Mayo Clinic Ventures

Mayo Clinic Ventures serves to commercialize Mayo Clinic technologies for the benefit of patients worldwide while generating revenue to support clinical practice, research and education at Mayo Clinic. The office has licensed hundreds of technologies in the fields of medical devices, diagnostics, therapeutics, and healthcare IT, and has focused efforts in technology-based ventures and start-ups.  Mayo Clinic Ventures also has a $20M venture capital fund which is used to spin out companies that are developing products based on Mayo Clinic research.

Kelly Krajnik
Business Development Manager 

McGuireWoods LLP United States

Emerging, middle-market and established companies alike require sophisticated legal representation that is cost-effective and capable of responding to the rapidly changing demands of regulators and customers. As counsel to domestic and global life sciences companies at every stage of development, the Life Sciences industry group at McGuireWoods offers clients a single, coordinated team of lawyers with deep, varied experience. Our clients recognize that they are treated as firm clients and not as those of a single practitioner or office location.

We counsel clients in all major areas of law affecting life sciences businesses and at every step in the product lifecycle. We provide guidance on corporate transactions and matters involving company structure and formation, financing, facilities acquisition and leasing, and vendor contracts. We have extensive experience in healthcare and life sciences-related regulatory requirements, including compliance audits and policies, FDA notification and approvals, development of pricing programs, and reimbursement and third-party payor processes.

Regulatory policies walk hand in hand with legislative mandates. In conjunction with our full-service public affairs subsidiary, McGuireWoods Consulting, we provide strategic communications and government relations guidance that helps businesses and industry coalitions shape pending legislation and respond to state and federal initiatives.

When disputes or law enforcement investigations arise, we provide aggressive defense against allegations of theft, product liability and mass torts. We represent clients facing government inquiries and administrative actions involving a broad range of issues, from securities disclosures and financial accounting rules to data privacy, antitrust and other compliance requirements. We also investigate and vigorously pursue counterfeiters, gray marketers and abusers of supply chain systems.

As life sciences businesses grow and transform, capital sourcing and other forms of financing become an important concern. We represent clients in negotiations with private equity investors, commercial banks and other financial institutions. Similarly, our depth of experience in public offerings and middle-market mergers and acquisitions adds value to growth and technology companies when exploring liquidity events.

While life sciences businesses share many of the same concerns as companies in other industries, these issues must be addressed in the context of this highly regulated sector of the economy. Our multidisciplinary team of lawyers provides broad-spectrum, coordinated counsel on all major areas of law affecting clients’ operations and strategy. These core areas of service include labor and employment, intellectual property, state and local taxation, and international trade. Our experience in these and other areas of law enables us to provide prompt, effective counsel in the dynamic life sciences marketplace.

Year Founded
1834
Service Provider Type
Medtech Phase of Development
Unique Capabilities

Emerging growth companies in today’s life sciences industry confront a growing list of regulatory and business demands. Such companies are often financially constrained; however, there is still need for sophisticated legal representation that can be executed thoughtfully and efficiently.

McGuireWoods represents emerging private and public companies at every stage of their development, from relatively small enterprises to multibillion-dollar medical device, pharmaceutical and biotech corporations. We provide counsel and advice on entity formation and review, recommend and negotiate financing options, and provide corresponding tax advice.

McGuireWoods also has an international reputation for merger and acquisition work, representing buyers and sellers in acquisitions, divestitures and joint ventures. As part of these transactions, we regularly negotiate corporate and limited-liability buy/sell agreements, stock option or other equity plans and agreements, and employment agreements.

In the intellectual property arena, we have worked with these companies to establish appropriate protections that can limit or block misuse of IP assets by employees, investors or competitive entities. We have also assisted clients in the transfer of intellectual property rights from individual owners to entities, and in protecting and maintaining those rights during merger or acquisition.

Our FDA team provides life sciences companies with strategic regulatory guidance and preventive liability consulting. At all stages of business growth, McGuireWoods can analyze compliance strategies, prepare and file FDA submissions, provide benchmarking audit and analysis of regulatory and liability postures, establish and monitor applicable internal compliance programs, and guide clients through implementation of new business, research and development initiatives.

Mr Brian Malkin
Mr Brian Malkin
LinkedIn logo Senior Counsel 
BIO

Brian leads the firm’s FDA regulatory teams. He has more than 20 years of food and drug law practice and over nine years of intellectual property law practice. In particular, his practice includes the interrelation between patent law and food and drug law. Brian’s regulatory experience includes all types of FDA-regulated products: drugs (including animal drugs), biologics, medical devices, foods and dietary supplements, tobacco products, and cosmetics. Brian’s intellectual property experience includes FDA and patent litigation for both innovator and generic companies.

Immediately prior to law school, Brian worked as a legislative correspondent in the U.S. Senate Committee on Labor and Human Resources. He began his legal career as a regulatory counsel at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, where he worked for more than nine years in both the Office of the Commissioner and the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. At FDA, he focused on new product evaluations, compliance issues related to clinical investigations and intellectual property (e.g., patent term restoration). Brian’s work resulted in new product approvals as well as new industry guidance documents and policies, such as the animal efficacy rule for counter-terrorism products.

Following several years of practice in an FDA law firm, Brian recognized an unmet need to understand both food-and-drug and intellectual-property law for lifecycle management and diligence, particularly concerning products affected by the Hatch-Waxman Act, such as generic and 505(b)(2) new drug applications. As a result, Brian returned to university to obtain a Bachelor of Science degree in biochemistry. Prior to joining McGuireWoods, he practiced for more than nine years at an intellectual property law firm, where he worked on a variety of new product evaluations, FDA and patent litigations, due diligence projects, patent prosecutions, and licensing and commercial transactions.

Given his particular experiences, Brian frequently is asked to speak and write on numerous FDA- and intellectual-property-law issues, including clinical trials and new product development for complex and challenging products, such as biotechnology products, orphan drugs, generic drugs, 505(b)(2) new drug applications, patent-term restoration under the Hatch-Waxman Act, biosimilar products, tobacco products, patent-term adjustment, risk management and due diligence.

Community

Brian has been actively involved in promoting the biotechnology community locally, nationally and internationally. Locally, Brian is working with BioBuzz to help stimulate a more active bioscience workforce and a more dynamic bioscience industry throughout Maryland, Virginia, the District of Columbia and beyond. In February 2014, Brian worked with the Montgomery County Department of Economic Development to present a program on “Innovative Strategies for New Product Development.” Brian also is working with McGuireWoods to sponsor the 2014 Biomanufacturing Technology Summit (biosimilars) to be held in June 2014 by the Institute for Bioscience and Biotechnology Research at the University of Maryland. In addition, Brian served on a board of judges for a local entrepreneur contest for a chemical and life sciences class at the University of Maryland’s Mtech Biotechnology Research and Education Program. He also currently mentors two health law students through a program coordinated by the Maryland State Bar Association’s health law group. Nationally and internationally, Brian has networked with biotechnology groups in Maryland, Massachusetts and Washington state, as well as with the Biotechnology Industry Organization. He also has presented at conferences featuring topics such as orphan drugs, biosimilars, and updates from FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research. Brian was proud to join McGuireWoods in sponsoring and participating in Life Science Nation’s Redefining Early State Investments Conference, which was held in Boston in March 2014 and featured early-stage life sciences companies, investors and service providers. In November 2013, Brian co-presented a variety of programs for a Korea-Maryland USA Bio Expo in Rockville, Maryland, on the following topics: (1) current good manufacturing practice (cGMP) and its role in regulatory drug quality, (2) current drug shortages and orphan drug disease pharmaceutical development, and (3) innovative strategies for new drug development/biobetters.

Blogging

Brian is a co-editor of McGuireWoods LLP's FDA Life blog which covers news and trends impacting the FDA and life science industry.

MedForce

MedForce is the business accelerator arm of Almond Tree Capital and is based in Davis CA. The program makes seed and venture round investments in the form of equity or convertible loans. Investments may range up to $5 with the potential for follow-on investments. While Medforce?s investments are not restricted by region MedForce prefers to support companies based in Northern California or with ties to the region. The fund plans to invest in 2-4 companies in the next 6-9 months.
Cary Adams
CEO 
Christian Renaudin
Partner 

Medtronic United States

Medtronic was founded in 1949 and is based in Minneapolis Minnesota. Medtronic makes strategic investments and acquisitions in the medical device sector and is focused on cardiovascular diseases diabetes diseases of the nervous system (including Parkinson's disease and dystonia) and musculoskeletal conditions. The firm has acquired a number of medical technology and biotechnology companies. Medtronic is also interested in orthopedic products sports health products and telehealth/connected medical devices (particularly consumer apps for health management). Medtronic also makes grants to non-profit organizations. Instructions on applying for investment or grants can be found at Innovate With Medtronic: http://www.medtronic.com/innovation/innovate-with-medtronic.html

Conrad Wang
Senior Director Corporate Development 
Lawrence Cho
Senior Director, Corporate Strategy & Business Development 

Mesa Verde Venture Partners United States

Mesa Verde Venture Partners is a Venture Capital company founded in 2006. The firm is currently making investments out of its 2nd fund that had its first close in 2013. The firm makes primarily equity investment into seed and early stage rounds ranging from $500,000 to $1 million initially and up to $1.5 million over the lifetime of the investment. The firm is focused on companies located in the Southwestern United States although they are open to review companies from throughout the US. The firm could make as many as 3 new investments over the next 6-9 months.

Year Founded
2006
Investor Type
Biotech Phase of Development
Medtech Phase of Development
Capital Structure Preference
Investment Stage Preference
Carey Ng
Managing Director 
Randy Berholtz
Senior Advisor 

Mid Atlantic Bio Angels

Mid Atlantic Bio Angels (MABA) founded in 212 is an angel investor group based in the New York City area which focuses exclusively on new and emerging life science companies. The group places no geographical restrictions or requirements for presenting companies as long as meaningful and effective post-investment monitoring of these companies can be achieved, MABA has considered opportunities in Europe and Israel as well as across the USA and Canada. Since the members are investing their own capital the investment size is highly flexible and will depend on the financial needs of the company. The capital structure is typically in preferred stocks or convertible notes in qualified cases. The group prefers to invest in companies with valuations of less than $5M. As MABA prefers opportunities that can be entirely angel-financed MABA generally requires that companies can achieve exit with $15 million capital or under (generally after raising a Series B round but no further rounds).

Bernard Rudnick
Founder 

N8 Medical United States

N8 Medical is a development-stage medical device company focused upon commercializing antimicrobial medical devices and coatings to address the multibillion dollar public health and economic burden associated with medical device-related hospital acquired infections and healthcare associated infections (HAIs).  N8 Medical’s key differentiator from competitors is the application of a novel, proprietary class of pharmaceutically active compounds known as ceragenins, Cationic Selective Antimicrobials, or CSAs (ceragenins or CSAs) to medical devices for the purpose of providing antifouling or anti-infective properties. N8 Medical believes that ceragenins offer unparalleled efficacy and cost advantages over other coatings and means of addressing HAIs. Further, the use of ceragenins as a platform technology under its CONTEGO™ brand across numerous device segments with multiple coating options provides N8 Medical with a unique, sustainable competitive advantage over other medical device companies.  

N8 Medical is seeking $6 million in investment capital, which it believes will be sufficient to fund development, FDA approval and CE Marking of its proprietary coated CONTEGO™ endotracheal tube (ETT), and initial commercialization activities. N8 Medical has designed its antimicrobial ETT to reduce ICU stays by a single day or more, thereby saving the hospital $3,000 to $5,000 in non-reimbursable costs per ICU patient, and, significantly, by freeing up an ICU bed one day earlier for a new revenue-generating patient and resulting in better profitability for providers and substantial opportunity cost savings.  Thus, N8’s CONTEGO™ ETT presents a compelling value proposition for hospitals.  N8's internal valuation model aligns with relevant market data and comparable companies, indicating a successful antimicrobial device company could achieve a value of over $100 million.  

 

Year Founded
2010
Biotech Subsector
Biotech Phase of Development
Medtech Phase of Development
Technology Overview
Novel antimicrobial small molecule mimetics of antimicrobial peptides applied to medical devices
Alliance & Collaborations
Engaged with leading medical device companies for technology feasibility evaluations
Supporting Metrics or Evidence
in vitro and in vivo efficacy and safety studies
Current Financing Needs
$6 million
Current Timeline
Clinical study planned for Q4 2015/ Q1 2016
IP Status
Patent protection into the 2030's
Management Team Highlights
Successful track record medical technology commercialization, including an IPO
Carl Genberg
CTO 
Michael Triplett
Michael Triplett
CEO 

National Heart Lung and Blood Institute

The Office of Translational Alliances and Coordination (OTAC) at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute supports the development of innovative biomedical products to address unmet medical needs in the heart, lung, blood and sleep fields.  OTAC is home to the NHLBI's small business programs (SBIR and STTR) and the NIH Centers for Accelerated Innovations.

The NHLBI's SBIR and STTR programs comprise one of the largest sources of early-stage capital for U.S. small business, acting as engines of innovation for developing and commercializing novel technologies and products that aid in the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of heart, lung, blood, and sleep diseases and disorders. The NHLBI provides grant and contract funding opportunities and resources to support small businesses performing research and development on technologies related to the mission of NHLBI. With an annual budget of $85M, the NHLBI funds about 200 companies each year through the Institute's small business programs.

The NIH Centers for Accelerated Innovations accelerate translation of scientific discovery into commercial products that improve health for patients. This unique public-private partnership is changing the way discoveries with scientific and commercial potential are identified and developed.

Dr Kurt Marek
Dr Kurt Marek
LinkedIn logo Deputy Director OTAC 
Dr Gary Robinson
Dr Gary Robinson
LinkedIn logo Business Development Specialist 

NeuroNetworks Fund

Neuro Networks Fund is a Venture Philanthropy fund that was established in 213. The fund is looking to make equity investments into companies and projects ranging from $25 for research projects and up to $5 million for early stage companies. The firm will reinvest all returns from these investments back into its fund in an evergreen structure. The firm hopes to begin making its first investments as soon as Q4 214 but is currently very open to discussion and networking with companies in its target sectors. The firm is open to review opportunities from around the globe.
Brian Horsburgh
Trustee 
Mr Andrew Koopman
Mr Andrew Koopman
LinkedIn logo Director New Ventures 
BIO

Andrew Koopman works with investors and entrepreneurs to facilitate the formation of new life science companies that focus on the development and commercialization of NYU technologie, as well as working with these companies to obtain the capital and human resources for growth. In addition to more than a decade in academic technology transfer, Andrew has 16 years of varied experience in the biotechnology industry. He has held scientist, laboratory supervisor, and project manager positions in the course of his employment at two successful biotechnology startup companies, as well as Johnson & Johnson and Hoffman-LaRoche. During this period he was involved in the development of several therapeutic and diagnostic products which are currently on the market.  Prior to joining the NYU Office of Industrial Liaison, Andrew was the Managing Director of Biomedical and Biotechnology Industries at Beroff Associates, a merchant investment banking and strategic advisory group. He has also provided consulting to a number of startup companies, investment groups, and public agencies regarding technology assessment, market analysis, business development, and financing strategies. Andrew is an active board member and advisor of Zero Gravity Solutions, Inc. (Pink Sheets: ZGSI) and Applied Glycan, LLC.