Attend the last DreamIt Health information sessions on Tuesday, November 5, 2013 from 6:00 pm - 7:00 pm at the Johns Hopkins Brain Science Institute and Wednesday, November 6, 2013 from 5:30 pm - 7:30 pm at the Johns Hopkins University Montgomery County Campus.

DreamIt Health is a health tech accelerator that helps startups achieve in four months what might otherwise take years to accomplish. The program has helped launch 130 IT companies to date.

DreamIt Managing Partner Elliot Menschik will present on November 5 and BioHealth Innovation’s Ethan Byler will present on November 6. These free programs will answer questions about Dreamit, and lite fare will be provided.

GrayBug LLC, a startup ophthalmic drug company spun out of Johns Hopkins University’s Wilmer Eye Institute, has hired its first full-time CEO and raised $1.5 million in new venture capital funding.

Michael O’Rourke, a veteran pharmaceutical industry executive and consultant, joined Baltimore-based GrayBug on Oct. 15. He comes to the company as it closed $1.5 million in funding from investors including the Maryland Venture Fund, the Abell Foundation and Brown Advisory, the Baltimore asset management firm.

Johns Hopkins Montgomery County Campus Executive Director Elaine Amir retired Sept. 30. On an interim basis, Leslie Ford Weber is serving as campus executive director.

Leslie knows her way around Johns Hopkins and Montgomery County. She is director of government and community affairs for Montgomery County, representing both the university and the Johns Hopkins health system in their interactions with county elected officials, businesses and other external organizations. Before joining Government and Community Affairs, Leslie held a dual role as executive vice president of the Suburban Hospital Foundation and senior vice president of Government and Community Relations for Suburban Hospital.

Type 2 diabetes is viewed as one of the biggest drivers of healthcare costs partly because of the complications that can arise from the condition. Diabetes costs in 2012, for example, reached $245 billion. One complication — hyperglycemia – can cause diabetic coma if it remains untreated. WellDoc is working on a way to predict hyperglycemia without patients needing to have continuous glucose monitoring. The plan is to add the mhealth tool to its prescription mobile app platform Bluestar, which the company is preparing to roll out.

It presented positive findings from a study of the hyperglycemia prediction tool at the Diabetes Technology meeting in San Francisco this week, according to a company statement.

Vaccine manufacturers are often criticized for investing in shots aimed at high-margin Western markets, while neglecting diseases affecting the developing world. This week, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation set up a project to spur development in neglected areas by cutting the financial risk of early research.

GlaxoSmithKline ($GSK) and Sanofi ($SNY) are the first companies to sign up to the project, called the Vaccine Discovery Partnership (VxDP). Under VxDP, the Gates Foundation will work directly with biopharma companies on projects that further its goals and span from preclinical through to Phase IIa. By providing financial support for the projects, the Gates Foundation hopes to make early-phase vaccine research a less risky proposition for the industry.

Fidelity Biosciences and REGENX Biosciences today announced the formation of Dimension Therapeutics, a gene therapy company focused on developing novel treatments for rare diseases. Dimension will focus on advancing its platform of gene therapy programs in rare diseases through clinical development, starting with lead programs in hemophilia, and building out a world-class product engine for AAV therapeutics. Dimension has completed an undisclosed Series A financing led by Fidelity Biosciences.

In conjunction with its launch, Dimension has entered into an exclusive license and collaboration with REGENX. REGENX holds exclusive rights to a portfolio of over 100 patents and patent applications pertaining to its NAV® vector technology that includes novel AAV vectors such as rAAV7, rAAV8, rAAV9, and rAAVrh10. Through its license and collaboration with REGENX, Dimension has acquired preferred access to NAV vector technology and rights in REGENX product programs in multiple rare disease indications.

The number of Maryland companies receiving venture capital increased to 26 in the 3rd quarter of 2013, doubling the number of deals in the 2nd quarter. The 26 deals totaled $140 million, according to the latest PWCMoneytree report. Nationally venture capital investment activity rose 12% in terms of dollars and 5% in the number of deals compared to the second quarter of 2013. More than half of the deals were early and seed stage deals, signaling optimism among the report's sponsors regarding "the future of innovation and the vibrancy of the startup ecosystem."

For the ninth year Kevin Plank, Founder & CEO of Under Armour, will partner with the University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business to host one of the nation's toughest business competitions. There's $115K on the line, and how does access to Kevin Plank's professional network sound? Apply by January 6, 2014. Visit our web site to learn more about Plank's story and commitment to entrepreneurship. The elegibility, timeline, prize breakdown and more is listed below. Don't miss the chance to pitch your business to Plank and other top judges.

Application Deadline: January 6, 2014

Semifinal Round: February 21, 2014 @ Under Armour Headquarters, Baltimore, MD

Final Competition: April 4, 2014 @ Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center, University of Maryland

1776, the downtown startup hub that launched earlier this year with a grant from D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray's administration, has recruited Gray staffer David Zipper to head its for-profit venture arm.

Zipper was instrumental in mustering the mayor's support behind the initiative located at 1133 15th St. NW, which combines co-working, startup education, events and mentorship under one roof and brand. 1776 has so far received some $380,000 from the District, $200,000 of which went toward the initial 15,000 square foot build-out, with the rest funding the Challenge Cup global startup competition.

James Ramsey could easily move his business to where he lives in Eastern Virginia, but Maryland is just too rich in his opinion.

He would rather drive more than three hours each way every week to a house he rents in Baltimore to keep his business in Maryland. That's because with all the neighboring colleges in the state, he thinks the talent pool is too good to pass up.

The Life Sciences Discovery Fund (LSDF) has posted a revised 2012-2013 Granting Programs Request for Proposals (RFP) at http://www.lsdfa.org/documents/pdfs/LSDF_2012-2013_Granting_Programs_RFP.pdf that includes the following important changes:

• Opportunity grant principal investigators must confer with LSDF programs staff before pre-proposal submission.
• For Opportunity grants, only co-investments that are made contemporaneously with LSDF funding are counted as leverage. LSDF does not consider past funding (i.e., monies previously committed, received, or expended) or future predictions of funding as leverage. 
• Opportunity grant pre-proposals may undergo review by LSDF-convened external expert panels prior to evaluation by the LSDF Board of Trustees. 
• Regulatory consultation expenses are allowable if they inform the conduct of the proposed research and development activities. 
• Principal investigators are encouraged to bring up to two additional individuals to the pre-proposal and full proposal interviews. 
• For-profit applicant organizations will be required to provide a certificate of existence, certificate of incorporation, or a business license with their proposals. 
• Board of Trustees award decision meeting dates have been updated. 
• If a full proposal is submitted under this RFP but not funded, the principal investigator may resubmit the full proposal without having to submit a new pre-proposal, provided that the principal investigator, applicant organization, and scope of work are the same in the resubmitted proposal as in the original proposal (as determined solely by LSDF). 
• All invitations to submit a full proposal under this RFP expire on July 23, 2013.

Federal health care reform has been catching a bit of flack the last few weeks, as health insurance exchanges continue to experience severe technical difficulties.

But it’s not all bad. At a panel Thursday on health care information technology, Carolyn Quattrocki, who leads the governor’s Office of Health Care Reform, said that companies with bright ideas about how to use technology to improve health care policies are “so critical — and becoming more critical.”

Between federal health reform, a cache of federal agency headquarters and notable health care brands like Johns Hopkins, Maryland is a prime spot for up-and-coming health IT companies. But despite a wealth of resources, M. Jason Brooke had to look hard to find the help he and his business partner needed to launch their medical device company.

To help pave a smoother path for others, Brooke and a team of other entrepreneurs have organized Maryland HealthTech Coalition. The group is designed to bring together health IT companies to share ideas, contacts and resources.

A new report released today by The Science Coalition illustrates one of the many returns on investment of federally funded scientific research: the creation of new companies. Sparking Economic Growth 2.0 highlights 100 companies that trace their roots to federally funded university research and their role in bringing transformational innovations to market, creating new jobs and contributing to economic growth. An accompanying online database provides free access to company profiles and allows users to sort companies by federal funding agency, university affiliation, type of innovation and other criteria.

The National Science Foundation has awarded collaborative grants totaling $892,587 to three universities to develop data mining tools for electronic health record systems, FierceEMR reports.

The grants were distributed to: Southern Methodist University in Dallas; University of Texas at Arlington; and University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas.

Bioscience Research & Technology Review Day is a special event that features research talks, presentations, mini-symposia, and demonstrations by university scientists. The program provides a unique opportunity for executives and professionals in industry and government to:

• Discover the most recent advances in bioscience and biotechnology at the University of Maryland 
• Promote the potential for academic-industry-government collaboration 
• Meet University scientists and interact with graduate student researchers 
• Network with colleagues who share an interest in the promotion of bioscience and the bioscience industry 
• Recruit employees and investigate job opportunities

Noble Life Sciences, a provider of preclinical research services to pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, announced that its animal facility was awarded full accreditation by the Association for Assessment and Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care (AAALAC International). AAALAC assessment and accreditation programs are designed to recognize organizations that demonstrate excellence in animal care and use.

Organizations volunteer to participate in AAALAC's program in addition to complying with local, state and federal laws that regulate use of animals in research. Accreditation was awarded following submission of a detailed program description and an in-depth review of the program and facility during an on-site visit by AAALAC representatives. In addition, Noble is currently licensed by the United States Department Of Agriculture (USDA) and meets the assurance requirements of the National Institutes of Health’s Office of Laboratory Animal Welfare (OLAW).

WellDoc(R), developers of BlueStar(TM), the first mobile prescription therapy for type 2 diabetes, today announced it will present the initial results of its hypoglycemia prediction model at the 2013 Diabetes Technology Society Meeting. The model has demonstrated the ability to predict hypoglycemia (a dangerously low blood sugar level) in patients with type 2 diabetes. By using seven days of spot blood glucose monitoring data, with about one blood glucose test per day, the WellDoc prediction model can alert for hypoglycemic events that are likely to occur within the next 24 hours. The methodology for the research will be presented during the scientific poster session at the Diabetes Technology Meeting in San Francisco on October 31.

Hypoglycemia is one of the most dangerous, costly, and difficult diabetes complications to manage. A recent study(1) of 2.4 million type 2 diabetes patients found that hypoglycemia was especially common in patients treated with insulin or sulfonylureas with costs for a hypoglycemia related hospital event averaging $10,362, regardless of a patient's drug regimen. A 2005 study(2) further reported that patients who had experienced hypoglycemia had 77 percent more disability days per year.

Online health information company WebMD has snapped up Avado, a startup that develops cloud-based software to let physicians and patients interact.

The companies declined to disclose financial information, but said Avado’s technology will be integrated under the WebMD brand and that the founders will join the company to continue developing the technology and business relationships.

For $99, genetic testing startup 23andMe will analyze your DNA, telling you how to live smarter and longer--and what disease might kill you. But there's another inner frontier to explore in personalized medicine: the bacteria in your gut.

For $89, Ubiome, a startup founded by Jessica Richman--a doctoral candidate at Oxford who did stints at Google and McKinsey after graduating from Stanford in 2009--will send you a kit that harvests the organisms that live inside your body. For additional fees, you can also gather bacteria from your mouth, nose, skin, and genitalia.

The typical university research park is 119 acres (just over 48 hectares), has seven buildings open and is located in a suburban jurisdiction with a population of 500,000 or less.

But urban-style live-work-play campuses are where they’re going, typified by Centennial Campus (affiliated with North Carolina State University), Mission Bay (affiliated with the University of California San Francisco) and the Fitzsimons Life Science District in Colorado (affiliated with the University of Colorado’s academic medical center).

Site Selection for Life Sciences Companies,” a report released this month by business intelligence firm Venture Valuation and KPMG, uses an agglomeration of other reports and proprietary data to analyze key decision factors relevant to the leading life sciences clusters in France, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, Switzerland and the UK.

Why those territories? The authors say those countries are often preferred by foreign companies seeking European or global headquarters. But depending on which factors are emphasized and how they’re weighted, any of the six might stand above the rest.

GrayBug, LLC, a company that focuses on the development of innovative injectable drug delivery systems to more effectively treat eye diseases, has announced the appointment of Michael O'Rourke as President & CEO, as well as Board Member.

"I am excited to take on this leadership role at this pivotal point in GrayBug's development," said Mr. O'Rourke. "GrayBug has developed a unique approach to offer superior treatment options to patients through proprietary sustained release drug platforms. I look forward to working with the team at GrayBug to advance our lead product for the treatment of neovascular eye diseases including wet age-related macular degeneration (wet-AMD)."

To generate its list of the top 10 U.S. regions in which to secure a biotech job, GEN adopted a straightforward methodology. It identified the regions most frequently cited in biotechnology and pharmaceutical job listings. Over the past month, GEN collected data by scrutinizing five employment websites—LinkedIn, BioSpace, Medzilla, Indeed, and Monster.

The locales with the most biopharma-related jobs include the regular suspects—San Francisco and Boston—and also up and comers like the New York metropolitan area, which has grown steadily over the last few years.

BD (Becton, Dickinson and Company) (NYSE:BDX), a leading global medical technology company, together with Direct Relief and the National Association of Community Health Centers (NACHC), today launched BD Helping Build Healthy CommunitiesSM, a four-year initiative that will expand access and improve care for underserved and vulnerable populations in the U.S. The initiative, first announced earlier this year with a founding pledge at the Clinton Health Matters Initiative, includes a BD commitment of approximately $5 million in cash and product to clinics and community health centers (CCHCs) employing innovative models of care, along with strategic support from all

This is the start of the third year teaching teams of scientists (professors and their graduate students) in the National Science Foundation Innovation Corps (I-Corps). This month we've crossed ~300 teams in the first two years through the program.

I-Corps is the accelerator that helps scientists bridge the commercialization gap between their research in their labs and wide-scale commercial adoption and use.

During his nine years working in the phar­ma­ceu­tical industry, Michael Pol­lastri learned to pro­tect his research and data with extreme cau­tion. “In the drug industry, every­thing is super secret,” said Pol­lastri, now an asso­ciate pro­fessor of chem­istry and chem­ical biology at North­eastern. “It’s the culture.”

But Pol­lastri said this secrecy model doesn’t work when it comes to curing infec­tious dis­eases such as African sleeping sick­ness and Chagas dis­ease, which affect the poorest mem­bers of the global com­mu­nity but are largely “neglected” by the industry. What’s more, “there’s not enough money going around to spend time on projects in which no one is sharing infor­ma­tion,” Pol­lastri said.

Gaithersburg-based GlycoMimetics Inc. set the terms for its upcoming IPO on Monday, planning to sell 4 million shares at between $14 and $16 apiece.

The biotech expects to list on the NASDAQ under the ticker symbol GLYC. It would be the third in an already active stretch for Maryland life sciences IPOs, following Intrexon Corp. and MacroGenics Inc. to the public markets.

DreamIt Health is a health tech accelerator that selects up to ten startups from around the world to take up residence in Baltimore, MD and achieve in four months what might otherwise take years. Attend the information session on November 6 to learn how you can be a part of the program that has launched 130 IT companies.

Nov 13, 2013 06:00pm

Join the Society of Physician Entrepreneurs and Women in Bio as we host a panel of life science leaders who will share insights from their experience commercializing technology. The discussion facilitated by Lynn Johnson Langer, PhD, MBA, Director, Enterprise & Regulatory Science Programs, Johns Hopkins University will cover:

• licensing strategies for patents;
• marketing strategies;
• fee structure and standards of care;
• regulatory challenges;
• stories of success and failure.

With mHealth becoming the norm instead of the exception, a panel at Partners HealthCare's 10th Annual Connected Health Symposium last week concluded that EHR vendors will have to find a way to modify their products to focus on data that the patient and his or her care team want, or they'll become obsolete.

Important information for a patient's care actually exists outside the electronic medical record, panelists said.

Cybersecurity companies in Montgomery County will be eligible for tax credits starting next year as part of the county’s mission to become a national hub for companies that sell cybersecurity products to the private sector.

The Washington region is emerging as a hotbed for the cybersecurity industry, in part because of its proximity to federal agencies, the military and government contractors.

The National Institutes of Health aims to boost healthcare technology and science through 15 Institutional Clinical and Translational Science Awards. Total amount of the awards is $79 million in 2013.

The awards will be used to help translate basic discoveries into new treatments that tangibly improve human health requires innovative collaborations and resources, as well as a diverse, highly-trained workforce,” NIH officials said in announcing the awards on Oct. 22.

Crowdfunding moved closer to becoming a reality for small businesses Wednesday morning when the Securities and Exchange Commission proposed rules that will govern how shares in small companies are sold through Internet intermediaries.

The SEC took only 50 minutes to unanimously approve the proposed rules, which were issued more than 560 days after the JOBS Act, the law that legalized the use of crowdfunding for equity investments, was signed by President Barack Obama.

Towson University is getting more serious about entrepreneurship on campus, and Frank Bonsal III will play a big role in that new focus.

Bonsal has served as interim director for TowsonGlobal, the university's business incubator, since June. Earlier this month, he became the university's first director of entreprene