Mid-Week News Roundup

It's the middle of the week, and here's what's happening in the news:

Big news for startups: Congress has now passed the JOBS Act after a 380 - 41 vote in the House of Representatives. Passage was expected, as earlier in the month, the House had voted overwhelmingly in favor of the legislation. Because the Senate amended the bill to include more investor protections, the House had to revisit the bill prior to sending it to the President. President Obama has said that he will sign the bill. The National Venture Capital Association is one of the many organizations in support of the bill. Some of their statements can be found on WRAL Tech Wire.

The spring CED CAFÉ program attracted more than 80 people for a lunch-and-learn opportunity on Tuesday. A brief summary of the main points from the investors and entrepreneurs on the panel is available.

CED Member Boostsuite continues to run their "Refer-and-Win" program to acquire beta testers for their website marketing automation software tool for small businesses. Winner gets a Kindle Fire. Still time to participate, instructions are on the Boostsuite Small Business Blog.

Red Hat, one of CED's newest Mentor Partners, is expected to report more than $1 billion in revenue today, in an announcement to be made after the market closes. Write up available on WRAL Tech Wire.

Update: Red Hat officially reported fourth quarter revenues of $297 million, up 21% year-over-year, and a full fiscal year revenue of $1.13 billion, up 25% year-over-year, beating market predictions.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued new guidelines to help medical device makers understand how the FDA reviewers determine premarket approval. Guidelines are found here.

CED Member Targacept announced results from an exploratory drug trial that could have potential applications for asthma and type-2 diabetes treatments. The trial found that the compound TC-6987 shows success for asthma but failure for diabetes. Press release can be found on the wire.

CED Member Metabolon was granted US Patent 8,131,473, or "Data Analysis Methods for Locating Entities of Interest within Large Multivariable Datasets". It is the sixth technology patent and nineteenth overall for Metabolon. News statement here.

A SciQuest executive has been named a 2012 "Pro to Know" by Supply & Demand Chain Executive. Jason Liner, Healthcare Market Director and Manager of Supplier Strategies & Solutions, receives this award at a time when many supply chain executives are worried about the future of the economy. Great discussion on the SciQuest website.

Lenovo, a CED Mentor Partner, launched the Lenovo App Shop this week. The company is partnering with application marketplace MobiHand to make the App Shop. The Shop will support IdeaPad and ThinkPad tablets, and other devices or tablets using Android 3.1 or later.

The Kauffman Foundation announced their upcoming Life Science Ventures Summit on June 22-23 in San Francisco. Application deadline for companies is April 9, 2012. More information on the Kauffman website.

The Nanotech Commercialization Conference is rapidly approaching. The conference is scheduled for April 4-5, 2012 in Durham, NC. There are still open and available spots at the conference. For more information, review the conference page.

Jack Bailey, SVP at GlaxoSmithKline, and strong CED Advocate, states that big pharma has a role to play in healthcare reform. Mr. Bailey is a strong supporter of CED and has previously served as the conference co-chair for the CED Life Science Conference.