BHI Weekly News Archives

AstraZeneca and its global biologics research and development arm MedImmune, has appointed Dr Geoffrey Kim and Dr Jean-Charles Soria, respectively. Kim and his team will focus on the development of the company’s late-stage immuno-oncology combinations programme, aiming to develop combination regimens that will deliver innovative medicines to patients.

CEL-SCI Corporation (NYSE American: CVM) today announced it has received a letter from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) stating that the clinical hold that had been imposed on the Company’s Phase 3 cancer study with Multikine* (Leukocyte Interleukin, Inj.) has been removed and that all clinical trial activities under this Investigational New Drug application (IND) may resume.

25-year biopharma industry veteran joins the Company to drive further growth of its innovative high-performance cell engineering platform for use in commercial drug development

MaxCyte, a US-based global company dedicated to driving the acceleration of the discovery, development, manufacturing and commercialization of next-generation, cell-based medicines, announced today that it has appointed Brad Calvin, a 25-year veteran within the drug development and biotechnology industries, as Executive Vice President of Global Marketing. In his role, Mr. Calvin is responsible for leading MaxCyte’s marketing function to drive growth of the Company’s drug discovery and cell therapy business.

Doug Doerfler, Chief Executive Officer, said, “We are delighted to have someone of Brad’s caliber join MaxCyte to lead our marketing and market development efforts. Brad’s broad biopharmaceutical industry experience has provided him with an in-depth understanding of working across global markets and supporting all phases of product life cycles. His appointment comes at an opportune time for the Company, as we continue to develop new offerings based on our Flow Electroporation® Technology.”

Pharma major Lupin Limited (Lupin) and Natco announced the final ANDA approval of Lanthanum Carbonate Chewable Tablets 500 mg (base), 750 mg (base), and 1000 mg (base) from the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The product, as the first generic, will be launched shortly.

Natco’s Lanthanum Carbonate Chewable Tablets 500 mg (base), 750 mg (base), and 1000 mg (base) are generic equivalents of Shire Development LLC’s Fosrenol Chewable Tablets 500 mg, 750 mg and 1000 mg. Lanthanum Carbonate Chewable Tablets 500 mg (base), 750 mg (base), and 1000 mg (base) are indicated to reduce serum phosphate in patients with end stage renal disease (ESRD).

Sucampo’s (NASDAQ:SCMP) share price has been stuck in a range for a considerable time, but the company wasn’t idle – management has been working hard to move the company away from its legacy product Amitiza into rare diseases. Sucampo made two transactions since early 2016 and now has two late-stage orphan assets (one wholly owned and an option on the other) with data readouts in 2018. Sucampo is generating strong free cash flow and expects to continue to build out its late-stage orphan drug pipeline. Meanwhile, Amitiza has been growing at a steady pace and that’s despite the growing competition in the constipation space. I believe that cash flow from Amitiza provides downside protection while the orphan pipeline stands to add significant value in the long run.

Women Building Bio: the XX factor is a day long conference to recognize and learn from leading women in the bioscience industry as pioneers paving the path to success. These women have faced their own unique challenges and carved out lasting legacies.

This day will catalyze the formation of a diverse network. It is a convergence of academia and industry, men and women, researchers and innovators, professionals and decision-makers gathering together to build relationships. This day long conference provides extraordinary opportunities to exchange new ideas, highlight areas of bioscience and research opportunities, and find partners for future collaboration.

Senseonics Holdings, Inc. (NYSE-MKT: SENS), a medical technology company focused on the development and commercialization of a long-term, implantable continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) system for people with diabetes, today reported financial results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2017.

September 25th – 27th, 2017 – San Jose, California

The MedTech Conference is your opportunity to connect with thousands of medical technology professionals this September. Join us in San Jose for business development, innovative technology, and networking with policymakers, business executives and industry leaders.

At the John’s Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center, researchers have been working for years to figure out how prostate cancer cells are able to move from one infected organ and spread to other parts of the body.

“Because we know that’s the type of cancer that eventually will kill a man with prostate cancer,” said Johns Hopkins Associate Professor of Oncology and Pathology. Dr. Srinivasan Yegnasubramanian.

Calling all medical device innovators! This year’s symposium will host the National Capital Consortium for Pediatric Device Innovation (NCC-PDI) competition. Up to six innovations will be awarded up to $50,000 each during the “Make Your Medical Device Pitch for Kids!” competition.

The company alleges the U.S. Food and Drug Administration isn’t honoring a drug designation program Congress passed in 1983.

It figures a personalized health accelerator would want to personalize the experience for its companies.

When Virginia health system Inova Health closed on the 117-acre former Exxon-Mobil campus in Fairfax back in 2015, it was clear there was plenty of space to do something bold. (It was called the real estate deal of the year.) And from the start personalized medicine was going to be the focus.

Join the Greater Baltimore Committee for its annual Economic Outlook Conference, which this year will focus on Washington uncertainties and what does it mean for Maryland’s economy. Hear from Paul Heckley, Health Economist and Leading Expert on U.S. Health Industry Trends and Reform, and Dean Zerbe, Former Senior Counsel to U.S. Senate Finance Committee, AlliantGroup National, Managing Director.

When: Thursday, September 14, 2017; 7:30 a.m. registration, 8 a.m. program

Where: Renaissance Baltimore Harborplace Hotel, 202 East Pratt Street, Baltimore, MD 21202

At Illumina, we’re committed to unlocking the power of the genome, and we know we can’t do it alone. Illumina Accelerator is our way of accelerating innovation in the entrepreneurial community. With extensive mentorship, financial support, and access to sequencing systems, reagents, and lab space, we are building a dynamic ecosystem to help genomics startups launch in the San Francisco Bay Area. Together, we’ll advance breakthrough applications in genomics, including therapeutics, diagnostics, agriculture, synthetic biology, forensics, and direct-to-consumer applications.

Every metro area in the U.S. has strong industry clusters that are readily identifiable and reflect the unique competitive advantages of the region—Oil and Gas in Houston, Automotive in Detroit, and Financial Services in New York City are just a few examples. These clusters represent the backbone of their metro economies. The importance of clusters to regional competitiveness and economic performance was first established in the 1990s. Since then, research has shown that the co-location of businesses in clusters increases the productivity of companies and job creation, drives innovation, stimulates the formation of new businesses, and supports the survival and growth of small businesses.

Among NSF activities, the SBIR/STTR program has a unique goal to attract high-tech startups and small businesses from diverse audiences nationwide. To better engage this distinct audience, NSF presents a new SBIR/STTR website (seedfund.nsf.gov), which maintains the NSF brand while providing a more tailored look, tone and presentation aimed at entrepreneurs.

Over the past few months, the NSF SBIR team worked with 18F – an office within the General Services Administration (GSA) tasked with building effective, user-centric digital services for government – to explore the most effective ways to reach target audiences and redesign the website. As part of this process, 18F interviewed applicants, grantees, former grantees and qualified entrepreneurs or small businesses who hadn’t heard of NSF’s SBIR program. The results informed the design, tone and presentation of the new site. The updated logo and brand elements, created by Brunet-García Advertising, build on the government-wide SBIR tagline – “America’s Seed Fund.”

Emergent BioSolutions Inc. (NYSE:EBS) today announced that it has been awarded approximately $23 million to develop a novel multi-drug auto-injector for nerve agent antidote delivery. Emergent’s device is being designed for intramuscular self- or buddy-administration of antidotes for use in military environments and for civilian emergencies.

Adam Havey, executive vice president, business operations at Emergent BioSolutions, said, “Ease of use and rapid delivery of antidotes are critical features of auto-injectors that are intended to mitigate the health effects of nerve agent exposure. Emergent’s device seeks to satisfy the requirements of the Department of Defense for a novel auto-injector platform technology, and we look forward to collaborating with our development partners to meet the DoD’s needs.”

It’s an exciting time to be in Montgomery County. Discover the diverse tapestry of business success in the We Are Montgomery County video series, and consider sharing your unique perspective with us. From our highly-educated talent and regional connectivity to our culturally rich communities and superb quality of life, there’s no better time to be in MoCo.

MedImmune and Sanofi Pasteur are creating and marketing MEDI8897, a drug that aims to prevent lower respiratory tract illnesses that stem from respiratory syncytial virus.

Respiratory syncytial virus, which has symptoms that are related to colds, leads the way when it comes to what gives children and infants lower respiratory tract illness.

Over the past year, Johns Hopkins University has played an integral role in bringing a nationwide program designed to boost small businesses to Baltimore and helping it flourish.

Today, program partners Goldman Sachs and Bloomberg Philanthropies announced a five-year, $10 million commitment to continue the program in Baltimore and named JHU the host site.

WellDoc® and the American Association of Diabetes Educators (AADE) announce the collaborative launch of “The Diabetes Digital Health Learning Network” at the AADE17 conference. The goal of this Learning Network is to assist diabetes educators in gaining next-generation skills in using digital health therapeutics to improve clinical care and outcomes cost-effectively. “As a digital health leader, WellDoc is proud to launch ‘The Diabetes Digital Health Learning Network’ in collaboration with AADE to support its members who are on the front lines of diabetes care and management,” said WellDoc President and CEO Kevin McRaith. “This is a natural progression of our already-established partnership with AADE that began with our collaboration to incorporate The AADE Diabetes Education Curriculum into our FDA-cleared digital therapeutic platform, BlueStar®.”

Gilead Sciences, under intense investor pressure to do a significant M&A deal, may have found a target it likes. It is said to be evaluating United Therapeutics, although it finds itself in competition with GlaxoSmithKline and perhaps others.

The Evening Standard, citing unnamed sources, said that Gilead Sciences is considered the most likely candidate to win a bid for United Therapeutics. But the newspaper also said that GSK has Citi and Lazard helping it assess the United, a company founded in 1996 on a pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) drug that had been discarded by GSK.

You are invited to travel with County Executive Ike Leggett, MCEDC, other county officials and select area business leaders on an exclusive Business Development trip to South Korea and China, October 20-29, 2017. Our delegation will visit some of the most forward-thinking technology hubs and global commerce destinations of East Asia including Seoul, Daejeon, Xi’an and Shanghai.

Tuesday, September 26, 2017 9:00AM-5:00PM

Women of the Virginia bioscience community from across the state will lead this full day event offering examples of working together to build a stronger bioscience industry, stronger companies and institutions, stronger teams and networks, and stronger individuals.

BHI Q&A with 3i Diagnostics, Inc. President & CEO, Jim Janicki & Chief Technology Officer, Rajesh Krishnamurthy

Company: 3i Diagnostics, Inc. “3iDx” www.3iDx.com

Location: Germantown Innovation Center/Launch Labs

Founded: 2013

Overview: 3iDx is an early stage company developing a new technology platform that is able to isolate and analyze microbes directly from samples for the purpose of identifying antimicrobial resistant strains in less than an hour without having to wait for up to a week for blood culture results. Their ultimate aim is to create a 15-minute test that runs in a battery powered handheld device.

Goal: Our goal is to enable true precision medicine for infection. We see this as the largest single global healthcare issue today, as measured in lives and dollars.

New this year, we’re co-locating our event with The MedTech Conference powered by AdvaMed, to San Jose, CA!

Join us for this important program that dives into the changing landscape and the issues facing our pathway to greater innovation. This year’s theme is “Partnering for Breakthroughs in Pediatric Surgery and Care.”

Albeit small, Baltimore’s startup community is a thriving one. Just 45 minutes outside of the District, the city’s innovation scene is rich with opportunity and talent.

Maybe that’s why Baltimore is one of the most successful places working with Venture for America, a two-year salaried fellowship program that matches recent college grads with startups in 18 different cities.

As Inova Health System prepares to open its new personalized health accelerator this fall, startups recently learned the terms of winning a spot there.

Inova plans to offer $75,000 in funding in exchange for 10 percent equity in early-stage companies selected to join the accelerator, Managing Director Hooks Johnston told an audience at a D.C. event last week. Johnston went on to say, according to Technical.ly DC, companies that make it through an individualized program for four or five months and can get $250,000 in third-party commitments can receive an Inova match.

Tue, December 12, 20174:30 PM – 8:00 PM EST

Join more than 400 of the region’s business, government and community leaders for the Economic Alliance of Greater Baltimore’s Annual Meeting, December 12, 2017 at M&T Bank Stadium. As we celebrate our 20th Anniversary, we will take a look back at the success and growth that the region has experienced over the last two decades, while also featuring Greater Baltimore’s future as a global leader. As we celebrate the results of longstanding partnerships that have led to Baltimore’s economic success, we look forward to celebrating the visionaries and leaders who will shape our tomorrow.

The Precision Medicine Policy and Ethics Conference is a forum for national and industry leaders to address the most pressing challenges in the clinical adoption and integration of genomic medicine. The discussion will take place before an audience of providers, policymakers, scientists and academics. Programming for the conference will examine the ethical and regulatory issues surrounding this topic, including integrating precision medicine into physician education and practice, demographic and socioeconomic barriers to widespread access, and the role and rights of patients concerning genetic data.

Georgetown University’s MS in Biotechnology Program seeks biotech companies and labs to provide internships. If you have a project that’s been on the back burner, this is a great opportunity to get it done with quality and qualified interns at no cost to you.

For more information, check out the flyer below and/or contact: Vasna Nontanovan, MS Associate Dir. and Internship Course Dir. vn5@georgetown.edu or 202-687-6136

The Fort Detrick Alliance, in partnership with the Frederick Innovative Technology Center, Inc., will host a Technology Showcase

September 6, 2017 – 4:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.

Join us for an evening of networking, innovative technology demonstrations, and a tour of Frederick County’s only business incubator and accelerator, FITCI. This event promises to be an exciting opportunity. Learn about the newest technologies to come into the marketplace and meet with the companies developing them!

Keiretsu Forum Mid-Atlantic Cordially Invites You to Attend Our August 2017 Meetings

Featuring Entrepreneurs and Companies from Technology-(Internet, Software, Security, SaaS, Mobile Systems, etc.), Life Sciences-Pharma-Medical Devices, Consumer Products, Real Estate, & more!

Keiretsu Forum is the world’s largest private equity angel investment network with more than 1350+ accredited investors in 31 North American chapters and 1000+ investors in 21 international chapters, who have invested more than $850m+ in early stage companies in the last 17 years.

Join peers, thought leaders, venture capitalists, and angel investors at this month’s Keiretsu Forum Meeting and see for yourself why Keiretsu Forum is a major force in Private Equity-Angel Investing today.

Last November, Pharmaceutical Online had the privilege of visiting GSK’s U.S. global R&D hub in Upper Providence, Pa. The 1.4-million sq. ft. facility will soon house the company’s consolidated U.S. R&D activities across the areas of HIV and infectious disease, oncology, immune-inflammation, metabolic pathways and cardiovascular, and dermatology. By 2018, it will be home to more than 3,200 employees, who will collaborate on target identification, safety studies, active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) manufacture, and many other R&D-related activities.

AstraZeneca (LSE: AZN) and its research arm MedImmune, today announced the appointment of two internationally-recognized immuno-oncology leaders.

Dr Jean-Charles Soria joins MedImmune as senior vice president, head of oncology innovative medicines, and Dr Geoffrey Kim has been appointed as head of oncology strategic combinations at AstraZeneca.

NIIMBL is pleased to announce the Quick Start Project (QSP) call. The QSP call solicits proposals for open topic, industry-wide projects focused on the NIIMBL mission of advancing biopharmaceutical manufacturing. Proposal Submission Process Details regarding the proposal submission process and required documents can be found in Section 6 of the RFP document.

After several weeks of talks, Discovery Communications Inc. has reached a deal to acquire the owner of HGTV and Travel Channel.

The Silver Spring-based company announced Monday morning that it would acquire Scripps Networks Interactive Inc. in a cash-and-stock deal valued at $14.6 billion. The transaction is valued at $90 per share — roughly a 4 percent premium on Scripps’ Friday closing price of $86.91 and a 34 percent premium on its share price since Scripps ownership began discussing a sale earlier this month.

With more than 15 years as a nonprofit professional, Amanda joins the Fort Detrick Alliance with extensive experience in communications, marketing, fundraising, event planning, public relations, and management. She replaces Eileen Mitchell, who served as Executive Director since December 2015 In her career, Amanda served as the Assistant Director at the Historical Society of Frederick County; Marketing Manager at the National Shrine of Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton; Marketing director of Black Rock Center for the Arts; and Public Relations Specialist at the University System of Maryland at Hagerstown. Amanda has been instrumental in tourism marketing in the region and served for four years on the Tourism Council of Frederick County’s marketing and group sales committees. As a writer and journalist, Amanda published articles in Frederick Magazine, Find It Frederick magazine, Eastern Home and Travel, the Baltimore Sun, and other regional publications. Amanda may be reached at 301-788-9896 or email director@fortdetrickalliance.org Thank you for your continued support of Fort Detrick and the Alliance. We hope to see you at one of our events. If you are interested in becoming a member of the Alliance, please feel free to contact me at director@fortdetrickalliance.org.

Sincerely,

Amanda Johnston Executive Director

On Thursday, FDA commissioner Scott Gottlieb announced a pilot program to look into a “pre-certification” for medical software start-ups.

And even the FDA’s harshest critics are excited about it.

Scientists for the first time have successfully edited genes in human embryos to repair a common and serious disease-causing mutation, producing apparently healthy embryos, according to a study published on Wednesday.

With a focus on improving health, driving economic growth, and expanding the country’s research capacity, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is the largest public funder of biomedical research in the world. Because of NIH’s central role in supporting science, technology, and innovation, a better understanding of the agency’s footprint may be helpful to the technology-based economic development practitioner community. This edition of Useful Stats utilizes data from NIH’s Research Portfolio Online Reporting Tool (RePORT) and covers each year from 2007 to 2016. The data does not include projects funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

As far as healthcare goes, Boston has historically focused on biotechnology, life sciences, and pharmaceuticals. Until a few years ago, digital health wasn’t a big talking point in the Boston healthcare scene. After a multilateral initiative launched in 2016, however, Boston wants to be regarded as a national leader in digital healthcare investment and activity.

Between now and 2020, we can expect to see a wave of innovation in pharma. But how will the coming drug launches fare in today’s challenging market? Consider these facts: the number of drugs per indication has risen by 37 percent since 2006, while the top company in an indication still commands at least half of the market. At the same time, restrictions to market access are rising in Europe, the United States, and emerging economies as advances in analytics and multichannel engagement open new opportunities to differentiate products.

Join the newly merged Maryland Tech Council for a casual, fun-filled evening where you can relax, network and celebrate with your community of technology, life science, and business professionals.

BHI Q&A with 3i Diagnostics, Inc. President & CEO, Jim Janicki & Chief Technology Officer, Rajesh Krishnamurthy

Company: 3i Diagnostics, Inc. “3iDx” www.3iDx.com

Location: Germantown Innovation Center/Launch Labs

Founded: 2013

Overview: 3iDx is an early stage company developing a new technology platform that is able to isolate and analyze microbes directly from samples for the purpose of identifying antimicrobial resistant strains in less than an hour without having to wait for up to a week for blood culture results. Their ultimate aim is to create a 15-minute test that runs in a battery powered handheld device.

Goal: Our goal is to enable true precision medicine for infection. We see this as the largest single global healthcare issue today, as measured in lives and dollars.

Sucampo’s (NASDAQ:SCMP) share price has been stuck in a range for a considerable time, but the company wasn’t idle – management has been working hard to move the company away from its legacy product Amitiza into rare diseases. Sucampo made two transactions since early 2016 and now has two late-stage orphan assets (one wholly owned and an option on the other) with data readouts in 2018. Sucampo is generating strong free cash flow and expects to continue to build out its late-stage orphan drug pipeline. Meanwhile, Amitiza has been growing at a steady pace and that’s despite the growing competition in the constipation space. I believe that cash flow from Amitiza provides downside protection while the orphan pipeline stands to add significant value in the long run.

The day after emocha® Mobile Health, Inc., launched in 2013, CEO Sebastian Seiguer (pronounced SAY-ger) heard about a 3-year-old tuberculosis (TB) patient being treated at a Baltimore clinic. Maryland requires healthcare providers to watch patients take every dose of their medication for active TB treatment, an approach known as directly observed therapy (DOT). But coordinating with the clinic every day was proving too difficult for the girl’s mother to manage. To keep up with the treatments, she would have had to quit her job.

Emergent BioSolutions Inc. (NYSE:EBS) today announced a licensing agreement with Valneva SE for global exclusive rights to Valneva’s Zika vaccine technology, ZIKV. Emergent and Valneva will co-develop ZIKV-VLA1601, a highly purified inactivated vaccine candidate against the Zika virus, from preclinical development through completion of a Phase 1 safety and immunogenicity clinical trial. ZIKV-VLA1601, which has shown to elicit functional antibody responses, is based on Valneva’s established inactivated, whole virus manufacturing platform on which its licensed Japanese Encephalitis vaccine was developed and produced.

The University System of Maryland (USM) has named business innovator David W. Wise, MALD, as director of the Maryland Momentum Fund (MMF), a $25 million fund to support startups formed within the system’s 12 institutions and its incubators. He joined USM on July 24.

The University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) has been selected as one of “The Great Colleges to Work For” by The Chronicle of Higher Education. The results of its national survey, which were released in the magazine’s Academic Workplace supplement that came out July 21, lauded UMB in the categories of collaborative governance, compensation and benefits, and confidence in senior leadership.

GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) is axing 130 ‘non-core’ brands and overhauling its prescription drugs business to focus on products that deliver stronger returns.

It is also stepping up a cost reduction program that has already bitten into media and marketing budgets across the consumer healthcare portfolio.

AstraZeneca and Merck & Co. announced on July 27, 2017 that they have entered a global strategic oncology collaboration to co-develop and co-commercialize AstraZeneca’s Lynparza (olaparib) for multiple cancer types. Lynparza is an oral poly ADP ribose polymerase (PARP) inhibitor for treating BRCA-mutated ovarian cancer in multiple lines of treatment. It was approved by FDA in December 2014 and generated 2016 sales of $218 million.

The Inova Personalized Health Accelerator (IPHA) is preparing to accept applications from early-stage startups focused on predicting, preventing and treating disease. Falls Church-based Inova Health System announced plans for the accelerator last December when it also launched Inova Strategic Investments, a venture-capital program. Both projects are housed at the new Inova Center for Personalized Health, a 117-acre campus in Fairfax County.

In the craft-beer industry, the majority of hops — the flowers used in production that add bitterness and aroma to the product — come from the Pacific Northwest region.

Could Maryland, too, be a fertile region for hops?

GlaxoSmithKline will cut more than 30 drug development programmes and may sell its rare diseases unit, as the FTSE 100 group seeks to inject more “edge and pace” into its decision making, its new chief executive Emma Walmsley has said.

No area is hotter or attracting more dollars in pharma than immuno-oncology–the idea of harnessing the immune system to fight cancer. My fellow Forbes contributor Bruce Booth has recently characterized the intensifying interest in this space as the “exploding supernova” of cancer research.

IonQ, an early-stage company developing quantum computing for commercial applications, today announced completion of a $20 million series B round led by New Enterprise Associates (NEA) and GV (formerly Google Ventures), with participation from new strategic investors. Building on the pioneering work of world-renowned experts at the University of Maryland and Duke University, IonQ plans to bring general-purpose quantum computers to market by late 2018.

Calling All Medical Device Innovators!

We are now accepting proposals for our annual $250K pediatric medical device pitch competition. Up to six innovations will be awarded up to $50,000 each during our 5th Annual Pediatric Surgical Innovation Symposium.

Registration Open – 5th Annual Pediatric Device Innovation Symposium We are pleased to announce that our 5th annual Pediatric Device Innovation Symposium, “Partnering for Breakthroughs in Pediatric Surgery and Care,” is co-locating in San Jose, California in a joint effort with The MedTech Conference powered by AdvaMed – the premiere gathering of medtech professionals in North America.

Join us Sunday, September 24, 2017

Here are some of the event highlights:

Keynotes and panels on topics related to pediatric device innovation Make your Medical Device Pitch for Kids! competition – $250K in funding Invaluable networking opportunities to meet, learn and get inspired by your fellow medtech innovators Special savings when you attend the Symposium and The MedTech Conference

The Galien Foundation announced today the 2017 Annual Prix Galien USA Awards Nominees.

Worldwide regarded as the equivalent of the Nobel Prize in biopharmaceutical and medical technology research, the Prix Galien recognizes outstanding biomedical and technology product achievement that improves the human condition.

Canaan has put together an $800 million investment fund. The fund positions Canaan to place a fresh round of bets on early-stage biotechs, continuing the strategy that has delivered it paydays as companies including Johnson & Johnson and Teva have snapped up pieces of its portfolio.

Global University Venturing’s last issue before the summer provides an opportunity to look back at the first six months of the year – as the data reveals, it has been a busy period with activity picking up significantly towards the end of the second quarter.

That increased activity, however, appears not to have translated into a boost for the total amount of capital raised compared with the same period last year. Although there were 44 deals in June, they amounted to only $365.3m of transaction value – a drop of nearly $90m from May.

Australian biotech, Trimph, has successfully completed a first-in-human trial of its proprietary bone “glue”, TrimphDent, the only bone graft substitute in the world to be applied in liquid form, halving the time of patient recovery, and requiring no specialised preparation or additional surgical expertise.

This breakthrough will allow Trimph to progress towards registering TrimphDent and launching into global markets, which could provide significantly more affordable and accessible oral surgeries to rural and disadvantaged communities across the globe.

The global population will increase to almost ten billion by 2050 while greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture continue to rise. We need to intensify food production while shrinking agriculture’s impact on the environment. Canadian biotechnology is helping farmers produce more food while simultaneously reducing the environmental footprint of agriculture.

Dear friends,
Last Friday, the emocha team onboarded two of our newest video DOT partners: San Diego County and the State of Delaware. From Collin County, TX, to Columbus, OH, we’ve continued working with innovative tuberculosis programs to make directly observed therapy more convenient and cost-effective.

We’re taking all opportunities as we grow to gather user feedback and improve the emocha experience for patients and providers. That’s why earlier this month, our team visited the Puerto Rico Department of Health to learn how our technology has impacted their TB program.

In late 2016, the island was dealing with a TB outbreak in a facility for mentally impaired men. We volunteered the emocha platform pro bono to help manage the outbreak with Dr. Dana Thomas, then Medical Director, championing the effort on behalf of the TB program. Within months, all patients using emocha showed clinical signs of improvement.

“emocha is so important because we have lost staff and fiscal resources over the years,” said Dr. Olga Joglar, TB Control Program Director.

In Puerto Rico and around the country, emocha helps public health departments save time and money on DOT programs. NIH-supported research shows that our platform for video observation can secure 92% adherence with significant cost savings.

READ MORE FROM THE NIH

The emocha platform is used worldwide for TB, HCV, HIV and opioid use disorder treatment. Ready to learn more? Visit our website or reach out at info@emocha.com

About the Cluster Action Plan TOHealth! brought together diverse participants from Human Health and Sciences ecosystem in the Toronto region to develop Ontario’s first draft Cluster Action Plan under the Partnerships for Jobs and Growth Act. The draft Plan has been approved by the Minister of Economic Development and Growth / Research Innovation and Science and is now subject to a 30 day public consultation. Please download the draft documents using links above and share your comments using the button below. The consultation period ends August 11, 2017.

A new type of trial design can help the healthcare industry bring beneficial therapies to patients sooner and stop researching inferior ones earlier.

Value has found a place at the heart of healthcare innovation. For money-conscious governments and other actors in the system, it’s not enough that a new treatment be beneficial and safe. It also needs to be cost effective.

As the White House and the US Congress continue to lock horns over President Donald Trump’s proposed budget, scientists are once again anxious about funding levels. But more money is not enough to create better science. Indeed, the scientific enterprise has been betrayed by the mismanagement of its financial support.

The road to launching a life science start-up can be a long and difficult one, with founders often struggling to secure funding and manage the logistics of setting up a business. In a move to encourage innovation and help start-ups hit the ground running, there are an increasing choice of accelerator and support programs becoming available.

We spoke to Giovanni Rizzo, PhD MBA Chief of Innovation Division, Z-Cube S.r.l. to learn more about such programs and the difference they can make to innovation, as well as share some tips for academics beginning a start-up venture.

BioHealth Innovation, Inc. Partner Company Developing Novel Non-Viral Gene Therapies for Treatment of Vascular Diseases.

ROCKVILLE, MARYLAND, July 25, 2017 – Artgen, Inc. is pleased to expand its collaboration with the University of Maryland, Baltimore to advance its preclinical program for ART-101 under the Maryland Industrial Partnerships (MIPS) program. The proposal for “Novel targeted imaging applications for PAD” will be supported by a matching contribution from Artgen under the terms of the MIPS award guidelines.

“It has been a very positive experience to partner with Artgen, Inc. and University of Maryland, Baltimore. This initiative supports the overall mission of BHI to advance and foster innovation and company startups within the Maryland region.” said Rich Bendis, BHI President & CEO. “Companies like Artgen are building the next generation of the BioHealth Capital Region (BHCR), and we’re looking forward to supporting their continued success.”

MIPS promotes the development and commercialization of products and processes through industry/university research partnerships. MIPS provides matching funds to help Maryland companies pay for the university research. Projects are initiated by the companies to meet their own research and development goals.

Emergent BioSolutions has agreed to acquire GlaxoSmithKline’s (GSK) anthrax monoclonal antibody, raxibacumab, for around $96m.

Raxibacumab is a fully human monoclonal antibody, which secured approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment and prophylaxis of inhalational anthrax due to Bacillus anthracis.

Lentigen Technology Inc., a subsidiary of Miltenyi Biotec GmbH, announced today its acquisition of immunotherapy start-up Living Pharma, Inc. Eduardo Davila, PhD, Living Pharma Co-Founder and Chief Scientific Officer, who is also a faculty member of the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM), along with Koji Tamada, MD, PhD, UMSOM, invented Living Pharma’s anti-tag-chimeric antigen receptor (AT-CAR™) technology.

A startup that spun out of research at the University of Maryland School of Medicine was acquired 18 months after forming.

In a deal announced this week, Living Pharma was acquired by Lentigen Technology Inc., a Gaithersburg-based subsidiary of Miltenyi Biotec GmbH. Terms were not disclosed.

GSK announced today that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved a new subcutaneous formulation of Benlysta (belimumab) for the treatment of adult patients with active, autoantibody-positive SLE who are receiving standard therapy. Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) is the most common form of lupus, a chronic, incurable autoimmune disease producing autoantibodies that can attack almost any system in the body. The approval marks the first subcutaneous self-injection treatment option for patients with SLE.

VLP Therapeutics, LLC (“VLP”), a biotechnology company focusing on the research and development of therapeutic and preventative vaccines and antibody agents, today announced the appointment of Jacob Licht as Chief Operating Officer. 

OpGen, Inc. (NASDAQ:OPGN) announces the closing of its previously announced public offering of 18,164,195 units at $0.40 per unit, and 6,835,805 pre-funded units at $0.39 per pre-funded unit, raising gross proceeds of approximately $10 million. The Company intends to use the net proceeds of this offering for general corporate purposes, including working capital and product development, particularly development of its rapid antibiotic resistance diagnostic product, and repayment of all outstanding bridge financing notes.

OMNITEC Solutions, Inc.’s Health Services Division will continue and expand their support of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) Data Archive (NDA) with a $38 Million firm-fixed-price contract award.

Since 2008, OMNITEC has supported the NIMH making the NDA the model for data sharing and computational science infrastructure at the NIH. Initially created to support 11 autism grants, the NDA now supports and shares data in mental health and substance use from over 800 projects, representing a public and private investment of $1.5 Billion.

An Annapolis firm focused on building medical devices to monitor heart disease has raised $1.5 million to help bring its first product to market.

Vixiar Medical Inc., a spinout of Johns Hopkins, is developing non-invasive devices and systems for monitoring cardiopulmonary diseases. Its seed round included investors from the U.S. Asia and Europe. Local investors include the Abell Foundation and Maryland Technology Development Corp. The company is based on technology licensed from Hopkins and invented by cardiologist Dr. Harry Silber.

The BIO International Convention is the industry conference for those in or doing business with the biotech industry. MCEDC’s Lynne Stein Benzion, Director of Business Retention and Expansion, is a veteran of several BIO conferences and offered her reflections on this year’s event, which took place June 19-22 in San Diego and drew more than 16,000 industry leaders from 48 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and 73 countries.

The 2017 American Small Business Cybersecurity Xchange on October 12th will bring together cybersecurity thought leaders from government and industry and executives from small and edium-sized businesses (SMB) in a unique one-of-a-kind event. Cyber Crime Expert and Author Kevin Poulsen will give a keynote addressing this year’s theme, Preparing for Current and Emerging Threats. Designed exclusively for SMBs, the conference establishes a trusted forum for insights and action where attendees come to:

• Gain insights about current and emerging cybersecurity threats to their organizations
• Learn about new and upcoming regulatory, legislative, and supply chain requirements for cybersecurity
• Hear from government and industry experts about best practices and solutions to improve SMB cybersecurity
• Network with other SMB executives to promote information sharing and collaboration
• Learn about available cybersecurity tools and resources

SBIR Program Contract Solicitation

PHS 2018-1

Deadline October 20, 2017, 5:00PM ET

The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute invites small business concerns to submit research proposals under the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Contract Solicitation. Firms with the capability to conduct research and development (R&D) in any of the health-related topic areas below and to commercialize the results of that R&D, are encouraged to participate.

• Devices for Transcatheter Surgery
• Tapered Guidewires for Transcatheter Electrosurgery
• Reagent Development for Small Cell Number ChIC-seq

Noble Life Sciences, a contract research organization (CRO) providing services to support the development of drugs, vaccines, and medical devices, is pleased to announce that it has been granted a renewal of full accreditation by the Association for Assessment and Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care (AAALAC) International Council on Accreditation. Noble was first awarded AAALAC full accreditation in October 10, 1989.

Accenture Interactive, Marriott International, and 1776, a leading global incubator and network for startups, today announced the launch of the Travel Experience Incubator, a new program designed to discover and foster startups working on innovative technologies and solutions to improve the travel experience. The incubator will bring together the hospitality industry expertise of one of the world’s most innovative companies, Marriott International, and its official Travel Experience Incubator partner, Accenture Interactive, along with participating startups, to co-create unique and inventive new experiences for travelers.

We all have some preconceived ideas about the nature of entrepreneurialism. But, according to business master himself, Tony Robbins, starting a company or two does not an entrepreneur make. Financial savvy and business acumen may be enough to get a startup off the ground. But it takes a true entrepreneur to see beyond the creation of a project, propel past the daily managerial duties and take the all-important risks to achieve greatness.

The Maryland Department of Commerce has an opportunity for you to soft land in the Hague Security Delta (HSD) — the largest security cluster of Europe — providing you with access to the full EU market.

Benefits of participating in the program:

• Access to shared office space at the HSD Campus — the national innovation centre for security in The Hague — at no cost to you.
• Mentorship from HSD, InnovationQuarter and the Dutch Chamber of Commerce.
• Greater exposure to global partners and opportunities to pursue clients.
• Support in accessing financial resources, engaging strategic partners, and refining business models for market opportunities in the EU region.
• Option to apply for Commerce’s ExportMD program to partially fund your travel and marketing costs.

Richard Mason is head of J&J Innovation for the EMEA region, and identifying and investing in the most promising early-stage drug ideas outside the company is one of his key roles.

This ‘open innovation’ strategy is being pursued by all the big pharma companies – and now it’s simply a matter of who executes best on this approach.

Master of Professional Studies in Technology Entrepreneurship

The University of Maryland’s Master of Professional Studies (MPS) in Technology Entrepreneurship educates and empowers students to launch and lead innovative startups and corporate ventures. Our unique experiential learning model incorporates online instruction and coaching, global networking opportunities, and funding opportunities with leading investors. This 100% online offering is a 15-month, part-time program for approximately $20,000.

Live Information Session July 24, at 1 p.m., EST

Since 2013, Shire has been stepping up its strategy to become the world’s leading company for people with rare diseases. McKinsey senior partners Martin Dewhurst and Andy West recently talked with Shire’s CEO, Flemming Ørnskov, about the company’s efforts to transform and the importance of staying three steps ahead of the organization you’re leading. In this interview, part of our Biopharma Frontiers series on how the pharmaceutical industry is evolving and how leaders can adapt, Ørnskov discusses his vision for the future and the critical elements of leadership. An edited transcript of their conversation follows.

Elon Musk just tweeted that his Boring Company tunnel project has received “verbal [government] approval” to build a hyperloop connecting New York City, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington, DC.

Join BioBuzz and sponsor Immunomic Therapeutics to celebrate the move from allergy to oncology application of their proprietary LAMP-Vax™ technology platform. The celebration will be at Bar Louie in the Rockville Town Center on July 27, 2017 from 5 – 7pm. Only a 5 minute walk from the Rockville Metro, please join us for this exciting event.

Thursday, July 27, 2017, 05:30pm – 07:30pm

Enjoy an evening with food, fun and lively conversation at Biotech and Beer. Meet old friends and new colleagues in the life science community. Complimentary admission for any bioscience company employees, and university students and researchers with advanced registration. All others may purchase tickets. Space is limited!

Location : i.Lab at UVA: 621 Nash Dr. Charlottesville, Virginia 22901 United States

Join the newly merged Maryland Tech Council for a casual, fun-filled evening where you can relax, network and celebrate with your community of technology, life science, and business professionals.

Business leaders, entrepreneurs, residents, students — share your success! We’re collecting stories of the remarkable people, places, ideas and innovations that define the county in our video series, We Are Montgomery County.

Emergent BioSolutions Inc. (NYSE:EBS) announced today that it has entered into an agreement to acquire the ACAM2000®, (Smallpox (Vaccinia) Vaccine, Live) business of Sanofi in an all-cash transaction with a total value of up to $125 million, consisting of $97.5 million upfront and up to $27.5 million in near-term contingent regulatory and manufacturing-related milestones.

Baltimore, Maryland-based Protenus, the company famously behind monthly Breach Barometers, is expanding its capabilities.

As part of a new effort, the organization will use its analytics platform to shed light on other problems in the world of healthcare. One example includes detecting suspected employee theft of prescription opiates.

QIAGEN (Suzhou) Translational Medicine, a China precision medicine company, raised $25 million in a Series A funding led by Qiming Venture Partners. QIAGEN (Suzhou) was founded in 2013 by QIAGEN, a global molecular diagnostics company headquartered in Germany, and BioBay, the Suzhou life science technology park. It specializes in developing biomarkers and stratifying patients in clinical trials. QIAGEN (Suzhou) said it plans to use the new capital to build a factory and expand its scientific team.

OpGen announced today that it has priced a previously announced $10 million public offering of 25 million units of common stock and common warrants at $.40 per unit.

SNNLive spoke with Richard Bendis, President and CEO of BioHealth Innovation, Inc., a private company, at the BioMaryland Pavilion at the BIO International Convention 2017 in San Diego, CA.

Southern Maryland Entrepreneurs / small business owners! Join SMIT and the Startup Maryland STRT1UP Roadshow to pitch your technology concept, prototype, product or service innovation.

Since 2012, Startup Maryland has roamed the state celebrating entrepreneurs and giving them the opportunity to video tape their pitch on the Startup Maryland STRT1UP Roadshow pitch bus. Here’s how it works: Entrepreneurs register to pitch at https://startupmd.typeform.com/to/cMTP0f, then prepare and practice practice practice a 3 minute pitch. When the bus arrives, entrepreneurs enter the bus where a video studio has been set up to capture thier pitch. Pitches are then edited and ready for viewing! Pitches are judged by a panel of expert serial entrepreneurs, investors and economic development officers and compete for the opportunity to be selected to pitch at other state-wide events such as TEDCO’s Annual Entrepreneur Expo and other prizes.

A new startup accelerator program based at the Johns Hopkins University’s FastForward East will target companies developing health and fitness technologies.

Hopkins is teaming up with the University of Maryland, Plank Industries, Brown Advisory and the Abell Foundation to launch the 16-week program, called M-1 Ventures, in September.

Who We Are

5 startups. 16 weeks. 1 mission.

M-1 Ventures is an accelerator for startups developing technologies that improve health outcomes, promote fitness and streamline health care. The program features mentorship from connected health and fitness experts at Johns Hopkins and the University of Maryland.

In monetary terms, D.C.’s tech scene has been doing pretty well with investors lately: Local start-ups took in about $435 million between April and June 2017, compared with $298 million over the same period four years ago, according to Pitchbook investment data analyzed by the National Venture Capital Association.

FDA and AACR have successfully held Oncology Dose Finding Workshops in 2015 and 2016. Patient and dose selection of oncology drugs will be of critical importance, as recent approvals of immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) and early, promising readouts from studies combining ICIs with chemotherapy, targeted therapy, and other immuno-oncology agents will put enormous pressures on the current clinical trial infrastructure of the U.S. and the international community. A recent article in The Cancer Letter reported that 803 clinical trials currently testing PD-1 and PD-L1 drugs had over 160,000 slots for adult patients. As more ICIs enter the market, additional trials will seek to combine these products with standard of care therapies, novel small molecules, targeted antibodies, and other biologic therapies such as vaccines and engineered T-cells. This year’s workshop will focus on approaches to combination therapy and best practices regarding patient and dose selection, biomarkers to aid in selection, and novel endpoints that can define patient benefit.

Join BioBuzz and sponsor Immunomic Therapeutics to celebrate the move from allergy to oncology application of their proprietary LAMP-Vax™ technology platform. The celebration will be at Bar Louie in the Rockville Town Center on July 27, 2017 from 5 – 7pm. Only a 5 minute walk from the Rockville Metro, please join us for this exciting event.

A Brooklyn-based biotech company was awarded $32.3 million in incentives over 10 years from the state’s Economic Development Authority to move its headquarters to the 116-acre former Hoffmann-La Roche North American headquarters campus on the border of Nutley and Clifton.

The US National Institutes of Health (NIH) would see its budget rise by US$1.1 billion in 2018, to $35.2 billion, under a spending proposal released on 12 July by lawmakers in the House of Representatives.

A Food and Drug Administration panel opened a new era in medicine on Wednesday, unanimously recommending that the agency approve the first-ever treatment that genetically alters a patient’s own cells to fight cancer, transforming them into what scientists call “a living drug” that powerfully bolsters the immune system to shut down the disease.

The world’s top medical technology companies are turning to robots to help with complex knee surgery, promising quicker procedures and better results in operations that often leave patients dissatisfied. Demand for artificial replacement joints is growing fast, as baby boomers’ knees and hips wear out, but for the past 15 years rival firms have failed to deliver a technological advance to gain them significant market share.

The 17th annual New York Venture Summit, presented by youngStartup Ventures, is the premier industry gathering connecting venture capitalists, corporate VCs, angel investors, technology transfer professionals, senior executives of early stage and emerging growth companies, university researchers, incubators and premier service providers.

Whether you are an investor seeking access to new early stage deals, or a CEO or Founder of a new venture looking for funding, visibility and growth, New York Venture Summit is one event you won’t want to miss.

This isn’t your ordinary health care discussion. Quality Talks is a series of stirring, succinct talks by current and emerging health care leaders with ideas about how we can collaboratively improve American health care. In addition to the dynamic and thought-provoking speakers, the event features interactive dialogue among all attendees about advancing the health care system and improving patient care.

Quality Talks began in 2015 as part of NCQA’s 25th Anniversary and grew so successfully that NCQA made it an annual event. In 2016, this sold-out event was held at a larger venue which enabled us to reach an even wider audience. We hope to continue in 2017 with thought-provoking speakers and continuing the Quality Talks health care discussion.

Yesterday, the White House announced it was delaying and likely eliminating the International Entrepreneur Rule. This rule is the closest we’ve come to a Startup Visa, something I’ve been working on with numerous other people since 2009. Several failed bills in Congress, a failed bipartisan Senate comprehensive immigration reform bill, and an Executive Order later, and we still have nothing.

Patient outcomes are taking over from products and services as the focus of healthcare. But reorienting away from product development toward a holistic approach to patients demands the convergence of data from every part of the healthcare system. In this interview, part of our Biopharma Frontiers series on how the pharmaceutical industry is evolving, Jared Josleyn, global head of corporate development at Alphabet-owned Verily Life Sciences, talks with McKinsey’s Michele Raviscioni about the need to integrate health data and apply it to patients’ lives in ways that achieve enduring impact.

Rockville, MD-based Sucampo Pharmaceuticals is a global biopharmaceutical company which currently has one marketed product, Amitiza, in its portfolio. Amitiza is approved for chronic idiopathic constipation (CIC) in adults, irritable bowel syndrome with constipation (IBS-C) among adult women and opioid-induced constipation (OIC) in patients with chronic non-cancer pain.

Join BioBuzz and sponsor Immunomic Therapeutics to celebrate the move from allergy to oncology application of their proprietary LAMP-Vax™ technology platform. The celebration will be at Bar Louie in the Rockville Town Center on July 27, 2017 from 5 – 7pm. Only a 5 minute walk from the Rockville Metro, please join us for this exciting event.

Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc. (NYSE: ARE), an urban office REIT uniquely focused on collaborative life science and technology campuses in AAA innovation cluster locations, is creating the Alexandria Center® for AgTech – RTP — the initial phase of a premier multi-tenant mega campus in Research Triangle Park (RTP) — and is leading the cluster’s evolution into a first-in-class AgTech ecosystem at the forefront of newly emerging innovations that address global hunger as it impacts human health. Located at 3054 East Cornwallis Road, which Alexandria recently acquired through an affiliate, the Alexandria Center for AgTech – RTP is adjacent to Alexandria’s 6 Davis Drive, and the collective development of the two campuses will form a 1 million square foot-plus mega campus that will support the AgTech sector in its continued, dramatic growth. The first phase of the project is the strategic redevelopment of the Cornwallis site into 175,000 rentable square feet (RSF) of best-in-class office/laboratory and greenhouse facilities and a highly curated amenities center designed to foster innovation, drive productivity and enhance collaboration.

Roche has bought Vienna-based diabetes management platform mySugr for an undisclosed price, the Swiss drugmaker said on Friday, joining a crowd of companies expanding app-based digital health services.

Privately held mySugr offers a logbook for mobile devices to help people track their blood sugar, medications and activity levels. It has been working with Roche since 2014 and previously got funding from Roche’s Venture Fund.

The Company:

Noble Life Sciences (Sykesville, MD) is a rapidly growing contract research organization (CRO) that provides preclinical drug, vaccine and medical device development services, from discovery to GLP-compliant studies for regulatory submissions. The company offers in vitro and in vivo services, including cellular and animal disease model development and experimental design, non-GLP and GLP animal efficacy, toxicity, biodistribution and product release studies in both small and large animals. The company also offers custom antibody production services, research animal and tissue products, and vivarium services.

The Position:

The representative will be responsible for selling preclinical services to new accounts in order to achieve sales targets, developing new sales in these accounts by monitoring customer’s existing projects for successful completion to stated goals, and proposing related and new services as they monitor accounts needs for future CRO services.

The representative is expected to use his/her knowledge of the market and external contacts in companies developing drugs, vaccines, and medical devices to increase sales. The representative will implement sales and marketing strategy and tactics to gain new customers and achieve sales and profit goals in designated geographic territory.

FULL-TIME POSITION:

Job Summary: BioFactura is seeking highly motivated applicants with an entrepreneurial spirit for an open position in our biosimilar development programs. We are looking for qualified candidates with a masters or doctoral degree in the life sciences with highly relevant skills and bench experience. The selected candidate will participate in the development and validation of various biosimilar product assays. In this position, the candidate will be responsible for planning, conducting, execution and analysis of experiments using various techniques in protein analysis. Relevant skills include HPLC/U-HPLC (HILIC, RP, SEC, CEX, AEX, affinity), capillary electrophoresis (CE), mass spec, SDS-PAGE, IEF, ELISA, qPCR. Knowledge of protein purification methods and process development/scale-up is a plus. Knowledge of Good Laboratory Practices (GLP) including analytical method qualification/validation and current Good Manufacturing Practices (cGMP) are desired. Experience in the preparation and delivery of oral and written presentations as well as participation in the preparation and submission of grants and/or manuscripts for publication are a plus. Excellent communication skills and the ability to analyze and interpret data, design appropriately controlled experiments independently, and maintain up-to-date laboratory notebooks are a must. This is an excellent opportunity to gain valuable experience with an innovative, small, young Biotech company and build a career in the biopharmaceutical industry. Candidates should feel comfortable working in a high risk/potential high reward environment and able to work overtime and weekends as project needs are determined.

Minimum Qualifications:

• Masters/Doctoral degree in life sciences
• Hands on experience in protein analytics (3-5 years)• Excellent time management and proven ability to complete projects on time
• Excellent level of initiative and quest for knowledge
• Must be organized and self motivated
• Must have excellent communication and writing skills
• Familiarity with Microsoft Office (Word, Excel and Powerpoint etc.)
• Must love to learn!

Benefits: BioFactura offers a competitive salary and benefit plan including health insurance (medical, dental & prescription) and a retirement plan with employer match.

Contact: Darryl Sampey, Ph.D.President and CEOBioFactura, Inc.8435 Progress Drive, Suite ZFrederick, MD 21701Cell: 240-620-3566Office: 301-315-8002www.biofactura.comdsampey@biofactura.com

FEFA is a government contracting corporation and we have a current opening for a Technology Transfer Support Specialist with CRADA experience. The position is located in Silver Spring, MD. The candidate shall utilize knowledge of technology transfer law and regulatory requirements related to managing life science/medical research to provide advice, guidance, and assistance to Institute staff on issues relating to collaborative and other agreements, inventions, patents, licenses and other technology transfer matters.

The candidate shall also use excellent interpersonal skills in a team environment to prepare, review, and provide assistance with development of intergovernmental and technology transfer agreements to include interagency agreements (IAA), cooperative research and development agreements (CRADA), material transfer agreements (MTA), and nondisclosure agreements (NDA).

The Fellowship in Government provides a unique public policy learning experience, demonstrates the value of science-government interaction and enhances public health science and practical knowledge in government. APHA is looking for candidates with strong public health credentials and an interest in serving as a staff person in the U.S. Congress. The fellowship is based in Washington, D.C. The fellow will have the option of working in the House or Senate on legislative and policy issues such as creating healthy communities, improving health equity, addressing environmental health concerns, population health or the social determinants of health. Much of the work developing public policy happens at the staff level, where these critical issues are not well understood or incorporated into the discussion. The fellow will have the opportunity to make an impact and improve the health of the public.

Defining a great entrepreneurship scene requires a delicate balance. Sure, there has to be a healthy atmosphere of investment and innovation to get people in, but to get them to stay is a whole ‘nother story. Great startup cities need to have a culture, voice and mission. It’s what defines them as unique, a place to go because it’s not only where your skill sets lie, but where you feel like you can help change the world.

Making the cut for a booming community is a culmination of the underdogs, the cities that others overlooked for safe bets. However, when there’s risk, there’s also reward, which is why these cities, in my estimation, are all about to break the mold.

The company plans to use the investment to complete clinical trials for their gene therapy products aimed at choroideremia, retinitis pigmentosa, and macular dystrophy.

Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab’s latest space mission: Flying a satellite into an asteroid.

Scientists from the Laurel-based lab recently got the go-ahead from NASA to move forward on design of a spacecraft that could land on an asteroid, and deflect it from a collision course with Earth. The refrigerator-sized spacecraft would be the centerpiece of a mission called Double Asteroid Redirection Test, or DART.

The Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO) recently released a report on Bioscience Innovation in the States: Legislation and Job Creation through Public-Private Partnerships. This biennial report provides a good summary of state initiatives serving the industry plus a discussion of new developments and trends by state.

What if you could really understand what someone wanted? What if by asking the right questions and listening to the words another person uses, you could better understand what they wanted – even before they did? What if you could improve all your relationships?

Improved communication and a deeper understanding of motivation is possible. By learning a repeatable framework, based on language choices that expose unconscious motivation, you can experience being ‘heard’ and better understand others. Dr. Kristin Backstrom, from the Centers for Motivation, will share insights on how language choices express what drives and motivates individuals, helping you learn how to improve teamwork, reduce conflict, and achieve goals.

Y Combinator, Silicon Valley’s best known start-up accelerator, thinks it has found a new type of biotechnology start-up.

Life-sciences companies come with a high risk of failure—often, the science behind a proposed invention isn’t entirely proven, and turns out not to work. Because of this risk, the traditional way to fund early-stage life sciences companies is for a landmark East Coast investor, such as Third Rock or Flagship, to take a huge equity stake in the business and replace the founder with a seasoned executive. In exchange, it pumps tens of millions of dollars into the company over many years. It often takes more than a decade to generate a return.

The next NIH Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Omnibus funding opportunity deadline is September 5, 2017. The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) welcomes all investigator-initiated projects within their mission through these funding opportunities:

Along with training artists, MICA is showing more desire to educate students in creating business opportunities with their work.

That’s evident in community facing events, as the Station North arts college now runs a startup competition, and is helping students get space at OpenWorks makerspace.

PCI is pleased to announce the publication of the first-ever guide to commercialization at Penn. We created the Commercialization Guide so that faculty and external partners would have an easy and accessible reference to guide them in pursuing commercial partnerships and entrepreneurial activities at Penn. The guide provides both comprehensive and detailed information around working with PCI on all kinds of commercialization activities and it also covers key topics such as: Penn’s Patent Policy, creating a startup at Penn, the process for patenting intellectual property, disclosing conflicts of interest and other important topics for engaging in commercialization.

Leslie Ford Weber, director of the Johns Hopkins University Montgomery County Campus, has been elected chair-elect of the Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce.

Weber, who is also director of campus, government and community affairs in Montgomery County for the university and Suburban Hospital, previously served the Chamber as vice chair of the legislative affairs committee and will continue in that role as chair-elect. Before that, she was vice chair of the economic development committee.

FULL-TIME POSITION:

Job Summary: BioFactura is seeking highly motivated applicants with an entrepreneurial spirit for an open position in our biosimilar development programs. We are looking for qualified candidates with a masters or doctoral degree in the life sciences with highly relevant skills and bench experience. The selected candidate will participate in the development and validation of various biosimilar product assays. In this position, the candidate will be responsible for planning, conducting, execution and analysis of experiments using various techniques in protein analysis. Relevant skills include HPLC/U-HPLC (HILIC, RP, SEC, CEX, AEX, affinity), capillary electrophoresis (CE), mass spec, SDS-PAGE, IEF, ELISA, qPCR. Knowledge of protein purification methods and process development/scale-up is a plus. Knowledge of Good Laboratory Practices (GLP) including analytical method qualification/validation and current Good Manufacturing Practices (cGMP) are desired. Experience in the preparation and delivery of oral and written presentations as well as participation in the preparation and submission of grants and/or manuscripts for publication are a plus. Excellent communication skills and the ability to analyze and interpret data, design appropriately controlled experiments independently, and maintain up-to-date laboratory notebooks are a must. This is an excellent opportunity to gain valuable experience with an innovative, small, young Biotech company and build a career in the biopharmaceutical industry. Candidates should feel comfortable working in a high risk/potential high reward environment and able to work overtime and weekends as project needs are determined.

Minimum Qualifications:

• Masters/Doctoral degree in life sciences
• Hands on experience in protein analytics (3-5 years)• Excellent time management and proven ability to complete projects on time
• Excellent level of initiative and quest for knowledge
• Must be organized and self motivated
• Must have excellent communication and writing skills
• Familiarity with Microsoft Office (Word, Excel and Powerpoint etc.)
• Must love to learn!

Benefits: BioFactura offers a competitive salary and benefit plan including health insurance (medical, dental & prescription) and a retirement plan with employer match.

Contact: Darryl Sampey, Ph.D.President and CEOBioFactura, Inc.8435 Progress Drive, Suite ZFrederick, MD 21701Cell: 240-620-3566Office: 301-315-8002www.biofactura.comdsampey@biofactura.com

The University of Maryland seeks a dynamic, forward-thinking individual to lead the newly-renamed Office of Innovation and Commercialization (OIC). The OIC is charged with cultivation, assessment, protection, and commercialization of intellectual property and other transferrable knowledge (frameworks, methods, copyrights, etc.) generated at the University. The OIC is an integral component of UM Ventures – College Park which has a mission to help drive economic and social impact from University research and discoveries through corporate partnering and entrepreneurial activities.

The Director leads and manages the OIC, 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 OIC’s commercialization efforts and its support of related entrepreneurial endeavors. The Director is responsible for developing and meeting annual OIC 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.

emocha Mobile Health, a Baltimore-based startup company focused on medication adherence, today announced that it has been awarded a Small Business Innovation Research award by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). Through the NIH Fast-Track mechanism, the Phase 1 award will total $225,000, with an additional $1.5 million for Phase 2 granted upon achieving milestones. The project will demonstrate the feasibility of video directly observed therapy for patients undergoing the initiation phase of buprenorphine treatment through office-based opioid treatment (OBOT) programs. Outcomes of interest will include adherence, retention in care, measures of illicit opioid use and abstinence, and medication diversi

Funding and Research Opportunities

The following funding opportunity announcements from the NHLBI or other components of the National Institutes of Health, might be of interest:

Notices

• Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Awards (NRSA) Predoctoral Stipends, Training Related Expenses, Institutional Allowance, and Tuition/Fees Effective for Fiscal Year 2017
• (NOT-OD-17-072) National Institutes of Health
• Extramural Loan Repayment Program for Clinical Researchers (LRP-CR)
• (NOT-OD-17-077) National Institutes of Health
• Extramural Loan Repayment Program for Pediatric Research (LRP-PR)
• (NOT-OD-17-078) National Institutes of Health
• Extramural Loan Repayment Program for Contraception and Infertility Research (LRP-CIR)
• (NOT-OD-17-079) National Institutes of Health
• Extramural Loan Repayment Program for Health Disparities Research (LRP-HDR)
• (NOT-OD-17-080) National Institutes of Health
• Extramural Clinical Research Loan Repayment Program for Individuals from Disadvantaged Backgrounds (LRP-IDB)
• (NOT-OD-17-081) National Institutes of Health
• Protecting Life in Global Health Assistance
• (NOT-OD-17-083) National Institutes of Health
• Notice of NIDCR’s Withdrawal from Participation in PAR-16-242 “Bioengineering Research Grants (BRG) (R01)”
• (NOT-DE-17-010)
• National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research
• Notice of NIDCR’s Withdrawal from Participation in PA-16-040 “Exploratory/Developmental Bioengineering Research Grants (EBRG) (R21)”
• (NOT-DE-17-011)
• National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research
• Notice of Intent to Publish a Funding Opportunity Announcement for Point of Care Technologies Research Network Centers (U54)
• (NOT-EB-17-004)
• National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute
• Notice of Intent to Publish a Funding Opportunity Announcement for Heart, Lung, and Blood Co-morbiditieS Implementation Models in People Living with HIV (HLB SIMPLe) (U01)
• (NOT-HL-17-520)
• National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute
• Notice of Intent to Publish a Funding Opportunity Announcement for Heart, Lung, and Blood Co-morbiditieS Implementation Models in People Living with HIV Data Coordinating Center (HLB SIMPLe DCC) (U24)
• (NOT-HL-17-521)
• National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute
• Notice on Upcoming Webinar for RFA-HL-18-007 “ImPlementation REsearCh to DEvelop interventions for People Living with HIV (PRECluDE) (U01)”
• (NOT-HL-17-524)
• National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute
• The NIH Common Fund Regenerative Medicine Program (RMP) Announces the Opportunity to Collaborate with the Stem Cell Translation Laboratory (SCTL) at the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS)
• (NOT-RM-17-030)
• NIH Roadmap Initiatives
• Notice Announcing Funding Opportunity Issued for the NIH Data Commons Pilot Phase
• (NOT-RM-17-031)
• NIH Roadmap Initiatives

New Enterprise Associates, Venrock, and Pelion Venture Partners—all early investors in Internet company Cloudflare—are now ponying up $100 million to fund startups that build applications atop Cloudflare’s technology, which speeds up web site performance and offers security to web applications. Cloudflare products handle an estimated 10% of the world’s web requests. If you click on a browser button, theres a good chance Cloudflare is expediting the response.

On March 7- 8, 2017, Defined Health convened the 28th annual Cancer Progress meeting in New York City. Since 1985, Cancer Progress has served as a unique forum for an insightful and frank discussion about the scientific progress being made in oncology from the perspectives of clinical, regulatory, commercial, payer, patient advocacy, and investor stakeholders. As a companion piece to the meeting (or a primer for those who were unable to attend), the following summarizes some key takeaways and their implications for those looking to establish or maintain relevance in this fast-paced competitive landscape. Key issues addressed herein include the emerging roles of immuno-oncology (IO) vs. non-IO therapies, collaboration vs. competition, and value vs. unmitigated pricing within the evolving oncology landscape. The report closes with some thoughts about where cancer management may be going based on an assessment of present trends.

Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker announced a legislative proposal that would provide $500 million over five years for the life sciences sector, extending the state’s commitment to the biotech and medical technology industry. The money would be used for strategic investments in public infrastructure, research and development, workforce training and education. The proposal includes a $295 million bond authorization to provide capital funding, up to $150 million in job-creating tax incentives, and $55 million for the Investment Fund, which would be provided through the annual consolidated net surplus, the same funding mechanism as the current initiative. The funding will continue to be managed by the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center (MLSC) and build on earlier investments. MLSC was charged with implementing the $1 billion, 10-year state-funded initiative that was signed into law by former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick in 2008 and expires next year.

Roche has bought Vienna-based diabetes management platform mySugr for an undisclosed price, the Swiss drugmaker said on Friday, joining a crowd of companies expanding app-based digital health services.

Privately held mySugr offers a logbook for mobile devices to help people track their blood sugar, medications and activity levels. It has been working with Roche since 2014 and previously got funding from Roche’s Venture Fund.

Along with training artists, MICA is showing more desire to educate students in creating business opportunities with their work.

That’s evident in community facing events, as the Station North arts college now runs a startup competition, and is helping students get space at OpenWorks makerspace.

The next NIH Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Omnibus funding opportunity deadline is September 5, 2017. The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) welcomes all investigator-initiated projects within their mission through these funding opportunities:

What if you could really understand what someone wanted? What if by asking the right questions and listening to the words another person uses, you could better understand what they wanted – even before they did? What if you could improve all your relationships?

Improved communication and a deeper understanding of motivation is possible. By learning a repeatable framework, based on language choices that expose unconscious motivation, you can experience being ‘heard’ and better understand others. Dr. Kristin Backstrom, from the Centers for Motivation, will share insights on how language choices express what drives and motivates individuals, helping you learn how to improve teamwork, reduce conflict, and achieve goals.

Y Combinator, Silicon Valley’s best known start-up accelerator, thinks it has found a new type of biotechnology start-up.

Life-sciences companies come with a high risk of failure—often, the science behind a proposed invention isn’t entirely proven, and turns out not to work. Because of this risk, the traditional way to fund early-stage life sciences companies is for a landmark East Coast investor, such as Third Rock or Flagship, to take a huge equity stake in the business and replace the founder with a seasoned executive. In exchange, it pumps tens of millions of dollars into the company over many years. It often takes more than a decade to generate a return.

I founded my healthcare technology company, ClickMedix, while I was a graduate student at MIT’s Development Ventures class. Our mission is to improve the health of over one billion people. We currently have deployments in 18 countries, and serve more than a quarter million patients – all without investor money. I have been funding my startup by winning business plan competitions and through paying customers. Here are three steps to winning business plan competitions:

The Secretary of Health in Pennsylvania will leave the state to join the executive team at Geisinger Health System.

Karen Murphy, R.N., Ph.D., has been named executive vice president, chief innovation officer and founding director of Geisinger’s Steele Institute for Healthcare Innovation. Her last day with the state is Friday but she won’t start her new job at Geisinger until September.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is by far the principal nonprofit funder of biomedical research in the United States. Consequently, when President Donald Trump’s fiscal year 2018 budget proposal included deep cuts in funding for the NIH, it sent shock waves through academic medical institutions that benefit from NIH research moneys. Although Congress is unlikely to accommodate this proposal, the suggested cuts raise the question of the role of government in medical innovation.

Wednesday, July 12, 2017, 05:30pm – 06:30pm

Learn about the Maryland Women’s Business Center and other resources to help you start and grow your business. 

Location : 51 Monroe Street, Suite PE-20, Rockville MD 20850-2482

Friday, July 14, 2017, 10:00am – 01:00pm

Understand why you need a strong business plan. Learn how to develop each critical piece of your plan. Workshop includes comprehensive outline and additional resources.

Tuesday, July 18, 2017, 01:00pm

Got a lot of questions about commercialization that you’ve been saving up? Now’s your chance to ask an expert! Elizabeth Smith is an experienced entrepreneur, mentor, and thought leader in the BioHealth Capital Region. In addition to being available at MERL office hours, Elizabeth will be available on the BioHive on July 18th at 1PM EDT to answer your questions about commercialization!

Monday, July 24, 2017, 11:30am – 05:00pm

The Maryland Department of Labor, in consultation with the Maryland Department of Commerce, is excited to announce the return of Maryland Business Works, a highly successful incumbent worker training program. Join Mark Nardone, Director of Bio-Trac, to learn more about how the returning Maryland Business Works Program can support and grow small businesses in Maryland.

GlycoMimetics, Inc. (NASDAQ: GLYC) today announced the closing of its underwritten public offering of 8,050,000 shares of its common stock at a public offering price of $11.50 per share, which includes the exercise in full by the underwriters of their option to purchase up to 1,050,000 additional shares of common stock. All of the shares in the offering were offered by GlycoMimetics. The aggregate gross proceeds to GlycoMimetics from the offering, before deducting the underwriting discounts and commissions and offering expenses, were approximately $92.6 million.

Over the past four years, 1,668 deals involving university spinout companies from across the globe attracted approximately $35.6 billion from 2013 to 2016, according to a new report from Global University Venturing. The report, however, highlights that global deals peaked in 2014 with 529 deals and total investments dollars peaked in 2015 with nearly $14 billion invested. As the authors highlighted, these global numbers were unsustainable and 2016 saw significant declines in both deals and dollars. In 2016, the total deals reported were 407 (21.6 percent decrease from 2015) and dollars invested was $6.4 billion (a 54.3 percent decrease from 2015).

On June 15, two startups based on Johns Hopkins technology received Incubator Company of the Year Awards at an annual event sponsored by the Maryland Technology Development Corporation (TEDCO) and several other organizations.

Event is for Post-Docs & Professional Scientists currently working in the Therapeutic Areas of:

• Oncology
• Respiratory, Inflammation & Autoimmunity
• Cardiovascular & Metabolic Diseases
• Infectious Diseases & Vaccines
• Related scientific disciplines

Event will include music, lawn games, hors d’oeuvres, drinks.

In Uganda alone, nearly 600,000 newborns require medical intervention for complications at birth. That’s a problem that Teresa Cauvel and Sona Shah are on a mission to solve. Neopenda, the health tech startup they founded in 2015, makes wearables that monitor four newborn vitals: Heart rate, respiration, blood oxygen saturation, and temperature.

Patients with active systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) were able to control their disease with Benlysta (belimumab) plus standard of care (prednisone), pharmaceutical giant GSK said in announcing the results from a 10-year continuation study.

GSK presented the study’s results at the Annual European Congress of Rheumatology (EULAR 2017), held June 14-17 in Madrid.

New Enterprise Associates has closed its 16th flagship fund on $3.3 billion, per the Wall Street Journal, the largest venture vehicle ever raised.

A monumental fundraise, yes, but billion-dollar funds are nothing new for NEA—its latest vehicle also represents the firm’s seventh consecutive $1-billion-plus venture fund. In 1978, NEA closed its first fund on $16 million. The firm has gone on to garner $17 billion in committed capital across 15 funds, not including NEA 16. Here’s a look at the firm’s largest funds to date, according to the PitchBook Platform:

The University System of Maryland was ranked 27th by the National Academy of Inventors and the Intellectual Property Owners Association on a list of the most U.S. patents granted last year among universities worldwide.

The University of Maryland received 48 of the 72 patents granted to universities in the university system in 2016, said Felicia Metz, the intellectual property assistant director of this university’s Office of Technology Commercialization, which works with patents owned by the university and inventors to help make the products of research available on the market.

More and more, bwtech@UMBC has been a stop for international visitors looking to learn about cybersecurity, said executive director Ellen Hemmerly.

While paying a visit to the research park’s incubator or attending a conference offers a glimpse, there are signs of a desire to dig deeper. Earlier this year, the incubator was a “soft landing” for a group of companies from the Netherlands as part of an exchange program run by the Maryland Department of Commerce.

Roche (SIX: RO, ROG; OTCQX: RHHBY) announced today that its fourth-generation HIV combination antigen-antibody assay, the Elecsys HIV combi PT assay, has received FDA PMA approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Innovations born in the world of academia have contributed more than a trillion dollars to the US economy over the past two decades, according to a new report.

Examining the licensing of university technology, a study undertaken by the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO) and the Association of University Technology Managers (AUTM), reveals that over a 20 year period ‘academic patents and the subsequent licensing to industry’ boosted industry output by $1.33 trillion.

University of Maryland, Baltimore County’s bwtech Research & Technology Park is partnering with the state Department of Commerce to create an international cybersecurity center that will help lure foreign cyber companies to establish a presence in Maryland.

Advances in biotechnology innovation have had an enormous transformative impact on many sectors of the U.S. economy — life-saving drugs for patients of all ages, protecting plants that are key to feeding the world and industrial biotechnology applications that are leading to bio-based fuels, chemicals and products that can protect our environment.

The bioscience’s need for a stable and supportive public policy framework is vital to industry firms large and small. It is almost impossible for any state or region to ignore the need for selective incentives to either hold existing bioscience companies or attract new enterprises.

Just as some politicians are increasing their calls for Washington micromanagement of the Bayh-Dole law (which allows universities and federal laboratories to license federally supported inventions for commercial development) a new study shows how impressively the current decentralized, market driven system is performing.

Despite the best cybersecurity efforts, the number of breaches in the healthcare world is remaining fairly constant, according to the latest Protenus Breach Barometer.

The Barometer is based on data provided by DataBreaches.net.

The Maryland Science Center has promoted from within to replace president and CEO Van Reiner, who will retire this year after 13 years with the Inner Harbor attraction.

Mark Potter, the organization’s vice president of development for the past six years, will assume the top spot following Reiner’s retirement in October.

Whether you’re a fan of Steve Jobs and his products or not, two things are undeniable: He was very successful and very different. Now you can relax; this short article will not provide a blow-by-blow account of the man and his methods. “What would Steve Jobs tell the pharma/biotech industry?” is just a metaphor to encourage our industry to radically change — not by reinventing the wheel, but by copying the success of others.

Here’s what New Enterprise Associates chief Scott Sandell says about his record fund, along with a look at the other 10 firms that have raised $1 billion or more since 2015.

Pharmaceutical companies are betting big on a new wave of innovative cancer therapies they believe will be more effective than existing treatments and move them a big step closer to finding a cure for the disease.

The fast-emerging branch of therapies – immuno-oncology (IO) – works by equipping the body’s immune system with the tools to kill cancer cells.

The Old Line’s flag laid board-flat against the marbled gray sky as crisply as if it had been pressed by a hot iron. I double checked my lifejacket, clipped the boat’s kill switch onto its nylon strap and eased the 25-foot center console beyond the breakwaters of Matapeake. White caps that had rolled past Point Lookout three hours earlier continued to barrel northward toward Rock Hall. I took a quick look around, briefly questioned my decision-making faculties and then punched the throttle to get on top of the rumbling three footers.

The Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer Improvements Act of 2017, H.R. 2763, unanimously passed a House committee last week, moving one step closer to approval.

“The bill ultimately helps small businesses advance innovation and research that will help industries across California and the nation,” Knight said. “The advantages of supporting small business in their ventures are endless as some of the greatest entrepreneurial developments in technology originate from the support of the surrounding community and government resources.”

Nearly two years after its launch, Johnson & Johnson’s crowdfunding website for global public health projects in underserved communities has raised almost $500,000 for 51 projects to date.

The percentage of projects posted on the website that are funded has increased from 33 percent one year ago to 65 percent this year, according to an email from Fetzer.

Switzerland, Sweden, the Netherlands, U.S. and UK are the world’s most innovative countries according to a new report by produced by Cornell University, INSEAD and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).

Now in its 10 edition, the Global Innovation Index surveys 130 economies using dozens of metrics – from patent filings to education spending – for a high-level look at the innovative activity that increasingly drives economic and social growth.

The brain continues to surprise us with its magnificent complexity. Groundbreaking research that combines neuroscience with math tells us that our brain creates neural structures with up to 11 dimensions when it processes information. By “dimensions,” they mean abstract mathematical spaces, not other physical realms. Still, the researchers “found a world that we had never imagined,” said Henry Markram, director of the Blue Brain Project, which made the discovery.

Using an input-output “I-O” approach to estimating the economic impact of academic licensing and summing that impact over 20 years of available data for academic U.S. Association of University Technology Managers (AUTM) Survey respondents, the total contribution of these academic licensors to industry gross output ranges from $320 billion to $1.33 trillion, in 2009 U.S. dollars; and contributions to gross domestic product (GDP) range from $148 billion to $591 billion, in 2009 U.S. dollars. Estimates of the total number of person years of employment supported by U.S. universities’ and hospitals’ and research institutes’ licensed-product sales range from 1.268 million to over 4.272 million over the 20- year period. An explanation of the I-O approach is provided, and the assumptions used and the potential effects of the assumptions on the estimates are discussed. AUTM associated contributions to GDP, calculated using the I-O approach, are compared with U.S. GDP as a whole, and to selected industry, as defined by North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) codes, contributions to GDP. Factors affecting the AUTM contributions to GDP appear to differ from those affecting U.S. GDP as a whole, as well as from those affecting selected NAICS industry contributions to GDP.

A Sanofi executive discusses his company’s leadership-development programs and approach to building employee capabilities amid rapid change.