Testing is considered critical to containing COVID-19, yet many countries have encountered diagnostic-supply shortages. Understanding where constraints lie could help efforts to scale testing.

The COVID-19 pandemic has emerged as one of the most significant humanitarian challenges in recent history, and testing is seen as one of the main components of efforts to contain the virus and mitigate its impact.

Governor Carney recently signed into law certain amendments (the Amendments) to the Delaware General Corporation Law (the DGCL) that (i) clarify the powers of boards of directors in an emergency, (ii) enumerate the officers entitled to mandatory indemnification, (iii) confirm the ability of a corporation to execute and deliver documents and notices by electronic means, and (iv) facilitate both the conversion of for-profit Delaware corporations to public benefit corporations and the merger of Delaware corporations in connection with the creation of a holding company structure.

The immediate impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and economic shock are the focus of plenty of societal problem-solving efforts right now. In the long-term, however, climate change remains a vexing challenge that’s not going away.

The environmental imperatives of reducing emissions and creating clean energy options offer an area where new technology can play a role in developing solutions that bring new processes and offer key monitoring.

Image: https://technical.ly/baltimore

Your prize money goes further when it’s distributed among a larger group of winners.

As organisations take their first halting steps towards recovery in this global crisis, they may find that the innovative ideas or capacities they most need aren’t available in-house. They will need to look outward for help from partners and other stakeholders – including their customers and fans. Crowdsourcing competitions may be especially worth considering as part of an open innovation toolkit. By widening the pool of contributors well beyond the focal firm, crowdsourcing compensates for any limitations or biases that may constrain the firm’s innovative vision.

Contrary to popular opinion, viral marketing has not eliminated the need for old-fashioned lead generation to bring customers to a startup. Indeed, while the rules and technologies for lead generation have changed, Forrester and other experts still see it as the most effective way for businesses with limited budgets to maximize their return on marketing investment (ROMI).

Image: https://blog.startupprofessionals.com

The venture capital (VC) industry is responding to a landscape changed by the COVID-19 crisis.

According to a new report from alternative investment fund advisory Phoenix American, changes were underway pre-pandemic, noting the stalling of deal and exit flow in 2019 as VC firms became increasingly concerned about the late stage economic cycle.

There has been a sizable increase in the percentage of female decision-makers at U.S. venture capital firms, albeit nothing near parity, according to an Axios analysis.

By the numbers: Nearly 12.4% of decision-makers at U.S. venture capital firms are women, up from 9.65% in a similar study conducted in February 2019.

Image: Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios

WaterBridge Ventures, Omidyar Network and Whiteboard Capital are among a clutch of smaller venture capital (VC) firms that are set to either clock profitable cash exits or have witnessed significant up-rounds, or uptick in valuations, across some of their portfolio companies, multiple people in the know of developments have said.

This comes at a time when the broader venture capital industry has sharply trimmed investments amid the economic crisis induced by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Image: Illustration: Rahul Awasthi

A fund launched in 2012 by the biotech venture capital firm Flagship Pioneering is on track to return its investors’ money nine times over.

That’s the eyebrow-raising return multiple for Flagship Ventures Fund IV — the highest recorded return multiple in a new STAT report that took a deep dive into returns data for more than a dozen of the country’s top biotech venture capital firms. The data includes return multiples, like Flagship’s 9x figure, for more than 15 funds, which represent both the value of its existing investments as well as the cash the fund has already returned to investors.

Driven entrepreneurs and savvy startup leaders participated in the recent “Fueling an Innovation Ecosystem for Startups to Thrive” webinar that featured prominent connectors and innovators from the BioHealth Capital Region (BHCR). The virtual event was sponsored by WorkForce Genetics and covered a wide range of topics including the pandemic, critical regional resources for startups, advice for approaching investors and a list of the biggest mistakes made by entrepreneurs when seeking funding.

Researchers from AstraZeneca, the University of Oxford, and its spinout company Vaccitech today published preliminary Phase I/II data showing their closely-watched COVID-19 vaccine candidate AZD1222 (formerly ChAdOx1 nCoV-19) to have an acceptable safety profile, and favorable immunogenicity against the virus.

This invitation-only event is free for executive level biotech leaders and is presented by BioHealth Innovation, Virginia Bio, Children’s National Health System, Johns Hopkins University, JPMorgan, Maryland Department of Commerce, George Mason University, University System of Maryland, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati and AstraZeneca.

The BioHealth Capital Region—Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, DC—sets the bar high for biotech innovation. So please join us for our 6th Annual BioHealth Capital Region Forum that will highlight the accomplishments of today and chart our successes of tomorrow.

For more information about our speakers and event schedule, please visit www.biohealthcapital.com/forum-2020

#BHCRForum20

How can we, as entrepreneurs, find answers in a world vying for our attention with constant stimuli and distraction?

According to Albert Camus, the only real progress we make lies in learning to be wrong all alone. It’s in stepping back from this overwhelming volume of information that we can see our mistakes with greater clarity, and consequently find solutions.

Giving ourselves time to think and process our decisions is crucial for progress, and this is especially true in times of turbulence and uncertainty.

The reigning theory in business has long been that “alpha” leaders make the best entrepreneurs. These are aggressive, results-driven achievers who assert control, and insist on a hierarchical organizational model. Yet I am seeing more and more success from “beta” startup cultures, like Zappos and Amazon, where the emphasis is on collaboration, curation, and communication.

Image: https://blog.startupprofessionals.com

Researchers say that curcumin, a natural compound found in the spice turmeric, could help eliminate certain viruses. The scientists, from the Wuhan University of Engineering in China, published a study, “Antiviral and virucidal effects of curcumin on transmissible gastroenteritis virus in vitro,”in the Journal of General Virology which showed that curcumin can prevent transmissible gastroenteritis virus (TGEV), an alpha-group coronavirus that infects pigs, from infecting cells. At higher doses, the compound was also found to kill virus particles.

Scientists have responded to COVID-19 with unprecedented speed. Just months after the outbreak of the novel coronavirus, clinical trials are already underway for nearly 200 vaccines and therapies.  

But while the pace of COVID-19 innovation may be extraordinary, the research infrastructure allowing this remarkable work is hardly new. In fact, it was cemented into place nearly two generations ago when Congress passed the Bayh-Dole Act of 1980.

Some drug companies say we’ll have a coronavirus vaccine by the winter. Others say that’s an irresponsible prediction. Some promise to forgo profits on a vaccine, but others believe they’re entitled to their monetary due.

This week on Leaders and Legends Nick Beim, partner in the Venture Capital Firm Venrock joined Aileen Black to discuss the need to sound the alarm on the United States losing the race on key technologies with China and the impact that will have on the country.

Mark Zuckerberg recently shared his plans for the future of remote work at Facebook. By 2030, he promised, at least half of Facebook’s 50,000 employees would be working from home. “We are going to be the most forward-leaning company on remote work at our scale,” he declared in a follow-up interview. A few days before, Jack Dorsey had announced that Twitter and Square’s employees would be allowed to work “wherever they feel most creative and productive…even once offices begin to reopen.”

As Congress begins negotiations this week on a fourth coronavirus stimulus bill, Steve Case, CEO of venture capital firm Revolution and co-founder of AOL, is making the case for supporting startups in a package that could put upwards of a trillion dollars into the economy.  "The first bills really did a good thing in terms of stabilizing existing businesses," Case told Cheddar. "Now the focus needs to be on startups, because startups actually create the jobs in this country, not small business, not big business, but young, new businesses."

Image: https://cheddar.com - From Video