I am happy to announce that a manuscript detailing a AEX and VF spiking study performed with MedImmune (AstraZeneca) and Texcell has been published in Biotechnology Progress. Click here for a good read!

DSC Partners, an investment firm formed in 2017 by former First Potomac executives, has just acquired 28 office buildings in the D.C. suburbs.

The firm announced Wednesday it bought three Montgomery County office parks totaling 1.3M SF for $149M. The 28-building office portfolio consists of the MetroPark North campus in Rockville and the WestTech and Meadows business parks in Silver Spring. 

Image: Courtesy of DSC Partners The MetroPark North office property in Rockville 

We have 108 invited companies and 40 investors participating. Thank you to the Conference partners AstraZeneca, BioHealth Innovation, JP Morgan, Deloitte, WSGR, Maryland Department of Commerce and NIST.

On this episode, Carolyn Yarina, CEO & Co-Founder of Sisu Global Health, chats about her Career, Sisu’s Technology, and Thoughts on Entrepreneurism with BioTalk Host Rich Bendis

Carolyn Yarina, CEO and Co-Founder of Sisu Global: Carolyn is a two-time founder/CEO with a proven track record of execution. She has raised nearly $3M from investors like Camden Partners & Revolution's Rise of the Rest Seed Fund. Carolyn has been featured in USA Today, Forbes, TEDxMidAtlantic, and has received awards like Maryland’s Innovator of the Year, Baltimore Business Journal Tech 10, and Baltimore’s Top 10 BioHealth CEO.

What excites you most about taking on the new role of Head of JLABS @ Washington, DC?

The DC-Maryland-Virginia region is a hotbed of life science innovators, along with strong public and private research institutions. This network of connectivity offers such an opportunity for entrepreneurs working in the life sciences, medical device, and consumer technology space. Opening a JLABS in DC introduces our no-strings-attached JLABS model into the region with the aim to support the focus of these innovators on what they do best – their science and research. By providing the resources, mentoring, programming, and connections start-ups need to be successful, we hope to speed the development and commercialization of innovative treatments and solutions for patients and consumers.

Image: https://jlabs.jnjinnovation.com

A HUGE CONGRATULATIONS to Sally Allain on her new position as Head of hashtag#JLABS @ Washington, DC. We, at @Children's National Health System, are super excited to work with Sally and the entire JLABS team to hashtag#Innovate4Kids

Richard Bendis Judy Costello Vasum Peiris, MD, MPH, FAAP, FACC, FASE Jeffrey M. Gallagher Michael Friedlander @Cassandra Isley John Newby @Kyparissia (Kyp) Sirinakis Tami Howie TEDCO Arti Santhanam @Marshall Summar Josh Wilson, MBA Cherri Carbonara @Kimberly Ovitt, APR Kurt Newman Elizabeth Flury @Chelsea Hewitt Jennifer Cosenza Melinda Richter @Carli Hickman Michelle McMurry-Heath

Image: https://www.linkedin.com/

Thank you BioHealth Innovation, Inc. and AstraZeneca for another successful hashtag#BioHealth Capital Region BioBowl last night. The Children's National Hospital team had a blast. And, we loved the slogan on our T-Shirts "Advancing Science. Accelerating Innovation."

Richard Bendis Judy Costello @Albine Martin, Ph.D. Luis Gutierrez Jeff Walpole Sara Alyamani Whitney Black, MHA Justin Opfermann Lisa Romano BioBuzz Gayatri Varma Jarrod Borkat TEDCO Arti Santhanam Anthony Ho

hashtag#innovate4kids hashtag#bhcr hashtag#jlabs hashtag#pediatrics hashtag#healthcareinnovation hashtag#innovators

Very cool seeing so many people from the different BioHealth Capital Region. 30+ lanes of companies. BioHealth Innovation, Inc. BioBuzz

It’s getting competitive over here at the amazing hashtag#biobowl19 we are cohosting with AstraZeneca for the BioHealth Capital Region

The biotech is a step closer to getting its therapy for drug-resistant infections to patients.

Qiagen and Illumina just made a huge commitment to one another. The two companies announced a 15-year partnership to broaden the availability and use of NGS-based in-vitro diagnostic kits, including companion diagnostics, for patient management.

Initially, the partnership will focus on commercializing oncology IVD kits to support patient management.

The agreement grants Hilden, Germany-based Qiagen non-exclusive rights to develop and globally commercialize IVD kits to be used together with Illumina’s MiSeq Dx and NextSeq 550Dx Systems.

QIAGEN N.V. (NYSE: QGEN; Frankfurt Prime Standard: QIA) announced today that Peer M. Schatz, Chief Executive Officer, has notified the Company that, after 27 years at QIAGEN, he has decided to step down as Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Management Board. He will remain with QIAGEN as Special Advisor to the Supervisory Board and transition into this role in the coming weeks. The Supervisory Board will now start a search for a permanent CEO. In the meantime, Thierry Bernard, Senior Vice President, Head of Molecular Diagnostics Business Area, will now act as interim CEO and work in tandem with Roland Sackers, Chief Financial Officer.

ROCKVILLE, Md., Oct. 10, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Emmes today announced the award of eight new task order contract awards associated with the Helping to End Addiction Long-termSM Initiative, known as the NIH HEAL InitiativeSM. The total value for the eight contracts is more than $9 million. The contract awards' duration ranges from one to five years.

The National Institutes of Health launched the HEAL Initiative in April 2018 to improve prevention and treatment strategies for opioid misuse and addiction and enhance pain management. The eight Emmes contract awards are among 375 grants, contracts, and cooperative agreements across 41 states made by the National Institutes of Health in fiscal year 2019 to apply scientific solutions to reverse the national opioid crisis.

GAITHERSBURG, Md., Oct. 10, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Emergent BioSolutions Inc. (NYSE:EBS) today announced that the company’s chikungunya virus (CHIKV) virus-like particle (VLP) vaccine candidate, CHIKV VLP, was granted PRIority MEdicines, or PRIME, designation by the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) during its September meeting. The PRIME scheme is designed to enhance support for the development of medicines that target an unmet medical need and that may offer a major therapeutic advantage over existing treatments, or benefit patients without preventative or treatment options. The CHIKV VLP vaccine candidate is being developed for the prevention of disease caused by chikungunya virus infection, an illness that spreads through mosquito bites and for which no vaccine or treatment is available.

Manassas, Va. - George Mason University researchers have discovered the exact location where two proteins responsible for hiding cancer cells from the immune system bind. This discovery provides a novel approach to developing new cancer immunotherapy medicines that can be administered as a pill, compared to existing intravenous therapeutics. The findings were published in July 2019 in the Journal of Biological Chemistry.

Image: These 3-D models of a receptor, co-receptor, and ligand demonstrate how the protein painting technology works. Bound proteins in their native form are coated with small molecule dyes. The regions which aren't painted when the proteins are bound, designated white, can be detected by mass spectrometry and inform rational drug development. - Evan Cantwell

ROCKVILLE, Md., Oct. 9, 2019 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Maryland small businesses with innovative research and development (R&D) ideas will have an opportunity to gain comprehensive proposal development support to win federal funding. OST Global Solutions' GovCon Incubator, a woman-owned small business, will train 20 additional Maryland small businesses on how to win government seed fund capital. The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) Federal and State Technology (FAST) grant awarded to Maryland's Technology Development Corporation(TEDCO) and OST Global Solutions, Inc. for the second consecutive year.

A team of researchers has published evidence showing in mice that mitochondria-associated pathways in cell bodies and dendrites within the CA2 subregion of the brain’s hippocampus influence plasticity and mitochondrial respiration—a finding that highlights a potential molecular target for treating human neurodegenerative disorders ranging from autism to Alzheimer’s disease.

Image: Shannon Farris, PhD, a principal investigator at the Center for Neurobiology Research, Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at Virginia Tech Carilion 

Venture capitalists are pouring cash into U.S. biotechs at a rate set to replicate 2018’s record deal count, according to PitchBook and the National Venture Capital Association’s third-quarter Venture Monitor report.

In the first three quarters alone, VCs struck 609 biopharma deals — the majority of which were Series A or B — and contributed $11.5 billion in investments.

Notably, the average deal size shrunk from a 2018 high of $25.6 million to $21.2 million. That figure reflects growth in early stage investments but significant declines in late stage.

The number of investments that venture capitalists will make this year in pharmaceutical and biotech companies is on pace to match last year’s record—and that money continues to shift into earlier-stage deals.

Venture firms invested in 609 drug development deals as of Sept. 30, 2019, compared with 808 deals for all last year, according to the latest data from firms that track VC investments.

Since 2016, more than half of the money invested in pharma and biotech each year has been in the riskier angel, seed, Series A, and Series B stages, according to the latest Venture Monitor, a quarterly report published by Pitchbook and the National Venture Capital Association.

Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc (ARE) is committed to the Maryland I-270 Corridor market, and is a local partner and advocate for the biotech community. Alexandria provides room to grow through all stages of your company

Our vision at Johnson & Johnson is for every person to use their unique experiences and backgrounds together – to spark solutions that create a better, healthier world.

By seeking out and encouraging diverse ideas and promoting collaborative thinking among inclusive teams, we believe the world can bring innovative healthcare solutions to patients and consumers that will improve health for humanity.

WASHINGTON – The Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO) today announced that industry veteran Jim Greenwood will step down as President and CEO of the world’s largest biotechnology organization after the 2020 election and help transition a new leader to represent the industry globally and to defend innovation from domestic political attacks.

The firm is just the latest locally to raise big new funds.

Image: Carter Griffin, general partner at D.C.-based UpData Partners. AARON CLAMAGE

On Monday morning in Bethesda, Maryland hundreds of industry leaders emerged from a large ballroom at the inaugural Bio Innovation Conference, hosted by Maryland Life Sciences, a division of the Maryland Tech Council.

After hearing the opening remarks attendees could only have felt one of two ways – proud to be part of Maryland’s life sciences community or eager to become part of it.

Image: https://biobuzz.io

MADISON, Wis.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--BioForward, the member-driven association that serves as the voice of Wisconsin’s biohealth industry, held its annual Wisconsin Biohealth Summit on October 2nd at the Overture Center in Madison, Wisconsin.

The 2019 Biohealth Summit had over 500 attendees and featured two keynote sessions, and in a new format had two panel discussions, six fireside chats, an industry-specific career fair, a social media blitz, and virtual reality demonstrations from 3Data and ARCH Virtual.

The last 10 years have seen a rev o lu tion in drug de vel op ment. Time lines have short ened, par tic u lar ly in on col o gy. Reg u la tors have opened up. In vest ment has sky rock et ed. Chi na be came a play er. Biotechs have mul ti plied as gene and cell ther a py has ex plod ed — of fer ing ma jor new ad vances in the way dis eases are treat ed, and some times cured.

Image: llogene HQ Open House on September 17, 2019 in South San Francisco. (Jeff Rumans, Endpoints News)

Gaithersburg’s Viela Bio Inc. began publicly trading Thursday on the Nasdaq.

The clinical-stage biotech is offering 7.9 million shares of common stock priced at $19 per share, positioning the company to raise roughly $150 million. Viela (NASDAQ: VIE) is also giving underwriters the option to buy up to an additional 1.19 million shares at the initial public offering price for 30 days.

Image: Viela Bio CEO Bing Yao and colleagues rang the opening Nasdaq bell Thursday. LIBBY GREENE

Thanks to a yearslong boom in the world of venture capital, keeping tabs on biotech means constantly reading that some so-called startup is suddenly worth more than $1 billion. But just who is putting the horns on all these unicorns?

Welcome back to “The Facts, STAT!”, a not-infrequent STAT video series in which our reporters briefly explain the need-to-know basics of issues in the world of health care and biotech.

Image: https://www.statnews.com - From Video

GAITHERSBURG, Md., Oct. 03, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Arcellx, a privately-held biopharmaceutical company, today announced that it has raised $85 million in an oversubscribed Series B financing. Proceeds will be used to advance the Company’s ARC-T + sparX programs, including clinical development of a bivalent BCMA-targeted cell therapy in multiple myeloma, and a CD123-targeted therapy in acute myeloid leukemia. The Series B will also fund earlier stage ARC-T + sparX programs for patients with solid tumors and diseases outside oncology.

The ribbon was cut today at GSK’s recently expanded manufacturing facility in Rockville, marking the completion of a $139M project that was first announced in May 2017 to support growing demand for BENLYSTA® (belimumab), a treatment for adult patients with Lupus.

Image: https://biobuzz-io.cdn.ampproject.org

Gregg L. Semenza, whose discoveries on how cells respond to low oxygen levels have the potential to result in treatments for a variety of illnesses, today was awarded the 2019 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine by the Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm.

The academy recognized Semenza, the C. Michael Armstrong Professor of Medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, for his groundbreaking discovery of hypoxia-inducible factor 1, or HIF-1, the protein that switches genes on and off in cells in response to low oxygen levels.

Image: https://hub.jhu.edu

GAITHERSBURG, Md.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Adaptive Phage Therapeutics (APT), a clinical-stage biotechnology company founded to provide an effective therapeutic response to the global rise of multi-drug resistant (MDR) pathogenic bacteria, today announced that it has closed an oversubscribed, non-brokered financing, raising approximately $7 million in proceeds. Investors include Alexandria Venture Investments as well as a large integrated healthcare delivery network currently exploring the option to implement PhageBank™ therapy within its network of more than 17 hospitals and a NYSE-listed specialty life sciences company. Proceeds will be deployed to support multi-center phase 2 clinical studies for its PhageBank® therapy for antibiotic resistant bacterial infections.

Image: https://biobuzz.io

New Enterprise Associates Partner, Sara Nayeem, M.D., Joins Host Rich Bendis to Discuss Her Career, Venture Capital, and BioPharma

Sara Nayeem, M.D., is a Partner at New Enterprise Associates (NEA). Sara joined NEA's healthcare team in 2009 and focuses on investments in biopharmaceutical companies. She serves on the boards of Centrexion, Complexa, Cydan, Imara, and Tiburio. She previously served on the boards of Vtesse (acquired by Sucampo), Mersana (MRSN) and Therachon and as a board observer for Loxo Oncology (LOXO, acquired by Lilly), Tesaro (TSRO, acquired by GlaxoSmithKline), Clementia (CMTA, acquired by Ipsen), Nightstar (NITE, acquired by Biogen), Ziarco (acquired by Novartis), Omthera (OMTH, acquired by AstraZeneca), Epizyme (EPZM), Millendo (MLND) and Zyngenia. She has also been involved in other NEA investments such as Prosensa (RNA, acquired by BioMarin), Metacrine, and 3-V Biosciences. She also serves on the board of BioHealth Innovation Management. Prior to joining NEA, Sara was an Associate with Merrill Lynch’s Global Healthcare Group, where she advised biotechnology, pharmaceutical and medical device companies on numerous mergers, acquisitions and financing transactions. Previously, she worked as an Investment Banking Analyst at Morgan Stanley. She has conducted basic science research in mammalian cardiac development and clinical research in age-related macular degeneration. Sara concurrently earned her MD (cum laude) and MBA from Yale University, where she was a Yale MBA Scholar. She received her AB (magna cum laude) in Biology from Harvard University.

Listen now on iTunes (https://apple.co/2o1V6Il), Google Podcasts (http://bit.ly/2oGqQ6h), and TuneIn (http://bit.ly/2ndZGmO). 

The second annual BHCR Investment Conference, which is an invitation-only event, will be held at AstraZeneca in Gaithersburg on October 15 and 16, 2019.   

BioHealth Innovation (BHI), J.P. Morgan, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati (WSGR), Deloitte, AstraZeneca and The Maryland Department of Commerce have worked closely to ensure the 2019 investment conference builds on the success of last year’s event.

Image: https://biobuzz.io

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. and GAITHERSBURG, Md., Oct. 07, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Editas Medicine, Inc. (Nasdaq: EDIT), a leading genome editing company, and MaxCyte, Inc., the global cell-based therapies and life sciences company, today announced a new clinical and commercial license agreement. Editas Medicine will use MaxCyte’s Flow Electroporation® technology and ExPERT™ instruments for the advancement of engineered cell medicines, including EDIT-301, an experimental CRISPR medicine designed to durably treat sickle cell disease and beta-thalassemia.

Leiden, Utrecht October 2019 MIMETAS and Hubrecht Organoid Technology (HUB) announce that they entered into a strategic collaboration to market organoid models on a Chip. The agreement includes a license to MIMETAS to market HUB Organoids in an assay ready format, as well as a collaborative effort to develop disease-specific models.

Happening now at the #BioInnovationConference, Henry Ahn of National Science Foundation (NSF), Joseph Naft of #MIPS, Judy Costello of BioHealth Innovation, Inc. , Paul Silber of Blu Ventures #Investors, & Jeff Galvin of American Gene Technologies International Inc. discuss “Alternative Funding Options for Launching Your Company.”

AGT will do our best to share resources mentioned during this talk after the conference for startups and early-stage companies.