Through a career spanning three decades and counting, Douglas Liu has managed various operations for life sciences companies in Boston, Chicago, Europe and Montgomery County. He has been involved with numerous organizations in the field, including the Tech Council of Maryland and the Governor's International Advisory Council.

Such wide experience is a key reason he was recently chosen as board chairman of BioHealth Innovation, a Rockville-based public-private nonprofit that helps commercialize innovative ideas in the field and expand those companies. The partnership formed about two years ago after it was among the recommendations of the Montgomery County Biosciences Task Force.

BHI CEO Rich Bendis recently served as an expert panelist contributing to a special report from the "White House Lab-to-Market Inter-Agency Summit." Panelists examined the U.S. federal government's investment in drug R&D and the resulting private sector commercialization. According to the Summit report:

Federal research has done exceedingly well at accomplishing its original intent, which is to increase human knowledge, meet mission needs, and undertake high-risk research of long-term importance to the U.S. economy that is beyond the reach of the private sector. But commercialization of resulting discoveries from agency research has largely been an after-thought, despite clear Congressional and Presidential intent expressed through a series of legislative mandates and Executive Orders. While research to meet agency missions is critical, the members of the Panel believe that if the U.S. is to remain globally competitive in the 21st century, it must accelerate the translation of federally-funded R&D into commercial outcomes that create economic and public value, thus maximizing the return on the public dollars invested.

Read more at:
Increasing the Impact of Federally-Funded R&D

National Brain Tumor Society’s inaugural event draws over 100 brain tumor researchers, biopharma executives, government officials, and venture capital investors

National Brain Tumor Society, the largest nonprofit in the United States dedicated to the brain tumor community, recently hosted the inaugural Advancing Research to Therapies (ART) for Brain Tumors Conference in Washington, D.C. The ART Conference brought together more than 100 leading experts from academic research labs, government agencies, biotech and pharmaceutical companies, and venture capital firms to increase communication and collaboration, as well as discuss licensing and investment criteria for new drug candidates to speed the discovery of new treatments for brain tumor patients.

BioHealth Innovation, Inc., (BHI) a non-profit organization which strives to facilitate the development of commercially viable health IT products and companies by connecting market relevant research assets to appropriate funding, management and markets, is seeking interns as part of the BHI Internship Program.

POSITION DESCRIPTION – BHI Intern

BioHealth Innovation, Inc. (BHI), a regional private-public partnership focusing on commercializing market-relevant biohealth innovations and increasing access to early-stage funding in Central Maryland, is seeking highly motivated and dynamic individuals to fill internship positions at the Rockville, MD headquarters.  The BHI Internship Program offers essential experience for IT, Business, and Biohealth students in the region.  By offering a variety of projects and responsibilities to students, BHI aims to prepare interns for professional careers in the business, life sciences, healthcare and IT industries.

BioHealth Innovation is working to assist relevant SBIR projects through its Commercial Relevance Program for the August 5th, 2013 NIH SBIR Deadline.

If your company is planning a submission for the August 5 deadline, BioHealth Innovation can assist with your submission. Through the BHI Commercial Relevance Program for SBIR/STTR projects select companies submit their federal funding concepts and receive pre-proposal feedback to help strengthen your application. Further support from BHI’s network of professional consultants and service providers is available to assist in improving your application. If you’re are planning a submission for the August 5 deadline contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. for details on possible support from BHI.

NIH SBIR Phase I Program

1. Companies to complete brief application describing the proposed SBIR project apply by June 18th
2. All companies notified of SBIR assistance by June 26th
3. Guidance, writing strategy, direction, and review sessions to be schedule to enable you through grant submission
4. Feedback and redlined comments on written drafts and proposals materials as well as final submission assistance

ROCKVILLE, MARYLAND, June 4, 2013 – BioHealth Innovation, Inc. (BHI), a regional private-public partnership focusing on commercializing market-relevant biohealth innovations and increasing access to early-stage funding in Central Maryland, is proud to announce the publication of the Central Maryland BioHealth Entrepreneur's Resource and Finance Guide 2013. The Guide was developed by BHI, the Economic Alliance of Greater Baltimore and the Montgomery County Department of Economic Development, in collaboration with the Baltimore Business Journal.

The Guide serves as a compendium of resources to biohealth innovators and entrepreneurs working to start and grow new companies and technologies in the region. This essential entrepreneurial resource includes a compilation of information on financial resources, university facilities and programs, economic development programs, and existing federal laboratory facilities and programs, as well as how to work with these assets. The Guide is one of the many projects BHI is developing to successfully transform the regional environment for biohealth startups through harnessing Central Maryland's biohealth assets and establishing an entrepreneurial ecosystem.

The Guide has been distributed through the Baltimore and Washington business journal subscribers, and is being distributed to all regional partners. For your copy of the guide please download here or contact BioHealth Innovation for details on how to receive a hard copy.

Download the Central Maryland BioHealth Entrepreneur's Resource and Finance Guide

BioHeaIth Innovation aims to transform Central Maryland into a commercialization hub by building an entrepreneurial ecosystem using the research, funding, networks and business development resources available in the region.

The market for Health Information Technology concepts and new products are moving at a rapid pace. Since the signing of the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH) by President Obama in 2009 that allocated $36 billion to aid investments in healthcare IT and spurring new initiatives like the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) the environment and funding available to test new products significantly escalated.

Fast forward four years—there remains to be enormous untapped market opportunity with many new products being brought to fruition and highly innovative new concepts under development by the private and public sectors.

Maryland, a significant center of the health care industry nationally and home to the National Institutes of Health, Food and Drug Administration, Johns Hopkins University, the University System of Maryland, and a robust private sector has emerging opportunities within the Health IT industry sector from telemedicine and remote monitoring to electronic medical records and mobile health.

The Montgomery County Department of Economic Development and our partner, BioHealth Innovation, Inc., invite you to visit us at Booth 1423, the Maryland Pavilion, during the BIO International Convention in Chicago, April 22 - 25.

Nearly 50 Montgomery County biotech companies, organizations, or public sector entities will attend. Twenty-six Maryland organizations, companies or public-sector entities will be represented in the Maryland Pavilion, Booth 1423, including the following from Montgomery County:

Time-reversal techniques for optimizing broadband communication networks and rapid prototyping of microfluidics devices were among the Clark School of Engineering inventions recognized as the most promising new technologies at the University of Maryland Invention of the Year Awards.

The University of Maryland’s Office of Technology Commercialization (OTC) hosted the 26th Annual Invention of the Year Awards reception on Tuesday, April 16, 2013 from 4:30-6:00 pm at the University of Maryland Golf Course Club House.

On the evening of April 15 as part of the InvestMaryland Challenge Award ceremony held at MICA in Baltimore, BHI presented three awards to local companies. Boss Medical LLC of Baltimore, ConverGene LLC of Gaithersburg, and Vasoptic Medical LLC of Columbia were selected for the awards based upon their high quality products under development, which have good possibility for securing federal funding with support and assistance. Each award – valued at $2,500 – consists of consulting services from BHI on Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) or federal funding proposals. The SBIR program is designed to support small businesses in commercializing their technological research efforts.

For more information contact Ethan Byler.

Date: Wednesday, May 8th, 2013 9:30am-5:00pm

Location: Morgan, Lewis & Bockius Conference Center, 1111 Pennsylvania Ave., NW Washington, DC 20004-2541

National Brain Tumor Society is bringing together brain tumor researchers and industry executives to discuss how to move research from bench to bedside.

• Biophrama executives and VC investors will share their criteria for investment and licensing of academic research.
• Panelists include:
  
  • Lauren Abrey
    Global Development Team Lead, Genetech/Roche
  • Neil Exter
    Partner, Third Rock
  • Brian Gallagher
    Partner, SROne
  • Michael Glutch
    Managing Director, Medimmune Ventures
  • Perry Nisen
    Senior VP of Science Transactions, Pfizer
• Nation Brain Tumor Society-funded researchers will present brain tumor drug candidates ready for early stage investment and/or licensing.

On April 2, BHI invited a team of NIH Office of Technology Transfer interns working with BHI EIR Todd Chappell for a Social Meeting. Also in attendance were two guest speakers. Bart Kus, Senior Manager of Portfolio Management MedImmune, spoke about his career track from the lab into business development. Errol Levy, EU Diplomat (Research and Innovation Counsellor) for the European Commission talked about opportunities in Europe and the upcoming Destination Europe Conference on April 11 in DC. It was a great event for all who attended.

Growlers was “abuzz” on March 20 with a large and diverse gathering of biotech professionals attending the monthly BioBuzz networking event. BHI CEO Rich Bendis welcomed the crowd and talked about the latest happenings at BHI. According to Andrew Eckert, “We received a lot of positive feedback on the location and found a number of folks were interested in speaking to somebody from BHI. I’m pretty confident this was one of the largest, if not THE largest turnout ever for a BioBuzz event.”

BioBuzz is working to build a stronger community by bringing the biotech workforce out of the labs to culture relationships, instead of just cells.

Biopharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca announced today it plans to create a research and development center in Gaithersburg, adding 300 jobs at MedImmune’s current location.

MedImmune’s director of corporate public relations, Tracy Rossin, said no new buildings are planned at this point. Biotech company MedImmune, which is owned by AstraZeneca, currently houses AstraZeneca’s biologics programs, geared toward the creation of vaccines and medications.

Aronson’s Technology Industry Services Group is partnering with Rich Bendis and BioHealth Innovation (BHI) to help transform Central Maryland into a leading biohealth entrepreneurial and commercialization region.

“The central Maryland region is home to research organizations, government agencies, universities and companies with extensive biohealth experience and capabilities,” remarked Alan Langelli, Senior Manager in Aronson’s Technology Industry Services Group.  He continued, “Aronson is very excited about the opportunity to partner with BHI and support its goal of helping Central Maryland become a leading biohealth entrepreneurial and commercialization region.”

The Economic Alliance of Greater Baltimore (EAGB) and BioHealth Innovation (BHI) in collaboration with the Baltimore Business Journal are proud to announce the publication of the Central Maryland BioHealth Entrepreneur’s Resource and Financing Guide.

This Guide will be a compendium of resources to BioHealth innovators and entrepreneurs working to start and grow new companies in the region. A wealth of resources exists in Maryland to support emerging BioHealth companies, however, they are not always readily accessible or captured in one place. The Guide will compile information on financial resources, university facilities and programs, economic development programs, and existing federal laboratory facilities and programs and how to work with them.

BioHealth Innovation, Inc. (BHI), a regional private-public partnership focusing on commercializing market-relevant biohealth innovations and increasing access to early-stage funding in Central Maryland, announced today the formation of its Commercial Relevance Advisory Board (CRAB). Members of the CRAB represent diverse business and academic organizations from throughout the region, such as venture capital firm New Enterprise Associates, Ernst & Young, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the University of Maryland (UMD), Johns Hopkins University, and leading biotechnology companies.

The CRAB will assist BHI in evaluating market-relevant research and product development opportunities as well as help determine the commercial applicability of emerging entrepreneurs, companies and their science or technology. BHI will utilize feedback from CRAB members as part of its due diligence process for establishing formal client relationships and potentially future investments.

The young Leiden-based biotech company Mimetas has closed an agreement with a regional development company from the state of Maryland, USA. Biohealth Innovation Inc., in which regional governments, universities and companies collaborate, will assist in setting up a US branch to find customers and business partners for Mimetas in the USA.

Richard Bendis will be a speaker at the South by Southwest (SXSW) Conference which takes place from March 8-17 in Austin, Texas. SXSW is a set of film, interactive, and music festivals which occur every year in March. Mr. Bendis will be speaking on March 9th at a session titled "Entrepreneurs in Residence: Not Just for VCs." In his presentation, Richard will introduce the BioHealth Innovation, Inc. EIR program and speak about some of the commercialization challenges being addressed creatively by the biohealth community in Maryland.

Richard Bendis will speak at the Translational Research Forum during the 2013 BIO International Convention in Chicago. During the forum, speakers will address issues with current translational research models, explore new funding and collaboration opportunities, evaluate how to apply them to federal, academic, and private institutions. The session will take place Monday, April 22, from 4:35 p.m. – 5:25 p.m.

More Information

BioHealth Innovation, Inc. (BHI), a regional private-public partnership focusing on commercializing market-relevant biohealth innovations and increasing access to early-stage funding in Central Maryland, announced today the appointment of GenVec, Inc. President and Chief Executive Officer Cynthia L. Collins to its Board of Directors. BHI also announced that BHI Founding Board Member Jerry Parrott, formerly with Human Genome Sciences, has stepped down from his board seat but will continue to remain active on BHI's Commercial Relevance Advisory Board.

"Cindy's addition to the BHI Board of Directors provides us with access to and perspective from another talented biopharma leader from this region," said Scott Carmer, BioHealth Innovation, Inc. Chairman of the Board and Executive Vice President of Commercial Operations at MedImmune. "Her tremendous depth and breadth of experience across the industry, particularly with regard to diagnostics as well as therapeutic areas ranging from antivirals to oncology, will be an asset to the companies we work with who are seeking to commercialize biohealth innovations.

Lets collaborate on building a vibrant biotech (or any other) community! Nice chestnut, but how does one design a community that functions across industries, geographies, support organizations, academic institutions and federal labs, each with very different missions and views of their (and others’) roles? How do you find a shared vision for these variant groups, one that drives growth for the greater region and doesn’t cause the players for fight over each opportunity as if it is the last scrap of possibility we’ll see? How do you prevent such a vision from becoming another dusty whitepaper, where behaviors weren’t aligned to make it happen?  I had a chance to discuss how such a collaboration should be designed with Rich Bendis, President & CEO of BioHealth Innovation (BHI), an organization which spans from Rockville to Baltimore.

In partnership with BHI, the SBIR Resource Center(R) is offering a daylong seminar on How To Win SBIR Awards(SM) - at all federal agencies - with a primary emphasis on the National Institutes of Health (NIH). This event incorporates ALL of the necessary strategic planning, persuasive proposal writing, project planning/management and Federal project cost-accounting strategies to make your application successful. Walk away with a deep understanding of what it takes to win and an ability to customize SBIR/STTR win strategies for specific projects. Get equipped to evoke positive responses in SBIR/STTR proposal evaluators (very different from all other programs).

WHEN: Tuesday, 5 March 2013, 8:30am – 6:00pm (45 min. lunch break)

WHERE: Rockville Economic Development, Inc.95 Monroe Street - Rockville, MD 20850
(short walk from Rockville Metro Sta.)
301-315-8096 (location phone)

REGISTRATION: or call 410-315-8101 OR email the This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.; Class limited to 18-20 participants

TUITION: $325 ($375 after February 25) -- satisfaction assured or tuition is returned

DISCOUNT: BioHealth Innovation may underwrite $175 of the tuition for select biohealth companies through its Commercial Relevance Program.
To inquire about the discount, Contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

In this newsletter we proudly present the new Chairman of the Advisory Board: Richard Bendis.

With his expertise on innovation strategy The Technopolicy Network intends to strengthen
its position as the global leading network on Science Based Regional Development and Science Based Incubation. In his article he will give you several insights in the opportunities that lie ahead of us.

This is the time to pay tribute to the achievements of our founding Chairman, Prof. Roger Stough. With his advice and support Prof. Stough made The Technopolicy Network to what it now is. In his article he looks back on the growth of The Technopolicy Network over the past decade.

On January 24th, 2013 BioHealth Innovation, Inc. (BHI) recognized Jerry Parrott, formerly with Human Genome Sciences, for his contributions as a BHI Founding Board member. He served on the board from 2011 to 2013 and will continue to remain active on BHI's Commercial Relevance Advisory Board (CRAB). We thank Jerry for his service and look forward to a long lasting relationship.

BioHealth Innovation Inc., a nonprofit that seeks to commercialize technology in the biotech and healthcare fields, could open an accelerator for health information technology startups this year.

Co-located in Rockville and in Baltimore, BioHealth wants the accelerator to serve entrepreneurs and small businesses in central Maryland. Upon board approval, the organization plans to identify a location by the first quarter of this year and have it operational by the fourth quarter.  

“We are evaluating it. We believe there is a need for one. We know there is interest,” BioHealth President and CEO Richard Bendis says. 

MIMETAS is a Dutch microfluidics company focusing on high-throughput organ-on-a-chip systems for predictive toxicology testing, efficacy screening and personalized therapy.

BHI will support MIMETAS by assisting in establishing a MIMETAS US-based subsidiary, aiding in the application for US- and Maryland-based grants (e.g. SBIR, TEDCO), and identifying potential collaborators and partnerships.

This partnership is important in further expanding Maryland's connections internationally and expanding Maryland's biohealth sector.

On December 19th, 2012, BioHealth Innovation, Inc. hosted an appreciation event for the 30+ commercialization consultants that are working closely with BHI's Entrepreneur-in-Residence Todd Chappell at the NIH Office of Technology Transfer to identify novel research and technologies. With the help of these consultants, Todd has been able to identify a multitude of interesting endeavors which BHI will now help push to the next stage of commercialization. We hope that the coming year will bring even more opportunities for post-docs to work closely with BHI in shaping the future of Maryland's biotechnology industry!

Income from invention royalties at the University of Minnesota and University of Iowa has plummeted faster the past two years than at all but a handful of U.S. research institutions, an analysis of royalties data shows.

Of universities that earned more than $2 million in royalties in 2009, the University of Minnesota saw the biggest drop in revenue over the next two years, Association of University Technology Managers data show.

Minnesota lost $75 million in licensing revenue from 2009 to 2011. An expiring anti-AIDS drug patent dropped its income last year to $10 million. Iowa's royalties plummeted from $43 million in 2009 to $6 million last year, also because of a single expired drug patent.

Dust off your business plan and sharpen up your elevator pitch. The deadline for the InvestMaryland Challenge is just a month away.

The Department of Business and Economic Development had received 95 entries for the business competition as of noon Wednesday.

The Challenge will award three $100,000 prizes to the top companies in life sciences, information technology and an open, general category.

On November 19, 2012, members of a Korean delegation from Chungbuk Technopark visited BioHealth Innovation (BHI). Central to the visit was an introduction to Chungbuk Technopark, a non-profit government funded economic development effort which strives to stimulate growth among Korean technology companies. Ethan Byler, Director, Innovation Programs at BHI followed the delegation’s presentation with an overview of BHI.

Photo: L to R: L to R: Il Minn, PhD, Faculty, Johns Hopkins University; Amanda Wilson, Operations Manager, BioHealth Innovation, Inc.; Hyeong-nyeon Kim, Bio Industry Team, Bio Valley Promotion Group; Yong Kook Shin, PhD, Director, Chungbuk Technopark Bio Center; Ethan Byler, Director, Innovation Programs, BioHealth Innovation, Inc; and Youn-Ho Shin, PhD, Industry Planning Team, Chungbuk Technopark Policy Planning Agency

BioHealth Innovation, Inc. and Rich Bendis were recently featured in the “Why Rockville” ad campaign which runs in The Gazette of Politics and Business. This campaign is sponsored by Capital Bank and serves to introduce the businesses and business owners that are located in Rockville.