University of Baltimore is getting a new digital communication program, courtesy of a $1 million donation from Go Daddy founder and UB alum Bob Parsons.

The gift will establish a new professorship in digital communication and support on-campus and online lectures by Parsons.

The drug discovery business is going through tough times. Drug candidates aren't moving through the pharmaceutical industry's pipelines fast enough. Meanwhile, entrepreneurs struggle to get the funding they need to bring their new ideas to fruition. These issues are driving new alliances and partnerships between academic researchers, venture capitalists, and big pharma, but whether the new models will solve the problem was a question on the minds of many of the 15,000 attendees at this week's BIO International Convention in Boston.

The themes are familiar: venture capitalists are limiting their investments in biotech, in part because it's hard for fledgling life-science companies to go public, and although big pharma is desperate for innovative ideas and depends heavily on small biotechs for new drug candidates, these larger companies don't want to take on risky, early-stage projects. The new alliances, some of which involve direct collaborations between pharmaceutical companies and academics, are a response to what one panelist called this "crisis."

At least 68 “big” deals — investments of at least $2 million — have been done in digital health so far in 2012, according to a new report by the healthcare accelerator Rock Health. Nineteen states were in on the action.

Not so surprising, California lead the way in both the number of deals done and the overall investment. And traditional healthcare investing strongholds like Massachusetts were among those that did the most deals. But there were lesser known regions involved as well that invested significant dollars and did a notable number of deals, namely Texas, Illinois, Georgia and Connecticut.

Here’s a list of every region that did digital health deals so far this year.

At least 68 digital health companies have raised $2 million or more so far this year for a total of $675 million in digital health investments, according to a new report by healthcare accelerator Rock Health.

Look closer, though. Five companies accounted for nearly 40 percent of those total dollars.

It’s clear that patient shopping tools and home health technologies are where the big bets are going. Here’s the breakdown of the Big 5 deals.

US biotechnology firm Human Genome Sciences (HGS) has set a deadline of 16 July 2012 for offers to acquire the company, but has failed to tempt GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) into the process.

HGS has undertaken the strategic alternative review to sound out potential buyers who now have until the deadline to submit definitive proposals to purchase all outstanding common shares in the company.

The company adopted the strategy immediately after GSK made its offer to acquire HGS, valuing the company at $2.6bn.

The entrepreneur support and advocacy group founded this spring will crisscross the state on a two-and-a-half-week bus tour in September. The trip starts Sept. 11 with a trek to Ocean City and is scheduled to wrap up Sept. 28 in Howard County after canvassing the rest of the state.

At stops along the way, Startup Maryland will roll out the first round of its business pitch competition. Organizers said they are still working out how much prize money will be distributed and how it will be divvied up.

Four new Entrepreneurs In Residence (EIRs) have joined the BioGenerator, a nonprofit subsidiary of BioSTL, to create, lead, and support new bioscience companies St. Louis. The EIRs will work with existing start-up companies across the region to further their growth and with researchers and entrepreneurs to launch new enterprises.

In just the last two years, BioGenerator’s new programs for pre-seed funding (Spark Fund and i6 Project) and shared laboratory facilities (Accelerator Labs), along with its historical seed funding program, have supported the creation of 17 new bioscience companies in St. Louis, validating the rich supply of bioscience innovation locally. These new EIRs will help to advance the growth of existing companies and assist in the creation of additional regional startups.

Maryland’s biotechs continued to leave their mark on the industry at this week’s global convention in Boston, with several executives claiming prominent board positions and a new report showing the state outpacing national growth in life science employment.

More than 15,000 executives and others were expected at this year’s Biotechnology Industry Organization International Convention, which started Monday and ended Thursday. More than 31 state companies sought the world’s attention at the Bio Maryland 2012 pavillion, which the state also had at last year’s convention in Washington, D.C.

The Johns Hopkins Center for Biotechnology Education (CBE) welcomed more than 20 academicians onto campus last weekend for the 1st Annual International Bioentrepreneurship Education Conference (BEC). During the one-day event, bioentrepreneurship education leaders from as far away as South Africa, South Wales, Sweden and Denmark – as well as a number of stateside leaders – met to share information and assess where bioentrepreneurship education currently stands.

One of the biggest takeaways: Similar to entrepreneurs, academic leaders are concerned about funding resources. In the case of academia, the concern was identifying resources that can help support these exciting, and in many cases, new programs.

On the last full day of the BIO Convention, Tom Watkins, President and CEO of Human Genome Sciences and Chairman of the Board for BIO, reviewed the major policy advocacy activities of BIO over the past year at the Keynote luncheon session.

BIO has advocated for expedited approval of biosimilars in the passage of the Biosimilars User Fees act (BsUFA), and has been working to ensure policy changes that enhance transparency and help minimize review times FDA approvals are included in the fifth renewal of the Prescription Drug User Fee Act (PDUFA) which is anticipated to pass later this year.

The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, in collaboration with the Johns Hopkins Health System (together known as Johns Hopkins Medicine, or JHM), has been awarded a $19.9 million grant by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), over a three-year period, to improve the quality and efficiency of health care delivered to JHM patients.

The grant is part of CMS’s $1 billion Healthcare Innovation Challenge, a competitive initiative that seeks to identify and support innovative opportunities to improve care delivery and achieve its three-part aim of “improving the individual experience of care, improving the health of populations, and reducing the per capita costs of care for populations.”

Tesaro, a biotech focused on the treatment of chemotherapy-induced symptoms, announced terms for its IPO on Tuesday. The Waltham, MA-based company plans to raise $81 million by offering 6.0 million shares at a price range of $12 to $15. At the midpoint of the proposed range, Tesaro would command a market value of $360 million.

The company's lead product candidate, rolapitant, is in Phase 3 trials, the results of which are expected in the 2H13. No revenue has been generated to date. Venture capital firms New Enterprise Associates, InterWest Partners and Kleiner Perkins will hold 39%, 10% and 7% post-IPO stakes, respectively. Certain undisclosed insiders have expressed an interest in purchasing approximately $25 million of stock in connection with the offering.

Maryland’s economic development office has formed a partnership with a Paris region to team on disease research and translational medicine.

The letter of intent for the partnership was signed Wednesday at the Bio 2012 International Convention in Boston by Christian Johansson, secretary of the Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development, and Paris Medicen Del. Gen. Francois Chevillard. The Paris Medicen region is considered a life sciences hub in France’s capital city.

Trying to meet the future work force where it is, some Maryland biotech executives are backing a unique strategy to help market an educational video game to students.

A version of one game, developed by Hunt Valley gaming company BreakAway Ltd., is being previewed at the annual Biotechnology Industry Organization International Convention this week in Boston. The MdBio Foundation, an affiliate of the Tech Council of Maryland, will offer the game to science teachers free of charge beginning next year, with help from financial partners.

The Economic Alliance of Greater Baltimore (EAGB) announced today that it has completed a formal agreement to serve as Greater Baltimore's primary business partner with BioHealth Innovation (BHI), Maryland's private-public collaborative that focuses on commercializing market-relevant bio health innovations and increasing access to early-stage funding in central Maryland.

BHI is the first regionally focused innovation intermediary created to connect the university and hospital bio health research strengths of Baltimore with the bioscience industry and federal laboratory strengths of Montgomery County.

Two new companies are moving in to the University of Maryland    BioPark, university officials said Tuesday.

Biogen Diagnostics Ltd., based in the United Kingdom, has opened a satellite office at the BioPark. Global Scientific Solutions for Health Inc., a new laboratory testing company that operates in southeast Asia and Africa, has set up its headquarters there.

The 12-acre west side BioPark houses life sciences companies that work with University of Maryland researchers. BioPark leaders said they want to attract international companies to broaden the reach of the university’s research and the BioPark’s development beyond the Baltimore region.

Maryland bioscience executives, along with county and state officials, are in Boston this week to sell the state’s potential to the world’s biotech industry.

With more than 15,000 expected at this year’s Biotechnology Industry Organization International Convention, which started Monday and runs through Friday, the state wants to make a strong showing through its Bio Maryland 2012 pavillion. Last year’s convention was staged in Washington, D.C.

Emergent BioSolutions, the Rockville biotech that sells the only approved anthrax vaccine to the federal government, has won a $220 million grant to establish a new biodefense development and manufacturing center in Maryland.

The Center for Innovation in Advanced Development and Manufacturing is designed to develop a range of medical countermeasures to biological, radiological and nuclear threats. It also will ensure the capability to produce vaccines for pandemic influenza and provide work force development programs for federal needs, according to a company statement.

Rockville-based Emergent BioSolutions Inc.    has formed a public-private partnership with the Department of Health and Human Services to establish a Center for Innovation in Advanced Development and Manufacturing.

The contract has an initial run of eight years worth $220 million with up to 17 additional one-year options. The partnership, with HHS’s Biomedial Advanced Research and Development Authority, will initially develop a new pandemic influenza vaccine and construct facilities to produce it.

6th Street Commerce, an innovative E-commerce solutions provider to the retail industry, today announced that the company was selected Maryland Incubator Company of the Year Award for the Information Technology category the evening of June 14, 2012.

Sponsored by The Maryland Technology Development Corporation (TEDCO), RSM McGladrey, Maryland Department of Business & Economic Development (Maryland DBED), and Saul Ewing LLP, the 2012 Maryland Incubator Company of the Year Awards are chosen in several categories by a selection committee of regional industry leaders and early-stage investors. The finalists for the 2012 ICOY Awards come from all over the state and represent a diverse cross-section of technologies and services. Award recipients benefit from publicity and gain greater credibility in the business, technology, and investment communities.

The Johns Hopkins University (JHU), America’s first research university, in Baltimore, Md., USA, and the Fraunhofer Heinrich Hertz Institute (HHI), a mobile and information technology development leader based in Berlin, Germany, have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to jointly research the innovative medical applications of integrated optical sensors: small, highly sensitive devices with disease-recognition capabilities.

Under the terms of this agreement — signed on June 19 at the 2012 BIO International Convention in Boston, Mass., USA — the two entities will study how the technology developed by HHI can be used in the detection, diagnosis and treatment of medical conditions. Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine researchers with clinical expertise in a variety of specialty areas, including oncology and infectious diseases, will collaborate with HHI’s scientists and engineers.

The recipients of 81 new Health Care Innovation Awards were announced last week by U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius.

The Health Care Innovation Awards program, created through the Affordable Care Act, is setting out to fund projects that test new payment and service delivery models while delivering high-quality care and lowering costs.

Combined with the 26 awards announced last month, HHS has distributed money to 107 projects that plan to save the healthcare system an estimated $1.9 billion over the next three years.

Each year, the University of Maryland business development team looks forward to spending three days in early summer at arguably the most significant annual event for the life sciences industry: the BIO International Convention. Held this year in Boston, the convention brings together industry executives with corporate and academic scientists in an ideal forum for networking and marketing within the biotech industry.

The audience is ideal for the work of the university, the BioPark and the state. One of our primary objectives as attendees and exhibitors is to market the pipeline of UM bioscience technologies available for licensing. Over the course of the convention, one-on-one partnering sessions will allow our tech transfer team to conduct as many as 20 key meetings to market therapeutics; vaccines; drug targets in oncology, neurodegenerative disorders, autoimmune disorders, infectious disease; and devices. We’ll also engage with existing bioscience and pharma partners to promote and expand funding of research and clinical trial contracts with UM’s bioscience faculty and clinicians. Our final focus will be marketing the BioPark as an ideal location for bioscience companies and promoting the Park’s existing base of nearly two dozen bioscience companies. Several existing tenant companies, including Paragon Biosciences, SNBL, Vigilant Bioservices, Gliknik and Ablitech will join us at the show.

The Maryland Venture Fund Authority along with the Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development (DBED) hosted a free public forum on InvestMaryland - a state sponsored initiative to invest in the Maryland's start-up and early stage companies. The forum, held on the Johns Hopkins University Rockville campus, drew more than 200 entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and other stakeholders for presentations led by the Venture Fund Authority and DBED on the implementation plan for the program, as well as how to apply for funding and other State funding resources.

"There is a tremendous amount of excitement and interest by entrepreneurs as well as the venture capital community in InvestMaryland, which has the potential to create thousands of jobs over the next 10 years and position our State as a leader in science, security, health, discovery and information technology," said DBED Secretary Christian S. Johansson. "As we get ready to make our first investments, it was critical to host this Forum to educate and inform our stakeholders on how they can benefit from what is the largest venture capital investment in our State's history."

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius on Friday announced the recipients of 81 new Health Care Innovation Awards made possible by Affordable Care Act. The awards will support innovative projects nationwide designed to deliver high-quality medical care, enhance the health care workforce, and save money.

Combined with the 26 awards announced last month, HHS has distributed money to 107 projects that plan  to save the healthcare system an estimated $1.9 billion over the next three years.?

The Department of Health and Human Services has named Brian Sivak as the department’s next chief technology officer, according to Federal News Radio.

Sivak, currently chief innovation officer for Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley and the former chief technology officer for the District of Columbia, will join HHS next month and also serve as tech entrepreneur-in-residence.

NCATS at the NIH has released two RFAs on Discovering New Therapeutic Uses for Existing Molecules (UH2/UH3).  Applications are due on December 17, 2012.  

The National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) seeks to develop a therapeutics discovery pilot program that will explore new therapeutic uses for proprietary drug candidates (Agents) across a broad range of human diseases. This innovative program will match Agents and associated data from pharmaceutical company partners with the best ideas for new therapeutic uses from the biomedical research community.

Biotech drugmaker Human Genome Sciences Inc. is giving all bidders until July 16 to submit their final buyout offers and appealed to GlaxoSmithKline PLC to participate even though its prior bid was rejected.

The Rockville, Md.-based company said Friday that it is committed to exploring its strategic options.

Human Genome rejected the British pharmaceutical giant's $13 per share offer last month, saying it was inadequate. At that time the company also adopted a "poison pill" shareholder rights plan in order to ward off any unsolicited takeover bids.

The Montgomery County Department of Economic Development will host a press event highlighting the nation’s first local biotech investment incentive program, initiated by Montgomery County government, the role local biotech entrepreneurs, many from County-based federal labs like NIH and FDA, play in the success of the sector and a new, regional, industry-sector led intermediary created to bolster technology transfer into commercial success during the BIO International Convention in Boston.

WHEN: Tuesday, June 19, 2012 from 3:00-4:30pm EDT.

WHERE: The Boston Convention and Exhibition Center, MA - Maryland Pavilion

WHAT: Press event featuring: MedImmune CEO Peter Greenleaf discussing the growth and success of that company in Montgomery County and that company’s leading role in supporting the newly formed BioHealth Innovation, Inc. (BHI) - an industry-lead biotech intermediary; Human Genome Sciences CEO Tom Watkins discussing the growth and success of that company in Montgomery County and the supportive local government and innovative initiatives and policies that support the sector; Montgomery County Executive Isiah Leggett discussing the success of the County’s local biotech investment incentive program and BHI Board Chair Scott Carmer, Executive Vice President, Commercial Operations for MedImmune and BHI CEO Rich Bendis discussing the early initiatives and successes of that new regional entity in bolstering the success of the region’s biotech sector.

Maryland officials are preparing to dole out the first investments of the $84 million InvestMaryland program this summer, but they must first whittle down a list of 37 venture capital firm applicants to about half a dozen.

The funding will essentially make the state a limited partner in five to eight VC firms, which will be tasked with routing the funds back into Maryland tech and biotech startups in a traditional VC role. A list of recommended firms is due to be released later this month.

The University System of Maryland is about to adopt a new policy to formally give credit in tenure and promotion decisions for faculty work that leads to patents and other intellectual property applied in technology transfer.

The new policy, slated for final Board of Regents approval on June 23, is part of the system's broader push to promote the commercialization of academic research.

Maryland institutions receive a lot of research money but have been "very run of the mill" when it comes to transforming that research into useful products and services, said William E. (Brit) Kirwan, chancellor of the system, in an interview on Wednesday. "The culture of commercializing intellectual property just hasn't existed in Maryland."

In response to the declining state of science education in America, MdBio Foundation, Inc. today announced it will provide science teachers and students nationwide with an innovative and immersive educational video game platform free of charge beginning in 2013. The online platform, called MdBioSphere(TM), seeks to advance student comprehension in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) and revitalize student interest in science-related careers through the use of innovative gaming technology. The serious game is being developed by Hunt Valley, Md.-based BreakAway, Ltd., and will be previewed at the BIO International Convention (June 18-21, 2012, Booth 0753 in the Maryland Pavilion) in Boston.

"The Foundation believes that creating a globally-competitive U.S. workforce begins in the classroom," said J.J. Finkelstein, chairman of the MdBio Foundation. "The MdBioSphere platform, which will be the first serious game platform to be mapped to the new U.S. science education standards, can be a breakthrough application that helps inspire the next generation of scientists that America needs if we are to compete in the 21st century. The MdBioSphere platform merges the captivating elements of online gaming with educationally-driven STEM curricula to deliver an exciting classroom experience that enriches both students and teachers."

Today, in two of the world’s top medical journals, scientists are publishing the results of a $173 million government-funded project to sequence the vast bulk of bacteria, fungi, and viruses in and on the human body.

The results might at first seem anticlimactic. There’s no news about which germs cause or prevent disease, or even a clear message about how they make people different from one another. What we know is there are a lot of them. We have ten times as many microbial cells in our body as human ones, and though they are tiny, that still means that a 200-pound man is carrying two to six pounds of microbes, mostly bacteria. And there are tantalizing hints that they might play a role in all sorts of diseases. Patients who are at risk for difficult-to-treat hospital infections might have a particular kind of bacteria in their digestive systems; those who are obese might have another; children who can’t get enough nutrition might have a third.