Maryland, along-established hub for medical technology, is helping to grow the next generation of life sciences companies. Five companies and a research team were awarded$865,000 by theBioMaryland Center within the Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development(DBED), the BioMaryland Center announced Wednesday.
Companies received up to $200,000 each and will use the funding to accelerate commercialization efforts, bringing their technologies and treatments one step closer to improving patients' lives."These awards provide critical funding and help to ensure that the life-saving research being done at these companies has the opportunity to move to the commercial marketplace and potentially impact million around the world," said DBED Secretary Mike Gill.
Awardees include:
Brain Biosciences (Rockville) – A compact portable PET scanner for evaluation of patients with suspected Alzheimer's or other neurodegenerative disorders.
GraftWorx LLC (Bel Air) – A "smart" graft that automatically alerts clinicians of critical events before they occur so that cost-effective, early interventions replace emergency procedures.
JPLC Associates (Baltimore) – A device, the "Raven," which integrates optical, mechanical and radiation quality assurance parameters for radiation therapy equipment.
Mindoula Health (Silver Spring) – A telehealth platform enabling virtual and in-person 24/7 behavioral health case management services and collaborative care.
Vixiar Medical Inc. (Annapolis) – A noninvasive device to monitor congestive heart failure that functions by having the patient breathe into a hand-held device to use airway back pressure to calculate cardiac filling pressures.
Dr. Quinones-Hinojosa and Dr. Jordan Green, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine (Baltimore) – A biodegradable nanoparticle therapy enabling effective transfection of patient's stem cells derived from adipose tissue that are applied directly to the post-operative site of brain cancer.
The BioMaryland Center partnered with Maryland's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DHMH) and the Center for Medical Technology Policy (CMTP) in evaluating applicants and ensuring that awardees were working to not only improve health care quality, but also reduce costs.
Since 2010, the program has awarded more than $8.3 million to 48 Maryland life sciences projects.Previous awardees, including Gliknik, Telcare and Unither Virology, collectively have raised more than $130 million to further advance their products.
