BHI Weekly News Archives

The Montgomery County Council approved the fiscal year (FY) 2019 operating budget on Thursday, May 24, 2018. Included in the budget is a total of $425,000 for the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Matching Grant Program. The program provides matching fund for businesses that receive federal SBIR and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) grants.

Bill 41-17, Economic Development Fund – Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer Matching Grant Program established a County matching fund for businesses that receive federal SBIR and STTR grants. Councilmember George Leventhal, who serves as chair of the Council’s Health and Human Services Committee and is a member of the Planning, Housing and Economic Development Committee, was the lead sponsor of Bill 41-17. All other Councilmembers were cosponsors.

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In this new episode of BioTalk, Matt Brady and BHI President & CEO Rich Bendis discuss topics around lab spaces in the area including, availability, shortages, and solutions to create more in the BioHealth Capital Region.In this new episode of BioTalk, Matt Brady and BHI President & CEO Rich Bendis discuss topics around lab spaces in the area including, availability, shortages, and solutions to create more in the BioHealth Capital Region.

Since joining Scheer Partners in 2003, Matt Brady has successfully completed commercial real estate transactions for more than 500,000 square feet of office, R&D and industrial space totaling close to $100 million in transaction value.

Listen now on iTunes , Google Play , and TuneIn. 

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Perceptive Navigation, LLC, a medical device company developing minimally-invasive, image-guidance solutions for the areas of cardiology, emergency medicine, and interventional radiology, announced today that it has been awarded a Phase IIB Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).  The award provides up to $3 million in funding to complete the product development and clinical work required to commercialize Perceptive’s first product, the Vu-PathTM Ultrasound System. This award comes as Perceptive completes work on a $1.4 million Phase II award from the NHLBI.

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VLP Therapeutics, LLC. (“VLP”), a biotechnology company focusing on the research and development of therapeutic and preventative vaccines and new cancer therapies, announced that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has issued US Patent #9,969,986 covering a virus like particle comprising modified envelope protein E3. The patent protects key composition of matter of VLP’s proprietary i-αVLP virus-like particle platform technology and the pharmaceutical composition for use in preventing infectious disease and the treatment of cancer. VLP Therapeutics is currently focused on developing preventative infectious disease vaccines and therapeutic cancer vaccines utilizing the platform technology covered by patent #9,969,986 and other issued US patents,

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We’re pleased to announce that Richard Bendis, President & CEO BioHealth Innovation, Inc., will be a featured speaker at the 2018 Inova Discovery Series: Early Stage Investing in Health Technology!

We have over 300+ registered for our inaugural event. We hope you’ll join us on June 21st at the Inova Center for Personalized Health.

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The Iowa AgriTech Accelerator has announced the five AgTech startups selected for the program’s class of 2018. The Accelerator, based in Des Moines, Iowa, is a mentor-led program focused on ag technology innovations.

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It’s not just tech companies that can trace their roots back to a garage. According to co-founder Joel Marcus, Alexandria Real Estate Equities (NYSE:ARE) — a real estate investment trust specializing in life sciences laboratory and office space — got its start in a garage, too. Since its founding in 1994, Alexandria Real Estate has grown into an $18 billion commercial real estate Goliath with $1.1 billion in annual revenue. Can this company’s success continue? I recently spoke with Marcus to learn more about the company and its opportunities.

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In the City of Clustered Spires, the steeples aren’t alone in their impressive trajectories. This month, we recognize eight of Frederick’s most successful young entrepreneurs who have also risen above the ordinary, and continue to reach higher.

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AstraZeneca has officially opened its new research facility in South San Francisco, bundling five of its Bay Area sites into a single unit at the heart of California’s biotech cluster.

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Researchers at the University of Maryland, College Park and Baltimore campuses are working to shed new light on how, one day, immune tissues could be designed and implanted to create next-generation vaccines or immunotherapies for a range of diseases, or serve as cutting-edge tools for the early diagnosis of cancers or other illnesses.

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The Maryland Technology Development Corp. has awarded a $750,000 grant to Longeveron LLC, a Miami-based biopharmaceutical company, to study whether stem cells can make a better flu vaccine for seniors with a researcher from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

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BioHealth Innovation, Inc. (BHI) is a nonprofit organization focused on supporting BioHealth entrepreneurs and related industry growth in Montgomery County and the BioHealth Capital Region (Maryland, D.C. and Virginia). BHI is seeking an energetic and motivated Marketing Intern to assist with communications and marketing-related projects. This position is estimated to be 15-25 hours per week, would start immediately, and continue for 12 weeks. In addition to the responsibilities listed below, the intern may attend meetings and programs to understand the full work of BHI and how the organization accomplishes its mission through constituent outreach and support, commercialization and partnership activity.

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Applications CARB-X welcomes applications from around the world for funding and support for the early development of antibiotics, diagnostics, vaccines, devices and other products to combat the most serious drug-resistant bacteria. Please read the sections below carefully to find out what CARB-X funds and how to apply for funding and support.

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While the number of active investors and funded ventures continued to shrink in 2017, an increase in dollars invested and deal sizes shows angel investors are bullish about their prospects, indicates an annual report by the University of New Hampshire’s Center for Venture Research.

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The Administration is kicking off a series of public meetings as part of its “Return on Investment” initiative to increase the benefits that American taxpayers receive from funding $150 B annually in government supported R&D. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is heading the project and issued a request for information (Request for Information (RFI)) seeking ideas on how to improve the commercialization of resulting technologies.

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Brian Hahn, Chief Financial Officer of GlycoMimetics, Inc., provided testimony today on behalf of the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO) before the House of Representatives Committee on Financial Services, Subcommittee on Capital Markets, Securities, and Investment. Hahn serves as the Co-Chair of BIO’s Finance & Tax Committee.

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Understanding the far- and wide-ranging Maryland technology ‘household’ or ecosystem is essential to success, according to Glenna E. Cush, director of marketing with the state’s Small Business Development Center.

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The SBIR/STTR program, which dubs itself as “America’s Seed Fund,” is one of the broadest forms of early-stage capital available to small technology companies. During the five-year period from 2013 to 2017, the 11 federal agencies participating in the SBIR/STTR program distributed 25,524 awards. Using charts, maps, and a downloadable spreadsheet, this Digest article looks at trends in SBIR/STTR awards by state over the period, including the companies with the most awards and states where SBIR/STTR awards outnumber VC deals. A future article will look at awards by metropolitan area.

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The United States–India Science & Technology Endowment Fund (USISTEF) was created for the promotion of joint activities that would lead to innovation and entrepreneurship through the application of science and technology. US-India research partners working on tangible innovations are suitable for this funding.

9th Call of the United States-India Science & Technology Endowment Fund (USISTEF) Program is now open with a deadline of 15 June 2018. While the detailed information about the program can be accessed through the websites www.usistef.org and www.iusstf.org

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Opioids: Changing the Paradigm on Treating Pain and Addiction

4:15 PM–5:15 PM Jun 5, 2018

Room 256, Level 2

The opioid epidemic knows no age limits. Newborns and young children are the most vulnerable victims of the opioid epidemic. An American Academy of Pediatrics research suggests more than 100 children test positive for opioid addiction or dependency each day in US emergency departments. Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome (NAS) births in the US occur at the rate of ~6 for every 1,000 and 15 per 1,000 in some rural areas. Studies suggest there will be over 50,000 NAS infant births in 2017.

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Although the concept of immunotherapy has been around for more than a century, it only gained prominence as a method of targeted cancer therapy in the early 2000s. In 2015, Merck’s Keytruda® (pembrolizumab), a checkpoint inhibitor drug, made headlines as a breakthrough therapy for melanoma after former U.S. president Jimmy Carter was treated with it. Keytruda had just received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as the first anti-PD-1 therapy, and its highly-publicized success created a frenzy in the media; followed by the initiation of scores of immuno-oncology (I-O) clinical trials.

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The healthcare services and technology market is growing rapidly, which creates opportunities, risks, and structural questions for companies in the sector and those in the broader healthcare value chain.

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The Wall Street Journal just ran an interesting interactive feature looking at where college grads move after graduation. They looked at 445 schools, and tracked destinations by metro area. They discovered that graduates, particularly from stronger schools, are flocking to major metro areas. The Big East, Ivy League, Pac-12, Big-12, ACC, and Big Ten are all over 70% in sending college grads to major metro areas (but see below for caveats).

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Research to develop life-saving products, including new vaccines and other products to protect against deadly drug-resistant bacterial infections, got a significant boost today.

The UK Government’s Global Antimicrobial Resistance Innovation Fund (GAMRIF) and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) have joined the CARB-X partnership to support scientific research around the world to develop new vaccines, preventatives, and other products against drug-resistant bacterial infections, particularly among vulnerable populations in low- and middle-income countries.

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New York State will invest $30 million into the Center for Bioelectronic Medicine at the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research in Manhasset as part of the state’s $72 million investment to support three transformative, economic developments on Long Island, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Monday.

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Results from a multi-year clinical trial testing hyperbaric oxygen as an intervention for US military service members who have experience mild traumatic brain injuries with persistent symptoms were published recently in Undersea and Hyperbaric Medicine Journal.

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AI and Big Data allow innovators to leverage neuroscientific knowledge at scale to untapped markets.

We would all like our brains to be more powerful – especially those of us with reason to fear the effects of advancing age or a degenerative illness. For the entrepreneurs behind widely promoted “brain-training” apps like Lumosity, the universal desire for cognitive improvement translates to lucrative opportunities. Some scientists and clinicians, too, have hopped on the bandwagon, seeking avenues to lend their expertise to the business world while theoretically bringing cognitive enhancement to the masses.

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MedImmune Sr. Director, Partnering & Strategy filling role previously held by Emergent BioSolutions CEO, Daniel J. Abdun-Nabi

BioHealth Innovation, Inc. (BHI) announced that its Board of Directors has unanimously approved the appointment of MedImmune Sr. Director, Partnering & Strategy, Jarrod Borkat as new Vice Chairman. MedImmune, the global biologics research and development arm of AstraZeneca, is a Founding Partner of BHI and continues to be a leader in building the BioHealth Capital Region. BHI would like to thank Emergent BioSolutions CEO, Daniel J. Abdun-Nabi, for his service as Vice Chairman. He will remain as a member of the Board of Directors. Mr. Abdun-Nabi also previously served as chairman of the Maryland Life Sciences Advisory Board (LSAB) and currently serves on Maryland Governor Larry Hogan’s Excel Board.

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Margaret Anderson, Managing Director at Deloitte Consulting LLP, sits down with host Rich Bendis for this episode of BioTalk. They discuss her career path, putting patients at the center of biomedical and public health, and engaging with all sectors. Margaret Anderson is a Managing Director at Deloitte Consulting LLP focused on using strategy to make organizations, agencies, and programs stronger and more laser focused on outcomes for patients. Her career has traversed biomedical and public health policy and she’s motivated by the change she’s seen in bringing treatments and solutions for patients forward.

As used in this podcast, “Deloitte” means Deloitte Consulting LLP, a subsidiary of Deloitte LLP. Please see www.deloitte.com/us/about for a detailed description of our legal structure. Certain services may not be available to attest clients under the rules and regulations of public accounting.

Listen now on iTunes , Google Play , and TuneIn. 

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Kite, a Gilead Company (Nasdaq: GILD), today announced it has leased a new facility in the Netherlands to engineer cell therapies in Europe. The 117,000 square-foot site in Hoofddorp (SEGRO Park Amsterdam Airport) will enable Kite to efficiently manufacture and deliver its cell therapies to people living with cancer in Europe and will provide more than 300 new jobs when fully operational in 2020.

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StonebridgeCarras and The Donohoe Companies announced plans today for their project at 8280 Wisconsin Avenue which will focus its 175,000 square feet of commercial space on bringing life sciences to the Bethesda Central Business District (CBD).  StonebridgeCarras and Donohoe’s vision for the project is to capitalize on two converging trends:  employers locating their offices in live, work and play environments with access to mass transportation; and life sciences companies co-locating near thought leaders and institutions driving research and advancement.

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BioHealth Innovation, Inc. (BHI) is a nonprofit organization focused on supporting BioHealth entrepreneurs and related industry growth in Montgomery County and the BioHealth Capital Region (Maryland, D.C. and Virginia).  BHI is seeking an energetic and motivated Marketing Intern to assist with communications and marketing-related projects. This position is estimated to be 15-25 hours per week, would start immediately, and continue for 12 weeks.  In addition to the responsibilities listed below, the intern may attend meetings and programs to understand the full work of BHI and how the organization accomplishes its mission through constituent outreach and support, commercialization and partnership activity.

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The Iowa AgriTech Accelerator is a mentor-led accelerator focused on AgTech innovations. The Accelerator is led by innovators and leaders in several areas of agriculture, and seeks startups ready to change the status quo.

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MockV Solutions, Inc. (MockV or the Company), a company developing innovative products to analyze virus clearance during process development, announced today that it will be collaborating with the Vaccine Production Program of the Vaccine Research Center/National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases/National Institutes of Health (VRC, NIAID, NIH) to evaluate its lead product candidate, the MVM-MVP Kit. The MVM-MVP Kit contains a non-infectious “Mock Virus Particle” (MVP) spiking surrogate that mimics the physicochemical characteristics of Minute Virus of Mice (MVM), a small and physiochemically resistant parvovirus, used as a universal standard for assessing viral clearance during process validation studies. The intention of this collaboration is to determine if the non-infectious MVP could be used as an accurate and economic indicator of MVM clearance during small scale bioprocess development studies.

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The Maryland Tech Council (MTC), Maryland’s largest technology trade association, announced the winners of its 30th Annual Industry Awards during a celebration and ceremony at The Hotel at the University of Maryland attended by more than 550 business leaders from around the state.

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A company that works to turn intellectual property into businesses is backing a new Johns Hopkins startup developing therapeutics to treat cancer.

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Rexahn Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NYSE American:RNN), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing innovative, targeted therapeutics for the treatment of cancer, advances its ongoing Phase 2a study of RX-3117 in combination with Abraxane® in first-line patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer following a recently completed routine Safety Monitoring Committee (SMC) review.

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The MdBio Foundation, a non-profit that provides STEM education and workforce development to underserved communities, today announced that Katy Wnuk-Fink – a senior from Laurel who attends Reservoir High School – was named winner of the 2018 Maryland BioGENEius Challenge, the premier competition for high school students that recognizes outstanding original research in biotechnology for healthcare, sustainability, and the environment. As the Maryland BioGENEius finalist, Wnuk-Fink will represent the state in the International BioGENEius Challenge at the BIO International Convention in Boston in June.

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Maryland Technology Development Corp. has doled out $7.1 million to 25 companies and researchers working on stem cell products and medical therapies.

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Protenus has been selected by Modern Healthcare as one of the 2018 Best Places to Work in Healthcare. The complete list of this year’s winners, in alphabetical order, is available here. Modern Healthcare will publish a special supplement featuring ranked lists of all the winners along with the October 1 issue.

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Paragon Bioservices, Inc. (Paragon), the leading private equity-backed biologics contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) with proven expertise in gene therapy and next-generation vaccines, was named the 2018 Life Science Company of the Year by the Maryland Tech Council (MTC). The announcement came at MTC’s 30th Annual Industry Awards held last night in the Hotel at the University of Maryland in College Park.

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SoBran BioScience, a division of SoBran Inc, and a leading provider of pre-clinical GLP contract research announced the grand prize winner of the Innovation for Impact Prize sponsored in partnership with the Maryland Tech Council (MTC). This Grand Prize was awarded last night at the MTC 30th Anniversary Industry Awards Celebration.

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A nonprofit organization, Knowledge Ecology International (KEI), recently filed a lawsuit against the National Institutes of Health (NIH) over Gilead Sciences’ patents for a new chimeric antigen receptor T-cell (CAR-T) therapy.

KEI calls itself a “not for profit non government organization that searches for better outcomes, including new solutions, to the management of knowledge resources. KEI is focused on social justice, particularly for the most vulnerable populations, including low-income persons and marginalized groups.”

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The U.S. Small Business Administration, under its Federal and State Technology (FAST) Partnership Program, is soliciting grant applications from New York organizations to help boost the development of technology from small businesses.

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A complication from surgery can cost tens of thousands of dollars and require more surgery to correct — but a young Maryland startup is cooking up a more affordable and less invasive solution.

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Join the FLC on Tuesday, May 22 at 1:00 p.m. EDT for an inside look into these new regulations with NIST’s Courtney Silverthorn. To register for this webinar, visit http://connect.federallabs.org/new-t2-regulations-what-you-need-to-know.

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The Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program is an important National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding mechanism used to develop innovative solutions that address public health challenges. A major objective of the SBIR Program is to facilitate the commercialization of technologies developed by small business concerns (SBCs). Yet, the development of biomedical products is often impeded by a significant funding gap between the end of the SBIR Phase II award and the commercialization stage. This gap is increased by the barriers associated with technologies under development for small commercial markets, such as those focused on rare diseases or young pediatric populations. This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) invites small businesses to submit SBIR grant applications to support later stage research and development (referred to as Phase IIB) for promising projects that were previously funded by SBIR or STTR (Small Business Technology Transfer) Phase II awards that address rare diseases or young pediatric populations (aged 0-12 years and defined in Section IV, part 7), and will require eventual Federal regulatory approval/clearance. The goal of this FOA and the resulting Phase IIB awards is to assist applicants in pursuing the next appropriate milestone(s) necessary to advance a product to regulatory approval and commercialization by promoting partnerships between small business awardees and third-party investors and/or strategic partners, including patient advocacy organizations.

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The Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program is an important funding mechanism that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) uses to develop innovative solutions that address public health challenges. A major objective of the SBIR Program is to facilitate the commercialization of technologies developed by small business concerns (SBCs). Yet, the development of biomedical products is often impeded by a significant funding gap between the end of the SBIR Phase II award and the commercialization stage. This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) invites SBIR grant applications from SBCs to support later stage research and development (referred to as Phase IIB) for promising projects that were previously funded by SBIR or STTR Phase II awards and will require eventual Federal regulatory approval/clearance. The goal of this FOA and the resulting Phase IIB awards is to assist applicants in pursuing the milestone(s) necessary to advance a product to regulatory approval and commercialization by promoting partnerships between SBIR Phase II awardees and third-party investors and/or strategic partners.

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This white paper takes an in depth look at trends in the pharmaceutical industry that are anticipated to make a significant impact on the sector in 2018. Industry professionals can leverage this information to make the course adjustments that will give their companies a competitive edge in the market.

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Today the President of Iceland awarded Kerecis the Industry Award for Entrepreneurship. Kerecis is the creator, manufacturer and patent holder of revolutionary, fish-skin-based therapeutic products that speed up the healing process of human wounds and repair tissue damage.

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Venture development organizations (VDO), nonprofit organizations across the country investing in innovation startups to help grow their regional economies as well as earn a respectable return, saw at least 20 exits in the first quarter of 2018, based on data entered on Pitchbook.com. Here are some examples from the quarter:

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The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai has created a $10 million accelerator fund to speed up the commercialization of research at the school. It’s starting with two investments in drug-development ventures.

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Founders can become myopic during the long, stressful process of fundraising. Many focus solely on the amount of money they’re going to raise, their valuation, and the brand name of the investors they are pitching.

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Tufts University has joined the biotech incubator craze, launching a coworking space in Boston earlier this year that organizers hope will foster another life sciences cluster in the heart of the city.

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Boston Children’s Hospital has teamed up with open-source solution provider Red Hat to create a web-based medical image platform that will speed the time it takes to share and analyze life-saving images.

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Trying to build on Arizona’s significant investments in the life science discovery and healthcare delivery infrastructure, the state’s leaders are focused on bridging the funding gap that slows the growth of Arizona-based life science companies. Leaders of Arizona’s life science sector share a drive to accomplish a common goal: accelerate the growth of local companies that are developing and delivering innovative treatments that truly change lives.

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New Enterprise Associates, one of Silicon Valley’s largest venture-capital firms, plans to sell off a big chunk of its startup investments in response to a dearth of initial public offerings, according to people familiar with the discussions.

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In this first part of two episodes, Rich sits down with leaders from different parts of the BHCR to talk about what they are working on, and their thoughts on the event. His guests are Jim Jackson, SVP, CSO at Emergent BioSolutions and Jim Hughes, Vice President at University of Maryland, Baltimore.

Listen now on iTunes , Google Play , and TuneIn. 

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In this second part of two episodes, Rich sits down with leaders from different parts of the BHCR to talk about what they are working on, and their thoughts on the event. His guests are Todd Haim, SBIR Director, NCI SBIR Development Center at NIH, and Matthew McMahon, Director, Office of Translational Alliances and Coordination at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute at NIH

Listen now on iTunes , Google Play , and TuneIn. 

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More than half of all venture capital dollars invested in small businesses and startups during the first three months of 2018 went straight into the state of California, according to a recent investment report from PwC and CB Insights suggesting the vast majority of business investment in the U.S. is concentrated in only a few states.

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Rockville-based BeneVir Biopharm Inc., a biotech specializing in immunotherapy treatments for cancer, has reached a deal to sell to pharmaceutical goliath Janssen Biotech Inc., a Johnson & Johnson company, in a deal worth up to $1.04 billion.

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The first-quarter numbers for Emergent BioSolutions (NYSE:EBS) didn’t look too great. In fact, they were arguably ugly.

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The Emmes Corporation today announced that scientists and health professionals from the company, LDS Hospital in Salt Lake City, Utah, Lovelace Biomedical Environmental Research Institute in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and the U.S. Army Medical and Materiel Development Activity at Fort Detrick, Maryland, have completed a multi-year clinical trial testing hyperbaric oxygen as an intervention for U.S. military service members who have suffered mild traumatic brain injuries with persistent symptoms.

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It pays to be a business in Baltimore. That’s the message that Johns Hopkins wants proprietors and their patrons to know as part of the institution’s HopkinsLocal initiative to support and invest in local enterprises.

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Famous local inventor Robert E. Fischell is gifting $20 million to the University of Maryland School of Medicine in support of biomedical research.

The gift will be used to establish the Robert E. Fischell Center for Biomedical Innovation at the medical school, and provide funding for a planned new 450,000 square foot research building on the school’s Baltimore campus. It will also support research funds and endowed professorships for the new Fischell Center.

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Intralytix, Inc., announced today that it has closed on the acquisition of a 33,000 sq. ft. building in Columbia, Maryland. The facility, located in the Columbia Gateway Community, will serve as the Company’s new headquarters. Plans are underway to house expanded research and laboratory space, executive offices, and substantially increased manufacturing capacity.

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The University of Maryland announced its goal Friday to fundraise $1.5 billion by the end of 2021 for numerous construction projects, scholarship funds and program upgrades, according to a news release.

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The government said Friday it would spend 7.5 trillion won ($7 billion) to support the biohealth sector by 2022 aggressively.

The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy launched “Industrial Innovation 2020 Platform” with private companies and experts to discuss cooperative measures to accelerate private sector-driven industrial innovation and growth.

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Takeda Pharmaceutical agreed to buy London-listed Shire for 45.3 billion pounds ($62 billion) on Tuesday, the biggest yet in a wave of deals sweeping the drugs industry.

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Think of The Collective as a 15K SF clubhouse for big kids. Grownups are welcome, but leave your electronic devices in your pockets, please. This is about face-to-face fun.

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You’ve heard the cliché about wearing your heart on your sleeve. But a group of Army doctors did one better: They grew a new ear on a soldier’s forearm, using cartilage harvested from her ribs.

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Company’s announcement latest in recent trend of significant investment in Montgomery County biohealth companies.

BeneVir Biopharm, Inc. (BeneVir), a privately-held Montgomery County biotech company, has entered into an agreement under which it will be acquired by Janssen Biotech, Inc., a Johnson & Johnson company for up to $1.04 billion. Under the terms of the agreement, Janssen will make an upfront cash payment of $140 million at closing of the transaction, plus additional contingent payments of up to $900 million based on achievement of certain predetermined milestones. BeneVir was a client of BioHealth Innovation (BHI) from 2013 until its Series A investment in 2014.

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As we wrap up this year’s Forum and begin planning for 2019, we would like to hear from you! Tell us what you loved, what we can improve, and what you are most interested in seeing from the BioHealth Capital Region in the coming year. 

Click here to complete the 2018 BHCR Forum Attendee Survey. We thank you in advance for your time in providing your feedback.

Save the Date for 2019! The 2019 BioHealth Capital Region Forum will take place on April 8-9, 2019.

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How much is an undergraduate degree really worth? The average 20-year payoff for a bachelor’s degree—even after factoring in tuition and other college costs—is roughly $225,000, according to salary data released Tuesday from PayScale.

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HC2 Holdings, Inc. (“HC2”) (NYSE:HCHC), a diversified holding company, announced today that BeneVir Biopharm, Inc. (“BeneVir”), a privately-held biotechnology company developing oncolytic immunotherapies for the treatment of cancer, has entered into a definitive agreement to be acquired by Janssen Biotech, Inc. (“Janssen”).

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Landos Biopharma, Inc., an emerging biopharmaceutical company focused on developing improved treatments for autoimmune diseases, announced the publication of findings on the mechanisms of action for its top lead candidate, BT-11, in Inflammatory Bowel Diseases, the Official Journal of the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation. The study concludes that through the activation of the Lanthionine Synthetase C-Like 2 (LANCL2) pathway, BT-11 induces changes in the interface of inflammation and metabolism within immune cells in the gut that are critical to provide lasting therapeutic efficacy against inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). These changes in metabolism enhance regulatory CD4+ T helper cell responses and promote lasting therapeutic actions locally within the gut. The mechanistic findings demonstrate the translatability of the therapeutic efficacy of BT-11 to the clinic.

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Janssen Biotech has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire a privately-held biopharmaceutical company focused on the red-hot field of cancer immunology.

Financial terms of the deal for BeneVir BioPharm are being kept confidential.

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MCEDC SUPPORTS BUSINESS

FY 18 HIGHLIGHTS

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Highmark Health announced today that through its VITAL Innovation Program, a test-and-learn platform, it will be evaluating WellDoc’s® BlueStar® mobile app, an FDA-cleared, proven digital therapeutic for individuals with type 2 diabetes.

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One of the enduring mysteries of medicine is how individual genes, environment and lifestyle may combine to spark sickness or protect us from it. Unraveling this puzzle remains essential for scientists hoping to achieve the elusive goal of offering tailored treatments or personalized prevention plans.

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Scott Gottlieb, commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, has introduced information technology initiatives under the agency’s data science incubator program during the Health Datapalooza conference in Washington, D.C., MedCityNews reported Thursday.

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When: Thursday, May 17, 20184:00 – 7:00 PM EST Where: University of Maryland BioPark, 801 West Baltimore Street, Baltimore, MD 21201

Join the fourth in the TEDCO funded Anchor Ventures events series for an important discussion about Talent. Our expert panel will discuss how to draw the right candidates to your company, the role personnel plays in the investment process, opportunities for enhancing your existing team, and the regional supply of entrepreneurial talent.

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When: Wednesday, May 16, 2018 from 5:00 PM to 7:00 PM EDT

Where: UMBC Shady Grove, 9630 Gudelsky Drive ,Rockville, MD 20850

Join BioBuzz and sponsor UMBC Shady Grove in Rockville on May 16th for our next great networking event. UMBC at The Universities at Shady Grove (USG) has a 17+ year history of providing high caliber and industry desired academic programs in Rockville, MD. This Fall, UMBC is launching its first Bachelors of Science degree at USG in Translational Life Science Technology. This degree, designed in partnership with Montgomery College, combines the theory of a traditional life science degree with real-world applications used by scientists in academic and industry research.

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This is the Letter of Intent Form (LOI) for Phase 0 of the VA BEACH BIO INNOVATION Startup Challenge. The Team Leader of each team should fill out and submit one form for this challenge. The last date to submit an LOI is May 31st.

Page 1: Basic information and Confidentiality Page 2: Additional Team information (can be completed during Phase 1)

Anyone can Enter!

No minimum team size – you can enter individually Your Background: Anyone with an entrepreneurial spirit! No Geography Restrictions: This challenge welcomes international participants

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Come join us on June 21, 2018 for our first event of the INOVA 2018 Discovery Series.

Inova Center for Personalized Health Conference Center – 3225 Gallows Road, Fairfax, VA 22031

6:00pm – Reception

7:00pm – Presentation: State of Healthcare Investing; Analysis: Investor Panel Discussion/Q&A

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1,129,744 patient records were breached between January and March 2018, according to new data released today in the Protenus Breach Barometer. Published by Protenus, an artificial intelligence platform used by top health systems to analyze every access to patient data inside the electronic health record (EHR), the Breach Barometer is the industry’s definitive source for health data breach reporting.

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A pair of Baltimore-based tech leaders are joining the board of directors for TEDCO.

With the appointment by Gov. Larry Hogan, each will serve a four-year term on the board that oversees the state’s quasi-public agency backing early-stage tech companies.

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The Cambridge life sciences cluster has the potential to contribute an additional £1bn to the UK economy by 2032, according to independent research commissioned by AstraZeneca.

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The National Institute of Standards and Technology is looking for the public’s help in refreshing how it uses research and development funds to help bring new products to market.

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Students at UMB are looking to form new startups that will bring change to a range of different areas in healthcare and beyond, from the pockets where nurses keep supplies to the ways that drugs are delivered.

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You’ve heard the word “blockchain” many times now, but probably not quite as many as you’ve heard the word “bitcoin.” Yet you surely have a sense that the referents of those two words have a connection, and even if you haven’t yet been interested in either, you may well know that blockchain, a technology, makes Bitcoin, a currency, possible in the first place. Their sheer novelty has already given rise to a mini-industry of explainer videos, more of them dealing directly with bitcoin than blockchain, but in time the latter could potentially overtake the former in importance, to the degree that it becomes as vital to society as the protocols that undergird the internet itself.

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What does it take to be a founder of a cybersecurity startup in the Greater Washington region? Prior experience, according to a new study from American University’s Kogod School of Business.

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When Twist Bioscience Corp. started in Mission Bay five years ago with the idea of making synthetic genes for researchers, it consisted of Emily Leproust and her two co-founders. Today, the 240-employee company is priming to move to nearly 61,000 square feet in South San Francisco.

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It’s baaaaack, that reputation-shredding, stock-moving fight to the death over key CRISPR patents. On Monday morning in Washington, D.C., the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit will hear oral arguments in University of California v. Broad Institute. Questions?

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It was quite fascinating to cover the speech that Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar gave this week in Washington, D.C. In a keynote address on Wednesday morning at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel, Secretary Azar laid out his agency’s overall policy strategy, for attendees at the World Health Care Congress, which annually gathers together leaders from all the major sectors of the U.S. healthcare industry, from hospitals to physician groups to post-acute and behavioral healthcare, to health plans/health insurers, employer-purchasers, pharmaceutical leaders, and healthcare IT leaders. It’s an ideal venue for senior federal healthcare officials to make announcements—and they usually do show up every year, and sometimes, make news.

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The digital health rocket seems to have gotten supercharged lately, at least when it comes to fundraising. Depending on who you ask, either $1.62 billion (Rock Health’s count) or $2.5 billion (Mercom) or $2.8 billion (Startup Health’s count) was plowed into digital health companies in just the first three months of 2018. By any measure Q1 2018 was the most significant quarter yet for digital health funding. This headline has been everywhere. Digital health: to infinity and beyond! But what is the significance of this? Should investors and customers of these companies be excited or worried? It’s a little hard to tell.

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“Commercializing Technologies for Societal Impact”

The governments of the United States of America (through the Department of State) and India (through the Department of Science & Technology) have established the United States – India Science & Technology Endowment Fund (USISTEF) for the promotion of joint activities that would lead to innovation and technopreneurship through the application of science and technology. The Endowment Fund activities are implemented and administered through the bi-national Indo-U.S. Science and Technology Forum (IUSSTF).

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Galen Robotics, a Johns Hopkins University spinout, was chosen from five finalists as the company with the most commercial potential by judges at the 3rd Annual Crab Trap Competition. This year’s judges included industry leaders Amgen’s Bethany Mancilla, AstraZeneca’s Shaun Grady, Blu Venture’s Dr. Paul Silber, J.P. Morgan’s John T. Rubin, New Enterprise Associates’ Sara Nayeem, Roche’s Robert Silverman, and Sands Capital Ventures’ Stephen Zachary. They were impressed with a presentation by Lead Hardware Engineer, Yunus Sevimli, on Galen Robotics’ low-cost, compact, and intuitive to use novel microsurgical robotic platform designed to assist surgeons with minimally-invasive applications in otolaryngology, neurosurgery and similar critical fields. Galen Robotics is the third Johns Hopkins University spinout to win this competition following  LifeSprout (2017) and Sonavex (2016).

Strong presentations also were made by the other finalists–AlgometRx, Cellth Systems, Renalert, and Reveragen Biopharma—whose technologies originated at Children’s National Medical Center, the University of Maryland, and Johns Hopkins University.

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The Biohealth Capital Region–DC, Maryland and Virginia – plans to be a top 3 biohealth hub in the US by 2023. What will it take to get there?

The Biohealth Capital Region is already a top 5 location as ranked by NIH and venture capital funding, patents, lab space, and jobs. The 1,100 participants at this week’s 2018 Biohealth Capital Region Forum agreed on the area’s strengths: a highly educated and diverse workforce, leading universities and research institutions, strong healthcare organizations, hundreds of companies, and broad-based policy commitment to the biohealth industry.

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The University of Maryland, College Park is seeking a Director for its Office of Technology Commercialization.  The Director leads and manages the OTC, overseeing personnel, budgets, and all aspects of intellectual property cultivation, assessment, protection, and commercialization. The Director establishes and implements strategies to maximize the social and economic impact of University research and discoveries through OTC’s commercialization efforts and its support of related entrepreneurial endeavors. The Director is responsible for developing and meeting annual OTC licensing goals and acts as primary point of contact and steward to resolve problems and issues affecting intellectual property and licensing at all levels within the University.

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Illumina Accelerator, the genomics-focused startup accelerator backed by the publicly traded genetic sequencing pioneer Illumina Corp., has picked five startups for its seventh accelerator class, the company announced.

Wth technology addressing skin microbial therapeutics, fertility science, chronic disease alleviation, post traumatic stress disorder treatments, and services for the biopharmaceutical and clinical research industries; the startups selected by Illumina will have access to the company’s genomics and sequencing expertise, business coaching, lab and office space and an infusion of capital.

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Is your employee compensation package competitive? 

Help us help you.  Complete the 2018 BHCR Industry Compensation Survey by June 1, 2018 to receive an anonymized summary of salaries and benefits specific to positions in biohealth and to this region.  A pdf version of the survey is available here or you can use the online version of the survey to complete your information.  All company specific information will be kept confidential.  This survey is a joint project among BioHealth Innovation, WorkSource Montgomery, and UMBC-Shady Grove’s Industrial Organizational Pyschology Program.  If you or your Human Resources colleagues have any questions about the survey, please contact BHI@BioHealthInnovation.org.

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emocha Mobile Health’s video Directly Observed Therapy (DOT) platform helped patients with tuberculosis achieve 94 percent medication adherence with the potential to save public health programs $1,391 per patient on average, according to a new study conducted by researchers at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine published today in Open Forum Infectious Diseases. Staff and patients cited increased flexibility, convenience, and patient privacy compared to traditional treatment methods.

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A few years ago, Allysa Dittmar was about to go into surgery, but her interpreter didn’t show up.

Dittmar, who is deaf, was able to lip-read and recognize facial expressions during some of the mandated check that’s required before a procedure, but those were obscured when surgeons, nurses and anaesthesiologists, put on their masks. Things grew more frustrating, and the staff eventually gave up trying.

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The Baltimore Business Journal recognized Christy Wyskiel for her ongoing efforts to perfect the “magic formula” that will further catalyze the commercialization of life-changing research and technologies emerging from labs and dorms across Johns Hopkins.

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United Therapeutics Corporation (NASDAQ: UTHR) and SteadyMed Ltd. (NASDAQ: STDY) announced today the signing of a definitive merger agreement under which United Therapeutics will acquire SteadyMed for $4.46 per share in cash at closing and an additional $2.63 per share in cash upon the achievement of a milestone related to the commercialization of Trevyent®. The transaction, including the $75 million in contingent consideration, is valued at $216 million.

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Gubernatorial candidate Ben Jealous organized a meeting on Thursday that gave executives from Google and parent company Alphabet a chance to hear about technology in Baltimore and Prince George’s County.

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Women and minorities are sparsely represented in our recent fundings. So what do we do about that?

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In 2017, 25.7 percent of all angel capital group deals went to a founding team with at least one female founder, up from 17.0 percent in 2016, according to the Angel Resource Institute’s (ARI) HALO Report: 2017. The report also found a sizeable increase in the number of deals made for companies that included at least one minority female founder – 5.5 percent in 2017 (1.0 percent in 2016).

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San Diego. New Haven. Boston.

Besides cities that make for a nice waterside vacation, these destinations seem to have figured out the complex, yet irresistible, world of bioscience investment.

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As a business owner, I’m often asked to speak to groups about my entrepreneurial journey. One component of my talk involves the importance of long-term thinking. Too often, businesses and politicians fall into the trap of short-term thinking. They focus on making a profit this quarter or succeeding in their re-election campaign without considering the impact of their decisions five, 10 or 20 years down the road.

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The real world isn’t like Hollywood. Despite what we might see in TV shows like 24 or movies like Contagion, we don’t have teams of experts ready to spring into action at the first signs of a global outbreak.

But we should, philanthropist Bill Gates emphasized during his Shattuck Lecture for the Massachusetts Medical Society today. And Gates is ready to put up $12 million to help us get there.

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New technology is bringing the power of augmented reality into clinical practice. The system, called ProjectDR, shows clinicians 3D medical images such as CT scans and MRI data, projected directly on a patient’s skin.

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An immunotherapy treatment — one that boosts the immune system — has improved survival in people newly diagnosed with the most common form of lung cancer (advanced non–small-cell lung cancer), according to an open-access study published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

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Real-World Evidence (RWE) holds out the promise of reducing time and costs of product approvals, identifying new uses for existing products, increasing our ability to treat rare diseases, and improving clinical practices for using drugs and medical devices. The 21st Century Cures Act, enacted in 2016, requires FDA to evaluate the use of RWE in approving new drug indications. FDA in 2017 issued a final guidance document regarding RWE in regulatory decisions involving medical devices. The private sector is also focusing on RWE: more than half the pharmaceutical companies in a recent survey say they are significantly expanding their involvement in RWE. Nonetheless, misunderstandings and uncertainties remain, both about what constitutes RWE and its potential role in regulatory and other aspects of precision medicine.

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