BHI is seeking a full time energetic and motivated individual with relevant marketing experience and an interest in growing with our organization to serve as our full time Marketing and Communications Coordinator. The Marketing and Communications Coordinator will perform a variety of duties that support the organization’s mission, including formulating and executing a strategic marketing plan for the organization that encompasses BHI’s goals for the next three years and providing ongoing marketing collateral creation and marketing administrative support.

Click here for more information.

Are you an experienced biohealth industry executive seeking full time or part time employment as a consultant or start-up C suite executive? BioHealth Innovation is updating its database of experienced industry executives who may be able to share their expertise with early stage/growing companies. To be considered by companies or technology transfer organizations seeking leaders for their spin-out companies and/or advisors to support their business growth, please this form and upload a copy of your resume. (For questions/more information, please email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..)

Are you an experienced biohealth industry executive seeking full time or part time employment as a consultant or start-up C suite executive? BioHealth Innovation is updating its database of experienced industry executives who may be able to share their expertise with early stage/growing companies. To be considered by companies or technology transfer organizations seeking leaders for their spin-out companies and/or advisors to support their business growth, please this form and upload a copy of your resume. (For questions/more information, please email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..)

The rising trend of domestic venture capital investments contributed to M&A activity increasing 14% from 2017 to 2018.

Venture capital investments in U.S.–based healthcare startups totaled nearly $131 billion in 2018, according to a Sage Growth Partners survey released Monday morning.

The rising trend of domestic venture capital investments contributed to M&A activity increasing by more than 14% from 2017 to 2018.

M&A activity has consistently risen in several segments of the healthcare industry in recent years, including pharmaceuticals, insurers, and provider organizations.

County Council, Elrich to announce new economic development platform

Council President Nancy Navarro and County Executive Marc Elrich will hold a joint press conference on Tuesday to announce a new economic development platform for Montgomery County.

The announcement, at 11 a.m., will also feature Gigi Godwin, president of the Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce, and Bill Tompkins, chief operating officer of the Montgomery County Economic Development Corporation.

DALEVILLE — Virginia has several economic development agencies, and recently they’ve been crossing wires on technology innovation.

This can run the risk of inefficiency and mismanaging and wasting government resources, said Robby Demeria, deputy secretary of commerce and trade for technology. That’s why Demeria wants Virginia to create the Virginia Innovation Partnership Authority to consolidate and streamline efforts at enhancing technology-based economic development in Virginia.

ROCKVILLE, Md.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Universities at Shady Grove (USG) – a regional campus of the University System of Maryland that offers degree programs from nine different Maryland public universities – celebrated today the opening of its fourth academic building, a $175 million, state-of-the-art Biomedical Sciences and Engineering (BSE) education facility.

Maryland Governor Larry Hogan, USM Board of Regents Chair Linda Gooden, University System of Maryland Chancellor Robert Caret, university presidents from around the state, USG Executive Director Stewart Edelstein, and the USG Board of Advisors were joined by an array of elected officials, business and community leaders, faculty, staff and students for the grand opening celebration and ribbon-cutting. Hundreds attended the grand opening event, which was followed by tours of the BSE and a STEMM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics, medical studies) Showcase to highlight programs that partner universities will be bringing to the new facility, as well as area science and technology businesses that are partnering with USG.

Sonavi Labs, the Pigtown-based company that’s bringing to market digital stethoscope technology combining noise cancellation and AI that was initially developed by Johns Hopkins scientists, has raised $1 million in seed funding.

It’s the first official fundraising round for a company that’s been bootstrapped over its first two years, and Sonavi Labs reached the seven-figure milestone without raising from institutional venture capital firms. Instead, the investors, whose names are not being disclosed by the company, come from the healthcare and scientific community, as well as friends and family, said CEO Ellington West.

Image: Sonavi Labs CEO Ellington West at the Startup World Cup 2019 finale in San Francisco. (Courtesy photo)

Danaher has agreed to sell three of its life sciences tools businesses to Sartorius Stedim Biotech for approximately $750 million cash, the companies said today—a deal that according to Danaher was prompted by its planned $21.4 billion acquisition of GE Life Sciences’ Biopharma business.

Sartorius has agreed to acquire Danaher’s label-free biomolecular characterization, chromatography hardware and resins, and microcarriers and particle validation standards businesses. Sartorius said the three Danaher businesses employ around 300 people worldwide combined, and enjoyed a “strong” growth profile and double-digit profit margins.

The gleaming biomedical sciences and engineering building that just opened in a technology corridor of suburban Maryland testifies to the power of a novel idea: Offer degrees from several public universities through one commuter-friendly campus, and the students will come.

The Universities at Shady Grove, near Interstate 270 in Montgomery County, has enabled thousands of transfer students to earn bachelor’s and master’s degrees in the past two decades from an array of schools in the University System of Maryland.

Some of the most common services sought after by early stage healthcare and life science companies are the following:

1. CMC Regulatory Consultants  2. Accounting Services including Tax prep and tax credits 3. Reimbursement Consultants for your Product How should you go about choosing these providers? What is the best way to vet their qualifications and reputation? What are the most common mistakes made in choosing these vendors? How can startups protect themselves from partners who are not performing up to “best practices” standards? Are their tax incentives that you might be missing? 

Come to the November 21st meeting of the National Capital Chapter of the Society of Physician Entrepreneurs and learn from our panel of experts!

Johns Hopkins is getting involved with the vast and swiftly growing field of psychedelic research.

The prestigious university is throwing down $17 million from a group of private donors on its Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research. It’s the first of its kind the United States and the largest in the world — intended to expand our knowledge and our minds through psychedelic research.

Hopkins Medicine will explore use of psilocybin to treat diseases such as opioid addiction, Alzheimer’s disease, eating disorders, depression and chronic Lyme disease.

CEO Pascal Soriot knows what’s at stake for AstraZeneca’s business. It is whether China, now the British drugmaker’s second-largest market, can sustain double-digit growth—and some investments that support the Chinese government’s goals are necessary.

In a slew of news coming out of Shanghai on Wednesday, AstraZeneca is teaming up with investment shop China International Capital Corporation to launch a $1 billion fund focused on healthcare, upgrading its Shanghai R&D operations to a global center, establishing a new artificial intelligence innovation center, and partnering up with Sun Pharma to market some oncology drugs in China.

Just a year after I arrived at UMBC as a young vice provost in 1987, what we now know today as the University System of Maryland (USM) was formed through the merger of the five University of Maryland campuses and the six campuses in the State University and College System. The late John S. Toll, a renowned physicist who devoted the prime of his career to public higher education, served as the first Chancellor and quickly established a system that optimized the varied strengths of eleven institutions to give families and employers throughout the state access to outstanding academic programs and research discoveries, and talent.

Image: Baltimore Sun photo by Barbara Haddock Taylor

A pediatric gastroenterologist who is the veteran president of the University of Maryland at Baltimore was named Thursday to become the chancellor of the state’s public university system.

Jay A. Perman will be the fifth chancellor of the University System of Maryland, which encompasses the state flagship campus in College Park and 11 other public institutions serving 176,000 students. Perman will succeed Chancellor Robert L. Caret when the incumbent steps down in coming months. Perman’s start date has not been determined, a system spokesman said.

Image: Scene from the campus of the University of Maryland at College Park. (MARVIN JOSEPH/Washington Post)

Keynote: Rebecca Canino of Johns Hopkins Office of Telemedicine

Digital Health inventors and innovators are invited to discover novel technologies with the potential to transform medicine. Digital Health Day centers around a healthcare technology expo featuring inspiring technologies offered by regional start-ups, industry, and Johns Hopkins innovators.

Image: https://www.eventbrite.com

The New Haven area has become a hub for thriving and growing young bioscience companies like Arvinas and Cybrexa Therapeutics, which are working to develop potentially game-changing cancer cures.

The region’s biotechs are developing treatments for a range of ailments, from Alzheimer’s disease to spinal-cord injuries.

But just as a growing infant can’t stay in an incubator for long, many New Haven-born bioscience companies need room to grow — and fast.

Image: PHOTO | NEW HAVEN BIZ - John Keogh, senior broke with Colliers International, in lab space at 5 Science Park on Winchester Avenue in New Haven.

AstraZeneca said today it will create new R&D centers focused on drug development and artificial intelligence (AI) in Shanghai, as well as partner with state-run China International Capital Corporation Limited (CICC) to launch a potentially $1 billion fund whose investments will aim to advance innovation in China’s healthcare system.

Image: AstraZeneca’s China headquarters at Shanghai Zhangjiang Hi-Tech Park - https://www.genengnews.com

Gaithersburg, MD, November 5, 2019 – Cartesian Therapeutics, a fully integrated, clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing cell and gene therapies for cancer and autoimmune diseases, today announced that it has initiated a Phase 1/2 clinical trial (NCT04146051) of its lead CAR-T candidate, Descartes-08, in patients with generalized myasthenia gravis (GMG).  To the company’s knowledge, the program is the first CAR-T investigational candidate to enter clinical development for an autoimmune disease.

“Patients with severe GMG have limited treatment options and are often dependent on nonselective, chronic immunosuppressive therapies (ISTs) that have long-term toxicities,” said Volkan Granit, MD, the trial’s principal investigator and Assistant Professor of Neurology at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. “Cartesian’s CAR-T technology selectively targets the primary culprit in the disease:  antibody-producing plasma cells.  Such selective targeting would be a first in GMG and could help patients discontinue use of chronic ISTs.”

For those that lived through the devastation and horror of the HIV/AIDS epidemic of the early 1980s, effective treatment, let alone a cure for Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), seemed unimaginable. 

Some three decades later, a host of Maryland life science companies and research organizations are getting closer to making what was once unthinkable, real.

So little was known about this devastating immune disorder in the early phases of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. 

COLUMBIA, Md., Nov. 7, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- The Maryland Stem Cell Research Commission (Commission) issued a Request for Applications (RFAs) for its second round of funding for fiscal year 2020 and is looking to continue funding cutting-edge research and accelerating cures through the Maryland Stem Cell Research Fund (MSCRF).

Established under the Maryland Stem Cell Research Act of 2006, the MSCRF is currently budgeted to commit up to $8.2 million, in aggregate, in FY2020 to fund grants under all of its RFAs. These RFAs include: Launch Grants, Discovery Grants, Validation Grants, Commercialization Grants, Clinical Trial Grants and Post-Doctoral Fellowships. Under this funding cycle, all research proposals must pertain to human stem cell-based therapy and regenerative medicine.

RADNOR, Pa. and DUBLIN, Nov. 6, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Avantor, Inc. (NYSE: AVTR) and the National Institute of Bioprocessing Research and Training (NIBRT) today announced they are teaming up to address downstream bottlenecks in buffer preparation when producing monoclonal antibodies (mAbs). As part of the joint effort, Avantor® is providing in-line dilution systems for hands-on experience at NIBRT's prestigious training and research facility dedicated to supporting the global bioprocessing industry. Avantor's technology adds to NIBRT's full complement of bioprocessing capabilities.

The growth of the BioHealth Capital Region (BHCR) and its position as a global biohealth cluster is a hot topic of discussion—often filtered through a broad, conceptual lens focused on big-picture trends, GEN publication rankings and widely discussed areas of industry need.

The development and growth of the BHCR is also a story that supports the life science boom in the region and is steeped in real estate development, communities of innovation, bricks and mortar, architectural plans, and construction management, as well as facility and lab design innovation.

Image: https://biobuzz.io

The Maryland Technology Development Corporation (TEDCO) held its inaugural Entrepreneur Expo in 2011. The first Expo attracted approximately 300 attendees. Three times that number descended on The Hotel at the University of Maryland for its 9th annual Entrepreneur Expo on October 29th.

Entrepreneurs, thought leaders, small business owners, angel and venture investors, federal and state economic development teams and university leaders from across Maryland, the Biohealth Capital Region (BHCR) and beyond gathered at the event to network, share ideas and showcase their programs, technologies and companies.

The Chesapeake Bay Area Chapter of ISPE has partnered with the Regional Manufacturing Institute of Maryland and the Montgomery County Executive’s Office to bring some vital state and local resources to our industry at a trade-show like event on November 8 at the Washington DC/Rockville Hilton Hotel from 7:30-11:00 a.m.  The event is targeted at manufacturing executives, HR, CFOs and Engineering & Facility managers from leading biotech, pharma, IT, defense, printing and other industry executives from Montgomery County.  Please join us and find out how you can access thousands of dollars of state and local resources and meet the experts for those programs to address your workforce needs, reduce energy expenses and find grant funding, access financing/tax credit programs and more….all in one place.

BALTIMORE, Oct. 29, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Illumina, Inc., a leading developer, manufacturer, and marketer of life science tools and integrated systems, celebrated today the grand opening of its new training facility in the University of Maryland (UM) BioPark.

The 13,000-square-foot Illumina Solutions Center provides training lab capabilities and office space for customers and commercial teams. It is the company's first commercial location on the East Coast and will host hundreds of employees and customers annually.

Former Howard County Executive Ken Ulman is known for his work with the University of Maryland, which hired him in 2014 to boost economic development in College Park.

Now, Montgomery County officials are hiring Ulman for a different task — luring the University System of Maryland and its flagship campus at College Park.

“We’ve had a lot of conversations with folks in the county about the desire to drive more higher education investment,” Ulman said in a phone interview on Tuesday. “Essentially, you have Montgomery County — an engine of innovation, a strong business community, but lacking a traditional four-year university.”

Image: Ken Ulman, a former Howard County executive and founder of the consulting firm Margrave Strategies. PHOTO VIA MARGRAVE STRATEGIES

Earlier this year, Crunchbase, a database that tracks startup companies and their investors, noted that biotech venture funding has been increasing in recent years, with corporate venture investors significantly increasing their funding into biotechs in 2018. Recently, The San Francisco Business Times pulled together a list of the Bay Area’s top-funded biotech companies from July 1, 2018 through June 30, 2019. Here’s a look at the top 10.

“The Biggest Biotech Bombshell in Years,” declared The Motley Fool of Biogen’s market-moving announcement October 22 that it was planning to file for FDA approval of the Alzheimer’s disease (AD) candidate aducanumab, being co-developed with Eisai, despite halting two failed Phase III studies of the drug in March. Investors flocked to Biogen stock, sending the company’s stock price surging 40% before the start of trading that day. When the market closed, Biogen shares finished the day 26% higher at $281.87.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicare Services this week announced the 25 participants selected to move on to the next round of its Artificial Intelligence Health Outcomes Challenge.

WHY IT MATTERS

Launched this past March by the CMS Innovation Center, in collaboration with the American Academy of Family Physicians and the Laura and John Arnold Foundation, the AI Health Outcomes Challenge aims to give innovators a showcase for how they're developing AI and machine learning technologies, deep learning tools and neural networks.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - As a private investor, former U.S. Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb is focused on an area where few have found success in recent years: developing new antibiotics.

Since leaving the FDA in April, Gottlieb has revealed little about what types of investments he would make in his new role at New Enterprise Associates, one of the country’s largest venture capital firms where he worked prior to his time in government.

Image: FILE PHOTO: FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb speaks during an interview with Reuters in New York City, U.S., November 26, 2018. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo -https://www.reuters.com 

The former commissioner of the US Food and Drug Administration, Scott Gottlieb, tells Reuters that in his new role as a venture capitalist, he is interested in supporting companies examining new antibiotics.

"I'm very interested in finding opportunities in the anti-infective space, particularly around multi-drug resistant organisms," Gottlieb tells Reuters. "Anti-infectives have been unloved for a very long time. There's a huge clinical need."

GAITHERSBURG, Md., Oct. 31, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — NexImmune, a clinical stage immunotherapy company developing novel T cell therapies, received Investigational New Drug (IND) clearance for the company’s first cellular therapy product. NEXI-001 is being developed for the treatment of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) or myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) patients with relapsed disease after an allogeneic hematopoietic cellular transplant (allo-HCT).

Scott Carmer, NexImmune’s President and CEO, commented “we are excited to initiate clinical trials with NEXI-001, and to provide these patients with a promising new treatment option. NEXI-001 is a product that is meaningfully differentiated from other cellular therapies in that it contains multiple populations of antigen specific endogenous T cells with enhanced anti-tumor properties. Because of this, we are hopeful NEXI-001 will address key limitations observed with other cellular immunotherapies; specifically, tumor escape through single target down-regulation and tumor relapse due to diminished T cell persistence.”

The biotech company is developing a cell therapy that could help patients who have suffered a heart attack. It’s the latest company led by medtech entrepreneur Bill Niland. NeoProgen, a Baltimore-based company led by medtech entrepreneur Bill Niland, raised $1.5 million in seed funding as it develops a cell therapy for patients following a heart attack.

The round featured an all-Maryland lineup of investors: The University System of Maryland’s Momentum Fund, which contributed $245,000; TEDCO; and UM Ventures, which is the commercialization arm of the University of Maryland.

Like his earlier venture, Harpoon Medical, NeoProgen has origins in research at the University of Maryland, Baltimore. That’s where Dr. Sunjay Kaushal, a leading pediatric cardiac surgeon, found that a specific kind of stem cells are extremely effective in regenerating muscle tissue in the heart.

To cap off the TEDCO Entrepreneur Expo, there was a special ribbon cutting ceremony to welcome the Association of University Research Parks (AURP) to the state of Maryland.

Maryland Department of Commerce Secretary Kelly Schulz did the honors of conferring the Secretary's Citation to the Association of University Research Parks (AURP) on behalf of the citizens of the state for selecting College Park as the home of its HQ2.

We are excited to welcome back Brian Darmody and grateful to have the of Association of University Research Parks (AURP)'s HQ2. in the University of Maryland's very own research park, the Discovery District.