Emergent BioSolutions announced today that the company has signed a deal with the U.S. Department of State to establish a supply chain for certain medical countermeasures that address chemical warfare agents.

New Enterprise Associates, the 41-year-old venture firm with offices in Menlo Park; San Francisco; Boston; New York; Chevy Chase, Md.; and Washington, D.C., is raising its biggest fund ever, shows a new SEC filing that shows target of $3.6 billion.

Office REIT Alexandria Real Estate Equities reports it has launched a new product geared to providing post-seed-stage life science companies with turnkey, fully furnished office/laboratory suites.

MaxCyte, the global cell-based medicines and life sciences company, announced today that it has expanded its relationship with Kite, a Gilead Company, by entering into a multi-drug clinical and commercial agreement. Under the terms of the agreement, Kite will use MaxCyte’s Flow Electroporation® Technology to enable non-viral cell engineering for development of multiple CAR-T drug candidates for up to 10 targets.

Francis deSouza Photographer: Jeff Spicer/PA Wire via AP For years, the cost to decode a full human genome has been falling much like computer processing costs -- from hundreds of thousands of dollars per person to about $1,000 today. With a $100 genome getting closer, the CEO of the top maker of DNA sequencers thinks the world may not be ready.

Gilead’s Kite Pharma has expanded its CAR-T agreement with MaxCyte. The revised deal gives Kite the chance to apply MaxCyte’s transfection technology to up to 10 targets.

The biomedical research community has made major progress in achieving a balance of men and women in human studies, however compelling questions about the underlying mechanisms that increase women’s risk or resilience for certain heart, lung, blood, and sleep (HLBS) diseases continue to challenge the scientific and medical community.

In support of its Strategic Vision, the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) is advancing a scientific research agenda for women’s health. As part of that agenda, the Institute has issued a Request for Information “Understanding the Health of Women and the Role of Sex/Gender in Mechanisms of Heart, Lung, Blood, and Sleep Diseases and Disorders.” The RFI offers the research community, health care professionals, patient advocates, and others an opportunity to provide input on topics ranging from scientific gap areas in mechanisms of HLBS diseases, to training and resource needs, among other topics.  

The NHLBI greatly values your perspective as it works with the wider scientific community to uncover the mechanisms of disease that will set a stronger foundation for clinical research focused on more effective prevention and treatment strategies for HLBS diseases and disorders in women. Please submit your responses via email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. by March 15, 2019. Don’t forget to include the Notice number (NOT-HL-18-660) in the subject line.

Rexahn Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NYSE American: RNN), a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company developing innovative therapies to improve patient outcomes in cancers that are difficult to treat, today announced the appointment of Lara S. Sullivan, M.D. to its board of directors.

The share of funding going to women-founded startups went down despite a massive influx of dollars to the region.

Biopharma companies have long been looking for a way to go beyond the molecule/pill.The nascent but growing digital therapeutics industry set to grow to $10 billion by 2023 may be guiding that way forward, according to a panel discussion on the second day of the DTx (Digital Therapeutics) West conference in San Mateo, California.

Albert Bourla told a US Senate hearing that other nations are "free-riding on American innovation".

Funding for the Bethesda-based National Institutes of Health is up by 14 percent during the two years that President Donald Trump has been in the White House — but it’s despite and not because of the president, according to Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen.

When: Wednesday, March 13, 2019 from 5:00 PM to 7:00 PM

Where: Bar Louie 150 Gibbs St Rockville, MD 20850

Join BioBuzz and Founding Sponsor JHU MoCo for our next exciting event of 2019 at Bar Louie in Rockville on March 13th. 

Personal Genome Diagnostics Inc. (PGDx), a leader in cancer genomics, announced today that it has added two new members to its Board of Directors, Dr. Kavita Patel and Garry Allen Nicholson. Dr. Patel and Mr. Nicholson bring significant healthcare expertise that is aligned with and can further empower PGDx’s corporate growth strategy of driving global access to precision medicine in oncology.

For every AstraZeneca, there are hundreds of small biotech startups and scores of life science innovators that are critical to growing the BioHealth Capital Region. For every new biotech flush with investment cash, scores of smart, entrepreneur-scientists with great ideas and technology struggle to find regional funding partners.

Johns Hopkins researchers have developed a unique, noninvasive blood test that detects proteins and gene mutations from eight common cancers. The test, called CancerSEEK, screens for cancers that account for more than 60 percent of U.S. cancer deaths.

In late 2017, Baltimore-based healthcare startup Protenus was reverberating from a year of growth.

Dr. Darryl Sampey has been through the grind as CEO of Frederick’s BioFactura, a thriving biotech company that’s a key part of the BioHealth Capital Region’s second largest biotech hub. On a rainy, cold February night at FITCI, Sampey shared BioFactura’s compelling story during a “fireside chat” hosted by StartUp Grind’s Frederick chapter.

The company has already raised about $40 million to date.

I was dubious when Crystal Icenhour approached me to write about her medical testing company.

The National Capital Consortium for Pediatric Device Innovation (NCC-PDI) is now accepting applications for its "Make Your Medical Device Pitch for Kids!" competition. The competition is focused on pediatric devices developed for use in the orthopedic and spine sector, an area of critical need which lacks innovation. Winning companies receive awards up to $50,000 and are invited to participate in the newly created NCC-PDI "Pediatric Device Innovator Accelerator Program" led by MedTech Innovator.

In November 2015, infectious disease epidemiologist Steffanie Strathdee and her husband, evolutionary psychologist Tom Patterson, were spending the week of Thanksgiving exploring pyramids and pharaoh’s tombs in Egypt when Patterson came down with what seemed like a nasty bout of food poisoning aboard their cruise ship. But as his condition rapidly deteriorated and he had to be emergency medevac’d, first to Germany and then to the medical center at UC San Diego, where both scientists were on staff, blood and imaging tests revealed why Patterson’s body was failing. A soccer-ball-sized cyst in his abdomen was infected—teeming with one of the most dangerous, antibiotic-resistant bacteria in the world.

The National Cancer Institute’s investment in small business research grants has supported strong economic growth, including $9 billion in sales of new technologies.

Justin Klein, as a former investor with NEA, helped lead PGDx’s $21.4 million Series A in 2015 and its $75 million Series B last year.

The biotech sector has been a strong performer in 2019 after becoming quite oversold during the plunge in the high-beta parts of the market in the fourth quarter of 2018. Helping the sector recover and get off to a raucous start to the New Year were large buyouts of Celgene Corp(CELG) and Loxo Oncology Inc(LOXO) to start 2019, both with significan...

In a $4.8 billion deal, Swiss life sciences giant Roche has agreed to acquire Spark Therapeutics, a University City-based developer of gene therapy treatment for genetic ailments.

GlaxoSmithKline (GSK)’s recently announced $4.2 billion partnership to co-develop and co-commercialize Merck KGaA, Darmstadt’s cancer immunotherapy candidate M7824 was a reminder of just how much biopharma giants are willing to invest in a therapeutic area that has generated sometimes-dazzling results.

The deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter of this year.

RoosterBio, Inc, a privately held regenerative medicine manufacturing platform technology company announced plans today to expand the company’s footprint in Frederick, MD after a year of rapid growth.

Matt Kalnik wants to make smoking less addictive.

His clinical-stage company, Gaithersburg-based Antidote Therapeutics Inc., is developing a drug that would diminish the effects of nicotine in the body — to both treat diseases worsened by nicotine and help smokers quit. The businesses is looking to raise between $5 million and $10 million to run over the next two years and get its lead candidate to clinical trials.

The Maryland Momentum Fund is a newly-created mechanism for investing in promising early stage companies associated with the University System of Maryland (USM). Maryland-based companies that are seeking equity financing or debt financing  that is convertible into equity may apply.  The funding provided by the Fund will normally be in the range of $150K-$250K, with a ceiling of $500K.  Recipients of this funding must obtain a matching investment (1:1) within six months, in either direction, from the date of commitment by the Fund.

The Kauffman Indicators of Entrepreneurship offers in-depth measures, reports, and accompanying interactive data visualizations that present entrepreneurial trends in the United States.

A life sciences-focused venture capital firm based near Boston has raised more than one-third of a billion dollars to invest in early-stage companies.

The Maryland Technology Development Corporation (TEDCO) announced today the formation of the Task Force for Women Entrepreneurs. The task force will be dedicated to the recruitment, funding, and operational support of women-owned and-led startups in Maryland.

When Tom Shicowich’s toe started feeling numb in 2010, he brushed it off as a temporary ache. At the time, he didn’t have health insurance, so he put off going to the doctor. The toe became infected, and he got so sick that he stayed in bed for two days with what he assumed was the flu. When he finally saw a doctor, the physician immediately sent Shicowich to the emergency room. Several days later, surgeons amputated his toe, and he ended up spending a month in the hospital to recover.