News Archive

I was manning a booth at the Harvard Club of New York’s authors’ night when an older woman approached and picked up a copy of my book, Reinventing You. She paged through it for a moment, then put it down. “Too late for me,” she said abruptly, and walked away.

Over the past six months of my book tour, it’s a question I’ve heard often. Isn’t professional reinvention just for young people? What if I’m too old? How can I spend years training for something new, when I’m already near retirement? It’s true: reinvention is different later in your career. But that doesn’t mean it’s impossible.

GlaxoSmithKline Plc (GSK) (GSK.L) said on Monday it plans to raise its stake in its Indian pharmaceutical unit to up to 75 percent from 50.7 percent through an open offer in a deal worth about 629 million pounds ($1.02 billion).

With the latest India deal, GSK is set to spend close to $2 billion in roughly a year to increase its holdings in two listed Indian companies, underscoring the British drugmaker’s drive to deepen its footprint in emerging markets.

The Fort, one of the first startup accelerators in the D.C. area, may be closing its physical doors, but according to Jonathon Perrelli, managing director of Fortify Ventures, it will live on in a blog and in spirit at 1776.  

“There’s a confusion that The Fort and Fortify Ventures are synonymous,” Perrelli explains. They aren’t. “We believe in accelerators,” he says, “and we want to support early-stage companies.” He and the team just don’t want to run an accelerator anymore.

The following is an email sent by James P Gavigan, PhD, Head of the Science, Technology and Education Section, Delegation of the European Union to the United States of America regrading the Launch of Horizon 2020.

Dear All,

Please note that the EU’s new program to fund research and innovation activities from 2014-2020 – Horizon 2020 – was officially launched on 11 December 2013 with a first tranche of funding of Euros 7.8 billion being made available for calls for proposals in 2014 out of a total of almost 80 billion for the seven year period.

I enclose herewith the Press Release and an accompanying Memo announcing the launch:

http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-13-1232_en.htm

http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_MEMO-13-1122_en.htm

I would also like to draw your attention to the new Horizon 2020 web portal which is the unique access point for all information on the program – its content, structure, how to participate, etc.:

http://ec.europa.eu/programmes/horizon2020/

Spring Capital Partners has completed fundraising for a $175 million fund that will invest in small to midsize companies.

The fund is the third — and largest — the Baltimore firm has raised since launching in 1999. Its first in 2000 raised $75 million. The second in 2006 raised $115 million.

Spring’s new fund will buy minority stakes in companies with $10 million to $150 million in revenue. Its investments will not be confined to specific industries, but will span a wide range of companies. Earlier investments have included manufacturers, information technology firms government contractors and software companies.

Being able to learn marketable digital skills is sluggish and difficult — or so they say.

Adda Birnir noticed a gender divide between a media company’s business and technical side (read: men) versus the editorial side (read: women). She created online tech education platform Skillcrush to give women a way to learn marketable skills that could lead to steady, high-paying jobs and relevant, satisfying work.

When something like three in four venture-backed startups fail, picking the ones that won’t is definitely not an easy feat.

In search of what they call the “unicorn VCs” of healthcare – investors who have consistently invested in companies with the biggest of the big exits  – analysts at research firm CB Insights combed through a decade of healthcare M&A data. They found 50 medical device and biotech companies that exited, through IPO or acquisition, with valuations of at least $500 million between 2004 and 2013.

MedImmune announced on Wednesday a $6.5 million research partnership with Johns Hopkins University, marking the second academic collaboration inked by the Gaithersburg biotech in recent months.

The agreement, which spans five years, will center on projects in oncology, infectious disease, antibody discovery and protein engineering, as well as respiration, inflammation and autoimmunity.

Rockville-based biodefense company Emergent BioSolutions, taking steps to move deeper into the commercial drugmaking world, is paying $222 million to buy Cangene Corp., a Canadian firm, according to the Washington Post.

Emergent emerged as a key biodefense company following the Sept. 11 attacks, when it sold Anthrax vaccines to the U.S. government.

GlaxoSmithKline is to invest another 200 million pounds ($330 million) on advanced manufacturing in Britain, the company said on Wednesday, underlining the draw of a tax break designed to encourage research and development.

Britain’s so-called “patent box” scheme, which offers a reduced rate of corporation tax on income derived from patents, has been hailed by GSK, its biggest drugmaker, for transforming the country as a place to invest.