Mid Atlantic Bio Angels

Posted: October 9, 2020

We hope that everyone is staying well and safe.

MABA just announced an exit from portfolio company Immunomic Therapeutics. MABA members were early investors in Immunomic Therapeutics which paid a dividend to investors of approximately 5X invested capital when licensing its allergy division to Astellas in 2015. After acquisition of a majority of its shares by HLB Co, Ltd., a multi-billion-dollar market cap Korean life sciences company, the company offered to buy shares back from remaining shareholders at approximately 4X invested capital for its early investors, increasing their yield, for those who accepted the offer, to 9X [ Read more… ]

Posted: April 22, 2020

I wanted to provide a quick update on our activities during the current Covid-19 crisis, which has affected every life and every business sector.

Companies in the life sciences are able to operate, but are facing extreme issues, such as:

–         Staff is at home, often taking care of kids out of school, etc.

–         Even when staff is healthy and available, companies must restrict the number of staff that can be on site at any given time, which affects all research, development and commercialization activities.

–         Non-Covid-19 related clinical trials are being postponed, and those currently running are being [ Read more… ]

Posted: March 26, 2020

We are happy to announce that the Sidecar Fund has made an investment in FemSelect (formerly POP Medical).

FemSelect is an Israeli-based company commercializing A mesh-free approach for pelvic floor fixation for Pelvic Organ Prolapse (POP), which is a painful, debilitating medical condition that occurs when the normal support of the vagina is lost, resulting in the “sagging” or dropping of the female pelvic organs.

FemSelect received investment in the past from MABA members, as well as from one of MABA’s internal investment Pools. The current investment round included multiple MABA members – some of whom invested in [ Read more… ]

Posted: Jan 20, 2020

I want to share with you an opinion piece written by one of our MABA Steering Committee members, Jon Popke, who is also Executive Director, Toxicology with Regeneron Pharmaceuticals.

With all the uncertainly currently surrounding the current COVID-19 outbreak, it is important to pause from time-to-time to take stock of the remarkable technologies being deployed to combat the pending epidemic. Note, for example, that 2 separate clinical trials initiated in the U.S. this week to test potential therapies against the virus.

The first is a vaccine trial launched in collaboration with the National Institutes of Health. The vaccine [ Read more… ]

Posted: Jan 13, 2020

The MABA Sidecar Fund I has made its first investment, in Cerus Endovascular.

To give the Fund access to a broader range of investment opportunities in which MABA Members are investing, the Fund may invest in opportunities where the investment by MABA Members and/or the Pools was made within six (6) months prior to the closing of the Fund, provided that they satisfy the Fund’s investment rules and, provided further that the same securities are still available from the Presenting Company on the same terms as the MABA Members and/or the Pool(s) invested.

Cerus Endovascular received investment from [ Read more… ]

Posted: Jan 3, 2020

In addition to being active in third-party organized events, for many years MABA also organized its own set of sponsored events titled “1st Pitch Life Science” (1stpitchlifescience.com).  When they began, in 2013, the 1st Pitch events helped establish MABA’s name and brand, while contributing to the deal flow pipeline and increasing our engagement with the local life science early stage ecosystem.

The 1st Pitch events mimicked our investor meetings, and helped educate companies which were not quite ready for funding about the angel investment process, in hopes that that one day they would develop into qualified investment candidates). [ Read more… ]

Posted: Dec 10, 2019

We continue to be very active in our outreach efforts, where we are able to showcase our group, meet new companies, and help seed the deal flow pipeline.  In 2019 we participated in the following events:

• Angel Capital Association – April – in Chicago
• NJ Biopartnering – May
• Ontario Bio – May – web pitching event
• RESI (Redefining Early Stage Investments) – June – Philadelphia
• RESI – September – Boston
• NJEDA – Early Stage Investing in Life Sciences – October – NJ
• J&J JLabs – “Office Hours” – November – NYC
• NJEDA Founders & Funders – [ Read more… ]
  

Posted: Nov 12, 2019

MABA members and the MABA internal investment Pools made two investments in 2019 (that would have qualified for co-investment by the Fund):

• Healionics, a Seattle, Washington-based company, developing a synthetic vascular graft (artificial blood vessel) which remains open to blood flow much longer than conventional vascular grafts.  And,

• Cerus Endovascular, a UK-based company, with manufacturing facilities in California, engaged in the design and development of highly differentiated and proprietary interventional neuroradiology (INR) devices and delivery systems, which it believes will represent the next generation in the minimally invasive treatment of neurovascular diseases, particularly intracranial aneurysms.

Fund investors, [ Read more… ]