It’s another year, and the annual J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference, along with all the small and big events it has spawned, has concluded. San Franciscans have their city back from the money-seeking health entrepreneurs, the CEOs, their retinue, and the investor hordes.

Venture capitalists poured $1.55 billion into D.C. area technology start-ups last year, an industry report found, as a handful of so-called megadeals propelled the region to a six-year high for technology investing in 2017.

US ANNUAL FUNDING TOPS $70B FOR SECOND TIME

2017 was the second year that saw dollar funding top $70B, but deals declined for the third straight year, falling 4% from 2016 and reaching the lowest annual total since 2012.

2018 is already seeing big deals in the cancer therapy space with Celgene’s recent buyout of Impact Biomedicines, which develops a key drug for treating complex cancers.

Other big pharma names like Pfizer, Novartis, and GlaxoSmithKline have also been active in the last 5 years with key investments to cancer startups as they make bets to avoid missing out on strengthening their cancer drug pipelines.

To state the obvious: Drugs are increasingly complex and so are their patent lives.

More than 110 companies have graduated since bwtech@UMBC began offering incubation services in 1989.

Cell therapy is the delivery of living cells to treat, or potentially cure, a person’s disease. The transplantation of hematopoietic stem cells from a donor to a recipient to create bone marrow, for instance, is one well-established form of cell therapy.

Trajectory Next will provide formalized support and guidance to companies to help them execute a pilot, establish traction, and improve their ability to attract and attain customers.

TAI Diagnostics said earlier this week that it had closed a $10 million round of funding and forged a new partnership with United Therapeutics (NASDAQ: UTHR).

GlaxoSmithKline CEO Emma Walmsley made history in 2017, when she became the first woman to head up a major pharmaceutical company.

Once heralded as a centerpiece of DC’s tech scene, start-up incubator 1776 proved less revolutionary than its name.

AstraZeneca and MedImmune, its biologics research and development arm, announced that the European Commission (EC) has approved the companies’ respiratory biologic, benralizumab, as an add-on maintenance treatment for adults with severe eosinophilic asthma that is inadequately controlled despite high-dose inhaled corticosteroids, plus long-acting b-agonists.

In recent years, Lake Whillans has published extensively on the multifaceted interplay between the legal market and the life sciences industry, specifically identifying the most active and relevant law firms for life science companies.

The Jackson Laboratory has been awarded a $3.2 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to develop an epigenome modification technology for studying gene regulation in biological processes and disease states.

PepVax, Inc., an early-stage biotechnology company, announced today that it has successfully completed the efficacy study for its lead candidate, PVX-009. The Company is harnessing the power of the immune system to target a specific protein, MAGE A, in an effort to find a treatment for triple negative breast cancer (TNBC).

Icon has hired a retired colonel who is moving into the biotech sphere as new president of its subsidiary ClinicalRM. James Cummings, M.D., will lead the CRO’s unit, which helps provide research to a range of U.S. federal health agencies.

Precision for Medicine, part of Precision Medicine Group, today announced it is expanding its biomarker data management and translational informatics services into Europe. The addition of a Geneva, Switzerland-based team of experts complements Precision's US offerings to provide clients with truly global translational research services. The Geneva team also gives Precision another European operational base, continuing Precision's active international expansion.

REGENXBIO Inc. (Nasdaq:RGNX) and AveXis, Inc. (Nasdaq:AVXS) today announced that they have entered into an amendment which expands upon the exclusive, worldwide license agreement they entered into in March 2014 (2014 License Agreement) for the development and commercialization of products to treat spinal muscular atrophy (SMA). AveXis’ initial proprietary gene therapy candidate, AVXS-101, is in a pivotal trial for the treatment of SMA Type 1, and a Phase 1 trial for SMA Type 2. AVXS-101 uses REGENXBIO’s NAV AAV9 vector.

Qiagen has announced a new partnership with DiaSorin that will allow the companies to offer new automated tuberculosis detection capabilities for their customers.

Pfizer, one of the world’s largest drug companies, announced over the weekend that it would stop work on new drugs to fight Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease. The reason? Pfizer believes that research on the two diseases doesn’t make sense financially.

Voluntis and WellDoc®, two of the industry’s leading digital therapeutics companies, announced today a commercial agreement aimed at combining Voluntis’ insulin titration technology with WellDoc’s extensive digital coaching platform to create a holistic digital diabetes management solution for patients, providers, health systems and health plans.

Explore the infographic to discover key insights from the upcoming 4Q PitchBook-NVCA Venture Monitor.  For a complete analysis of VC activity, sign up to receive the full report—we’ll send it to you as soon as it publishes on Jan. 17.

Grants up to $1 million are available from the US-Israel Bi-national R&D (BIRD) Foundation to support new product development R&D, conducted as a joint project between American and Israeli companies. The grants are only to be repaid if the resulting technology successfully achieves sales in the market. BIRD's wide-ranging scope extends to Agriculture, Communications, Life Sciences, Electronics, Software, Homeland Security, Renewable and Alternative Energy and more. The Maryland/Israel Development Center (MIDC) coordinates the BIRD program for our state.

TAI Diagnostics, a developer of diagnostic tests for monitoring the health of transplanted organs, said on Monday that it has closed a $10 million Series A preferred equity financing.

Greater Washington had its second-biggest venture funding year in at least a decade in 2017, with startups across the metro area raking in more than $1.55 billion.

The pharma and biotech industry will send billions of dollars back to the United States as a result of President Donald Trump’s tax overhaul, Alexandria Real Estate (ARE) Chairman Joel Marcus said on Monday.

Alexandria Venture Investments, the strategic venture capital arm of Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc. (NYSE: ARE), an urban office REIT uniquely focused on collaborative life science and technology campuses in AAA innovation cluster locations, today announced the formal launch of the Alexandria Seed Capital Platform, an innovative funding model that brings together leaders from across the life science community to catalyze seed-stage investment in the most promising life science startups.

Roche Holding AG (ROG.EB) said Monday that it has entered into a strategic partnership with GE Healthcare to jointly develop and market a digital clinical-decision support platform.

RightEye LLC, an award-winning technology innovator using eye tracking to revolutionize patient care and vision performance, announced today it will be debuting its new RightEye EyeQ system tonight at CES Unveiled Las Vegas at 5:00 p.m. at the Mandalay Bay Shorelines Exhibit Hall in Las Vegas, Nevada. EyeQ gives people a closer look at their health using quick, computer game-style vision tests on an eye-tracking computer. The tests, which only take a few minutes, generate an instant EyeQ Report that provides results in an easy-to-understand format to support discussion with doctors on diagnosis and recommended therapies. 

The use of biomaterials, such as microneedles and nanoparticles, in immunotherapy and vaccine research is a hot topic in bioengineering. But to get the maximum return on investment in these ideas, they need to be seeded among clinicians, according to Christopher Jewell, Ph.D., associate professor in the Fischell Department of Bioengineering at the University of Maryland. Jewell is the principal author on a new paper in Trends in Immunology that reviews the current state of biomaterials research with an eye toward inspiring multidisciplinary teams of engineers and clinicians to solve some of the complex problems in immunology today.

A drug development company has raised $76 million from investors in China, the United States, and Korea to move its headquarters to the Philadelphia area from Jinan, China, and bring treatments developed by China-based scientists through U.S. clinical testing to patients here.

A Baltimore startup developing artificial organ technology has raised about $3 million in equity funding, according to U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission documents.

Medical device firm Breethe Inc. reported the round this month, which included 22 investors.

Emmes is proud to have advanced Glaucoma research w/ support from @NatEyeInstitute! Our 1st ophthalmic trial (published in @AmJOphthalmol) showed little visual field deterioration in pts w/ low intraocular pressure

The GammaPod ™ – a first-of-its kind stereotactic radiotherapy system to treat early stage breast cancer – has received 510(k) clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), paving the way for the manufacturer to bring the system to market for the treatment of breast cancer patients.

MacroGenics, Inc. (Nasdaq:MGNX), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering and developing innovative monoclonal antibody-based therapeutics for the treatment of cancer, as well as various autoimmune disorders and infectious diseases, announced today that it had entered into a research collaboration and license agreement with F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd and Hoffmann-La Roche Inc. to jointly discover and develop novel bispecific molecules to undisclosed targets. During the research term, both companies will leverage their respective platforms, including MacroGenics' DART® platform and Roche's CrossMAb and DutaFab technologies to select a bispecific format and lead product candidate. Roche would then further develop and commercialize any such product candidate.