News Archive

Patrick O’Shea, Vice President for Research at University of Maryland, urges Congress to protect research students and ensure america’s future by stoping the sequester.

Startup Maryland (www.startupmd.org), a state-wide initiative for Entrepreneurs … by Entrepreneurs, will be recognized today during a White House briefing that corresponds with the two-year anniversary of the Startup America Partnership, a national entrepreneurship initiative in which Startup Maryland is a leading region.

Startup Maryland co-chairs Julie Lenzer Kirk and Michael Binko will join officials from Startup America, entrepreneurs from other high-performing regions, as well as Region Champions from three startups that represent the rich diversity of Maryland’s innovation economy:

• Brian Murphy, founder/CEO of Smith Island Baking Co. (http://smithislandcake.com)
• David Troy, CEO of 410Labs Inc. (http://www.410labs.com/#products)
• Johnny Shockley, Co-founder, Hooper’s Island Oyster Aquaculture Co., (www.cgoysters.com)

The University of Maryland, College Park (UMCP) was recently named as the 5th “Best Value in Public Colleges” by Kiplinger, trailing only the College of William and Mary, the University of Florida, the University of Virginia and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Maryland was ranked 5th for in-state students and 10th for out-of-state.

The annual Kiplinger study bases its ranking on a combination of financial factors, including total cost-per-year and cost after need-based aid for in-state students, total cost-per-year and cost after need-based aid for out-of-state students and average debt at graduation. Kiplinger also factors in the schools’ admission rates and four-year-graduation rates.

US venture capital (VC) funding in the life sciences sector, which includes the Biotechnology and Medical Device industries, dropped 14 percent in dollars and 7 percent in deals during 2012 according to a new PwC US report, “Double-digit dip” that includes data from the MoneyTree™ Report from PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP and the National Venture Capital Association based on data provided by Thomson Reuters.  Venture capitalists invested a total of $6.6 billion in 779 Life Sciences deals during the year, compared with $7.7 billion in 836 deals during 2011. The number of Life Sciences companies receiving VC funding for the first time reached the lowest level since 1995 with only 135 companies receiving funding in 2012.

Compared to the prior quarter, Life Sciences venture funding rose 11 percent in Q4 2012 to $1.9 billion. Deal volume also increased, rising 12 percent to 187 deals compared to the prior quarter.

GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), the British pharmaceutical company, reported lackluster fourth quarter earnings for 2012 this morning, with a 3.5% drop in revenue. But the company’s performance would have been much worse if it hadn’t successfully avoided a looming threat that every brand-name pharmaceutical maker faces from time to time: the end of a patent on a blockbuster drug.

GSK’s Advair inhaler (called Seretide in most of Europe and India)—used to treat asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease—lost its patent at the end of 2010. Ordinarily, a cheaper, generic version of a patented drug comes out shortly after the patent expires, and the generic quickly eats away at the marketshare and revenue of its branded progenitor. But Advair still brings $8 bln in sales to GSK, making it the third highest grossing drug worldwide. The only other off-patent pharmaceutical in the top ten is Lipitor, used for treating high cholesterol, which earned its maker, Pfizer, less than half as much in 2012 as it did in 2011, the year its patent expired (in spite of Pfizer’s unprecedented campaign to keep Lipitor a top-seller by strategically slashing prices).

Congressman Michael Honda (D., Calif.), who has been representing Silicon Valley in the U.S. House of Representatives for the past 12 years, recently submitted a bill asking for Congress to create and fund a new office at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which would be called the Office of Wireless Health.

The office would be tasked with regulating the growing number of mobile, wireless health gadgets and applications, which have been proliferating wildly since the start of the smartphone craze.

Julie Lenzer Kirk, Executive Director of the Howard County Economic Development Authority’s Maryland Center for Entrepreneurship and Co-Chair of Startup Maryland, will brief White House officials during an event intended to celebrate entrepreneurship and the Startup America Partnership. The briefing, by invitation only, will be held at 3 p.m., February 5 at the White House.

The Startup Maryland team was invited to share how their efforts have developed over the past year, as well as highlight the group’s themes and areas of concentration for the future. As one of the most active state-based regions over the past year, Startup Maryland has attracted more than 500 startup participants in the eight months since officially launching. In addition to Kirk, other Maryland participants include Startup Maryland Co-Chair and CEO of kloudtrack®, Mike Binko; Brian Murphy, founder/CEO of Smith Island Baking Co.; David Troy, CEO of 410Labs, Inc; and Johnny Shockley, Cofounder of Hooper’s Island Oyster Aquaculture Co.

Clinical stage biopharmaceutical company Catabasis Pharmaceuticicals Inc. has pulled in an $8.7 million round of funding, according to federal documents.

This is the not the first investment round for the Cambridge, Mass-based company which is focused on the development of treatments for metabolic and inflammatory diseases. In 2010, the company closed a $48 million Series A financing backed by SV Life Sciences, Clarus Ventures, MedImmune Ventures and Advanced Technology Ventures. In December 2011, the company received an $8 million Series A extension.

There’s a special place in NIH’s heart for SBIR research to develop drugs, medical devices and other products that require FDA approval. For these capital intensive products where time horizons for market entry are long, many NIH institutes offer extra millions and extra years of SBIR grant support after Phase II ends.

For most institutes, SBIR Phase IIB Competing Renewal grants are the vehicle for giving extra money. At NCI and NHLBI, Bridge grants do the same thing.