Biohealth Innovation
While technology is no silver bullet able to solve all that ails the healthcare industry, it has always been part and parcel of any revolution.
Think of the printing revolution and its influence of the Protestant Reformation that forever created a breach in the Catholic church.
Immunomic Therapeutics, Inc. (ITI), a privately-held, Maryland-based biotechnology company, announces that C. Eric Winzer, M.B.A., currently serving Immunomic as Chief Financial Officer, will join the Board of Directors.
“Mr. Winzer’s keen financial expertise and broad industry experience will be a valuable addition to the Immunomic Board of Directors,” announced Immunomic CEO, Dr. William Hearl. “The Board has appreciated his prior contribution to our meetings and we are pleased to formally add him to this important advisory team.”
The Inova Health System have launched Inova Strategic Investments and the Inova Personalized Health Accelerator. Inova Strategic Investments will invest in healthcare venture funds as well as make direct investments in companies. IPHA will accept six to eight companies per year, providing education and funding. Hooks Johnston and Peter Jobse have been named managing directors of these new Inova vehicles.
Nearly half of the U.S. states and the District of Columbia saw a 10 percent or greater increase in higher education R&D expenditures from FY 2010 to FY 2015 with five of those states (Connecticut, Georgia, Massachusetts, Nebraska, and Utah) seeing at least a 20 percent change, according to the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Higher Education Research and Development (HERD) survey for 2015. Between FY10-15 overall U.S. research and development (R&D) spending at U.S. universities grew 12.1 percent, from about $61.2 billion to $68.7 billion.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo proposed a new initiative this week to grow the life science research cluster throughout the state, pledging $550 million through a variety of programs including tax incentives, state capital grants, and investment capital with an expected match of $100 million from private sector partnerships for operating support.
Looking for the world's best university startups! $1,500,000 in PRIZES 42 Startup Teams will be invited to compete in front of hundreds of investors, mentors, and partners to help launch their startups!
Competition Dates: April 6-8, 2017 – Rice University, Houston, Texas
Apply Now: Deadline: Friday, February 10, 2017
After a national search, Mike Psarouthakis has been selected as the new director of the U-M Tech Transfer Venture Center. The Venture Center is responsible for helping to identify, develop and launch new startups based on U-M technologies, and works alongside licensing, legal and marketing specialists within U-M Tech Transfer.
Genomenon Inc., a DNA interpretation software company launched from the University of Michigan in FY 2015, recently announced the completion of its extended seed financing of $1.8 million. The financing will fuel the completion and launch of Genomenon’s initial product, Mastermind, a novel analytic and visualization tool for DNA variant interpretation. Investors included two University of Michigan funds, as well as the Michigan Angel Fund and an angel group formed by Rehmann owners.
Nineteen. That’s the number of new drugs approved by the FDA thus far in 2016. With just over two weeks to go, there is little hope for a stellar year like 2015, which yielded 45 approvals.
What gives?
In their bid to host the 2024 Olympics, Washington business leaders plotted a transformation of the region into a more accessible, economically powerful and inclusive place, one that would glisten on the world athletic stage.
State boundaries matter for all sorts of reasons. The state you live in determined how much your vote counted in the 2016 election. It shapes what kind of benefits your employer might offer you, what taxes you pay, what kind of schools you can attend, and much more.
A group of 17 high-powered CEOs led by Russ Ramsey, Ted Leonsis and Peter Scher are forming a new organization aimed at spurring economic growth in the often disconnected region spanning from Baltimore to D.C. to Richmond.
The Greater Washington Partnership will focus on improving infrastructure, transit and workforce development and better branding what has become known as a "megaregion” or “super region” as a hub for business and innovation.
The Inova Health System today announced the official launch of Inova Strategic Investments (ISI), and the Inova Personalized Health Accelerator (IPHA). Hooks Johnston and Pete Jobse have been named managing directors. The fund is designed to raise the standard for affordable, high quality health care at Inova and in our region in an industry undergoing dramatic transformation.
Seeking Emerging International Business Leaders to Join the EDGE Program
We are now accepting applications for the next class of the Emerging and Developing Global Executives (EDGE) Program. The inaugural program was a great success (hear from the Bowe Fellows in their own words), and this year's group is off to a great start.
Bowe Fellows are a diverse group of globally minded leaders from the Baltimore area who have had significant career trajectories, generally with 10+ years of business experience. They are currently in or transitioning to roles in international operations and possess future growth potential within their companies.
An update on the Cancer Moonshot Initiative and more at the 11th PMWC 2017 Silicon Valley with 250+ speakers and 50+ sessions
While its creation was only announced earlier this year, with Vice President Joe Biden at the helm instilling hope and calling for action, the Cancer Moonshot may shockingly be nearing its end, as we know it. Uncertainties overshadow the future of this initiative as the White House Cancer Task Force is expected to exist in its current configuration only until the end of the Obama Administration, January 20, 2017.
Inova Health System is launching a new venture capital arm, bringing on investment veterans Hooks Johnston and Pete Jobse to help expand the system's reach into health innovation while earning financial returns. Officials plan to make a formal announcement later on Tuesday.
A startup dream has been realized, while an old pharma company tries to turn a new leaf.
On Monday, 60-year-old Purdue Pharma announced a strategic partnership with Exicure, a 2009 startup that could pull as much as $790 million and royalties if its drug candidates succeed.
The term “company DNA” is sometimes used as a shorthand for an organization’s culture and strategy — a metaphor for what makes it unique. But there may be more to the metaphor. Understanding your company’s DNA can help you know what you can and can’t do, and how to achieve agility and authenticity in a changing world.
The starting point for achieving value in any health care system is to measure outcomes. Although this can present leadership challenges related to shifting strategy, culture and operations, it certainly isn’t rocket science. There are hundreds of provider organizations the world over that have already implemented outcomes measurement, and this number increases every week. Regardless, many providers still believe that measuring outcomes is too difficult to do.
The University of Maryland (UMD) today announced the appointment of Julie Lenzer as Associate Vice President for Economic Development, effective December 12, 2016. Lenzer will also serve as Director of UM Ventures – College Park in the UMD Division of Research.
Lenzer is an award-winning software entrepreneur, ecosystem builder, investor, and educator with a foundation in innovation-based economic development.
Funding and Research Opportunities
The following funding opportunity announcements from the NHLBI or other components of the National Institutes of Health, might be of interest:
Notices:
The one thing venture capitalists and the medtech industry don’t want you to know is that innovation can sometimes be used as a manipulation to evade the law.
The industry can sometimes, even knowingly, be deceptive in three very specific ways. These are: lie to government agencies, underreport adverse events, blame the employees and consumer (victims). My goal as a federal whistleblower is to explain how these at times carefully crafted lies impacts each of you.
It was a huge year for Marriott International Inc., as it closed on its acquisition of Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide.
And that meant it was also a huge year for Marriott CEO Arne Sorenson.
The rise of diabetes is causing avoidable deaths and imposing substantial costs on ailing healthcare systems. Alarmed, lawmakers are attempting to improve prevention and get the emerging pandemic under control.
Diabetes is a growing healthcare challenge and one of the four priority noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), also known as chronic diseases, targeted for urgent action by world leaders.
Cancer Research: 5 Reasons You Should Apply
Immunomic Therapeutics is committed to providing a workplace that bolsters scientific ideas. The Cancer Discovery Incubator will enable and accelerate beginning ventures with the capacity for measurable change in oncology health. The goal is to empower the beneficiary to conduct proof-of-concept experiments and ultimately, attract funding, partnerships, and fuel growth.
Walking around San Francisco’s Union Square during biotech conference season in January—during this time of industry prosperity—you might expect it to be crawling with brainy young people. You might expect hot startups to come from students and postdocs, like in the tech industry, with VCs scrambling to get in on the ground floor.
The Trump administration will have an opportunity to reevaluate policies that affect innovation and technological development. How can federal policies promote broadband buildout, spur investment in intelligent infrastructure, encourage research and development, and advance a host of other actions that have the potential to improve productivity and the U.S. economy? Join ITIF and the Technology Policy Institute to discuss how the Trump administration can accelerate the pace of innovation in the U.S. economy.
With CoapTech, Steven Tropello and Howard Carolan are working on new technology for replacing patients’ feeding tubes.
The approach, called Percutaneous Ultrasound Gastrostomy, or PUG, utilizes a device with magnets that doctors can use to guide a feeding tube into place. It also features an ultrasound that allows doctors to see what is happening inside the body as the tube as it goes to the stomach, and identify the safest site for the tube to be placed.
It’s hard to get excited about a biotech shared-space in 2016.
Four years ago, it was an exciting and rapidly diversifying field. Now incubators are par for the course, with most Big Pharma and many institutions operating their own version.
Mass Innovation Labs was late to the game, opening in May 2015. But it is clearly doing something different.
Honoring those who see past the present to define the future
The future is not granted. It is born from the imagination of entrepreneurs. If you are a successful entrepreneur or have been inspired by an enterprising trailblazer, we’d like you to submit a nomination to the EY Entrepreneur Of The Year® 2017 program.
About the Entrepreneur Of The Year Program
Since 1986, EY has celebrated the accomplishments of thousands of entrepreneurs who have shaped the way we live, work and play. We recognize and honor these inspiring individuals through the Entrepreneur Of The Year.
Over three decades, the program has grown to span more than 145 cities, in more than 60 countries, and now boasts a roster of nearly 10,000 visionary trailblazers here in the US.
Despite a recent tapering of year-on-year growth, the global market for prescription drugs is forecast to reach $1.5 trillion per year by 2021, a 33 percent increase from 2016.
That’s according to a new report by the QuintilesIMS Institute, the research arm of the healthcare informatics company QuintilesIMS.
Ascension Ventures (AV) has finalized its latest strategic venture capital fund at $255 million. This fourth fund for AV, CHV IV, L.P., brings the firm’s total assets under management to more than $800 million. The new fund is backed by 13 health system partners, which enable AV to continue to add value to its portfolio companies while simultaneously delivering financial and strategic returns to the partners.
A defining moment in modern biology occurred on July 24, 1978, when biotechnology pioneer Robert Swanson, who had recently co-founded Genentech, brought two young scientists to dinner with Thomas Perkins, the legendary venture capitalist. As they stood outside Perkins’s magnificent mansion in Marin County, with its swimming pool and garden and a view of the Golden Gate Bridge, Swanson turned to his two young colleagues and said, “This is what we’re all working for.”
Inova announced today that Milton L. Brown, MD, PhD, has joined Inova where he will serve as director of the new Inova Center for Drug Discovery and Development and as deputy director for Drug Discovery for the Inova Schar Cancer Institute (ISCI). Dr. Brown is a physician scientist who has expertise in the design, synthesis, and evaluation of new drugs and is one of only a handful of physician scientists in the United States who hold a PhD in synthetic chemistry and an MD. He comes to Inova from Georgetown University Medical Center where he was founding director of the Drug Discovery Program (DDP).
Lingering for more than two years, the revamped 21st Century Cures bill, unveiled in late November, has now been approved by the House and Senate and President Barack Obama has said he will sign it.
The 996-page bill includes major tweaks to the way in which the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulates drugs, devices and biologics, while providing the agency with $500 million over 10 years to implement provisions that seek to move such products to patients more quickly, while maintaining the same standard for safety and effectiveness that the agency has adhered to in the past.