BHI Weekly News Archives

Are you worried about protecting your Intellectual Property?  What about trademarks?  Have you thought through your patent strategy?  How do you manage patents globally?Are worried about protecting your Intellectual Property?  What about trademarks?  Have you thought through your patent strategy?  How do you manage patents globally?

Learn about these issues and more from experts at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati who will provide advice through 1:1 sessions and seminars at the Montgomery County Innovation Centers on January 18th.

Preregistration is required.  For more information, please contact BHI@BioHealthInnovationorg by Noon, January 17th.

What You Need to Know:

Seminar and/or 1:1 Office Hours with experts from Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati

Rockville Innovation Center

8 a.m.-9 a.m. – Networking Breakfast and Presentation (RSVP)

1:1 Office Hours (pre-registration required):

9:10-9:40 a.m.  

9:45-10:15 a.m. 

10:20-10:50 a.m. 

10:55 – 11:25 a.m.  

11:30 – 12:00 p.m. 

Germantown Innovation Center

12:30 – 1:30 p.m. – Networking Lunch and Presentation (RSVP)

1:1 Office Hours (pre-registration required):

1:40 – 2:10 p.m. 

2:15 – 2:45 p.m.  

2:50 – 3:20 p.m. 

3:25 – 3:55 p.m.  

Contact us for more information

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NexImmune, an emerging leader in the field of antigen-directed immunotherapy, announced the closing of a Series A financing co-led by new investor ArrowMark Partners and existing investor Barer & Son Capital, along with significant participation from Piedmont Capital Partners. In conjunction with the financing, Tony Yao, MD, PhD, a Partner at ArrowMark Partners, will join NexImmune’s Board of Directors.

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MacroGenics, Inc. (Nasdaq:MGNX), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering and developing innovative monoclonal antibody-based therapeutics for the treatment of cancer, as well as various autoimmune disorders and infectious diseases, announced today that it had entered into a research collaboration and license agreement with F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd and Hoffmann-La Roche Inc. to jointly discover and develop novel bispecific molecules to undisclosed targets. During the research term, both companies will leverage their respective platforms, including MacroGenics’ DART® platform and Roche’s CrossMAb and DutaFab technologies to select a bispecific format and lead product candidate. Roche would then further develop and commercialize any such product candidate.

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Canton-based Personal Genome Diagnostics closed on $75 million in Series B funding and plans to triple its square footage with a new office.

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Emergent BioSolutions Inc. (NYSE:EBS) today announced the initiation of a Phase 2 dose ranging study to evaluate the safety, pharmacokinetics, and clinical benefit of FLU-IGIV, the company’s anti-influenza immune globulin being developed as an intravenous treatment for serious illness caused by influenza A infection in hospitalized patients.

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The grants came through the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the National Science Foundation.

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Emmes is proud to have advanced Glaucoma research w/ support from @NatEyeInstitute! Our 1st ophthalmic trial (published in @AmJOphthalmol) showed little visual field deterioration in pts w/ low intraocular pressure

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WellDoc®, a leading digital health company, announced today that its clinically proven hemoglobin A1C reductions for users of its BlueStar® digital therapeutic with type 2 diabetes can translate into significant healthcare cost savings.

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Silver Spring, Md.-based United Therapeutics Corp. and the FDA are duking it out in court over whether the agency improperly denied the biotechnology company seven years of orphan drug exclusivity for its drug Orenitram.

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Centrexion Therapeutics, a Boston-based startup led by ex-Pfizer CEO Jeff Kindler, just raised $67 million to bring its painkiller drug into Phase III trials. If it works, the treatment should appease regulators concerned with addiction problems, as the drug is a non-opioid and non-steroid way to treat pain.

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Are you interested in investing in Montgomery County’s future workforce? Sign up to be a career experience host for WorkSource Montgomery’s Summer RISE program at Summer-rise.com! 

Play a key role in a successful initiative that provides Real Interesting Summer Experiences to rising Montgomery County Public School’s juniors and seniors. Last summer, the program supported career exploration and industry insights for more than 360 students with the help of over 185 host organizations.  Summer RISE 2017 hosts had rewarding experiences, saying their students were professional, creative, engaged and motivated to learn.  

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A Baltimore startup developing artificial organ technology has raised about $3 million in equity funding, according to U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission documents.

Medical device firm Breethe Inc. reported the round this month, which included 22 investors.

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The GammaPod ™ – a first-of-its kind stereotactic radiotherapy system to treat early stage breast cancer – has received 510(k) clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), paving the way for the manufacturer to bring the system to market for the treatment of breast cancer patients.

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Cancer research helmed by a Johns Hopkins radiation oncology professor is the first to receive backing from a fund backing work that might create startups.

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RightEye LLC, an award-winning technology innovator using eye tracking to revolutionize patient care and vision performance, announced today it will be debuting its new RightEye EyeQ system tonight at CES Unveiled Las Vegas at 5:00 p.m. at the Mandalay Bay Shorelines Exhibit Hall in Las Vegas, Nevada. EyeQ gives people a closer look at their health using quick, computer game-style vision tests on an eye-tracking computer. The tests, which only take a few minutes, generate an instant EyeQ Report that provides results in an easy-to-understand format to support discussion with doctors on diagnosis and recommended therapies.

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Alexandria Real Estate recently completed a large building on the west side of Lake Union and now it’s starting to plan one on Eastlake.

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It’s hard to believe that the book has already closed on 2017. As we turn the calendar to 2018, I wanted to pause and share some highlights from MdBio’s monumental last twelve months. Partners, supporters and STEM advocates like you are instrumental to our success – thank you for all that you have done in support of MdBio and our programs.

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The use of biomaterials, such as microneedles and nanoparticles, in immunotherapy and vaccine research is a hot topic in bioengineering. But to get the maximum return on investment in these ideas, they need to be seeded among clinicians, according to Christopher Jewell, Ph.D., associate professor in the Fischell Department of Bioengineering at the University of Maryland. Jewell is the principal author on a new paper in Trends in Immunology that reviews the current state of biomaterials research with an eye toward inspiring multidisciplinary teams of engineers and clinicians to solve some of the complex problems in immunology today.

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Blockchain startup Akiri has received $10 million in Series A funding to develop a distributed ledger platform for health data.

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More than ever, academic technology transfer is driving economic development.

• The number of invention disclosures — a direct measure of institutional impact on innovation — has been on the rise the past five years, growing to 25,825 in 2016.
• 16,487 new U.S. patent applications were filed, a gain of 3 percent over the prior year, and 7,021 U.S. patents were issued, up 5 percent from last year.
• The 1,024 startups formed made a direct impact on local economies with more than 73 percent of these new businesses remaining in the institution’s home state.
• Consumers and businesses benefited from 800 new products.

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Originally, the BIVF was designed to put investments of up to €10-15m into early stage companies focused on immunomodulation, tissue regeneration, small and large molecule drugs, and new therapeutic modalities. The fund, launched in 2010, had a volume of €100m, 22 portfolio companies from which already one exited (Okairos).

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Scott Gottlieb seems like the pharmaceutical industry’s idea of a dream FDA Commissioner, with pharma ties and an ideological bent toward deregulation.

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Currently, we depend upon the eyes, ears, and touch of medical staff to examine the human body and diagnose patients. Physicians must identify abnormalities of the skin, check for any bodily irregularities, examine complex MRIs, listen for arrhythmias, and inspect CT scans day in and day out. While all of these tasks seem routine, they actually test physicians’ knowledge about everything that could possibly be wrong with the human body.

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2017 was an extraordinary year in the history of medicine. It was the year when scientists beat cancer, and U.S. regulators approved the first therapy to fix a faulty gene. It was also a year that kept us enthralled with a quickening drumbeat of breathtaking news detailing spectacular advances – trials seemingly curing patients of hemophilia A and sickle cell anemia, and breakthroughs raising similar hopes for Huntington’s disease, Lou Gehrig’s disease, and even HIV.

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The 4th annual Biotech and Money/Medtech and Money World Congress will offer insight into the investment landscape for biotech and medtech companies via a series of panel discussions with leading investors in the sector. Those attending the two-day event in London can hear from experienced investors about the current state of funding for life science companies at varying stages of development. This includes a focus on seed funding, with panel discussions on ‘Seed funding for biotech development’ and ‘PanEuropean medtech seed funding’.

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Making predictions can be a tricky business. Nevertheless, Xconomy recently brought together some of San Diego’s most prominent life sciences leaders to offer their vision for what the regional biotech cluster will be like in five years.

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I expect progress. Here’s my list of major trends and issues that will affect the lives of cancer patients in 2018:

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A drug development company has raised $76 million from investors in China, the United States, and Korea to move its headquarters to the Philadelphia area from Jinan, China, and bring treatments developed by China-based scientists through U.S. clinical testing to patients here.

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George Davis, CEO of the Maryland Technology Development Corporation (TEDCO), joins Rich Bendis to discuss the Economic Development Balance, Goals for Business in the State, and the Partnership across the Region.

Listen now on iTunes , Google Play , and TuneIn. 

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Global pharmaceutical company Mallinckrodt Plc (NYSE: MNK) has entered an agreement to buy Rockville’s Sucampo Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: SCMP) for $1.2 billion including debt.

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Precision Medicine Group announced it had raised $275 million. The round was led by Berkshire Partners and TPG Growth, with participation from its co-founders and management team, as well as original investors Oak Investment Partners and J.H. Whitney.

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The Emmes Corporation today announced its participation in a three-year study testing the results of two different opioid treatment medications. The research, published in one of the world’s oldest and best known medical journals, concluded that for those able to begin treatment, both drugs are nearly equal in their safety and effectiveness. The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) funded the research.

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Intellectual Property:  What You Need to Know

Seminar and/or 1:1 Office Hours with experts from Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati

Rockville Innovation Center

8 a.m.-9 a.m. – Networking Breakfast and Presentation (RSVP)

1:1 Office Hours (pre-registration required):

9:10-9:40 a.m.  

9:45-10:15 a.m. 

10:20-10:50 a.m. 

10:55 – 11:25 a.m.  

11:30 – 12:00 p.m. 

Germantown Innovation Center

12:30 – 1:30 p.m. – Networking Lunch and Presentation (RSVP)

1:1 Office Hours (pre-registration required):

1:40 – 2:10 p.m. 

2:15 – 2:45 p.m.  

2:50 – 3:20 p.m. 

3:25 – 3:55 p.m.  

Contact us for more information

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Sisu is hiring in Baltimore and Ghana. Sisu is a medical device company for emerging markets and these hires will play an integral role as we launch Hemafuse in Ghana and Kenya. Hemafuse is a device that can salvage and recycle a person’s own blood from internal bleeding. Sisu is seeking a baltimore-based Program Manager and Production Manager (posting soon). We are also hiring a Ghana-based Marketing manager and Africa-based Sales director. Click on the blog post to see more!

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Swiss pharma giant Roche has given itself a pricey holiday gift and deepened its oncology product portfolio with its $1.7 billion acquisition of immuno-oncology business Ignyta. Based in San Diego, the company tests, identifies, and treat patients with cancers that come with rare mutations.

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When the University System of Maryland set its strategic plan for the next 10 years in 2010, it hoped to double the system’s externally sponsored research and development funding from $1.2 billion to $2.4 billion. Instead, as federal dollars have dried up, that number has remained relatively flat, up to just $1.27 billion with three years

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New Enterprise Associates made the most venture deals for the second year in a row in 2017, with 125 investments totaling $914 million, according to VCJ’s analysis of preliminary Thomson Reuters data through mid-December.

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While 2016 was marked by a changing landscape as the city’s tech community expanded into new neighborhoods, 2017 was defined by moves from the companies themselves.

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Application deadlines:

JANUARY 15, 2018 for New Applications

FEBRUARY 5, 2018 for Re-submissions

APRIL 5, 2018 for Grant Submission

As part of your application, you will need to complete and upload a one page abstract as well as upload your curriculum vitae (CV). Please download the abstract guidelines and provide your abstract in the requested format. You will be able to upload additional supporting documents once your application has been submitted by following the link that will arrive in your confirmation email.

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Life sciences are booming with over 10M SF lab space, Shady Grove is producing a modest mini-city, and the Purple Line is revving its engines!

Come learn about market trends and developments in Shady Grove, Silver Spring, Rockville Pike, Germantown, Gaithersburg, and the Life Sciences Corridor.

Sign up today to take part in what promises to be a fun, exciting, and influential morning. Gain invaluable information and enjoy networking with your friends and colleagues in the industry.

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During the fall semester, students at Johns Hopkins who were interested in starting a company had some new options to turn to as they looked to develop their ideas and meet other entrepreneurs at the university.

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Maryland is open for business and here’s another way our state supports companies seeking capital. Maryland Commerce has launched a new, searchable site that lets you search and find just the right program to fund your business. With the ability to filter by type of program, category or keyword, the Financial Incentives database is a great place to find grants, tax credits, loans and training. Give it a try!

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Today, the Greater Washington Partnership (the Partnership), a civic alliance of CEOs that together employ more than 175,000 workers in the region, released a new report that outlines why developing, attracting and retaining digital technology workers will be imperative for the Capital Region’s future growth and economic competitiveness.

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The pharmaceutical industry as a whole is set to benefit from the tax reform vote to take place this week. The general reduction in corporate taxes and a special tax deduction for cash repatriated from overseas should see companies post improved returns to shareholders and a whole lot of cash freed up right away.

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Swiss drugmaker Roche has won fresh approvals for two cancer drugs in Europe and the United States, shoring up its position in new medicines as it braces for falling sales of older products.

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In covering the D.C. innovation economy comes the inevitable: funding news. Trust us, there’s a lot of it floating around the D.C. metro area. Here’s a roundup of all of the major funding news from the region in December:

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Dr. David Feinberg has served as president and CEO of Danville, Pennsylvania-based Geisinger since 2015. Previously, he was president of UCLA Health System, CEO of UCLA’s hospitals and associate vice chancellor of UCLA Health Sciences.

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The biopharma sector has had quite a year. Under FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, the regulator approved a record number of drugs and helped usher in innovative gene therapy treatments. Behavioral health drugs also marked a milestone with the approval of Otsuka Pharmaceutical’s Abilify MyCite, embedded with a sensor developed by Proteus Digital Health to remotely monitor medication adherence for people with schizophrenia and bipolar disorders.

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The FDA has released a range of decisions regarding the agency’s role in regulating digital health technologies since Scott Gottlieb, MD, assumed the role of commissioner in May.

Here are three highlights from the FDA’s year in digital health.

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Join us on Thursday, January 11 for the 2017-18 Spring Term FAES Graduate School Open House to meet and mingle with FAES faculty. Bring yourself, a friend, and your questions about registering for the Spring 2018 courses. The event will be held in the FAES Academic Center, Building 10, NIH, Bethesda, MD, 4:00 – 6:00 PM. Light refreshments will be served!

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Shanghai-based pharmaceutical company WuXi AppTec Group is partnering with Merck Serono, a subsidiary of company Merck KGaA, to launch a pharma and biotech startup incubator in Israel in early 2018. Israel-born businessman Mori Arkin and life sciences-focused venture capital fund Pontifax Ltd. will also be part of the venture. The plans were declared last week in an event held by the partners in Tel Aviv.

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Bacteriophages, or simply phages, are viruses that infect and replicate within bacteria, and they hold considerable potential for combatting antibiotic-resistance and other threats to human health. Timed with the hundredth anniversary of their discovery, a new review published in the British Journal of Pharmacology examines the challenges and opportunities of developing phages as health-promoting, commercially-viable biopharmaceuticals.

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2017 has undoubtedly been a standout year in the realms of telemedicine and digital health.

In telehealth alone, much has happened over the past 12 months.

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Vicki Sato, a longtime Boston biotech entrepreneur, laid out a challenge for New York life sciences in 2018. “Stop being an initiative,” she said. “Start being a player.”

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Expenditures for R&D from state government agencies increased by 17.3 percent from FY 2011 to FY 2016, reaching $2.3 billion, according to data from the Survey of State Government Research and Development, a survey sponsored by the National Science Foundation’s National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (NCSES). Nearly two-thirds of this total – 64 percent – came from just five state governments (California, New York, Texas, Florida, and Ohio).

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MockV Solutions, Inc. (MockV or the Company), a biotechnology company developing non-infectious viral clearance prediction products that address the unmet needs of process development scientists as they establish biopharmaceutical manufacturing platforms, announced today the receipt of a Phase I grant from the National Center for Advancing Translations Sciences under auspices of the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program of the National Institutes of Health. The $250,000 grant under the Award Number R43TR002231 is focused on demonstrating the utility of a non-infectious Minute Virus of Mice-Virus Like Particle for predicting viral clearance during biopharmaceutical process development.

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Emergent BioSolutions Inc. (NYSE:EBS) today announced that it has been awarded a contract by the Department of National Defence (DND) valued at approximately $8 million to deliver Anthrasil® (Anthrax Immune Globulin Intravenous [human]) to the Canadian government. This contract award follows the recent approval of Anthrasil by Health Canada under the Extraordinary Use New Drug (EUND) Regulations, which provide a regulatory pathway for products for which collecting clinical information for its intended use in humans is logistically or ethically not possible. Anthrasil is indicated for the treatment of inhalational anthrax in adult and pediatric patients in combination with appropriate antibacterial drugs.

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Intellectual Property:  What You Need to Know

Seminar and/or 1:1 Office Hours with experts from Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati

Rockville Innovation Center

8 a.m.-9 a.m. – Networking Breakfast and Presentation (RSVP)

1:1 Office Hours (pre-registration required):

• 9:10-9:40 a.m.  
• 9:45-10:15 a.m. 
• 10:20-10:50 a.m. 
• 10:55 – 11:25 a.m.  
• 11:30 – 12:00 p.m. 

Germantown Innovation Center

12:30 – 1:30 p.m. – Networking Lunch and Presentation (RSVP)

1:1 Office Hours (pre-registration required):

• 1:40 – 2:10 p.m. 
• 2:15 – 2:45 p.m.  
• 2:50 – 3:20 p.m. 
• 3:25 – 3:55 p.m.  

Contact us for more information

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Governor Larry Hogan today announced a series of new initiatives to spur job creation and economic growth in Maryland and further establish the state’s leadership in key STEM-related (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) industries. The governor was joined by Commerce Secretary Mike Gill, Labor Secretary Kelly Schulz, University System of Maryland Chancellor Robert Caret, Wicomico County Executive Bob Culver, and numerous officials from the counties benefiting from the governor’s expanded jobs initiative.

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Are you interested in investing in Montgomery County’s future workforce? Sign up to be a career experience host for WorkSource Montgomery’s Summer RISE program at Summer-rise.com! 

Play a key role in a successful initiative that provides Real Interesting Summer Experiences to rising Montgomery County Public School’s juniors and seniors. Last summer, the program supported career exploration and industry insights for more than 360 students with the help of over 185 host organizations.  Summer RISE 2017 hosts had rewarding experiences, saying their students were professional, creative, engaged and motivated to learn.  

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Fresh off receiving $125,000 in new funding from a TEDCO initiative to back more Maryland incubators, Annapolis-based FounderTrac named members of its 2018 cohort last week.

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Martine Rothblatt has already made a career out of chasing firsts — be it with creating Sirius satellite radio or more recently racing to make her Silver Spring biotech, United Therapeutics Corp., the first to manufacture an unlimited supply of human organs.

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Five years after getting started with a $32 million Series A, the crew at Allakos in San Carlos, CA are getting a $100 million mega-round to put their lead drug to the test.

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Scientists at George Mason University have developed a nanotechnology that for the first time can measure a sugar molecule in urine that identifies tuberculosis with high sensitivity and specificity, setting the stage for a rapid, highly accurate and far less-invasive urine test of the disease that could potentially prove to be the difference between life and death in many underdeveloped parts of the world.

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On the evening of Nov. 7, Steffanie Strathdee sent out a cryptic tweet: “#Phage researchers! I am working with a team to get Burkholderia cepacia phages to treat a 25 y old woman with CF whose infection has failed all #antibiotics. We need lytic non-lysogenic phage URGENTLY to find suitable phage matches. Email if you can help!” The message was retweeted nearly 400 times.

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gel-e Inc., a privately held, clinical-stage medical device company, announces the 510(k) clearance of its adhesive bandage by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for prescription (Rx) and over-the-counter (OTC) use.

This new bandage clearance expands the Company’s label to include the management of moderately to heavily exuding chronic wounds and acute wounds. Under medical supervision, this new adhesive bandage may be used for the management of pressure sores, diabetic ulcers, leg ulcers, donor sites and graft sites, surgical wounds, skin abrasions and lacerations, 1st and 2nd degree burns and traumatic wounds. No medical supervision is required for usage in the management of minor cuts, minor scalds and 1st degree burns, and minor abrasions and lacerations. This newly cleared bandage complements gel-e’s existing vascular closure device cleared for the “management of bleeding wounds such as vascular access sites and percutaneous catheters or tubes.”

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A new research initiative by the University of Maryland’s Institute for Bioscience and Biotechnology Research (IBBR) and the University of Pittsburgh could finally uncover how T-cells—the “killer cells” that defend the body from microbes—are alerted to hazardous invaders in the body. Funded by a $3.7 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the research will be the first to combine X-ray crystallography and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy for a unique view of the cell’s alert system, which could lead to innovative therapeutics to fight viruses and tumors.

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Congrats to our Emmes India colleagues on the opening of their new office in Bengalaru. This move is a result of their successful contributions to public health research in India and around the world. Best wishes on the new place!

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The Food and Drug Administration has approved Mumbai-based Lupin’s Tydemy. The product is a generic version of Bayer’s Safyral (drospirenone, ethinyl estradiol, and levomefolate calcium tablets, 3 mg/0.03 mg/0.451 mg and levomefolate calcium tablets, 0.451 mg).

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Tech firms leased more office space in D.C. over a recent 12-month period than the prior year, while coworking spaces signed on for fewer square feet.

Those trends come according to the latest DC Development Report, which was released by the Washington D.C. Economic Partnership at the organization’s annual meeting on Tuesday. WDCEP partners with commercial real estate services firm CBRE on the report, and the results come from a “development census” taken in August.

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Immunotherapy draws the lion’s share of attention from top VCs, but startups focused on other types of cancer therapies, such as protein targeting, are also starting to gain recognition.

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In the world of D.C. funding, it seems like not much has changed. In 2016, our list of the top 8 venture capital deals for D.C. startups fell between $20 million and $100 million. In 2017, that range for the top 15 falls between $20 million and $190 million, with big name investors swaying the top ranks.

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Today, the Greater Washington Partnership (the Partnership), a civic alliance of CEOs that together employ more than 175,000 workers in the region, released a new report that outlines why developing, attracting and retaining digital technology workers will be imperative for the Capital Region’s future growth and economic competitiveness.

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Efficiency is all about making the optimal use of your resources. For Life Sciences organizations, efficiency is all about their sales forces reaching the right physician at the right time with the right message. Yet, the current tools are woefully inadequate.

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If you were overwhelmed by the news in 2017, you aren’t alone. Every day seemed to bring monumental developments in all spheres of current events, from international relations and gender inequality to health care and domestic energy policy. Science was at the forefront often, so we’ve catalogued the two most important developments in each of five topic areas based on our editor’s top picks and our most popular articles. If getting the daily news feels like drinking from a fire hose, this list can help you stay focused on the science developments that matter.

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Andreessen Horowitz, a Menlo Park, CA-based venture capital firm, has launched its $450m second bio fund.

Bio Fund II will focus on investing in companies at the intersection of biology and engineering.

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Humans and bacteria have been clashing for as long as both have inhabited the Earth, and for decades now, humans have had the upper hand. Starting with penicillin in 1942, antibiotics have brought previously untreatable maladies like tuberculosis under control and made surgery far safer.

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

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

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

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

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

Listen now on iTunes , Google Play , and TuneIn. 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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A reindeer with a red glowing nose.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Kurt Newman, M.D., President and Chief Executive Officer, Children’s National Health System joins Rich Bendis to discuss quality of care, medical innovation, and the future of healthcare. Since 1984, Dr. Newman has gone from Surgical Fellow to President and CEO at Children’s. He has championed innovations in the health system for both physical and mental health.

Listen now on iTunes , Google Play , and TuneIn.

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Immunomic Therapeutics, Inc. (ITI), a privately held, Maryland-based biotechnology company is pleased to announce Immunomic’s founder and CEO, William Hearl, Ph.D., has been appointed by Governor Larry Hogan to the Maryland Department of Commerce Life Sciences Advisory Board (LSAB).

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Avantor, Inc., a global supplier of ultra-high-purity materials for the life sciences and advanced technology industries, today announced the successful completion of its acquisition of VWR Corporation (NASDAQ: VWR), the leading global independent provider of product, supply chain, and service solutions to laboratory and production customers. VWR will operate as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Avantor. Michael Stubblefield, Chief Executive Officer of Avantor, will lead the combined company.

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The Emmes Corporation today announced that it was named one of the top women-owned businesses in the Washington metropolitan area by the Washington Business Journal.  The company was ranked as the seventh largest women-owned business in the Washington region, up from number eight last year.

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U.S. drugmaker Merck & Co. and German diagnostics firm Qiagen are separately planning major investments in the U.K. The moves accompany a raft of British government measures intended to bolster the life sciences sector as the country prepares to leave the European Union.

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Complex tissues. Surprisingly simple.

Enabling you to study complex 3D tissue biology in a simple device, that’s our goal. With perfused vessels, co-culture and optimized microenvironments. So easy to use that you forget you’re working with a highly advanced 3D culture platform. With the OrganoPlate®, we believe we’ve reached that goal. Say hello to the future of 3D tissue models.

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PhaseBio Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing therapies for the treatment of orphan diseases, today announced that the Company has entered an exclusive, worldwide license agreement with MedImmune, the global biologics research and development arm of AstraZeneca, for PB2452 (formerly MEDI2452), a Phase 1-ready reversal agent for ticagrelor.

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Are you seeking lab space in Maryland? Limited incubator and small (1,200-3,400 sq. ft.) lab space is available directly and through subleases in various locations from Montgomery County to Hagerstown, Frederick to Baltimore. For more information regarding this space, contact BHI@BioHealthInnovation.org.

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Barbara Crews, assistant executive director for community relations at the Johns Hopkins University Montgomery County Campus, has been tapped to serve as chair of the board of the Gaithersburg-Germantown Chamber of Commerce.

Crews previously served the Chamber as a board member; vice chair for member recruitment and retention; and most recently as chair-elect. She has been involved with the Chamber since 2014.

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In covering the D.C. innovation economy comes the inevitable: funding news. Trust us, there’s a lot of it floating around the D.C. metro area. Here’s a roundup of all of the major funding news from the region in November:

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What makes the body of a person or any other organism work can for the most part be summed up in a word: proteins.

These big molecules carry out almost all processes in living organisms, including moving other molecules from one place to another, replicating DNA, conveying genetic information from genes to cells, controlling immune response, driving metabolism and building muscle. Not all protein molecules are created equal, though, and some are better understood than others.

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Roche (SIX: RO, ROG; OTCQX: RHHBY) announced today the launch of the HyperCap Target Enrichment Portfolio, a streamlined and fully integrated NGS sample preparation. HyperCap integrates KAPA DNA Library Prep with SeqCap EZ target enrichment portfolio, and is a further expansion of the HyperCap v1.0 workflow.

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