Dominick Murray has been unanimously confirmed by the Senate Executive Nominations Committee to be the next head of the state's economic development office.

Murray is scheduled to be sworn in to the role of secretary of the Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development by Gov. Martin O'Malley on Feb. 21.

Innovate Health Tech NYC invites software and hardware developers and other innovators living or working in New York City to create new commercially viable technologies that solve urgent health care problems. Individuals, teams, and companies with 10 or fewer employes can compete, and will be required to demonstrate a functioning prototype of a pre-commercial technology in their submission. Technologies may include, but are not limited to, healthcare analytics tools, clinical workflow management tools, mobile health applications, and wireless health monitoring devices. Contestants are encouraged, but not required, to address healthcare priority areas identified by New York City.

PILOT Health Tech NYC is an exciting new program which provides funding of up to $100,000 each to 10 innovative pilot projects to take place in New York City. The program seeks to match early-stage healthcare technology companies ('innovators') with key NYC healthcare service organizations or individuals ('hosts'), including hospitals, physician clinics, payors, pharma companies, and nursing associations. Each pilot project will be focused on addressing defined needs of the healthcare industry and testing a technology prototype in a healthcare setting for a period of approximately 3-6 months.

United Therapeutics Corporation announced today that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has acknowledged the resubmission of the new drug application (NDA) for treprostinil diolamine extended release tablets (oral treprostinil) for the treatment of pulmonary arterial hypertension. The FDA classified the resubmission as a complete, class 1 response to FDA's October 23, 2012 complete response letter and the FDA set a user fee goal date of March 31, 2013.

Diagnostic products maker Qiagen NV said Wednesday that it will work with Eli Lilly and Co. to develop new tests that could identify patients who could be helped by Lilly's drugs.

The companies did not disclose terms of the new collaboration, but described it as a "broad" partnership that will cover "all therapeutic areas."

A piece in Forbes this week calls attention to a recent trend in technology commercialization at universities: the use of crowdfunding.

The article focused on a collaboration between the University of Utah’s Technology Commercialization Office and the crowdfunding site RocketHub, which resulted in the University Tech Vault, a portal specifically for projects that come out of the university.

As Valentine’s Day approaches the occasion begs the question: what does it take for two companies in the biopharmaceutical industry to merge? Of all the things that could come between them, how do a biotech startup and suitable partner find each other in this crazy, mixed up world?

Like any good marriage, the reasons that bring a couple together span of a good merger is more than meets the eye. The companies involved share similar goals and work hard to ensure the union endures. But there are all sorts of things That was the gist of an insightful panel discussion at the BIO CEO conference in New York. Among the panelists were: Michael Margolis, a managing director with ROTH Capital Partners, Effie Toshav, partner with Fenwick & West H.Thomas Watkins, former president and CEO of Human Genome Sciences until it was acquired by GlaxoSmithKline, Michael Gilman, a senior vice president at Biogen Idec and Corrine Epperly, the director of strategy, alliances and transactions at Bristol Myers-Squibb (NYSE: BMS)

The Cambridge Innovation Center, a longtime fixture of the Boston-area startup scene, is expanding its entrepreneur-friendly office space business to new cities—just as it continues to build a larger footprint in its hometown.

The CIC, which rents office space and related services to more than 500 companies in seven floors of a building near MIT, has been advertising for a general manager at a new Baltimore location. And CEO Tim Rowe says that’s not the only place the CIC is eyeing for a possible expansion.

The Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development said 71 startups that entered its InvestMaryland Challenge have been selected from more than 250 applications to advance to the competition's next round.

Eventually, three companies will win $100,000 and a chance to pitch their business to potential investors.The $100,000 prizes will be awarded in three categories: life sciences, information technology and general business.

For years, U.S. life-sciences startups have sought to avoid some of the problems in their industry–including a scarcity of investment funding and a sometimes-daunting regulatory process–by raising funding or commercializing overseas.

Nowadays, foreign organizations and governments are the ones making the overtures, hoping that American life-sciences companies can create jobs and stimulate the life-sciences industries in their countries.

Emergent BioSolutions Inc. (NYSE: EBS) announced today that a member of the company’s senior management team will provide a corporate overview presentation at the Cowen and Company 33rd Annual Health Care Conference in Boston on Monday, March 4, 2013 at 3:30PM Eastern.

A webcast of this presentation will be available both live and by replay, accessible from the Emergent website www.emergentbiosolutions.com under “Investors”.

The steady departure of pharmaceutical industry jobs in recent years has helped other states, but hurt the standing of the nation’s medicine chest. As more companies take root in far-flung locations, the New Jersey and New York City region has dropped significantly in the national ranking of life sciences markets, according to a recent report on commercial real estate.

Last year, the region slipped to seventh place among metropolitan life sciences clusters from second place in 2011, according to the latest annual report from Jones Lang LaSalle, the commercial real estate firm. The reasons cited for the slide: ongoing consolidation following big mergers and the simultaneous efforts among such cities as San Diego to offer competitive environments.

The National Cancer Institute (NCI) Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program has announced $10M in funding for up to 10 new awards in FY2013.

The Phase IIB Bridge Award is designed to support the next stage of development for promising NIH-funded SBIR Phase II projects in the areas of cancer therapeutics, imaging technologies, diagnostics and prognostics, or interventional devices.

This chart shows the pharmaceutical companies with the most branded drugs.

The companies with the most drugs are Watson Labs, Hospira, Sandoz, Baxter Hlthcare,Mylan, Teva, B Braun, Roxane, Novartis, and Ivax Sub Teva Pharms.

A University of Maryland, College Park fundraising campaign that began in 2006 has reached its goal of $1 billion.

It was the largest fundraising drive ever undertaken by a public institution in the Washington and Baltimore region and the largest campaign of any public university in Maryland.

The school said it raised $1.008 billion from nearly 130 million individuals, companies and foundations, including 125,000 alumni.

We all know that venture capitalists help entrepreneurs create and grow great companies. Those great companies create jobs and improve our standard of living. Yet what many don’t realize is that the traditional venture industry is consolidating.

Washington area private firms, such as New Enterprise Associates, Grotech, New Atlantic Ventures and Novak Biddle, that raise money from third-party investors are becoming fewer and farther between, with just over 500 such firms in the U.S. last year. Yet, our country’s most promising start-ups continue to get funded in part because of the rise of corporate venture capital.

Startup Maryland (www.startupmd.org), a state-wide initiative FOR Entrepreneurs…BY Entrepreneurs, today announced a partnership with CoFoundersLab (www.cofounderslab.com) to provide the Maryland entrepreneur community with a free way to find a co-founder/business partner.  To meet this need Startup Maryland and CoFoundersLab combined efforts and brands to develop a TeamFinder portal – which is also unveiled today as a new Resource at: http://startupmd.org/buildmyteam/  

The branded TeamFinder portal is the first component of Startup Maryland’s Connection initiative.  Connection joins Celebration, Coaching and Capital as four primary Areas of Concentration for Startup Maryland throughout 2013 and beyond.  These four guiding initiatives were officially announced last week at a White House reception during which Startup Maryland highlighted past successes and future plans for Presidential advisors and officials from several government agencies.

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.

As hospitals work to boost their efficiency and the quality of care they deliver, many are finding they need new ways to go about finding and creating solutions to their post-Affordable Care Act challenges. They’re also looking for new revenue streams.

With that in mind, one California health system put up $40 million to seed an independent, for-profit company that will help commercialize ideas that come from physicians and staff members while also feeding them promising new technologies and concepts from the outside.

The next event in Tech Transfer Speaker Series will be taking place on February 13, 2013 in the William E. Hanna, Jr. Innovation Center (9700 Great Seneca Highway Rockville, Maryland 20850).

TEDCO has undergone a number of changes over the past two years. These changes have resulted in a variety of new programs and changes to old programs. The talk will provide an overview of TEDCO's new programs, including its affinity funds, and where TEDCO is headed as a funding organization.

Speaker:
Stephen Auvil is the senior vice president for technology transfer and commercialization at the Maryland Technology Development Corporation (TEDCO). In this role, he is responsible for overseeing TEDCO's funding programs.

Whether you are a budding life science entrepreneur or potential investor, this event should be of interest to you. Multiple speakers explain how to acquire funding from Venture Capitalists and other investors.

AGENDA:

6:00 PM- 6:30 PM Registration and Networking and Life Sciences Speed Dating (Refreshments Served)

6:30 PM – 6:45 PM Dr. Jeffrey Hausfeld--Welcoming Remarks and Society of Physician Entrepreneurs Introduction

6:45 PM - 8:00 PM "Show Me the Money!" presentation followed by Q & A

After its outstanding success in Boston in 2012, AdvaMed 2013: The MedTech Conference is back in our nation's capital, Washington, DC. AdvaMed 2013 is the leading MedTech Conference in North America, bringing more than 1,000 companies together in a uniquely multifaceted environment for business development, capital formation, innovative technology showcasing, world-class educational opportunities and networking. This must-attend event for the MedTech industry will be held September 23 - 25 at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center. Please visit www.advamed2013.com for more information on the MedTech Conference.

This infographic from DrugPatentWatch shows that Sanofi Aventis, Merck, and GlaxoSmithKline face the most patent expirations this year. Perhaps not surprisingly, GlaxoSmithKline and Sanofi Aventis are also among the firms with the most drug patents.

Blue Button Plus (Automated and Interoperable Blue Button) can provide a technology path for startups and innovators to build new products and services to help Americans with their health. But beyond, technology startups and small businesses have to think about practical matters like funding. What are ways that the federal government is trying to help health startups, particularly health tech startups, develop and commercialize businesses?

The Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program is a federally-funded program encourages domestic small businesses to engage in Federal Research/Research and Development (R/R&D) that has the potential for commercialization. Through a competitive awards-based program, SBIR enables small businesses to explore their technological potential and provides the incentive to profit from its commercialization. By including qualified small businesses in the nation’s R&D arena, high-tech innovation is stimulated and the United States gains entrepreneurial spirit as it meets its specific research and development needs.

Drug-resistant bacteria are a growing problem at hospitals across the country. The bacteria, such as Staphylococcus and Clostridium difficile, are difficult to prevent and impossible to treat.

"The problem is expanding, and it's going up and up and up," explains Dr. Trish Perl of Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. "We're running out of antibiotics to treat, and so the challenge is can we prevent?"

Personalized medicine was supposed to be the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. It was going to be the payoff our society would see after investing in the Human Genome Project and so much other biomedical research. While most people on the street can’t say what it means, anybody can understand the standard definition on Wikipedia. It’s about “the customization of healthcare, with decisions and practices being tailored to the individual patient by use of genetic or other information.”

But just as the concept started gaining impressive momentum last year, a movement is afoot to redefine it under a new banner of “Precision Medicine.”