News Archive

I wanted to share some data with you that illustrates the strength of Montgomery County’s business community: total employment in the County grew by nearly 25,000 jobs – from 631,000 jobs in 2010 to 655,800 jobs in 2012! This is impressive given the economic climate and shows the resiliency and fortitude of our local businesses – large and small.

The top job gaining sector was professional, scientific and technical services, which added almost 5,300 jobs beteen 2010 and 2012.  The other top growing sectors were government, retail trade and health care and social assistance, each adding over 3,000 jobs during the three year period.

What if you could create a biotech startup focused on treating a rare disease, with a drug candidate already in hand, and high odds of success in clinical trials?

That’s the concept that crystallized in former MedImmune executive David Mott’s mind through decades of experience in the life sciences sector. The idea ultimately led him to start a Cambridge, MA-based biotech incubator called Cydan. This new organization, formally announced this month, has been staffed with a hand-picked squad of specialists tasked with churning out a lineup of small companies that make drugs for orphan diseases.

Emergent BioSolutions Inc. (NYSE: EBS) announced today that it has entered into an asset purchase agreement to acquire the Healthcare Protective Products Division (HPPD) of Bracco Diagnostics Inc. in an all-cash transaction that includes payment of $26.0 million upon closing. The acquisition will diversify and expand Emergent’s biodefense franchise by adding product sales from HPPD’s marketed chemical countermeasure, RSDL (Reactive Skin Decontamination Lotion). The acquisition offers Emergent an opportunity to leverage its core capabilities in manufacturing, government contracting, government sales, and product distribution as it looks to substantially expand sales of RSDL in the attractive and growing chemical countermeasure market.

“This acquisition directly supports our ongoing growth plan, which includes acquiring revenue generating, profitable products and businesses that address the needs of U.S. and allied foreign governments across the CBRN spectrum,” stated Daniel J. Abdun-Nabi, president and chief executive officer of Emergent BioSolutions. “Our relationships, combined with those of HPPD, with the U.S. Government and foreign ministries of defense, as well as worldwide distributor relationships addressing first responder markets, should enable us to grow revenues from RSDL and to expand and enhance Emergent’s leadership position as a premier supplier of CBRN countermeasures.”

MedImmune has acquired Ann Arbor-based AlphaCore Pharma, creating another exit for a local up-and-coming start-up.

MedImmune, the global biologics research and development arm of AstraZeneca, has not disclosed the acquisition price nor its intentions on whether to keep the start-up in Tree Town. Tracy Rossin, director of corporate public relations for MedImmune, did write in an email that the company does “not have plans to expand its operations/workforce in Ann Arbor.” She does add that her firm is “planning to incorporate AlphaCore Pharma into the larger AstraZeneca organization.”

The purpose of the NHLBI SBIR Phase IIB Bridge Award is to facilitate and accelerate the capital-intensive steps that are required to transition SBIR Phase II projects to the commercialization stage by promoting partnerships between SBIR Phase II awardees and third-party investors and/or strategic partners. The Bridge Award encourages business relationships between applicant small business concerns and third-party investors/strategic partners who can provide substantial financing to help accelerate the commercialization of promising new products and technologies that were initiated with SBIR funding. In particular, applicants are expected to leverage their previous SBIR support, as well as the opportunity to compete for additional funding through the NHLBI Bridge Award program, to attract and negotiate third-party financing needed to advance a product or technology toward commercialization. The applicant’s ability to secure independent third-party investor funds that equal or exceed the total amount of the NHLBI funds being requested over the entire Bridge Award project period will help to validate the commercial potential that is essential for the SBIR projects solicited under the Bridge Award program. It is anticipated that many of the partnerships between small businesses and third-party investors will involve a considerable level of project due diligence by the private sector, thereby increasing the likelihood of commercial success for the funded projects. In light of these goals, the NHLBI strongly encourages applicants to establish business relationships with investors, strategic partners or both that have appropriate prior experience in commercializing emerging biomedical technologies.

In these changing times, the concept of Open Innovation is one that we at AstraZeneca have fully embraced.

By sharing new ideas and enabling scientific innovation to cross boundaries between companies, academia, government and non-profit organizations, we can accelerate new ideas into innovative medicines.

An Open Innovation discussion at BIO

I will discuss the importance that AstraZeneca places on Open Innovation today at this year’s BIO International Convention. An interactive session will include a panel discussion and presentations of cases studies of notable Open Innovation success stories.

Holding the keys to the future of health care and medicine is not something many children dream of doing.

But Bahija Jallal, executive vice president of AstraZeneca’s (AZN) biologics arm, MedImmune, knew from a very young age that was the career she was destined for.

The University of Maryland has signed an agreement for a student-exchange program with the University of Jordan that will boost research and the flow of students between College Park and the Middle East country’s largest and oldest university.

The announcement of the pact by University of Maryland President Wallace D. Loh comes as a delegation led by Gov. Martin O’Malley visits Jordan on the first leg of an eight-day trip to Jordan and Israel.

A doctor might ask for a patient’s family disease history, or exercise or smoking habits, but whether they have trouble getting food onto the table or paying energy bills is unlikely to appear on any clinic questionnaire.

Those sorts of factors could have just as much, if not more, of an impact on a person’s everyday health, argue the founders of a startup out of the Johns Hopkins University. Their company, Healthify, is giving clinics that serve largely low-income populations the means to gather and use that information.

The Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) is pleased to announce the election of Rachel King, President and CEO, GlycoMimetics, Inc, as the new Chair of its Board of Directors for the 2013-2014 term, and the election of David Pyott, Chairman, President, & CEO, Allergan, Inc., as its new Board Secretary. BIO also is pleased to announce the re-election of Mark Skaletsky, Chairman & CEO, Fenway Pharmaceuticals, Inc., as Board Treasurer, and the election of 19 Directors to serve on BIO’s Board Executive Committee for the new term. In addition, BIO welcomes the election of eight new members to its Board of Directors, voted upon at this year’s 2013 BIO International Convention.

“Rachel King brings a depth of industry experience and passion for advocacy that will serve BIO and its members well,” said Jim Greenwood, BIO President & CEO. “I look forward to working closely with Rachel and our newly-constituted Board of Directors in the years to come.”