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Following is a list of 10 alliances announced in recent years, mostly by pharma and biotech giants with venture capital funds, ranked by total size of fund in which the biopharma(s) invested. Alliances are listed by their partners; their purpose; the role of their partners; the financial contributions of their partners, where disclosed; rights and/or options on drugs resulting from alliance activity, again where disclosed; and the date the alliance was announced. An additional two alliances did not disclose size of total investment, and therefore are included in the list without a ranking.

Significantly, five of the 12 listed alliances were formed during 2013, and another five last year, reflecting the industry’s increasing view that the alliances will offer a more efficient way of developing new drugs by requiring much less than the billions long spent up-front by biopharmas on internal R&D. While the alliances require much less capital from industry, it remains to be seen whether R&D activity will increase, and more new drugs win approval and reach the market, to justify the reduced investment.

BECTON, Dickinson and Co.’s announcement that it was about to roll out a new, easy-to-use, disposable pen injector called Vystra hardly caused a stir in October.

Although an executive for the Franklin Lakes, New Jersey-based medical technology maker said the injector, unveiled at a Las Vegas convention, would introduce “a new level of flexibility for drug manufacturers,” the announcement made few ripples outside the industry.

Boston Children’s Hospital stirred up some buzz this week when it said its researchers had made a breakthrough that could change the face of diabetes treatment.

On its Vector blog, the hospital called attention to a study published earlier this year in the journal Diabetes that identified a certain pathway in the body as the cause of type 1 diabetes. A team led by Dr. Paolo Fiorina from the hospital’s nephrology department studied hundreds of pathways in animals with diabetes and isolated one, ATP/P2X7R, as a trigger of T-cell attacks on the pancreas that inhibit its ability to produce insulin.

Silicon Valley has long been the epicenter of venture capital-financed high-technology, but a new report shows D.C. is climbing the ranks of best metropolitan areas for venture capital, according to The Atlantic Cities.

Martin Prosperity Institute’s figures for venture capital in 2012 show than the San Francisco-Oakland area has in fact overtaken it as the nation’s leading center for venture capital, with investments reaching more than $6.8 million.

Global Market Direct’s pharmaceuticals report, “MedImmune, LLC – Product Pipeline Review – 2013” provides data on the MedImmune, LLC’s research and development focus. The report includes information on current developmental pipeline, complete with latest updates, and features on discontinued and dormant projects.

This report is built using data and information sourced from Global Markets Direct’s proprietary databases, MedImmune, LLC’s corporate website, SEC filings, investor presentations and featured press releases, both from MedImmune, LLC and industry-specific third party sources, put together by Global Markets Direct’s team.

Baltimore health IT firm WellDoc expects a new diabetes management tool to help the company double its annual revenue and add thousands of clients over the next few years.

WellDoc recently launched BlueStar, a new smartphone app which helps patients better self-manage diabetes and requires a prescription from a doctor. Ford Motor Co. and Rite Aid Corp. are among the companies that will be offering the tool as a pharmacy benefit to employees.

Last fall, the Federal Laboratory Consortium for Technology Transfer introduced an improved Available Technologies search tool that made it faster and easier to search for federal laboratory inventions available transfer to business partners. This tool reduces the time, effort and guesswork in finding opportunities that meet industry’s needs. Instead of sifting through agency or lab records, users can now do single keyword searches for available technologies. Since the search is based on Google search technologies, users can utilize standard Boolean search engine language to perform their searches. Searches return a powerful set of data, including:

• description of the invention
• application and benefits
• current development and patent status
• name of inventor
• federal laboratory contact person who will facilitate the technology transfer opportunity.

This is the season of inaugurations and internships, with the class of 2014 college grads starting a new chapter in life in a recovering yet still challenging job market, and with students beginning a summer of exploring what to do beyond school lives. Whether it’s a full-time job or an internship, the experience is as much about learning the knowledge and skills as it is about self discovery.

I recently met a white, middle-aged American, who is highly fluent in Mandarin and successful running a center whose work requires fluency in East Asian cultures and languages. With an impressive list of life experiences under his belt, he was obviously happy with his life and career. When asked how he got to this point in life, he insisted it was pure “dumb luck” because he couldn’t have foreseen the many opportunities related to his interests when he was a young man. I can relate to that. I am more confident and content with my work life than ever before, having finally found my ways of relating and contributing to the world around me. I wish I could say this was all by design, when in fact for the first decade in this country my life was defined by heartbreaks and headaches. As a liberal arts major and a generalist with broad interests, I was not as readily employable as those with technical such as IT and engineering, so I struggled for a long time to find my footing.

Johns Hopkins student-built devices—a blood clot detection system and a concealable, hands-free breast pump—have won two of the top three awards in a national contest that recognizes innovative biomedical engineering designs that have high commercial potential and social impact.

The honors were announced June 19 in Philadelphia by the National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance (NCIIA), as it concluded its annual Biomedical Engineering Innovations, Design, and Entrepreneurship Awards (BMEidea) competition. Johns Hopkins student teams previously earned first-place in this competition in 2012, 2010 and 2007.

The emerging tech town of St. Louis has also become fertile ground for a community of life sciences companies that are ready to bloom — if they can find early stage funding.

“We’ve got a lot of engineers here who have been working for companies like Sigma-Aldrich and Monsanto that have decided to spin off, so we have some great entrepreneurial ventures in the life sciences,” said Kasey Joyce, the director of investor relations for Cultivation Capital.