Competition held during 2018 BioHealth Capital Region Forum
Wilson Sonsini's Charlie Andres and BHI’s Rich Bendis present the team from Galen Robotics their award for winning the 2018 Crab Trap competition
Galen Robotics, a Johns Hopkins University spinout, was chosen from five finalists as the company with the most commercial potential by judges at the 3rd Annual Crab Trap Competition. This year’s judges included industry leaders Amgen’s Bethany Mancilla,AstraZeneca’s Shaun Grady, Blu Venture’s Dr. Paul Silber, J.P. Morgan’s John T. Rubin, New Enterprise Associates’ Sara Nayeem, Roche’s Robert Silverman, and Sands Capital Ventures’ Stephen Zachary. They were impressed with a presentation by Lead Software Engineer, Yunis Sevimli, on Galen Robotics’ low-cost, compact, and intuitive to use novel microsurgical robotic platform designed to assist surgeons with minimally-invasive applications in otolaryngology, neurosurgery and similar critical fields. Galen Robotics is the third Johns Hopkins University spinout to win this competition following LifeSprout (2017) and Sonavex (2016).
Strong presentations also were made by the other finalists--AlgometRx, Cellth Systems, Renalert, andReveragen Biopharma—whose technologies originated at Children’s National Medical Center, the University of Maryland, and Johns Hopkins University.
“We could not have been more impressed with all of the participants in the Crap Trap this year Galen’s presentation along with their technological and medical potential makes them very deserving of their award.” said Richard Bendis, BHI President & CEO, who moderated the session. “Thank you to all the participants in addition to our judges, sponsors, and forum attendees who helped make this competition a success for the 3rd straight year.”
Founded by BioHealth Innovation, Inc. (BHI) and MedImmune in 2016, the Crab Trap Competition spotlights early stage biohealth companies with commercial potential in the BioHealth Capital Region. Finalists have the opportunity to present at the BioHealth Capital Region Forum which is attended by more than 700 industry leaders. The grand prize this year is $10,000 provided by Crab Trap SponsorWilson Sonsini, incubation space in either Montgomery Country, MD or Prince William County, VA, and business mentoring.
About the BioHealth Capital Region
The BioHealth Capital Region (BHCR) consisting of Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, DC is the prominent BioHealth cluster in the Mid-Atlantic. The BHCR encompasses more than 800 life sciences companies, over 70 federal labs and world-class academic and research institutions. According to Genetic Engineering News (May 2017), the BHCR is ranked 5th in Top Biopharma Clusters in the country. The BHCR brand represents collaboration among leading stakeholders with a collective goal to make the BHCR a top 3 biohealth cluster by 2023. http://www.biohealthcapital.com/
