News Archive

The Emerging Technology Center will move to a new space in East Baltimore when its lease ends this fall at the Can Company, ending months of speculation about the incubator’s future in Canton.

The ETC plans to move in October to new offices in the former King Cork and Seal Building, a 70,000-square-foot property at 101 N. Haven St. in Highlandtown, not far from Interstate 895. The ETC’s new 20,000-square-foot space is less than the 30,000 square feet of usable space it leased in Canton. The ETC, overseen by the Baltimore Development Corp., has had its office in Canton since 1999.

Maryland often has been at the forefront of innovation with a longstanding reputation for investing in science and technology to capture new opportunities for economic growth. This year’s legislative session was no different. Lawmakers backed Gov. Martin O’Malley’s proposals to support the state’s bioscience sector, expand the R&D tax credit, enhance workforce training, and promote measures to establish the state as a leader in cybersecurity.

Today, the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) and the Medical Innovation and Competitiveness Coalition (MedIC) released Patient Capital 3.0: Confronting the Crisis and Achieving the Promise of Venture-Backed Medical Innovation. The report, which is in its third release, highlights the contribution of venture capital to medical innovation and provides perspective on the current investment environment in the U.S. for life sciences.    

“Venture-backed medical innovations still provide the critical new drugs, medical devices and diagnostics that improve and save the lives of millions of Americans, but the environment for investing in these breakthroughs has become increasingly challenging,” said Jonathan Leff, Partner at Deerfield Management and Chairman of MedIC. “While the promise of science to help solve our most pressing medical problems is extraordinary, the time, cost and uncertainty involved in building start-up companies that advance fundamental medical innovations have all risen, driving some investors away from the life sciences arena in recent years. We continue to express to policymakers the importance of promoting an environment that encourages investment in medical innovation.”

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.