By Sara Gilgore – Staff Reporter, Washington Business Journal - May 21, 2025 - Once the Department of Health and Human Services unveiled a plan to cut 10,000 positions, United Therapeutics Corp. didn’t waste time.

The publicly traded Silver Spring drugmaker saw an opportunity to scoop up some of that talent, hiring a handful of former HHS employees, including from the Food and Drug Administration, and entering into consulting agreements with others, according to Dewey Steadman, UT's head of investor relations. The 1,305-person company, which counts about 250 D.C.-area employees, has even created a role for one professional with “specific skills that are critical to us,” he said.

United Therapeutics (NASDAQ: UTHR) isn’t alone. AstraZeneca, Lonza Group, Kite Pharmaceuticals and Thermo Fisher Scientific are among the local life sciences firms actively hiring, and while no one is cheering the loss of so many public-sector jobs, “there’s a clear opportunity to connect federal talent with private-sector innovation," said Richard Bendis, president and CEO of Rockville’s BioHealth Innovation Inc.

“These are folks with deep regulatory, scientific, and policy expertise who know how to navigate complex systems and bring big ideas to life,” Bendis said. “And in a region like ours, that’s a serious asset.”

University research has grabbed plenty of headlines over the past few months. Not for the breakthroughs that propel so much of American innovation. Not for the work that advances our health and well-being, that protects our safety, our security, our sustainability. Even so, the discoveries keep coming.

No, the new headlines about academic research deal in the grave threats it now faces: massive cuts in the way university R&D is funded, the revocation of grants that don’t align with federal priorities, the slow-walking of new grant approvals.

Defending science and scientific inquiry is vital right now, for all the reasons you might imagine—and for one you might not. When academic research is an integrated, meaningful part of the undergraduate experience, it develops students into more critical and creative thinkers, better communicators, collaborators, and problem solvers. Undergraduate research builds learners’ confidence and focuses their career plans. It predicts better grades and graduation rates, and reduces equity gaps, particularly in STEM. Students consistently say that research is among the most valuable components of their college career.

ROCKVILLE, Md., May 19, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- REGENXBIO Inc. (Nasdaq: RGNX) today announced the closure of a non-dilutive, limited recourse royalty bond agreement of up to $250 million with Healthcare Royalty (HCRx). This agreement monetizes select anticipated royalties and milestones, and provides both immediate and expected future, non-dilutive capital.  REGENXBIO received $150 million at closing, extending the Company's expected cash runway into early 2027.

GERMANTOWN, Md., May 21, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Senseonics Holdings, Inc. (NYSE American: SENS), a medical technology company focused on the development and manufacturing of long-term, implantable continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) systems for people with diabetes, today announced the closing of its previously announced underwritten public offering of a total of 115,000,000 shares of its common stock, which included the exercise in full by the underwriters of their option to purchase up to an additional 15,000,000 shares of common stock, at a public offering price of $0.50 per share.

The aggregate gross proceeds from the public offering, before deducting underwriting discounts and commissions and offering expenses were $57.5 million. All of the shares in the offering were sold by Senseonics.

VIENNA, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--CEL-SCI Corporation (“CEL-SCI” or the “Company”) (NYSE American: CVM), a clinical stage cancer immunotherapy company, today announced the closing of its underwritten public offering of 2,000,000 shares of its common stock at a public offering price of $2.50 per share. Total gross proceeds from the offering, before deducting the underwriting discount and other offering expenses, were $5,000,000. In addition, the Company has granted the underwriters a 45-day option to purchase up to an additional 190,000 shares to cover over-allotments at the public offering price, less the underwriting discount.

CE Mark approval for the HYDRAFIL System was granted based on a clinical study of 75 patients that showed that those treated with HYDRAFIL experienced clinically and statistically significant improvements in pain and disability. Results demonstrated a more than 80% improvement in Oswestry Disability Index (ODI) scores and greater than 70% reduction in Numeric Pain Rating Scale scores after HYDRAFIL treatment, with reductions sustained for two years in the 63 patients that have completed their two-year follow-up visit.