In a $4.8 billion deal, Swiss life sciences giant Roche has agreed to acquire Spark Therapeutics, a University City-based developer of gene therapy treatment for genetic ailments.

GlaxoSmithKline (GSK)’s recently announced $4.2 billion partnership to co-develop and co-commercialize Merck KGaA, Darmstadt’s cancer immunotherapy candidate M7824 was a reminder of just how much biopharma giants are willing to invest in a therapeutic area that has generated sometimes-dazzling results.

The deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter of this year.

RoosterBio, Inc, a privately held regenerative medicine manufacturing platform technology company announced plans today to expand the company’s footprint in Frederick, MD after a year of rapid growth.

Matt Kalnik wants to make smoking less addictive.

His clinical-stage company, Gaithersburg-based Antidote Therapeutics Inc., is developing a drug that would diminish the effects of nicotine in the body — to both treat diseases worsened by nicotine and help smokers quit. The businesses is looking to raise between $5 million and $10 million to run over the next two years and get its lead candidate to clinical trials.

The Maryland Momentum Fund is a newly-created mechanism for investing in promising early stage companies associated with the University System of Maryland (USM). Maryland-based companies that are seeking equity financing or debt financing  that is convertible into equity may apply.  The funding provided by the Fund will normally be in the range of $150K-$250K, with a ceiling of $500K.  Recipients of this funding must obtain a matching investment (1:1) within six months, in either direction, from the date of commitment by the Fund.

The Kauffman Indicators of Entrepreneurship offers in-depth measures, reports, and accompanying interactive data visualizations that present entrepreneurial trends in the United States.

A life sciences-focused venture capital firm based near Boston has raised more than one-third of a billion dollars to invest in early-stage companies.

The Maryland Technology Development Corporation (TEDCO) announced today the formation of the Task Force for Women Entrepreneurs. The task force will be dedicated to the recruitment, funding, and operational support of women-owned and-led startups in Maryland.

When Tom Shicowich’s toe started feeling numb in 2010, he brushed it off as a temporary ache. At the time, he didn’t have health insurance, so he put off going to the doctor. The toe became infected, and he got so sick that he stayed in bed for two days with what he assumed was the flu. When he finally saw a doctor, the physician immediately sent Shicowich to the emergency room. Several days later, surgeons amputated his toe, and he ended up spending a month in the hospital to recover.

Amazon changed the rules of economic development when it announced a 50,000-job HQ2 sweepstakes in 2017. While most searches for large facilities happen behind closed doors, the Seattle tech giant kicked off an unprecedented, high-stakes, public battle for its next corporate home.

Novartis scatters its VC seeds widely by leading rounds across a variety of therapy areas, although oncology still represents a big share of its funding activity.

The University of Maryland Marlene and Stewart Greenebaum Comprehensive Cancer Center (UMGCCC) is now certified to offer a groundbreaking treatment for non-Hodgkin lymphoma, in which a patient’s own immune cells are genetically engineered to recognize and attack the cancer.

Maryland has the most computer and data scientists in the U.S., and the second-highest concentrations of engineers and life scientists.

Microsoft outlined how emerging technologies can support diagnosis of rare diseases among children in a report released Feb. 20.

Rare diseases affect almost 350 million people globally, and they can take an average of five years to diagnose, according to the report.

Under a new licensing deal, Qiagen will gain access to a big genetics database from Vienna-based Ares Genetics, which could help tackle the global health crisis of antibiotic resistance.  

To spare you all a power point presentation, I thought I’d share some thoughts today about how and why our tech transfer system was created and the importance of practitioners continually developing best practices to maintain it.

Woody Allen said that half of life is showing up. Perhaps the other half is working with people who give you the opportunity to show what you can do.

Are you a start-up in Maryland, DC or Virginia seeking feedback on your biohealth business idea, pitch deck, or commercialization plan?  Sign up by noon 3/26 to schedule your feedback session with BHI Entrepreneurs-in-Residence, who have industry experience in therapeutics, Dx, medtech and more, next Wednesday, February 27th.  (Future sessions scheduled for 3/20 and 5/22.)  Pre-registration is required; sign up here ("EIR resource" at BHI).  For questions/more information, contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Kelly M. Schulz, the newly appointed state secretary of commerce, could be called the secretary of opportunity. Her vision for the state of Maryland is for economic development, job growth, full employment and economic prosperity for all families around the state.

The National Foundation for Cancer Research (NFCR) announced today that Steven A. Rosenberg, M.D., Ph.D., of the U.S. National Cancer Institute (NCI) has been selected to receive the 2019 Szent-Györgyi Prize for Progress in Cancer Research. The Prize selection committee awarded Dr. Rosenberg for not only revolutionizing—if not originating—the field now known as cancer immunotherapy but also remaining at its forefront. Chief of the NCI Center for Cancer Research’s surgery branch in Bethesda since 1974, his basic, translational and applied research efforts have contributed immeasurably to groundbreaking advances in therapy and the later development of drugs such as Chiron’s (later Novartis and Prometheus Labs’) Proleukin, Bristol-Myers Squibb’s Yervoy and Gilead’s Yescarta.

QIAGEN N.V. today announced a broad agreement with Ares Genetics, a subsidiary of Curetis N.V. CURE, -0.10% to develop innovative bioinformatics and assay solutions to accelerate research targeting the growing global health challenges posed by antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

American Gene Technologies (AGT) recently signed a Research Collaboration Agreement with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, for research studies on AGT’s cell and gene therapy for HIV/AIDS. AGT uses its proprietary, genetically modified, autologous cell product (AGT103-T) to reconstitute the immune response against HIV with the goal of reducing persistent viral reservoirs and achieving sustained virologic remission in infected individuals in the absence of antiretroviral therapy. Under this collaboration agreement, NIAID researchers will study the mechanism of action for AGT103-T to define its potential impacts on HIV disease.

The 22-year-old firm has invested in a number of well-known local companies.

At the beginning of this decade, when the fallout of the financial crash was still being felt and traditional venture firms were struggling to raise money, the investment arms of big pharma companies stepped in to fill a funding gap that was starving start-ups. Fast forward to the current period of plenty and, while corporate cash is no longer quite so crucial to the ecosystem, many of these units remain enthusiastic backers of early-stage science. 

Friday is the official last day of #HIMSS19 in Orlando. The annual healthcare conference, which began on Monday, February 11, was packed full of presentations, panels, products and people.

Wed, February 27, 2019 - 6:30 PM – 9:30 PM EST

Join us in the Washington, D.C. office of Reed Smith LLP for an engaging and interactive program discussing the implementation and commercialization in healthcare 3D printing and bioprinting applications, and the barriers associated with making this leap!

“How did you get in the robot?” That was the question a young patient at Children’s National Health System had on Thursday for Dr. Bear Bot.

Among the organizations taking glass-enclosed office space in the recently opened WeWork at University of Maryland College Park is an organization looking to promote research parks that cluster minds in science and business.

Steve Kousouris, who has been serving as Interim Executive Director of Technology Transfer at Johns Hopkins Technology Ventures since June, has assumed this role permanently effective Jan.1. Additionally, Mark Bailey, previously Associate Director of Finance, will assume responsibility for the portfolio that Steve has overseen since 2013 in the capacity of Director, Finance & Administration.

But not everything is expected to change at the Gaithersburg campus.

Nuventra Pharma Sciences, a clinical pharmacology and PK/PD consultancy in Durham, NC, recently offered some insights on why clinical trials fail. In addition to biological considerations—such as pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamic, and human response to a drug varying from animal models—Nuventra presented a list of reasons that included:

Over the past couple of years, the term "record-breaking" has frequently been used to describe the state of venture capital in the US, as the space hits new heights with deal value, mega-rounds and fundraising. In 2018, some of these records reached heights not seen since the dot-com boom.

Akonni Biosystems, a molecular diagnostics (MDx) company that develops, manufactures, and intends to market advanced MDx systems, today announced receipt of a $3 million, three-year Phase II Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contract from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Akonni received the Phase I contract in August 2016.

The National Institute of Health awarded a University of Maryland research center team of scientists $3.6 million to help fund their work on the cells responsible for destroying cancer cells.

Emergent BioSolutions Inc. (NYSE: EBS) today announced the appointment of Seamus Mulligan to the company’s Board of Directors effective March 19, 2019. Mr. Mulligan was a co-founder and principal investor of Adapt Pharma Ltd. and served as its chairman and CEO from 2014 until 2018, when Adapt was acquired by Emergent.