-state companies.

Human Genome ultimately rebuffed a $2.6 billion offer by biopharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline, saying it was too low. But Catalyst agreed to be acquired by a larger Illinois competitor for $4.4 billion, and Human Genome has officially acknowledged it’s on the market.

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Economic Alliance names Venable’s Baader as board chair – Baltimore Business Journal

Economic Alliance of Greater Baltimore has named Venable LLP partner Michael Baader as the new chairman of the organization for the 2012 term.

Baeder, head of Venable’s Baltimore office, replaces Ellin & Tucker Chartered CEO Ed Brake as chair.

The Economic Alliance promotes business retention, growth, and new investment throughout the region.

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Carey Business School Global MBA Students Visit Montgomery County Campus, Get Inspired by Shady Grove Life Sciences Center Plans ‹ Hopkins Happenings

For the second year, the JHU Carey Business School has bussed 30+ Global MBA students to Rockville to learn more about the university’s Montgomery County Campus, the Shady Grove Life Sciences Center, and the County’s plans for the bioscience/healthcare sector.

The program, titled “Bioparks and Commercializing Scientific Discoveries,” included presentations by Elaine Amir, Executive Director, Johns Hopkins Montgomery  County; David Lee from Private Raise, which is located on the campus; Lily Qi from the County Executive’s Office, and Dave Sislen, an instructor in the school’s MS in Real Estate program and president of Bristol Capital Corporation in Bethesda.

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The Interview: Rosenbaum building a more entrepreneurial TEDCO

For three decades, Robert A. Rosenbaum helped guide established companies and fresh startups through complex challenges.

The Connecticut native was president of an apparel manufacturing firm, ran technology projects for big companies, and helped several businesses run smarter and more profitably with his operations acumen.

But for the past 18 months, Rosenbaum, 54, has taken on a new challenge: technology economic development for Maryland. He’s been serving as president and executive director of Maryland Technology Development Corp., or TEDCO, the state’s technology development arm.

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Tech Transfer Speakers Series – May 9th

Tech Transfer Speaker’s Series FREE monthly program (2nd Wednesday of each month) offered through the Gateway to Innovation: Montgomery County Welcome Center for Federal and Academic Tech Transfer. For more information and additional calendar items, please visit www.techtransferconnection.com.

Engage with others in the tech transfer field by joining the Gateway to Innovation LinkedIn Group.  To register go to http://www.linkedin.com/groupRegistration?gid=3805575

Location: Shady Grove Innovation Center 9700 Great Seneca Highway Rockville, Maryland 20850

Time: May 9, 2012 3:30 – 5:00pm

Presenters: Richard A. Bendis, Interim CEO BioHealth Innovation, Inc. and Mark L. Rohrbaugh, Ph.D., J.D., Director National Institutes of Health, Office of Technology Transfer

Topic: What is a BioHealth Innovation Ecosystem and How is it Supposed to Work?

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Jumpstarting University Technology Innovation Ecosystems

In recent months, state and federal policy makers have launched a broad set of innovative programs aimed at accelerating technology transfer, the commercialization of government- and university-created intellectual property, or IP, through licenses and business startups. This fall, for example, the Obama administration directed federal agencies and labs to measure and expand their technology transfer efforts. At the state level, Gov. Martin O’Malley’s (D-MD) Maryland Innovation Initiative, announced in January, would provide seed funding and foster greater cross-university collaboration to help close the state’s gap between its research levels and commercialization results.

Some universities, too, are rethinking their policies. Penn State, for example, announced in December that the university is no longer required to own intellectual property created by industry-sponsored research. “In short we consider the net present value of the interactions and relationships that our faculty and students have with industrial professionals to be real and therefore greater than the apparent future value of the proceeds from such IP,” wrote Hank Foley, Penn State’s vice president for research, in announcing this news. “Our goal … is to flatten any and all barriers or impediments to innovation and that includes our own past stance on intellectual property.”

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The Chief Science Officer (CSO) Development Training Certificate Program

Maryland is in an enviable position with regard to biotechnology-related resources that encourages and supports entrepreneurial efforts. Academic institutions, federal laboratories, a committed county department of economic development and a unique small business have developed an effective consortium to leverage these resources. The potential for human capital to support this entrepreneurial growth is further augmented by the number of graduate and postdoctoral programs available in the region.

Ironically, a significant steady decrease in the availability of academic positions for new graduate and post-graduate level scientists has created an additional talent resource pool for new and existing biotechnology companies. Despite these significant human capital resources, traditional academic graduate and post-graduate training do not focus on teaching the business leadership and management skills that are required to attain successful industry scientist-level positions. This confluence of circumstances was the catalyst for a unique and highly synergistic consortium to help remedy this situation

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Innovate Maryland to spur tech transfer MDbizMedia

Gov. Martin O’Malley celebrated passage of Innovate Maryland on Friday, touting the program as a critical piece in the funding pipeline that funnels discoveries from the laboratory to the marketplace.

The goal of Innovate Maryland is to commercialize 40 discoveries every year through a partnership between the state and its research universities.

Maryland will kick in $5 million and Johns Hopkins University; Morgan State University; University of Maryland, Baltimore; University of Maryland, Baltimore County and University of Maryland, College Park have agreed to contribute up to $200,000 each to help researchers take their ideas to market.

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Tech Council of Maryland Names Notable Solutions CEO Mehdi Tehranchi as Finalist for Executive of the Year – MarketWatch

Notable Solutions, Inc. (NSi), a leading developer of distributed content capture and workflow solutions, announced today that Chairman and CEO Mehdi Tehranchi has been named a finalist for Executive of the Year in the Tech Council of Maryland’s Annual TCM Awards. This year marks the 24th year that the awards will be presented to individuals and organizations for their innovation, dedication and outstanding service to Maryland’s technology community. Tehranchi is among three finalists for the Executive of the Year Award. Winners will be announced during the awards gala on April 26 at the Bethesda North Marriott Hotel and Conference Center.

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MPower: Bold Collaboration With College Park Approved

Dr. Perman with Wallace Loh

The University System of Maryland (USM) Board of Regents recently approved an innovative and structured collaboration between the University of Maryland’s Baltimore and College Park campuses.

Called University of Maryland: MPowering the State, the plan is “the kind of 21st-century organizational model needed for today’s fast changing, fiscally challenging, and globally competitive environment,” says Patricia S. Florestano, PhD, Board of Regents vice chair. “We are pleased with the vision, creativity, and innovative thinking that led to the development of such a forward-looking plan.”

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US FDA clears Qiagen’s Rotor-Gene Q MDx instrument & compatible influenza A/B assay

Qiagen NV, a leading global provider of sample & assay technologies, has received the two US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) 510(k) clearances for its real-time PCR (polymerase chain reaction) instrument Rotor-Gene Q MDx and a compatible test for the detection of Influenza A/B, the artus Infl A/B RG RT-PCR Kit, for in vitro diagnostic use (IVD).

“The FDA clearances for the Rotor-Gene Q MDx along with the first assay for use on this system represent an important milestone for Qiagen,” said Peer M Schatz, chief executive officer of Qiagen NV. “The various Rotor-Gene Q models marketed by Qiagen are not only an integral part of our revolutionary lab automation platform QIAsymphony RGQ, but are also among the most widely used stand-alone molecular detection platforms worldwide. Outside the US, our customers already have access to a broad portfolio of molecular diagnostic tests for use on these platforms. The FDA clearances now pave the way to make this market-leading assay portfolio available to clinical laboratories in the US as well.”

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Johns Hopkins Dedicates $1.1B Hospital with Michael Bloomberg

Johns Hopkins University dedicated its new $1.1 billion hospital this month and Hopkins alum and major donor New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg was on hand for the ceremony.

"The 205-room Charlotte R. Bloomberg Children’s Center features 10 surgical suites, a 45-bed neonatal intensive care unit," the Wall Street Journal writes.

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Mikulski, biotechs ponder industry’s future in Maryland – The Frederick News-Post Online

Nearly 90,000 Maryland jobs come from the state’s 400 biotechnology companies, so when a senior Democrat on the Senate committee looking into industry regulations asks for a meeting, local businesses are the first to the table.

Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., met with representatives from several Frederick County biotech companies Tuesday at MedImmune, a Frederick-based pharmaceutical firm. The discussion, the third stop on Mikulski’s Maryland biotech listening tour, focused on the Prescription Drug User Fee Act and the Medical Device User Fee Act.

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H.I.G. BioVentures raises $268 million – Washington Business Journal

H.I.G. BioVentures, a Miami-based venture firm with ties to Maryland’s biotech cluster, has raised a fresh $268 million to invest in drug, medical device and diagnostics companies.

Managing Director Bruce Robertson, who lives in Maryland and is a familiar face in the I-270 life sciences community, said he’s “very optimistic” the firm will be able to deploy some of that capital in the D.C. region – something that hasn’t happened with H.I.G’s last $150 million bio fund.

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Interested in Technology Transfer? Meet the FLC at its 2012 National Meeting!

The President has issued an innovation challenge, and the Federal Laboratory Consortium for Technology Transfer (FLC) can help you answer it! Join the FLC at its 2012 national meeting, Bridging Federal Technologies and Industry, in Pittsburgh, Pa., April 30-May 3, at the Sheraton Station Square Hotel.

The meeting offers technology transfer (T2) training, as well as informational sessions such as:

• Partnering with federal laboratories
• Leveraging social media • Available entrepreneur programs
• Case studies
• And much more!

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BIO chief Jim Greenwood: FDA should hire a CIO to question drug rejections – Boston Business Journal

The head of the leading biotechnology trade group, the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO), was in Boston this week, ahead of the group’s annual meeting, taking place at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center from June 18 to June 21.

Former U.S. Rep. Jim Greenwood said the trade group is advocating for a “Chief Innovation Officer” to be named at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, who would examine whether the number of drug rejections is reasonable, or whether it is stunting innovation and causing unwarranted delays.

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Campus Hosts Health IT Conference ‹ Hopkins Happenings

When Suburban Hospital’s ICU went from paper to electronic medical records, the hospital’s IT department created the FrankenCOW. This COW – or, Computer On Wheels – was essentially a glorified laptop with a battery on a cart that could be wheeled around. After a few months of use, Chris Timbers, Suburban Hospital VP & Chief Information Officer, said he found himself with a revolt on his hands. The nurses and doctors wanted to return to the paper records. They felt the records allowed them to easily see a large quantity of information all at once while the computer required toggling between multiple screens. Timbers fought off the return to paper, but didn’t find a solution until after the staff’s second attempt to return to paper. It was then that one of the ICU doctors asked Timbers (pictured left) about getting a FrankenCOW with a larger monitor. And when Timber’s staff couldn’t find one, they built one.

“And we haven’t heard a peep since,” he said. “But boy was that was one ugly COW,” he added, to the laughter of the more than 100 attendees of the latest Health IT Breakfast Forum.

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Lilly Technology Transfer

In addition to providing lifesaving medication, The Lilly MDR-TB Partnership has transferred technology so medicines can be produced locally, where they are needed, building local economic benefits and healthcare system capacity.

Because the Lilly drugs used to treat MDR-TB can be difficult to manufacture and require specialized equipment and facilities, Lilly identified capable manufacturers in high-burden countries—China, India, Russia, and South Africa—and offered them, free of charge, access to know-how and technical support so they could manufacture the needed drugs on their own. In addition, Lilly worked with companies in the United States and Greece to provide additional capacity and assure supply of these products to global markets. Lilly also provided funding where necessary to support the conversion or upgrading of local manufacturing facilities to meet international quality standards.

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Peter Thiel’s Breakout Labs Awards $350K Each To Six Ambitious Biotech Startups | TechCrunch

While most of us are still reeling in shock after last week’s one billion Instagram buy, Peter Thiel — through both Founders Fund and the Thiel Foundation — is leading the charge into a future where humans don’t age or suffer from cancer, among other things. Call it crazy or whatever you’d like, but there’s no doubt that people who are trying to drastically change the world for the better often do.

If a hologram can give a concert, it’s not that far-fetched to imagine a future where humans don’t die. As part of its commitment to improving the quality of human life in general, Thiel’s latest project, Breakout Labs, is awarding $5 million to companies who push the envelope with regards to “revolutionary” scientific innovation.

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Large doses of vitamin c may lower blood pressure Hopkins research finds

Large doses of Vitamin C may moderately reduce blood pressure, Johns Hopkins researchers have found.

But the scientists don’t recommend people start taking large amounts of the vitamin.

Researchers led by Dr. Edgar "Pete" R. Miller, an associate professor in the division of general interal medicine at Hopkins, reviewed and analyzed data from 29 previous  clinical trials and found that taking 500 milligrams of Vitamin C daily, or five times the recommended amount, could lower blood pressure by 3.84 millimeters.

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The Johns Hopkins Carey Business School presents Making a Quantum Leap in Technology Transfer

This day-long event will explore the opportunities for accelerating technology transfer in those universities that have not traditionally focused on this activity. It will demonstrate how this has been successfully achieved at places like Johns Hopkins.

Johns Hopkins Technology Transfer rose from 98th to 26th in the AUTM rankings within 4 years. It has increased disclosures from less than 100 to more than 300 a year and start ups from less than 5 to more than 10 a year. Other institutions like The Ohio State University are doing similar things. These newly emerged academic centers in technology transfer are showing how even late-comers can make the quantum leap in technology transfer.

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The JOBS Act, crowdfunding and what it will mean for healthcare startups

With President Barack Obama signing the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Bill into law today, the crowdfunding provision could mark a new era for startups and make it easier to raise money with more investment from new investors who fuel early and later-stage healthcare companies.

But some investors believe that with less-rigorous regulatory checks and balances on company finances, the risk of investors getting burned by fraud will lead to new dynamics in the investment landscape, like novice investors partnering with individuals and groups with more experience. Three individuals from the investment landscape share their thoughts.

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Synthetic cells could be the future of drug delivery – FierceDrugDelivery

In the world of drug development, honing an effective molecule is just the first step. As everyone in the drug delivery business knows, issues like solubility, permeability and targeting can be vexing challenges to getting treatment where it needs to go. But what if you could deliver drugs the same way the body dispatches white blood cells to fight infection, or the same way a virus proliferates throughout the body?

That’s what researchers at U.S. universities are working on, aiming to develop synthetic cells that could target ailments and release drugs to treat them. As Popular Mechanics reports, scientists at the University of Pennsylvania are using plastics to build artificial white blood cells called leuko-polymersomes, which would be guided by synthetic molecules designed to mimic the natural receptors white blood cells use to find enflamed tissues and stick to them.

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BioBuzz Rockville – April 25. 2012

Join us on April 25th at Stella Restaurant for another BioBuzz in Montgomery County!

This month’s corporate sponsor, BioHealth Innovation, inc. (BHI) is an innovation intermediary that translates market-relevant research into commercial success by connecting management, funding and markets. BHI’s vision is to transform the Central Maryland region into a leading global bio-health entrepreneurial and commercialization hub. BHI will identify and translate market relevant research into commercial success by connecting research assets to appropriate funding, management and markets.

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Cerecor, biotech startup headed by Blake Paterson, raises $22M – Baltimore Business Journal

Cerecor Inc., a Baltimore biotech startup headed by former Alba Therapeutics CEO Dr. Blake Paterson, has raised $22 million in a Series A financing round.

The company focuses on the discovery, development and commercialization of prescription drugs for the human nervous system.

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Statement of Richard A. Bendis Before the House Science, Space and Technology Subcommittee on Technology and Innovation entitled,“Fostering the U.S. Competitive Edge: Examining the Effect of Federal Policies on Competition, Innovation, and Job Growth”

Chairman Quayle and Ranking Member Edwards, thank you for the opportunity to testify before the House Science, Space and Technology Committee’s Subcommittee on Technology and Innovation on the important topic of “Fostering the U.S. Competitive Edge: Examining the Effect of Federal Policies on Competition, Innovation, and Job Growth.”

My name is Richard Bendis and I am the President and CEO of BioHealth Innovation Inc., (BHI). BHI is a private-public partnership that is predominantly funded by the private sector to foster biohealth innovation-based economic development, which is a unique cluster-based model for regional economic development. This initiative could be used as a model program regardless of industry or cluster strength.

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Greenleaf: “Strong future” for Maryland biotech MDbizMedia

Peter Greenleaf

Peter Greenleaf visited the Department of Business and Economic Development recently to oversee the historic tax credit auction that raised $84 million for the state’s InvestMaryland program. Greenleaf took some time out from his duties as chairman of the Maryland Venture Fund Authority for a quick Q&A about his day job — running MedImmune, one of Maryland’s most successful life sciences companies.

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MedImmune central to AstraZeneca-Amgen antibody deal – Washington Business Journal

Pharmaceutical giants AstraZeneca PLC and Amgen Inc. just announced a deal to co-develop and co-commercialize five product candidates, all monoclonal antibodies. No surprise here: LLC    – AZ’s Gaithersburg-based biologics arm that specializes in antibody-based products — will be taking on a good deal of the work.

The Maryland biotech took the lead on negotiating the transaction with Amgen and will lead the development of three of the five compounds, President Peter Greenleaf said in an interview Monday afternoon.

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Emergent’s Fuad El-Hibri, an entrepreneur at heart

Fuad El-Hibri has started a financial consulting business. He’s started telecommunications businesses.

But his most challenging venture has been the Rockville biotech he helped launch 14 years ago.

Still, El-Hibri — CEO and board chairman of Emergent BioSolutions — says the challenges are worth it, because the rewards are so great from protecting and saving lives.

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Opportunities in the Eastern U.S. Life Sciences Clusters – Science Careers – Biotech, Pharmaceutical, Faculty, Postdoc jobs on Science Careers

For scientists pursuing careers in biotech, clusters of life science-related companies and research institutions in the eastern United States may be a promising place to look for jobs. These so-called bioclusters have a 30-year history in the region and, in recent years, have seen an uptick in active support from academic institutions and state and local governments. We focus on three leaders in the region, the bioclusters in Massachusetts, Maryland/Washington, DC, and North Carolina. By Shawna Williams

Bioclusters have their roots in a pair of 1980 government decisions, explains Peter Abair, head of economic development and global affairs at the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council, an industry group. One of these, the Bayh-Dole Act, for the first time allowed discoveries made with federal dollars to be licensed for commercial purposes. The other was a Supreme Court decision that DNA could be patented.

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Johns Hopkins top R&D spender for 32nd straight year in 2010 – Baltimore Business Journal

Surprise, surprise — Johns Hopkins University    spent more money on medical, science and engineering research than any other university in fiscal 2010.

Hopkins topped the research and development spending list, compiled by the National Science Foundation    , for the 32nd consecutive year. The 2010 data is the most recent available.

Hopkins also tops the foundation’s list for federally funded research and development.

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UNH Center for Venture Research: U.S. Angel Investor Market on Solid Path of Recovery in 2011

Following a considerable contraction in investment dollars in 2008 and 2009, the U.S. angel investor market continued to recover in 2011, a trend that began in 2010 in investment dollars and in the number of investments, according to the 2011 Angel Market Analysis released by the Center for Venture Research at the University of New Hampshire.

Total investments in 2011 were $22.5 billion, an increase of 12.1 percent over 2010 when investments totaled $20.1 billion. A total of 66,230 entrepreneurial ventures received angel funding in 2011, an increase of 7.3 percent over 2010 investments, and the number of active investors in 2011 reached 318,480 individuals, a substantial growth of 20 percent from 2010.

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Senator Barbara Mikulski: Mikulski Stands Up For Maryland’s Health Research And Innovation Economy

U.S. Senator Barbara A. Mikulski (D-Md.)

U.S. Senator Barbara A. Mikulski (D-Md.), a senior member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, today spoke out in support of Maryland’s health research and innovation economy at a fiscal year 2013 oversight and budgetary hearing of the Senate  Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health, and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies for the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The hearing included testimony from NIH Director Dr. Francis Collins, MD.

"I am for being frugal but we must not jeopardize or hamper America’s gold standard as the worldwide leader in medical research and innovation," Senator Mikulski said. "NIH invests in the best and brightest scientific minds at universities, in the public and private sector, and with our federal employees."

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UMD Launches Entrepreneurship-Innovation Festival – Citybizlist Baltimore

On March 30, the University of Maryland launches its expanding lineup of competitions and activities devoted to innovation, ingenuity and ideas: 30 Days of EnTERPreneurship. Nearly a quarter-million dollars in prizes will be awarded at six events involving UMD faculty, students and alums.

The events honor the best in entrepreneurship at all stages of innovation – from invention to business plans to start-ups. Celebrants will include Gov. Martin O’Malley and one of Maryland’s most successful entrepreneurs, Kevin Plank ’96, founder and CEO of Under Armour.

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Tech Council of Maryland Release MdBio Inc

The MdBio Foundation, Inc., a private charitable organization that is an affiliate of the Tech Council of Maryland (TCM), today announced that it has received an unrestricted donation of $75,000 from MedImmune, the Gaithersburg, Md.-based global biologics arm of AstraZeneca.

MdBio Foundation will use the donation to support operation of the MdBioLab, its popular mobile bioscience laboratory that travels to schools across Maryland, and development of MdBioSphere™, an innovative interactive digital game that is being designed to enhance high school biology education and awareness.

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Maryland moves forward with plan to boost tech transfer – Baltimore Business Journal

An initiative aimed at helping Maryland research universities better commercialize technology developments received initial approval by both houses of the General Assembly.

The Maryland Innovation Initiative could provide early funding for tech transfer efforts and encourages collaboration between the University System of Maryland    , Johns Hopkins University    and Morgan State University    . The House of Delegates approved the measure (HB 442) and the Senate approved its companion bill (SB 239).

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Student Groups From Johns Hopkins U. to Compete in 2012 Rice Business Plan Competition – Citybizlist Baltimore

Three student groups from Johns Hopkins University are among the 42 teams hailing from some of the world’s top universities who will vie for more than $1 million in prizes at the 12th annual Rice Business Plan Competition (RBPC) April 12-14.

The teams for this year’s competition were chosen from more than 400 entrants based on their executive summaries to compete in six categories: life sciences; information technology; energy and clean technology; green technology, renewable and recycling; social; and other. The teams will have 15 minutes to present business plans in the competition for the grand prize valued at more than $460,000 and the opportunity to ring the closing bell at NASDAQ OMX this fall. Judges will rank the presentations based on which company they would most likely invest in.

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New Enterprise Associates to raise $2.3 billion VC fund – Washington Business Journal

Venture giant New Enterprise Associates filed paperwork Monday morning signaling plans to raise a 14th fund of as much as $2.3 billion.

The Securities and Exchange Commission filing by NEA comes two years after it closed a $2.5 billion fund.

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Maryland University, VC Partner on Start-Up Accelerator | Science Business

Loyola University in Baltimore, Maryland  and Wasabi Ventures, a venture capital company in San Mateo, California, have begun a new-business accelerator near the university’s campus. As part of the collaboration, Wasabi’s co-founder Thomas “T.K.” Kuegler, a 1994 Loyola graduate, will serve as the university’s entrepreneur-in-residence.

Loyola says the accelerator will provide opportunities for its students and help the surrounding community. “It creates new opportunities for our students to think creatively about new products, new markets, and the types of business, marketing, and expansion plans that will help young companies grow, and to apply these ideas to real-world organizations and the entrepreneurs behind them,” says Rev. Brian Linnane, Loyola’s president. “For those with an entrepreneurial spirit of their own, it can give them a chance to get their own businesses off the ground.”

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Group Set To Sequence 1000 Genomes By The End Of The Year | Singularity Hub

When the Human Genome Project got underway in 1990 it was expected to take 15 years to sequence the over 3 billion chemical base pairs that spell out our genetic code. In true Moore’s Law tradition the emergence of faster and more efficient sequencing technologies along the way led to the Project’s early completion in 2003. Today, 22 years after scientists first committed to the audacious goal of sequencing the genome, the next generation of sequencers are setting their sites much higher.

About a thousand times higher.

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Hamner: Biotech growth to last until 2035 – Triangle Business Journal

Dr. Charles Hamner has been researching the nanotechnology industry since, as he puts it, “before they called it nanotechnology.”

But he says it’s not an industry – “It’s a community, because the technology is going to spread across all industries,” particularly into biotechnology.

Nanotech deals with small particles, at the molecular level, and is applied by companies to create technological innovation. An example is Liquidia, a biotech that uses the nanoparticles in its vaccines.

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InvestMaryland VC firms to be recommended by London’s Altius Associates – Baltimore Business Journal

Maryland has chosen a London firm to oversee the selection of venture capital firms interested in making investments in young state companies through the InvestMaryland program.

Altius Associates was tapped to ensure the process is open and transparent and not influenced by the state, the Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development said in a statement.

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NIH and Lilly Collaborate, Aim to Make Drug Development Pipelines More Productive | Highlight HEALTH

Over the past decade, collaborative research efforts to support the discovery and development of medicines has increased dramatically. Last month, the National Institutes of Health and Eli Lilly and Company announced a new collaboration: they will generate a publicly available resource to profile the effects of thousands of approved and investigational medicines in a variety of advanced disease-relevant testing systems [1]. In-depth knowledge of the biological profiles of these medicines may enable researchers to better predict treatment outcomes, improve drug development, and lead to more specific and effective approaches.

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Biotech Can’t Sidestep Cost-Effectiveness Anymore | Xconomy

Back in the old days of biotech, the business was pretty straightforward. You’d craft your scientific idea, aim a new drug at patients in need, charm investors to give you some money, run bang-up clinical trials, win FDA approval. Do all that, and you’re good as gold. Charge insurers whatever the market will bear, and count the money.

That model worked for a long time, but there’s another hoop everyone needs to jump through now, and I’m not sure everyone in the industry has fully come to terms with it. No matter what happens with President Obama’s healthcare reform in the Supreme Court or Congress, there are forces now that limit what society will pay for new drugs. We don’t have actual price controls in the law, but the pressure to wring costs out of the $2.6 trillion U.S. healthcare system is intense and will only grow as the baby boomers get older. Drugmakers can’t duck and hide from this issue anymore.

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What venture capitalists look for in personalized medicine investments

Companies like Starbucks (NASDAQ:SBUX), Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) and Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) aren’t healthcare companies, but one venture capitalist believes their example can guide personalized medicine.

Bob Kocher, a partner at venture capital firm Venrock, said that these consumer-focused companies have all taken steps toward personalizing their offerings. Personalization increases the value of those offerings and helps the companies make delivery of services and products more efficient.

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Gene mapping isn’t a crystal ball for future health… yet – NY Daily News

Gene scans for everyone? Not so fast. New research suggests that for the average person, decoding your own DNA may not turn out to be a really useful crystal ball for future health.

Today, scientists map entire genomes mostly for research, as they study which genetic mutations play a role in different diseases. Or they use it to try to diagnose mystery illnesses that plague families. It’s different from getting a genetic test to see if you carry, say, a particular cancer-causing gene.

But as genome mapping gets faster and cheaper, scientists and consumers have wondered about possible broader use: Would finding all the glitches hidden in your DNA predict which diseases you’ll face decades later?

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AstraZeneca links up with Amgen for treatments development

Shares in AstraZeneca ticked up after the Anglo-Swedish drugs giant announced a tie-up with biotechnology giant Amgen to develop and commercialise five treatments.

Under the terms of the agreement, Astra will make a one-off upfront payment of $50m and the companies will share costs and profits on the drugs for a variety of inflammatory, respiratory and auto-immune diseases.

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Big Pharma Cozies Up to Biotech – DailyFinance

Pharmaceuticals have figured that out that if they can’t be as innovative or nimble as biotechs, the next best option is to pay for their good ideas with licensing deals and acquisitions.

And what better way to identify those potential deals than to cozy up to the biotechs?

Invite them into your homes

Earlier this year, Johnson & Johnson (NYS: JNJ) opened an incubator within its San Diego campus to house biotech startups. Janssen Labs — named after one of Johnson & Johnson’s drug divisions, Janssen Pharmaceutical — is a no-strings-attached affair with startups free either to develop the products on their own or partner with Johnson & Johnson or another company.

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BioHealth Innovation, Inc. Names Todd Chappell Its First Entrepreneur-in-Residence at National Institutes of Health Office of Technology Transfer

Chappell will help start-ups based on innovative discoveries 

from NIH and FDA research programs

ROCKVILLE, MARYLAND, March 26, 2012 – BioHealth Innovation, Inc. (BHI), a new regional private-public partnership focusing on commercializing market-relevant biohealth innovations and increasing access to early-stage funding in Central Maryland, announced today its selection of Todd Chappell as the first Entrepreneur-in-Residence (EIR) for BHI at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Office of Technology Transfer (OTT). Mr. Chappell, a venture capital-backed entrepreneurial leader and inventor with more than ten years of experience in molecular biology research, drug development and life sciences business strategy, will help support the development of new start-up companies based upon OTT technology license agreements.

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County, Business Execs, Tout Biotech Tax Credit – Gaithersburg, MD Patch

A county and state tax credit program leveraged nearly $6 million in investments last year in 10 biotechnology companies in Gaithersburg, Potomac and Rockville, officials said Monday.

Elected officials, including Montgomery County Executive Isiah Leggett (D), Sen. Jennie M. Forehand and Del. Brian J. Feldman joined biotech company executives and representatives of the county’s Department of Economic Development to tout the program at Sequella, Inc. in Rockville.

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GOVERNOR MARTIN O’MALLEY ANNOUNCES $84 MILLION IN INVESTMENT FOR MARYLAND’S INNOVATION ECONOMY

Maryland first state in the nation to use online auction to raise funds for venture capital program

InvestMaryland will deploy first round of funds to seed early stage companies this summer

ANNAPOLIS, MD (March 15, 2012) – Governor Martin O’Malley and Peter Greenleaf, chairman of the Maryland Venture Fund Authority, today announced that $84 million has been raised for Maryland’s Innovation Economy through InvestMaryland – an historic initiative created by the Governor and passed by the General Assembly last year to invest in the State’s promising start-up and early stage companies. The $84 million raised far exceeds a goal of $70 million and was generated through an online auction of premium tax credits to insurance companies with operations in Maryland. While other states have sold tax credits to fund similar venture capital initiatives, Maryland is the first state to use an online auction to raise the capital for such a program. The inaugural round of investments will be made in innovative companies this summer through several private venture capital firms and the State’s successful Maryland Venture Fund (MVF).

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Gazette.Net: Montgomery biotechs get $6M boost from first local tax program

Ten biotechnology companies in Montgomery County last year received almost $6 million from investors who were spurred by the state and county’s biotech investment tax credit programs, officials said Monday.

The county’s program, which received its initial funding this fiscal year after being approved by the County Council in 2010, is the first such local one for biotechs in the nation, said Montgomery County Executive Isiah Leggett (D) during a news conference at the Rockville headquarters of biotech Sequella. Officials approved $500,000 in fiscal 2012 and another $500,000 for fiscal ’13, which starts July 1.

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Group to draft rules of the road for Maryland tech transfer efforts – Baltimore Business Journal

University of Maryland Ventures, a new joint effort between the University of Maryland’s two biggest campuses, will soon create groups to help standardize the schools’ product licensing and technology transfer initiatives. The program calls for the two schools — the University of Maryland, Baltimore and University of Maryland, College Park — to create teams of individuals to help both schools increase the commercialization of their research programs. The teams will focus on developing and refining ideas for boosting intellectual property, patent submission, tech transfer and community outreach efforts for university researchers.

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Johns Hopkins University Launches JHU Research Accelerator

JHU Research Accelerator is a platform that facilitates an easy and secure collaboration and sharing of resources across the JHU scientific community as well as other insitutions within the Sharing Partnership for Innovative Research in Translation (SPIRiT) Consortium of the NIH Clinical and Translational Science Award program. Yale University, University of Pennsylvania, Washington University and the the University of Chicago are institutions currently members of the SPIRiT Consortium.

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Rockville Based OriGene Technologies Announces the Acquisition of Beijing Zhongshan Golden Bridge Biotechnology Co., Ltd, a Leading Chinese Pathology Reagent Company – MarketWatch

OriGene Technologies, Inc. announces the acquisition of Beijing Zhongshan Golden Bridge Biotechnology Co., Ltd (ZsBio). The strategic acquisition establishes OriGene’s leading position in the Chinese pathology testing market.

Headquartered in Beijing, China since 1993, ZsBio provides pathology testing products to the growing Chinese oncology diagnostic market. ZsBio has an industry leading position in the Chinese pathology testing market because of its innovative product portfolio, expertise, strong client relationships, and has established itself as a thought leader in the Chinese pathology diagnostic field. The Chinese pathology testing market has been experiencing double-digit growth annually and is one of the fast-growing segments of the Chinese diagnostic industry.

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Analyzing MedImmune Ventures Portfolio Startups | SeedTable

A Review of Medimmune Ventures Investment Portfolio.

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New University of Maryland Center for Translational Medicine Aims to Improve Ways Medical Products are Developed

The University of Maryland School of Pharmacy has launched a Center for Translational Medicine (CTM) under the leadership of Joga Gobburu, PhD, FCD, MBA, to help improve medical product development efficiency.

“By establishing the Center for Translational Medicine, the School of Pharmacy is demonstrating its commitment to improving the drug development and regulation process,” says Natalie D. Eddington, PhD, FAAPS, FCP, professor and dean of the School of Pharmacy. “As a leader in the field of pharmacometrics, Dr. Gobburu’s expertise as director of the center will enhance our educational and research programs and will lead to substantial partnerships with the pharmaceutical industry and other collaborators.”

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When is the April 5 NIH SBIR/STTR Deadline? | BBC’s Blog

That’s not quite a trick question. If you have been preparing a National Institutes of Health (NIH) SBIR/STTR grant submission, you are obviously aware that the deadline is 5 p.m. your local time on Thursday, April 5. However, since January 2011 there have been some important changes in the electronic submission process, so please read the rest of this email closely.

BBC has always advised that you submit your proposals well in advance of the deadline, and we highly encourage you to submit your SBIR/STTR to Grants.gov by April 1. This has always been a good strategy, but now it is essential. The Error Correction Window, which was implemented in December 2005 to facilitate the transition from paper to electronic submission of grant applications, has now been removed. The window had allowed applicants an opportunity after the deadline to correct missing or incorrect aspects of their applications, identified by NIH system-generated errors and warnings displayed to the applicant after submission.

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Johns Hopkins to test mobile medical apps – FierceMobileHealthcare

Last week we told you about some ambitious app development going on at Johns Hopkins Medical School. Well this week, Hopkins did themselves one better: They’re diving in to not only create apps, but also to evaluate the 10,000-plus universe of health apps for efficacy and safety, according to a recent article in the Baltimore Sun.

Hopkins also will judge whether the apps are more or less effective than traditional care, such as in-person visits.

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Kauffman Life Science Ventures Summit: Call for Applications

Starting a company is always challenging, but for founders of life science startups, the regulations and funding hurdles make it dauntingly complex, overwhelming, and seemingly insurmountable.

This first-time conference will answer the critical questions that founders must address to start and grow viable life science companies. Industry experts and successful entrepreneurs will provide practical guidance on how to commercialize innovations in each of four sectors: medical device, therapeutics, diagnostics, and digital health. If you have a new startup in this space or are ready to start one, this two-day event may be for you.

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Maryland startup initiative will address varied needs of IT, biotechs – Baltimore Business Journal

When Startup Maryland kicks off March 30, it will be confronted with a challenge unique to this region’s three Startup America subgroups: How to bring life sciences and information technology — the state’s two major tech industries — under one banner. The pro-entrepreneurship effort introduced by President Obama in January is the last of the region’s trio to launch. Startup Virginia got under way Jan. 31 in Arlington, Va., with Startup D.C. following later that day. Nationwide, there are 17 Startup America regions.

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Growing popularity of virtual biotechs promises boon to outsourcers – FierceCRO

The recent news that tiny FerroKin BioSciences earned a big buyout deal with Shire ($SHPGY) has helped spotlight the growing popularity of the virtual biotech model. And that has big implications for everyone in the outsourcing industry.

Like other virtuals–such as Stromedix, recently acquired by Biogen Idec ($BIIB)–FerroKin had only a handful of employees working full-time for the company. CROs, CMOs and other outsourcers created a network of support vendors that carried out much of the heavy lifting in drug research. And with some proof of concept data in hand, FerroKin made a tantalizing morsel for an acquirer looking to build up its pipeline without having to acquire a sizable research infrastructure it didn’t need.

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Pharma Execs Admit: ‘Our Model Is Broken’ // Pharmalot

As if we didn’t already know this, yes? Still, a new survey finds that 68 percent of pharma execs agree that Humpty Dumpty has fallen off the wall. To be specific, 44 percent agree that the pharma industry model is broken and 24 percent strongly agree with this statement. Another 22 percent are neutral and 6 percent disagree. We wonder where this 28 percent is working right now…

And over the next two years, 76 percent believe the healthcare system pricing and budget pressures will be the biggest challenge; followed by 70 percent who believe they will have to demonstrate cost effectiveness; 69 percent who cite more restrictive market access; 60 percent who fear generic competition; 53 percent who worry about less access to docs and 50 percent who are concerned about the ability of patients to pay for their meds.

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GSK, J&J back Index’s new $200M fund for early-stage deals – FierceBiotech

GlaxoSmithKline and Johnson & Johnson are teaming up with Index Ventures to launch a $200 million fund devoted exclusively to backing early-stage biotechs. And while its primary focus will be in Europe, the venture group intends to invest in biotechs throughout the U.S. as well.

Index takes what it calls an "asset centric" approach to investing, looking for developers with just one or two products–a classic feature of most start-ups. And some heavy hitters from GSK ($GSK) and J&J ($JNJ) will sit on the scientific advisory board of the new fund, giving a few early-stage companies a chance to mix with some top execs from companies they’ll be hoping to partner with at some point. From GSK, R&D chief Moncef Slaoui (photo) and Paul-Peter Tak, head of GSK’s immunoinflammation therapy area unit, will join Janssen’s Paul Stoffels and Bill Hait, global head of R&D. They’ll confer with Index Ventures’ Francesco De Rubertis, Kevin Johnson, Michele Ollier, Roman Fleck, and Remy Luthringer.

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Springboard 2012: A Forum Program for Women-Led Companies.

In an age of information overload where getting in front of the right investors and potential strategic partners is harder than ever, where do you go to find the support you need to build the next iRobot, Zipcar, Constant Contact, or Achillion?

We know how to help investment-ready women-led companies raise capital to scale BIG. Springboard’s forum programs are designed to support, promote and showcase investment-ready, high-growth companies led by women.  And after 11 years of presenting over 480 businesses that have raised over $5.5B in capital, we’ve figured out the secret to overcoming the hurdles startups face when trying to scale. It’s about building relationships, not just about raising capital.  Click here to learn more about our how our forum programs work.

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FDA mulls the role of screening apps, devices | mobihealthnews

This week the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is holding a hearing about using innovative technologies and other mechanisms to expand the number of medications that can administered over the counter. A report in the San Diego Union Tribune recognizes that some of the innovations that the FDA has in mind are mobile health apps and devices.

“FDA is aware that industry is developing new technologies that consumers could use to self-screen for a particular disease or condition and determine whether a particular medication is appropriate for them,” the agency wrote in the Federal Register last month. “For example, kiosks or other technological aids in pharmacies or on the Internet could lead consumers through an algorithm for a particular drug product. Such an algorithm could consist of a series of questions that help consumers properly self-diagnose certain medical conditions, or determine whether specific medication warnings contraindicate their use of a drug product.”

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For Biotech Firms, Gravy Days Are Over – WSJ.com

Biotechnology firms are coming around to a harsh reality: The gravy days are over.

These small, innovative drug companies were once an investment darling, able to secure millions of dollars from venture capitalists and even more later through public offerings. But in recent years, venture financing for biotech has been in decline, due to the tough economic environment and poor returns from stock offerings.

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FDA seeks comment on post-market drug safety plans – NEWS – General articles – Pharmaceutical Industry – PMLiVE

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) DA has published draft guidance describing plans on how to handle serious drug safety issues with marketed drugs, which is now open for comment.

The guidance is intended to lay out a framework for the agency’s response to post-marketing safety issues including serious adverse events, product quality issues and medication errors, with a ranking system to help prioritise each issue according to its level of risk.

The FDA has been criticised in a string medical journal articles in the last 18 months for not monitoring its own adverse event reporting (AER) database effectively enough and failing to communicate safety issues in a timely and effective way to healthcare professionals and the public.

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University of Maryland School of Pharmacy: News

Joga Gobburu, PhD, MBA, FCP

The University of Maryland School of Pharmacy has launched a Center for Translational Medicine (CTM) under the leadership of Joga Gobburu, PhD, FCD, MBA, to help improve medical product development efficiency.

“By establishing the Center for Translational Medicine, the School of Pharmacy is demonstrating its commitment to improving the drug development and regulation process,” says Natalie D. Eddington, PhD, FAAPS, FCP, professor and dean of the School of Pharmacy. “As a leader in the field of pharmacometrics, Dr. Gobburu’s expertise as director of the center will enhance our educational and research programs and will lead to substantial partnerships with the pharmaceutical industry and other collaborators.”

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