News ItemIn The Know – March

March 28, 2016 – 

Looking for Capital or Investment Opportunities?

NMBio and other biotech associations from across the Rocky Mountain and Southwest region are coming together this fall to connect investors with bioscience and health care entrepreneurs seeking an infusion of capital at the White Hat Investors 2016 conference in Phoenix, Arizona on September 21 and 22.  

Applications for firms seeking investment capital are now open. A first round review of applications will take place on May 5. The period for open applications closes on July 15. Click the following link to access a White Hat Company application:   http://azbio.formstack.com/forms/white_hat_application There is no cost to apply. Presenting companies will be invoiced only after they are confirmed by the selection committee. The fee to present is $1,000.

Companies in these fields are urged to apply: diagnostics. therapeutics (drugs and biologics), medical device, health, IT, telemedicine and mHealth companies. On the other side of the financial ledger, the conference is rolling out the red carpet to angel investors, venture capital firms, institutional investors, strategic investors and supporting organizations. Additional information on attendance fees and registration levels can be found here: http://www.azbio.org/white-hat-investors-2016

Look to our neighbor, the Lone Star State, for potential funding. S3 Ventures is an early expansion and growth stage venture firm with $200 million under management. They are focused on information technology solutions that solve large business problems. They also invest in medical devices that improve the human condition. S3 invests in category defining opportunities. They partner with the teams they fund  and help focus methodically on what it takes to build a successful company.

S3 helps talented entrepreneurs take their technology and market knowledge and form valuable businesses in a repeatable fashion. Investment sizes start at several million or more for Series A, B & C financing. S3 invests primarily around the Southwest with a focus on Texas Here’s a link to the firm’s investment criteria:  http://www.s3vc.com/investment-criteria/

EDA Awards New Mexico State University a $368,000 Grant for Next Generation Entrepreneurship

The U.S. Economic Development Administration’s (EDA) 2015 Regional Innovation Strategies (RIS) program awarded NMSU one of only 25 grants. The EDA’s prestigious award will fund the university’s Next Generation Entrepreneurship (Next Gen) program, which is focused on student entrepreneurship as a strategy to enhance commercialization of research, regional connectivity, and innovation and which will take student entrepreneurship programming developed on NMSU’s main campus to the university’s community college system of four campuses, three of which are located in rural communities and serve underrepresented populations. Next Gen’s efforts will help to train a new generation of regional entrepreneurs, connect them with technologies ripe for commercialization, and provide technical assistance and mentoring to facilitate commercialization of these technologies. Next Gen will impact the region and service area through jobs created and retained, new businesses registered, private investment in businesses, progress of ventures through the commercialization pathway, events held, and new products launched by participants.

Senior Scientific and Weill Cornell Medicine Pursue Non-Invasive Prostate Cancer Detection

Senior Scientific, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Manhattan Scientifics, established a research collaboration last month with Weill Cornell Medicine. The Albuquerque-based firm is developing a platform for the early detection of cancer and other human diseases. For the alliance, the company will bring its magnetic relaxometry technology (MRX) to Weill Cornell Medicine, where scientists will investigate the use of molecularly targeted nanoparticles to non-invasively detect and diagnose prostate cancers.

“We have extensive experience in targeting radionuclides to cancer for imaging and therapy using antibodies and small molecules,” said John Babich, Ph.D., Professor of Radiopharmaceutical Sciences in Radiology at Weill Cornell Medicine. “This collaboration enables us to leverage our expertise in prostate cancer targeting to explore Senior Scientific’s non-radioactive magnetic nanoparticle platform for early detection of cancer.”

Gary Dorfman, M.D., Vice Chairman for Research at the Weill Cornell Medicine Department of Radiology and Professor of Radiology added, “The MRX technology may have advantages for patient care compared to PET, CT or MRI methods and we are looking forward to working with Senior Scientific to investigate the diagnostic applications of this technology for patients.”

 Bob Proulx, President and COO of Senior Scientific said there are approximately 1 million prostate biopsies done in the U.S. annually. “We believe our technology could significantly improve the way prostate cancer is diagnosed and Weill Cornell Medicine has the expertise to help us,” he said. In January, the company announced it would be working with the University of Michigan Medical School on a breast cancer program, adding to its existing ovarian cancer program with the MD Anderson Cancer Center. Each of the three pre-eminent institutions will have the  MRX technology on-site, enabling them to undertake the pre-clinical animal model studies necessary in anticipation of first in human testing.

NeuroVive Reports Favorable Safety Evaluation 

NeuroVive Pharmaceutical,  a Swedish company originally started by NMBio member firm Maas Biolab, is developing cyclosporine and cyclosporine analog formulations to treat traumatic brain injury, acute kidney injury, stroke, and mitochondrial energy regulation, according to Michael Vickers, Director of Operations for  Maas Biolab , a member of NeuroVive’s nomination committee, and treasurer of NMBio. 

NeuroVive has two clinical trials currently ongoing – a Phase II study using CicloMulsion® to treat acute kidney injury during cardiac surgery (CiPRICS study) and a Phase II study using NeuroSTAT® to treat traumatic brain injury.  Recently NeuroVive reported that the CiPRICS study to treat acute kidney injury has successfully enrolled 100 patients and has received a favorable safety evaluation by an independent committee.  Acute kidney injury (AKI) may occur after major surgeries, such as coronary artery bypass surgery, which is performed in over 400,000 people worldwide.  There are currently no approved AKI treatment options available and patients with AKI during bypass surgery risk developing end stage renal disease, which is a serious and costly consequence requiring dialysis in a number of cases.  The study will ultimately treat 150 patients and will be concluded in the second half of 2016.  

NMBio Welcomes New Members

Genentech, a biotechnology corporation that became a subsidiary of Roche in 2009, joined at the level of a silver sponsor.

Genentech markets itself as a research-driven corporation that follows the science to make innovations. It employs more than 1,100 researchers, scientists and postdocs and covers a wide range of scientific activity—from molecular biology to protein chemistry to bioinformatics and physiology. Genentech scientists in these various areas of expertise currently focus their efforts on five disease categories:  Oncology,  Immunology, Tissue Growth and Repair, Neuroscience and Infectious Disease. Genentech’s recent hiring and acquisitions indicate an intent to expand into  microbiology and  medical Imaging.

Renewing Members

Los Alamos National Labs has renewed its membership and will help sponsor this year’s New Mexico BioGENEius  Challenge at the New Mexico Science and Engineering Fair in Socorro on April 1 and 2. 

Like LANL, Senior Scientific has renewed its membership at the Silver level.