Biohealth Innovation
The term “company DNA” is sometimes used as a shorthand for an organization’s culture and strategy — a metaphor for what makes it unique. But there may be more to the metaphor. Understanding your company’s DNA can help you know what you can and can’t do, and how to achieve agility and authenticity in a changing world.
The starting point for achieving value in any health care system is to measure outcomes. Although this can present leadership challenges related to shifting strategy, culture and operations, it certainly isn’t rocket science. There are hundreds of provider organizations the world over that have already implemented outcomes measurement, and this number increases every week. Regardless, many providers still believe that measuring outcomes is too difficult to do.
The University of Maryland (UMD) today announced the appointment of Julie Lenzer as Associate Vice President for Economic Development, effective December 12, 2016. Lenzer will also serve as Director of UM Ventures – College Park in the UMD Division of Research.
Lenzer is an award-winning software entrepreneur, ecosystem builder, investor, and educator with a foundation in innovation-based economic development.
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:
Notices:
The one thing venture capitalists and the medtech industry don’t want you to know is that innovation can sometimes be used as a manipulation to evade the law.
The industry can sometimes, even knowingly, be deceptive in three very specific ways. These are: lie to government agencies, underreport adverse events, blame the employees and consumer (victims). My goal as a federal whistleblower is to explain how these at times carefully crafted lies impacts each of you.
It was a huge year for Marriott International Inc., as it closed on its acquisition of Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide.
And that meant it was also a huge year for Marriott CEO Arne Sorenson.
The rise of diabetes is causing avoidable deaths and imposing substantial costs on ailing healthcare systems. Alarmed, lawmakers are attempting to improve prevention and get the emerging pandemic under control.
Diabetes is a growing healthcare challenge and one of the four priority noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), also known as chronic diseases, targeted for urgent action by world leaders.
Cancer Research: 5 Reasons You Should Apply
Immunomic Therapeutics is committed to providing a workplace that bolsters scientific ideas. The Cancer Discovery Incubator will enable and accelerate beginning ventures with the capacity for measurable change in oncology health. The goal is to empower the beneficiary to conduct proof-of-concept experiments and ultimately, attract funding, partnerships, and fuel growth.
Walking around San Francisco’s Union Square during biotech conference season in January—during this time of industry prosperity—you might expect it to be crawling with brainy young people. You might expect hot startups to come from students and postdocs, like in the tech industry, with VCs scrambling to get in on the ground floor.
The Trump administration will have an opportunity to reevaluate policies that affect innovation and technological development. How can federal policies promote broadband buildout, spur investment in intelligent infrastructure, encourage research and development, and advance a host of other actions that have the potential to improve productivity and the U.S. economy? Join ITIF and the Technology Policy Institute to discuss how the Trump administration can accelerate the pace of innovation in the U.S. economy.
With CoapTech, Steven Tropello and Howard Carolan are working on new technology for replacing patients’ feeding tubes.
The approach, called Percutaneous Ultrasound Gastrostomy, or PUG, utilizes a device with magnets that doctors can use to guide a feeding tube into place. It also features an ultrasound that allows doctors to see what is happening inside the body as the tube as it goes to the stomach, and identify the safest site for the tube to be placed.
It’s hard to get excited about a biotech shared-space in 2016.
Four years ago, it was an exciting and rapidly diversifying field. Now incubators are par for the course, with most Big Pharma and many institutions operating their own version.
Mass Innovation Labs was late to the game, opening in May 2015. But it is clearly doing something different.
Honoring those who see past the present to define the future
The future is not granted. It is born from the imagination of entrepreneurs. If you are a successful entrepreneur or have been inspired by an enterprising trailblazer, we’d like you to submit a nomination to the EY Entrepreneur Of The Year® 2017 program.
About the Entrepreneur Of The Year Program
Since 1986, EY has celebrated the accomplishments of thousands of entrepreneurs who have shaped the way we live, work and play. We recognize and honor these inspiring individuals through the Entrepreneur Of The Year.
Over three decades, the program has grown to span more than 145 cities, in more than 60 countries, and now boasts a roster of nearly 10,000 visionary trailblazers here in the US.
Despite a recent tapering of year-on-year growth, the global market for prescription drugs is forecast to reach $1.5 trillion per year by 2021, a 33 percent increase from 2016.
That’s according to a new report by the QuintilesIMS Institute, the research arm of the healthcare informatics company QuintilesIMS.
Ascension Ventures (AV) has finalized its latest strategic venture capital fund at $255 million. This fourth fund for AV, CHV IV, L.P., brings the firm’s total assets under management to more than $800 million. The new fund is backed by 13 health system partners, which enable AV to continue to add value to its portfolio companies while simultaneously delivering financial and strategic returns to the partners.
A defining moment in modern biology occurred on July 24, 1978, when biotechnology pioneer Robert Swanson, who had recently co-founded Genentech, brought two young scientists to dinner with Thomas Perkins, the legendary venture capitalist. As they stood outside Perkins’s magnificent mansion in Marin County, with its swimming pool and garden and a view of the Golden Gate Bridge, Swanson turned to his two young colleagues and said, “This is what we’re all working for.”
Inova announced today that Milton L. Brown, MD, PhD, has joined Inova where he will serve as director of the new Inova Center for Drug Discovery and Development and as deputy director for Drug Discovery for the Inova Schar Cancer Institute (ISCI). Dr. Brown is a physician scientist who has expertise in the design, synthesis, and evaluation of new drugs and is one of only a handful of physician scientists in the United States who hold a PhD in synthetic chemistry and an MD. He comes to Inova from Georgetown University Medical Center where he was founding director of the Drug Discovery Program (DDP).
Lingering for more than two years, the revamped 21st Century Cures bill, unveiled in late November, has now been approved by the House and Senate and President Barack Obama has said he will sign it.
The 996-page bill includes major tweaks to the way in which the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulates drugs, devices and biologics, while providing the agency with $500 million over 10 years to implement provisions that seek to move such products to patients more quickly, while maintaining the same standard for safety and effectiveness that the agency has adhered to in the past.
Entrepreneurs can’t sit still for long.
Four months after announcing his departure from Google Ventures (now GV), which he cofounded and led, Bill Maris is reportedly raising a fresh $230 million VC fund that will focus on healthcare investments.
AbbVie (ABBV), a global biopharmaceutical company, and the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine today announced that they signed a five-year collaboration agreement with the goal of advancing medical oncology research and discovery at both organizations.
Designed to build strong collaboration between AbbVie and Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers, the agreement will focus on several areas of oncology research, which could include lung, colorectal, breast, prostate and hematological cancer.
President-elect Trump didn't talk a lot about the Food and Drug Administration while he was on the campaign trail, but judging from what he did say, he will want the FDA to approve new drugs and products much faster.
BioBuzz Workforce Foundation, Inc., a social community organization whose mission is to build a more connected bioscience industry in the region, today announced a partnership with The City of Frederick Department of Economic Development and the Frederick County Chapter of BioBeers Meetup group. This new collaboration will give Frederick companies access to BioBuzz’s BioHive Platform and showcase them as important components within the ecosystem.
WorkSource Montgomery, Inc., the workforce development resource for Montgomery County businesses and career seekers, is collaborating with Montgomery College, which will serve as the lead on a $5.6 million America’s Promise grant. The grant will provide IT and cybersecurity training for students to ensure Montgomery County is better equipped to meet local business needs.
Sean Parker decided to take on cancer by throwing so many deep-rooted basics of research tradition out the window that he very nearly drove away the academics he wanted to attract.
As part of its longstanding commitment to Africa, Johnson & Johnson today announced the launch of the Africa Innovation Challenge, an initiative to support Africa’s vibrant and growing innovation ecosystem and to help develop important and locally sustainable consumer health solutions. The challenge is the latest initiative in the company’s comprehensive approach to advancing health and innovation worldwide. The Johnson & Johnson Family of Companies’ presence in Africa dates back more than 80 years and includes business operations, public health programs and corporate citizenship.
MedImmune, a global biologics research and development arm of AstraZeneca, and Abpro, an integrated life sciences company at the forefront of synthetic biology, announced they have entered into a collaborative agreement to advance the development of a preclinical, novel bispecific antibody targeting angiopoietin-2 and vascular endothelial growth factor (Ang2-VEGF). The agreement is structured as a spin out, benefiting from both companies’ scientific expertise and AbPro’s day-to-day leadership as it oversees the new company, AbMed.
Investigators at the Institute for Clinical Research and Health Policy Studies (ICRHPS) at Tufts Medical Center (Tufts MC) and Tufts Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI) - a shared resource between Tufts Medical Center and Tufts University School of Medicine (TUSM), together with the Johns Hopkins University (JHU) School of Medicine's Brain Injury Outcomes (BIOS) Division and the Institute for Clinical and Translational Research (ICTR), won a seven-year, $25 million award from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) to form one of only three new national Trial Innovation Centers (TICs) that will provide high-quality design and operational support to investigators conducting multi-center clinical trials.
Joint replacements. Cardiac care. Chemotherapy.
What do those things have to do with the repeal of the Affordable Care Act?
Economists and policymakers think the U.S. may be overpaying for such services, which helps drive up healthcare expenses for everyone. And the health law has a program that includes testing new ways to pay for care — including in those three areas — that might result in better quality and lower costs.
A five-year extension of the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs took a big step forward at the end of November.
U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-NH, announced that language she wrote seeking the extension was included in a compromise National Defense Authorization Act, with votes expected soon.
Marriott Hotels in Europe has launched an accelerator program for tech companies to enhance the travel and hospitality experience. Each startup will be given expert guidance and the opportunity to pilot their product. Following a successful test period, Marriott Hotels could potentially offer them an ongoing partnership.
Thermo Fisher has bolstered its stem cell technology and reagent business through the acquisition of MTI-GlobalStem.
AstraZeneca will partner with Bicycle Therapeutics to develop respiratory, cardiovascular, and metabolic disease treatments based on Bicycle’s proprietary bicyclic peptide (Bicycle®) product platform through a collaboration that the Cambridge, U.K., startup said today could generate for it more than $1 billion.
Under the collaboration, Bicycle has agreed to identify Bicycle bicyclic peptides for an undisclosed number of targets specified by AstraZeneca. The pharma giant has agreed to oversee further development and product commercialization.
Buyout firms have taken an increasingly large role in healthcare, investing in the full range of companies: insurers, hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, medical-technology firms, and many kinds of service provider. Historically, success has come from making “smart bets” on companies well positioned to capitalize on an industry trend or shift. TPG’s buyout of Par Pharmaceutical and Clayton, Dubilier & Rice’s acquisition of Envision Healthcare are examples of investments that benefited from secular industry tailwinds. Those same factors have propelled the healthcare sector to a leading performance in public markets over the past five years (Exhibit 1).
This request for information (RFI) seeks comments regarding early translational research activities supported by NHLBI.
Background
NHLBI seeks to facilitate and accelerate the development of new clinical interventions by bridging the gaps between mechanistic, discovery, and early translational research. This includes providing appropriate mechanisms to support investigator-initiated research, addressing resource and knowledge gaps, and creating initiatives to support career development of translational scientists and biomedical entrepreneurs.
Alexandria Real Estate CEO Joel Marcus on the company's deal to develop Merck's new research facility in California.