On an industrial park next to Liverpool's John Lennon airport, drugs companies are involved in research that is driving a new frenzy of multibillion-dollar takeover deals. The focus on this Merseyside site is on creating what could be the next big thing for the sector: biological medicines, derived from living organisms.

In laboratories here and around the world, the quest for the latest blockbuster drug has sparked another flurry of deal activity. Last week saw GlaxoSmithKline of the UK and Swiss rival Novartis agree a multibillion dollar swap of assets, while it emerged that another British firm, AstraZeneca, has been the subject of a £60bn approach from US group Pfizer. And every participant is seeking a deal that will yield a clutch of medical bestsellers.

The EY Entrepreneur Of The Year 2014 finalists have a lot to celebrate. They've built their dream companies. Expanded. Innovated. And now EY is recognizing them for their achievements. Help us congratulate these outstanding entrepreneurs. Join us at this years event and see who will take home top honors.

With a pinch of history, a dash of pride, and a heaping helping of collaboration, University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) President Jay A. Perman, MD, put forth a winning recipe in his first annual State of the University Address.

Speaking at a packed School of Nursing auditorium on April 24 that included dignitaries such as University System of Maryland (USM) Chancellor William E. Kirwan, PhD, Perman discussed UMB's recent achievements and the challenges it will confront in the coming year.

QIAGEN N.V. QGEN  has posted its 2013 Annual Report on its website at http://www.qiagen.com/About-Us/Investors/Financial-Information/Financial-Reports .

QIAGEN's Annual Report on Form 20-F for the year ended December 31, 2013 has been filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on March 04, 2014, a copy of which can be found on the website of the SEC at www.sec.gov or in the "Financial Information" section of the "Investors" section of our website at http://www.qiagen.com/About-Us/Investors/ . QIAGEN will provide printed copies of the 2013 Annual Report to shareholders free of charge upon request. To obtain a printed copy of the 2013 Annual Report please contact: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

The potential for crowdfunding, as defined in the JOBS Act, to fundamentally change the nature of capital formation is tremendous, potentially opening up avenues to investment and borrowing that were previously only available to a small segment of the investing community, let along the general public. And one sector that could see truly revolutionary change is health care.

Maryland’s strength in the technology sector is making it one of the fastest-growing exporters of high-tech goods and services in the U.S.

Maryland ranks eighth on the list of the nation’s fastest-growing exporter of high tech goods, according to a recent report from Technology CEO Council, a public policy advocacy organization in Washington, D.C. More than 9.5 percent — or $24.425 billion — of the state’s GDP can be attributed to the tech sector.

Here I am presenting opportunities to those engaged in research for electric and other advanced vehicles, to engage in research related to their own research, earning some money for their efforts, as well as helping their country.  Note: Some of these are restricted to American citizens, or certain “Permanent Resident” or “protected” foreigners.  Others require watchful tracking of what the foreigners do.

The current DoD Small-Business Innovative Research (SBIR) Solicitation, 2014.2, will be open until June 25.  There is a large selection of topics available.  I will be selecting and rating many of these, to make it easier for readers to select topics of interest. This may take a week or so, because I first must visit the NY Auto Show and write a blog about it.

In our lead up to the 2014 USA Science and Engineering Festival, we at Lux are proud to present our second TouchCast interactive video. The video excerpt below comes from Forbes/Wolfe Emerging Technology Report’s recent full-length interview with Dr. Bahija Jallal, Executive Vice President of MedImmune, the global biologics research and development arm of AstraZeneca. Dr. Jallal shares with us a bit about MedImmune, her background, and the company’s partnership with the USA Science and Engineering Festival.

Maryland has a lot of technology interests, but Baltimore tech leader Jason Hardebeck thinks there’s room for one more: health IT.

Hardebeck, the former executive director of gb.tc, is  heading up a new accelerator, DreamIt Health Baltimore. The accelerator is wrapping up its  first cycle and Hardebeck thinks the program’s early success is a sign that health IT has a big future in Baltimore.

Principia Biopharma Inc., a South San Francisco-based developer of small molecule drugs within the fields of autoimmune disease and oncology, has raised $50 million in Series B funding. Sofinnova Ventures led the round, and was joined by return backers Morgenthaler Ventures, New Leaf Venture Partners, OrbiMed, SR One and Mission Bay Capital. The company previously raised $40 million.www.principiabio.com

Maryland’s efforts to build out the local cybersecurity economy seem to be working. Cybersecurity startup Luminal recently announced a move to Maryland from West Virginia, and will be rewarded by a $600,000 investment from InvestMaryland, the state’s venture fund. With this investment, Luminal closed a total of $3.82 million in a Series A round of funding including Core Capital Partners and New Enterprise Associates.

As CivSource has reported Maryland has launched several initiatives aimed at growing the local cybersecurity economy, including tax incentives, investments and a research partnership leveraging local universities and the military. Maryland is building on its proximity to a number of critical defense assets and the federal government to attract new cybersecurity entrants. The state of Virginia is also working on a similar effort.

Cultural fit, bundling potential and a focus on work force optimization.

If your healthcare startup meets all or even two of these criteria, you’ll have a better than average chance of attracting attention from GE Healthcare.

Mike Swinford, President and CEO Global Services at GE Healthcare, explained the thinking behind three recent acquisitions as well as how the companies helped GE make more money.

Johns Hopkins University is among the 50 wealthiest universities across the globe.

The university’s endowment value in 2013 was $2.987 billion — good for 29th on the  list of the wealthiest universities, according to higher education website  nonprofitcollegesonline.com.

The pharmaceutical industry is regaining its swagger, as companies turn to big and sometimes daring deals to expand and reshape their operations.

On Tuesday alone, pharmaceutical companies announced $74 billion worth of potential deals, including an unorthodox $45.6 billion bid for Allergan, the maker of Botox, and a flurry of swaps and sales between Novartis of Switzerland and GlaxoSmithKline of Britain.

Noble Life Sciences (Gaithersburg, MD) and IBT Bioservices (Gaithersburg, MD) announce a newly optimized cotton rat model for preclinical studies of influenza therapies and vaccines. The companies jointly developed the model of influenza infection in the cotton rat.   

Cotton rats are a vital tool to study influenza infection because adaptation of human influenza strains is not required for virus replication in the respiratory tract.  Moreover, virus infection results in histopathological lesions in the lungs that are similar to those seen during natural infection of humans. 

Before April 16, 2014, NIH permitted one resubmission (A1) of an unfunded application (see NOT-OD-09-016).  The extension on the NIH grant number could follow the pattern (A0, A1).  A first-time submission is informally referred to as an A0, and the first resubmission is known as an A1.  Any virtual A2s would be flagged by the NIH Center for Scientific Review.

For all application due dates after April 16, 2014, following an unsuccessful resubmission (A1) application, applicants may submit the same idea as a new (A0) application for the next appropriate new application due date (see NOT-OD-14-082).

Resubmissions (A1) must be submitted within 37 months of the new (A0) application (see NOT-OD-10-140).  For more details on the Resubmission Policy, visit the Resubmissions webpage and the Guide Notice, NOT-OD-14-074.

GlaxoSmithKline plc today announces a major 3-part inter-conditional transaction with Novartis AG involving its Consumer Healthcare, Vaccines and Oncology businesses (the “Transaction”). In summary:

• GSK and Novartis will create a new world-leading Consumer Healthcare business with 2013 pro forma revenues of £6.5 billion. GSK will have majority control with an equity interest of 63.5%
• GSK will acquire Novartis’ global Vaccines business (excluding influenza vaccines) for an initial cash consideration of $5.25 billion with subsequent potential milestone payments of up to $1.8 billion and ongoing royalties
• GSK will divest its marketed Oncology portfolio, related R&D activities and rights to its AKT inhibitor and also grant of commercialisation partner rights for future oncology products to Novartis for an aggregate cash consideration of $16 billion (of which up to $1.5 billion depends on the results of the COMBI-d trial)
• GSK shareholders to receive £4 billion capital return funded by net cash transaction proceeds and expected to be delivered via a B share scheme
• Transaction expected to be accretive to core EPS from first year, reflecting execution of intended B share scheme, and thereafter with growing contribution from 2017 as projected cost savings and new growth opportunities are delivered
• Transaction is expected to complete during the first half of 2015 subject to approvals

Emergent BioSolutions Inc.  today announced that it has initiated manufacturing of BioThrax® (Anthrax Vaccine Adsorbed) consistency lots in Building 55, following review by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) of the Manufacturing and Non-Clinical Study Protocols submitted by the company supporting the Building 55 comparability program. The goal of the comparability program is to generate data that will show BioThrax manufactured at large scale in Building 55 is comparable to the BioThrax currently manufactured in the approved facility, Building 12. BioThrax is the only FDA-licensed vaccine for the prevention of anthrax disease.

“Emergent is pleased to have reached an agreement with FDA that now enables the final steps towards securing approval of Building 55 for large scale manufacturing of BioThrax. This progress could not have been achieved without the successful collaboration between the company, FDA, and BARDA,” said Adam Havey, executive vice president and president, biodefense division at Emergent BioSolutions. “This multi-year effort to expand our manufacturing capability is intended to address the U.S. Government’s stated need for this critical medical countermeasure in the Strategic National Stockpile. We look forward to our continued partnership with the government to bring this program to completion.”

Herndon-based APX Labs has raised $10 million from New Enterprise Associates to bring its software platform for Google Glass and other wearables to manufacturing, health care and other enterprise customers.

The Series A investment from NEA embodies the prediction that the near-future of smart glasses lies in the enterprise, whether that be the sort of  heads-up displays offered by Google Glass or more substantial  augmented reality overlays provided by ( noticeably less sleek) devices like the Epson Moverio. APX, through its flagship product Skylight, provides both the user interface and the back-end software that could, for example, give assembly line workers data on an individual part as it crossed they field of view.

The impact of federal budget cuts compounded by the challenges of securing funding for biotechnology companies has led to a growing trend of drug development. Scientists are turning to crowdfunding for biotechnology as a way to scrape up money.

A concept for a nonprofit crowdfunding website for medical research hatched at Lehigh Valley StartUp Weekend last fall is moving ahead.

Healthbox, which helps medical startups grow through accelerators in the U.S. and U.K., is expanding its business through a $7 million fundraising.

Healthbox CEO Nina Nashif Healthbox Healthbox and groups like Rock Health and Blueprint Health help entrepreneurs launch businesses in hot markets like health information technology and digital health. Medical software and information services startups raised $297 million in the first quarter, a 130% jump from Q1 of 2013, according to Dow Jones VentureSource.

Funding in the wider category of digital health topped $1.9 billion last year, up 39% from 2012, according to Rock Health.

Two Big Pharma companies with strong ties to the Philadelphia region are the subject of the latest mega-merger rumor in the drug manufacturing industry.

Pfizer Inc. has expressed an interest in acquiring AstraZeneca for $101 billion, according to a  report in London's Sunday Times. The two companies declined commenting on the report.

April 30, 2014

Don’t miss this unique opportunity to showcase your products and services to the mid-Atlantic region.

The Universities at Shady Grove is a wonderful venue to showcase your products and services. You can make this a great opportunity for your company and invite clients and guests to attend for FREE! Get started inviting your contacts now.

It will be $700 for a 6' table.

Emergent BioSolutions Inc. announced today that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted Orphan Drug Designation to BioThrax® (Anthrax Vaccine Adsorbed) for post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) of anthrax disease resulting from suspected or confirmed exposure to Bacillus anthracis. Orphan status is given to drugs and biologics that are being developed to treat rare medical conditions, specifically those affecting fewer than 200,000 persons in the U.S. This designation provides incentives to the BioThrax PEP Program, including the waiver of the Biologics License Application (BLA) supplemental regulatory filing fee and marketing exclusivity of up to seven years.

“Emergent is pleased with FDA’s Orphan Drug Designation of BioThrax for post-exposure prophylaxis,” said Adam Havey, executive vice president and president, biodefense division at Emergent BioSolutions. “This designation will help streamline discussions around regulatory requirements at our pre-BLA meeting with FDA next month. We look forward to discussing our supplemental application for the expanded indication of post-exposure prophylaxis and the role of BioThrax in the treatment of inhalation anthrax.”

Three Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine researchers have been awarded two-year grants for their work on potential treatments for diabetes, Novo Nordisk announced this month. Of the 110 initial submissions to the new Novo Nordisk Diabetes and Obesity Biologics Science Forum Program, only four projects were funded, three of which are led by Johns Hopkins researchers. They are Jonathan Powell, M.D., Ph.D.; G. William Wong, Ph.D.; and Elias Zambidis, M.D., Ph.D.

For as long as I can remember I have been preparing for college.

And not because I wanted to, but because I was “encouraged” (nagged) by my parents. It started in middle school. I had to get good grades so I could get into a good program at my high school, where I had to get good grades so I could get into a good college.

Howard County's Economic Development Authority on Thursday unveiled its newest workspace, a prototyping lab devoted to 3D printing and rapid technology. 

The Innovation + Prototyping Lab, located at the Maryland Center for Entrepreneurship's Columbia headquarters on Bendix Road, is an 1800-square-foot space stocked with four 3D printers, computers offering software tutorials and shelves of printed parts. 

Disease Diagnostic Group, maker of an inexpensive handheld device that can diagnose malaria in one minute, was named the winner of the 2014 Cupid’s Cup Business Competition, chaired by Under Armour Founder and CEO Kevin Plank. The ninth annual event was April 4 at the University of Maryland’s College Park campus, hosted by the Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship at the Robert H. Smith School of Business. In a last-minute twist to the competition, Disease Diagnostic Group's founder, an engineering student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, accepted Plank’s offer of an additional $25,000 in exchange for equity, bringing the company’s grand prize winnings to $100,000. 

The equity will be held by Plank’s Cupid Foundation, which funds the annual competition. Plank, a graduate of the University of Maryland, started the competition with the Dingman Center to foster interest in student entrepreneurship. The competition is open to undergraduate and graduate-level students at accredited U.S. colleges and universities, and recent graduates of these institutions. 

The rise of corporate venture capital investors, whether at the seed-stage, in the largest financings or into the billion-dollar valuation club, has been reshaping the VC ecosystem as of late. And while some VCs including Fred Wilson have been critical of corporate venture units, others have syndicated dozens of deals with corporate venture arms in just the past few years alone.

Using CB Insights data, we took a look at which VC firms have co-invested in the highest number of deals with a corporate venture unit since 2008 and how their CVC-syndicated deals added up as a percentage of their overall deal activity.

Leaders from 3D printing, fab labs and laser technologies will participate in a Digital Fabrication Summit to open the new Potomac Digital Fabrication Center at BWTech@UMBC in Baltimore, Maryland (US). The event will be held on 6 May 2014 and is being organised by Potomac Photonics, Inc. in cooperation with the non-profit FabLab Hub. The summit will bring together visionaries who are leading the next industrial revolution.

Avi Reichental, chief executive officer (CEO) of 3D Systems Corporation, will deliver the keynote, “Manufacturing the Future.” 3D Systems has been at the forefront of digital fabrication since company founder Chuck Hull invented stereo-lithography in 1983. Reichental has been one of those responsible for the dramatic shift from a technology for specialised applications to tools for mainstream markets. Potomac is an authorised 3D Systems equipment reseller and service provider and is creating a 3D printing equipment showcase in the new facility.

The exuberance of last year's  record D.C. region venture totals waned somewhat in the first three months of 2014, with 43 companies raising a collective $217.5 million, according to the MoneyTree report released Friday by PricewaterhouseCoopers and the National Venture Capital Association.

The total represents an 18 percent drop compared with the same period last year, and a 31 percent fall from the fourth quarter of 2013.

Today Healthbox announces it has closed $7 million in funding to expand on its accelerator model and launch three new business verticals that will continue to drive actionable innovation through collaboration between entrepreneurs and the healthcare industry.

This is a bold vision for a healthcare accelerator. Healthbox closed the $7 million from a collaborative group of leading healthcare organizations to form Healthbox Global Partners, LLC, representing the common need to find and implement transformative solutions that will improve health outcomes.

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:

• NOT-DK-14-018: NIDDK Career Development Awardee Workshop Support
• NOT-OD-14-067: Request for Information from Facilities with Experience in Maintaining Chimpanzees
• NOT-OD-14-076: Notice of Change in Expiration Date of RFA-OD-13-011 "Tobacco Control Regulatory Research (R01)"
• NOT-OD-14-077: Notice of Change in Expiration Date of RFA-OD-13-012 "Tobacco Control Regulatory Research (R03)"
• NOT-OD-14-078: Notice of Change in Expiration Date of RFA-OD-13-010 "Tobacco Control Regulatory Research (R21)"
• NOT-RM-14-012: Announcement of Human Heredity and Health in Africa (H3Africa) Genome Analysis Session in Cape Town
• NOT-RM-14-013: Announcement of Human Heredity and Health in Africa (H3Africa) Cardiovascular Workshop in Cape Town, South Africa
• NOT-OD-14-075: Request for Information (RFI): Ethologically Appropriate Environments and Facilities that House and Maintain Chimpanzees Used in NIH-Supported Research

Please note that most links to RFAs, PAs, and Guide Notices will take you to the NIH Web site. RFPs will take you to FedBizOpps. Links to RFPs will not work past their proposal receipt date. Archived versions of RFPs posted on FedBizOpps can be found on the FedBizOpps site using the FedBizOpps search function. Under “Document to Search,” select Archived Documents.

In the winter of 1996, as part of my new position as president of the Baltimore Development Corp., I searched for evidence of the city’s technology scene.

There wasn’t much to see.

I first visited the BDC’s “incubator,” housed in an old — but not historic — building at 1444 Key Highway in South Baltimore. It was the only incubator in the region. As I met with the staff, I observed that several buckets had been strategically placed to catch water leaks (a seemingly insurmountable problem, as I was told).

Join us as we bring together the major players in Maryland’s startup ecosystem to celebrate entrepreneurism and award nearly $1,000,000 in prizes to the state’s most promising early-stage companies.

Who will win the Cyber, Life Sciences, IT and General Industry Categories? Join us May 19th to find out!