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BALTIMORE, July 14, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — CoapTech, Inc, a medical device company focused on delivering transformative solutions for minimally-invasive surgery, announced today it has received CE Mark certification, as well as an approved CPT Procedure Code for its PUMA-G System, the world’s first and only ultrasound gastrostomy system that allows physicians to place gastrostomy tubes at the point of care, using solely ultrasound imaging.

The PUMA System™ is a new category of minimally invasive devices, enabling ultrasound to be used for procedures in hollow organs of the body where previously it was impossible or unsafe to do so. The first application of the PUMA platform technology, the PUMA-G System, is an FDA-cleared procedural kit allowing bedside clinicians, rather than consultant specialists, to place gastrostomy tubes using solely ultrasound and their existing skill sets and team. With CE Mark approval, the PUMA-G System now has the potential to improve efficiency, safety, and cost-effectiveness on an international level. CoapTech plans to begin a targeted launch in Europe later this year. 

During this special webinar panel, we will be focusing on EMPWR’s private equity and private debt sleeve. We will have three private fund managers join us and present how their private, impact funds can improve the quality of life around the world. Emerge’s EMPWR Program has a talented roster of sub-advisors that features a special focus on women private fund leaders. 

The federal lab system is an enormous, $50 billion-plus enterprise of internal research and development (R&D) across the United States. As governments around the world, including China, pour billions of dollars into advanced technologies, it is imperative that we use our nation’s federal lab ecosystem as effectively as possible.

However, because federal labs have varying legal authorities, missions, and cultures, their records of local economic engagement and technology commercialization vary considerably. Universities, by contrast, have demonstrated a strong record of supporting regional innovation ecosystems through use of place (creating incubators, research parks, and adjacent innovation districts), talent (allowing university researchers to be involved with private-sector technology under approved and managed relationships), and innovation (using intermediary university foundations to take on business aspects of technology commercialization).

THE PAST YEAR HAS BEEN ONE OF SIGNIFICANT GROWTH FOR FREDERICK’S LIFE SCIENCE SECTOR.

We compiled a list of some of the major local expansion and success stories below.

BIOFACTURA

In February 2021, BioFactura announced a contract option activation of over $13 million by the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) as part of BioFactura’s prime contract valued at up to $67.4 million for the advanced development of a smallpox biodefense therapeutic. While smallpox was declared eradicated in 1980 by the World Health Organization after an extensive vaccination campaign, the threat of bioterrorism and/or inadvertent release remains. This product has the potential to fulfill an unmet need in preparedness, augment current medical countermeasures and guard against potential resistance.

As the U.K. looks to boost the economy after a major COVID hit—and the looming spotlight of Brexit—the government is creating a new £1 billion public-private partnership in life sciences.

British Patient Capital, the commercial arm of the U.K. government’s British Business Bank, is kickstarting the program, funneling £200 million to “specialist funds” designed to “unlock the potential of innovative U.K. life sciences companies so that they can grow their operations and create high-skilled jobs in the U.K.,” according to the government.

Image: Current Prime Minister Boris Johnson, when Mayor of London last decade, created new life sciences hubs and investment plans. (UK Pool via AP via Newscred)

Rockville, Md. —  Montgomery County, Maryland, home of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and more than 480 life sciences companies, continues its momentum as a magnet for new life sciences development with a major surge in leasing and investment. With rising demand and just 5.2% availability for the county’s existing lab space, an additional 1.6 million square feet (SF) of lab space is in development—joining the current 10.6 million SF of total lab inventory already in Montgomery County. 

Eight hospitals and health systems have opened or announced plans to establish new centers focused on healthcare innovation this year. 

Editor’s note: The innovation center launches are listed in the order they were reported. 

1. Cleveland Clinic in January said it plans to launch a new infectious disease research center through the new $500 million Cleveland Innovation District backed by the state of Ohio and JobsOhio. The health system in March also partnered with IBM to create a healthcare artificial intelligence discovery center. 

2. Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s joint biological innovation center secured $76 million and signed a lease for a new facility in Watertown, Mass., in January. 

George Mason University, the largest public research university in Virginia, has a strong tradition of conducting research of consequence, from our pioneering work in cybersecurity to developing new ways of testing for COVID-19.

Since earning our R1 designation for “very high research” from Carnegie in 2016 and joining the elite group of the 131 best U.S. research institutions, our research enterprise has grown rapidly, reaching more than $200 million in funding in 2020, an all-time high for the university.