Read the latest news from NewYorkBIO 
NewYorkBIO News   
March 2016

From the Executive Director

All across New York State biosciences, spring is in the air with member companies expanding, innovating, and driving research and production.  We are very happy to see that the New York Stem Cell Foundation will be expanding its footprint when it moves to the far west side.  The news from the universities and research labs features health data releases and innovations in therapies and devices that show promise in treatments for diabetes, schizophrenia, and cancers.  Moreover, Pfizer announced that it is expanding its investment strategy for Research & Development in early-stage companies. NewYorkBIO members are all about innovation and all about growth.
 
On the public-policy front, NewYorkBio has been studying legislation out of Albany and Washington in order to understand the implications of proposed laws to members throughout the biosciences.  While NewYorkBIO opposes overly burdensome regulation that threatens research, clinical trials, or innovation, we excited about bringing good policy to the fore.  For example, we are working with legislators to bring smart biosimilars legislation to New York--including setting parameter for safe substitution of interchangeable biologics--along with other legislation that fosters access to innovative therapeutics and devices. 
 
After the productive meetings between our members and our legislators in Albany in March, we look forward you joining us for our Federal Legislative Day Fly-In in D.C. next month.  We also hope you can join us for one of our New York BIOCONNECTIONS 2016 networking events in March and April. Connections themes include Financing and investment opportunities for growing companies; ways to reduce costs and drive savings to the bottom line; public policy and advocacy issues across our industry; and, of course, opportunities for networking and professional development. BIOCONNECTIONS events will be held in Tarrytown, Long Island, Brooklyn, Buffalo, Rochester, and Albany. Click here for full details.
 
Of course, all this innovation, growth, and professional development is just the lead-in for our 2016 NewYorkBIO Annual Conference, featuring cutting-edge panels on such topics as Medical Marijuana; Advances in Gene Editing/CRISPR; Building Biotech in New York; Venture Philanthropy; Advances in Microbiome Technology. Plus, folks are already getting excited about our PitchFest 2016 for emerging companies.  We can't wait to see you there!





Nathan Tinker
Executive Director

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NewYorkBIO and BIO Business Solutions®, BIO's cost-savings program, have announced a new partnership with UniFirst Corporation, bringing our members a wide selection of uniforms, lab coats, and other garments, along with facility service products and microfiber cleaning supplies at 30-50% off. UniFirst rental programs outfit employees, provide scheduled pickups and deliveries, and handle hygienic cleanings, garment repairs, and replacements. 

The UniFirst partnership also extends to offerings from UniClean, a division of UniFirst that provides specialized cleanroom and controlled environment garment-related service s. 
For more information, visit bio.org/bbs/unifirst and  bio.org/bbs/uniclean .

PolicyPublic Policy & Advocacy

NEW YORK STATE UPDATE

NewYorkBIO is hard at work in Albany on over a dozen major legislative priorities to strengthen and support biosciences across the state.  
  • NewYorkBIO strongly opposes the efforts to mandate price controls on Biopharmaceutical products, included in section 5 of part B of Mental Hygiene Article VII of Governor Cuomo's proposed budget.  The proposal would require bioscience companies to report, publicly, trade secrets and proprietary information regarding costs associated with the research, development, and production of treatments designated "critical" by the Department of Health.  The legislation further would authorize the Department of Health to enact price controls, in the form of price ceilings and rebates, on those treatments. As one of the largest bioscience sectors in the country, New York bioscience could be crippled by this legislation.
  • Legislation providing for the regulation of genetically engineered products, A.617B/S.485B, is under consideration in the Assembly Codes Committee. This legislation would impose a set of new labeling requirements on products that contain food that has been modified by modern genetic engineering techniques. NewYorkBIO strongly opposes this unnecessary and expensive legislation, which threatens to undermine New York's leadership in the field of biotechnology. 
  • NewYorkBIO supports A.8648/S.6311, legislation promoting patient safety with regard to biosimilars.  NewYorkBIO believes that certain safeguards should guide the setting of parameters for safe substitution of interchangeable biologics under state law, in order to ensure transparency between patients and their treatment teams.
FEDERAL UPDATE

Despite this being an election year, there is still a lot of bioscience-related activity in Washington DC.
  • NewYorkBIO, along with BIO, the Coalition for Safe and Affordable Food, and 18 other state life science associations, joined forces in support of the H.R. 1599, the Safe and Accurate Food Labeling Act. This bipartisan legislation will ensure that food labeling in the United States is uniform and science-based.  The proposed legislation also would improve clarity for foods carrying a GMO-free label and provide uniform rules by creating a national certification program for foods that have been produced without bioengineering.
  • We also worked closely with BIO to in support of H.R. 4139, the Fostering Innovation Act. The Fostering Innovation Act would support the growth of emerging biotechs by reducing the cost of burdensome regulations. Specifically, the bill would create a targeted five-year exemption from Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) Section 404(b) for JOBS Act companies that are still pre-revenue when the IPO On-Ramp expires. The Fostering Innovation Act represents a move away from one-size-fits-all compliance burdens, and we believe it will sustain the growth of the biotech industry in New York and support the search for the next generation of medical breakthroughs.
Read the full texts of NewYorkBIO's legislative positions on

Albany Fly-In Advocacy
Advocacy Day and Fly-In Brings NewYorkBIO Members to Albany

On February 29th and March 1st, NewYorkBIO hosted Bioscience Advocacy Day and Legislative Fly-In, offering members opportunities to meet Members and senior staff of the State Legislature to discuss their positions on key issues of biotechnology, from fair pricing to biosimilars, to GMO regulation.  One member said of the events, "I really look forward to Advocacy Day. NewYorkBIO schedules the meetings, provides everyone with a legislative briefing packet, and arranges small-group opportunities for me to explain what the legislation means to me and my business."  

NewYorkBIO invites members to join the next Federal Legislative Fly-In in Washington DC,  April 12-13.  More information
LifeSciTodayNew York Life Sciences Today

Guest Contributor
Building Valuation with Visuals
Maria Casini
Co-Founder and Managing Partner,
Chief of Strategic Design
Guard Dog Brand Development, LLC

NewYorkBIO is proud to have Guard Dog Brand Development as 
our strategic design and content partner.
 
When it comes to communicating the value of scientific innovations, even the most complicated science can be explained more clearly and more quickly through the use of visuals.
 
The importance of visuals and shape is hard-wired in our brains. Research has shown that the majority of people are visual learners (1). Understanding this provides valuable insight and opportunity to create visuals that are highly effective for busy stakeholders, whether they are KOLs, potential partners, or investors. Investors, in particular, need to understand potential value in terms that resonate with them quickly.
 
Science visualization cuts through the communication bombardment people face every day in a meaningful and memorable way. These visuals, often referred to as "cartoons," are powerful business tools that distill complex ideas into their essence. Cartoons blend strategy, differentiating relevant language, and strategic design together to immediately convey compelling ideas about why the product or innovation is likely to be a market success.
 
Cartoons are anything but funny. Whether displaying mechanisms of action (MOAs), the technical aspects  of an innovation, or information about a disease, cartoons are an opportunity to convey the most important aspects of the innovation in a compelling, digestible way, starting as early as Phase II. 
Cartoons help all commercialization team members tell a clear, consistent, distinctive, engaging story quickly. The faster a scientific innovation can be placed in a visual context that target audiences can quickly understand, the sooner its value can be appreciated.
 
Consider the benefits of investing in cartoons. A picture really is worth 1000  words.  Guard Dog recently completed a global survey with practicing oncologists.  In that survey, we asked "On a scale of 1 to 10, how valuable are infographics or visualizations of molecular pathways/mechanisms of action in communicating a product's features and benefits?"  Oncologists scored the importance of cartoons as 8 out of 10 (2). We would hypothesize that this is true for most if not all medical specialties, not just oncology. 
 
By giving stakeholders a clear, simplified, memorable image that conveys features and benefits quickly, you can just as quickly spread the word that your product or  innovation has value.
 
Cartoons are strategic tools that help improve business communications.   Visualized science clarifies information and can help stakeholders engage more quickly and act more decisively on the information you provide.  This makes building visual language that can be applie d to cartoons, information graphics, and the display of quantitative data essential in the business of healthcare and the life sciences.

Referrences:
1. Kathy A. Lutz and Richard J. Lutz (1978), "Imagery-Eliciting Strategies: Review and Implications of Research", in NA-Advances in Customer Research Volume 05, eds. Kent Hunt, Ann Arbor, MI: Association for Consumer Research, Pages 611-620.
 
2. Guard Dog Brand Development: Oncology Corporate Image Perceptual
Index™Selects Study; July 2015.
 
The ImmunoGen ADC Technology cartoon shown on the right is a copyright of ImmunoGen Inc. © 2016. All Rights Reserved.



Breakfast Club Features Cellectis CEO Andre Choulika
Twenty-five life science executives met for the first CEO Breakfast Club of 2016 at New York's Lambs Club, where Andre Choulika, CEO of Cellectis and one of the inventors of modern gene editing.
 
 
 
NewYorkBIO Welcomes Rockefeller University's Timothy O'Connor to Board of Directors
NewYorkBIO welcomes   Timothy O'Connor, PhD, Executive Vice President of Rockefeller University, to the association's Board of Directors.  

Dr. O'Connor oversees most university operations at Rockefeller, including research support, technology transfer, facilities, and information technology, as well as finance, investments, human resources, and legal affairs.  

"We have entered an extraordinary era in translational medicine, and the prospects for developing new therapies for poorly treated diseases have never been greater,"said Dr. O'Connor."Working together, academia and industry can accelerate this progress, and bring to patients the next generation of medicines. New York is emerging as a center for transformational healthcare, and I look forward to working with NewYorkBIO Board to advance the remarkable science underway."


NewYorkBIO Pub Night Kicks Off BIO-CEO Investor Conference
NewYorkBIO members and friends networked with BIO CEO Conference attendees from around the world as they enjoyed a spectacular Superbowl Watch Party, in an exciting evening of wine and talk at Upstairs at the Kimberly Hotel. This event continues to attract new attendees, and this year saw 237 participants.

EventsUpcoming Events

Wednesday, March 16, 2016
4:00 PM - 6:00 PM 
BIOCONNECTIONS: LONG ISLAND
L.I. High Technology Incubator, 25 Health Sciences Drive, Stony Brook, NY 11790
Details & Registration

Thursday, March 17, 2016
4:00 PM - 6:00 PM 
BIOCONNECTIONS: NYC
SUNY Downstate Biotech Incubator, 760 Parkside Avenue Brooklyn, NY 11203
Details & Registration

Tuesday, March 29, 2016
4:00 PM - 6:00 PM 
BIOCONNECTIONS: BUFFALO
DIG @ the Innovation Center, 640 Elliott Street, Buffalo, NY
Details & Registration

Wednesday, April 6, 2016
7:30 AM - 9:30 AM 
CEO Breakfast Club with Paul Sekhri, CEO, Lycera
The Lambs Club
Details & Registration

Wednesday, April 6, 2016
4:00 PM - 6:00 PM 
BIOCONNECTIONS: ROCHESTER
University of Rochester Medical Center
Details & Registration

Tuesday, April 12 - Wednesday, April 13, 2016 
BIO Legislative Fly-in 2016
Washington DC
Details & Registration

Tuesday, April 19, 2016
4:00 AM - 6:00 PM 
BIOCONNECTIONS: ALBANY
Taconic Biosciences, Inc., University of Albany
Details & Registration

Wednesday, April 20, 2016
7:30 AM - 9:30 AM 
CEO Breakfast Club with Neil Stahl, EVP, Regeneron
The Lambs Club
Details & Registration

Wednesday, May 11 - Thursday, May 12, 2016 
2016 NewYorkBIO Annual Conference
10 on the Park @ Time Warner Center, NYC
Details & Registration

Welcome New Members

A special welcome and thank you to our newest  Premier Members
Merck

Aesku NY, Inc.
AJES LifeSciences, LLC
American Laboratory Trading
ASC Biosciences
August Research LLC
BioBAT, Inc.
BioINC
Biologichem LLC
bioMAS Solutions
BREONICS, Inc.
Celgene Corporation
Cellectis Inc.
Celleritas Bioscience LLC
Chimeron Bio

Darmiyan
Efferent Labs, Inc.
Frommer Lawrence & Haug LLP
Kallyope
Mirna Analytics, LLC
Pepper Hamilton LLP
RespireRx Pharmaceuticals Inc.
Rheonix
RxC International
Syndax Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
Synthetic Genomics: SGI-DNA
TARA Biosystems
Translational Cell Science LLC
US Specialty Formulations LLC

Member Spotlight:
BioMed Realty

BioMed Realty is the leading provider of real estate solutions to the life science community. BioMed Realty has a proven track record in bringing unmatched expertise to the full range of real estate services - leasing, development, construction, redevelopment, acquisition, financing and property management - to our tenant partners in the United States and United Kingdom.  With over 18 million square feet of rentable space worldwide, BioMed Realty's world-class portfolio of facilities offers partners a wide range of options from traditional office space to small lab space to state-of-the-art build-to-suit life science properties.

BioMed's flagship property in New York is The Landmark at Eastview in Tarrytown, home to Regeneron, Armgo Pharmaceuticals, Psychogenics, and many more life science companies. The Landmark at Eastview is the premier multi-tenant biotech, medical and pharmaceutical laboratory and office facility in New York State. Located minutes from Tappan Zee Bridge and 30 minutes from Manhattan, The Landmark at Eastview offers tenants a campus-like environment with access to top talent in the biotech and pharmaceutical industry. 
 
Twenty years ago, BioMed Realty co-founders, Alan Gold and Gary Kreitzer, created the business of developing and managing real estate specifically for the life science industry. They recognized that the life science industry and universities have unique and special requirements for real estate that commercial real estate companies were not providing. Today, our business has grown and evolved into one of the leading providers of real estate and real estate services to the life science and university communities.
 
New York Region contact:
  Laura Kaufman
  (914) 345-5500
  777 Old Saw Mill River Road
  Tarrytown, NY 10591
MemberNewsNewYorkBIO Member News

NEWS SUBMISSIONS
If you have news to share with our 20,000+ subscribers, please send notes or releases to


AccelBio, Inc.
Accel Biotech introduced Kelly West as new Quality Director.

Accelerator Corporation
Accelerator Corporation's Petra launch featured in Forbes.com.
 



Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University
Albert Einstein College of Medicine has been selected to be part of the White House's inaugural Precision Medicine Initiative Summit.


Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc.
Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc. announced that its leasing activity for the year 2015 is the highest twelve-month leasing volume in the company's 20-year history.


Allovate, LLC
Allovate Therapeutics announced that the U.S Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has granted Allovate a U.S. Patent.


Applied DNA Sciences, Inc.
Applied DNA Sciences, Inc. has signed a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement with the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).


Argon Medical Devices Biocoatings Corp.
Argon Medical Devices, Inc. announced the completed acquisition of three vascular products from Rex Medical, LLC.


Astellas
Ocata Therapeutics was acquired by Astellas and is now an indirect wholly owned subsidiary operating out of Marlborough, MA.


Bristol Myers Squibb
Bristol-Myers Squibb Company announced that Daklinza™ has been approved by the FDA in combination with sofosbuvir (with or without ribavirin) in genotypes 1 and 3.


Cellectis Inc. 
Cellectis announced that its wholly owned subsidiary, Calyxt, Inc., has closed on the purchase of a 10-acre parcel.


Celmatix, Inc.
23andMe, a DNA-testing startup, and Celmatix, a New York-based biotech, have joined forces to develop a genetic screening test for doctors to identify women who are at risk of a premature decline in their ovarian function.


Chembio Diagnostic Systems Inc.
Chembio Diagnostics, Inc. has been awarded a grant from philanthropist and entrepreneur Paul G. Allen to immediately initiate development of simple, cost-effective POC diagnostic tests to identify Zika virus and related febrile illnesses.

Read More

Children's Tumor Foundation
CTF partnered with Magnus Racing and, for the first time ever, a car carrying the Children's Tumor Foundation (CTF) logo finished the historic race on top of the podium.
 
Read More

City University Of New York
As part of a partnership dedicated to advancing urban health research, the CUNY Graduate School of Public Health & Health Policy and NYC Department of Health have released new population health data from the 2013-2014 NYC Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.
 
  Read More

Columbia Technology Ventures, Columbia University
Columbia CTV Researchers have successfully disrupted a genetic chain of events in a mouse model of schizophrenia and reversed memory deficits, one of the disorder's most difficult-to-treat symptoms.


Eli Lilly and Company
Eli Lilly and Company announced an arrangement to partner with Roche Diagnostics on its ongoing development of a commercially scalable cerebrospinal fluid assay for amyloid-beta 1-42.


Enumeral Biomedical Corp.
Enumeral Biomedical Holdings, Inc. announced that it has entered into a Collaborative Research and Development Agreement with The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.


Harter, Secrest & Emery LLP
Harter Secrest & Emery announced the expansion of its securities practice in Buffalo with the addition of Kyla E. Klos.


HHMI/The Rockefeller University
The Howard Hughes Medical Institute named Erin O'Shea its sixth president, effective September 1, 2016. O'Shea currently serves as HHMI's chief scientific officer.


Immune Pharmaceuticals Corp.
Immune Pharmaceuticals Inc. announced that it has filed a patent application directed to the treatment of Acute Myeloid Leukemia and other cancers.


International AIDS Vaccine Initiative
The International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) welcomed two new senior members to its vaccine design and development teams:  Philip R. Johnson and Robert Lemon.

Read More

Johnson & Johnson Innovation Center
Johnson & Johnson Diabetes Care Company, LifeScan, Inc, announced a strategic agreement with WellDoc Corporation to advance mobile solutions for Type 2 diabetes patients to use real time data and information to improve outcomes.

Merck & Co Inc.
Merck announced that the FDA has granted Priority Review for bezlotoxumab, with a Prescription Drug User Fee Act (PDUFA) action date of July 23, 2016.

Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo, PC
Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo, P.C., announced the launch of MintzEdge, a new online resource for entrepreneurs.

Read More

New York Blood Center, Inc.
New York Blood Center, along Community Blood Center of Greater Kansas City, announced the creation of the National Center for Blood Group Genomics.

Read More

New York Stem Cell Foundation
NYSCF announced its 2016 move to the far west side after signing a multi-year lease for 42,000 square-feet at Taconic Partners LLC 619 West 54th Street.

Read More

NYU Langone School of Medicine
Led by researchers from NYU Langone Medical Center,  the largest analysis of breast cancer  cell function to date suggests dozens of new uses for existing drugs, new targets for drug discovery, and new drug combinations.

Read More

Ophthotech Corporation
Ophthotech Corporation announced that the first patient has been dosed in a Phase 2/3 clinical study of Zimura® (avacincaptad pegol sodium), an inhibitor of complement factor C5, in patients with geographic atrophy (AMD).


Optologix, LLC
Optologix and enEvolv announced a license agreement for the use of Optologix's light-controlled gene expression technology, LITE switch, for enEvolv's internal research use.

Read More

Pfizer
Pfizer Inc. announced an expansion of its Research & Development investment strategy to include early-stage companies on the leading edge of scientific innovation.

Read More

Provista Diagnostics, Inc.
Provista Diagnostics Inc has appointed Susan Gross, M.D., as Chief Medical Officer.


PsychoGenics, Inc.
PsychoGenics announced that it has obtained a license from University of California, San Diego.


Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. announced that it has joined the Human Vaccines Project. 


RespireRx Pharmaceuticals Inc.
RespireRx Pharmaceuticals Inc. announced that it has received notice that the U.S. FDA has removed the clinical hold on the Company's Investigational New Drug application for CX1739, allowing the initiation of clinical trials.
 
Read More

Roche
Roche led a Series C fundraising round in Flatiron Health totaling $175 million.

Read More

Roche TCRC, Inc.
Roche announced that the FDA has approved the cobas® TaqScreen MPX Test, v2.0 for use in the detection and identification of HIV, HCV, and HBV in donations of human whole blood and blood components including source plasma.
 
Read More

Sodium Analyte Level Test LLC
S.A.L.T. completed the 2015 NYC Bio &  Health Tech Entrepreneurship Lab.


Syndax Pharmaceuticals, Inc.  
Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, Pfizer and Syndax Pharmaceuticals, Inc. announced that they have entered into a collaboration agreement to evaluate avelumab in combination with Syndax's entinostat in patients with heavily pre-treated, recurrent ovarian cancer.

Read More  

Synthetic Genomics
Synthetic Genomics: SGI-DNA SGI-DNA, a SGI company, announced that the world's first DNA printer, the BioXp™ 3200 System, has reached another milestone with the release of the BioXp™ cloning module.


Tetragenetics, Inc.
Tetragenetics Inc. announced that it has received a grant from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences of the NIH of $1,539,000, to be awarded over two years.

Read More

Tonix Pharmaceuticals Holding Corp.
Tonix Pharmaceuticals Holding Corp. has appointed Bradley Saenger, CPA, as Chief Financial Officer (CFO).

Read More

Weill Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences
Dr. Paul N. Casale has been appointed executive director of NewYork Quality Care, the Accountable Care Organization (ACO) of NewYork-Presbyterian, Columbia and Weill Cornell Medicine.

Read More

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