Biohealth Innovation
Jeff Galvin, CEO of American Gene Technologies and Rich Bendis, CEO and President of BioHealth Innovation, Inc. have a fireside chat about the rapid evolution of the BioHealth Capital Region.
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Click here to view the video interview between Jeff and Rich.
GAITHERSBURG, MD, 9 August 2021 - MaxCyte, Inc. (Nasdaq: MXCT) (LSE: MXCT, MXCN), a leading provider of cell-engineering platform technologies, today announced the signing of a clinical and commercial license with Sana Biotechnology, Inc. (Nasdaq: SANA), a company focused on creating and delivering engineered cells as medicines.
Under the terms of the agreement, Sana Biotechnology obtains non-exclusive clinical and commercial rights to use MaxCyte's Flow Electroporation® technology and ExPERT™ platform. In return, MaxCyte is entitled to receive platform licensing fees and program-related milestone payments.
The FAES Academic Programs at NIH offers a unique Advanced Studies in Technology Transfer to persons with a Bachelor’s degree in science or engineering or a related field. Courses are offered in the evenings, making it convenient for working professionals and postgraduate Fellows to gain expertise and experience in patenting, licensing, collaborative agreements, and other fundamental intellectual property transactions. The technology transfer profession field employs more than 10,000 professionals in the U.S., with many practicing their trade in the greater Washington, D.C. metro area.The course instructors are leading practitioners in the field, so students can simultaneously gain the necessary knowledge and build professional networks.
Paul Rennie OBE, Counsellor for Global Issues in the Global Economy Group at the British Embassy, Washington DC, and Professor Jason Snape, Head of Environmental Protection within AstraZeneca’s Global Sustainability Team, join Rich Bendis to Discuss Life Sciences, Climate Change, COP26 - UN Climate Change Conference, and The Race to Zero Campaign.
Listen now via Apple https://apple.co/3ls3EEp, Google https://bit.ly/3liTlSU, Spotify https://spoti.fi/3ylxair, and TuneIn https://bit.ly/3rS9Giz.
Are you a biohealth start-up in Maryland, DC or Virginia seeking feedback on your biohealth business idea, pitch deck, or commercialization plan? Schedule your feedback session with BHI EIRs on one of the following dates. Pre-registration is required; Sign up here tinyurl.com/EIRfeedback
For questions/more information, contact BHI.
Hospitals and health systems across the U.S. are pushing forward digital transformation efforts by creating new tools and launching innovative programs.
Here are the organizations that announced pilots of new innovation programs or expansions to existing programs during June and July, as reported by Becker's Hospital Review.
1. Worcester, Mass.-based UMass Memorial Health expanded care beyond hospital walls with the recent rollout of its tech-powered hospital-at-home program.
The Bacteriophage (Phage) Therapy (PT) market is growing rapidly in the U.S. The rise of antibiotic resistant bacteria and multidrug-resistant bacteria (MDRs) across the globe has increased the value and industry acceptance of a phage approach, which can help combat bacteria that cannot be effectively treated by antibiotics. What’s more, the phage modality is a great fit for targeted personalized medicine approaches.
ROCKVILLE, Md.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 4, 2021-- GlycoMimetics, Inc. (Nasdaq: GLYC) today announced that its Board of Directors has appointed Harout Semerjian as chief executive officer (CEO), effective August 6, 2021, to succeed retiring Founding CEO Rachel King. Mr. Semerjian, a seasoned executive with strong oncology commercialization experience, will lead the company as it advances its registrational trials on its lead clinical candidate, uproleselan, in acute myeloid leukemia (AML), accelerates planning for potential commercialization, and continues to build out the company’s pipeline.
A leader from the company says to ensure medicines keep reaching the patients that need them, the industry must revamp outdated technologies and techniques. People both inside the pharmaceutical industry and outside share many common concerns about the state of the pharma supply chain. Interruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, global unrest, severe weather catastrophes, and other events stand to disrupt the supply of essential ingredients and products; these challenges have pharma professionals, government leaders, and others looking for ways to shore up the supply chain and avoid interruptions.
COLLEGE PARK, Md. – The Quantum Startup Foundry (QSF) at the University of Maryland (UMD) today announced that Ernst & Young LLP (EY US) is a founding member of the QSF and will help the foundry advance its mission of accelerating leading-edge quantum technologies and driving the second quantum revolution.
EY is the first professional services firm and overall organization to work with the foundry on programs that connect the virtual and physical resources needed to support quantum entrepreneurs and startups. Additionally, EY will provide insight, mentorship, customer and investor introductions, and other services to companies cultivated through the QSF.
The chief executive of AstraZeneca has underscored the importance of multilateral cooperation in the fight against COVID-19 as well as other systemic global challenges such as climate change, calling global warming “the biggest threat to humanity”.
In a wide-ranging and exclusive interview, Pascal Soriot expressed unease over what he saw as an excessive focus on Western nations in the context of vaccinations. He told IMD’s President Jean-François Manzoni: “The whole discussion is about [the] US and Europe, but there are 7 billion people outside of those two regions.”
Paul Rennie OBE, Counsellor for Global Issues in the Global Economy Group at the British Embassy, Washington DC, and Professor Jason Snape, Head of Environmental Protection within AstraZeneca’s Global Sustainability Team, join Rich Bendis to Discuss Life Sciences, Climate Change, COP26 - UN Climate Change Conference, and The Race to Zero Campaign.
Listen now via Apple https://apple.co/3ls3EEp, Google https://bit.ly/3liTlSU, Spotify https://spoti.fi/3ylxair, and TuneIn https://bit.ly/3rS9Giz.
Are you a biohealth start-up in Maryland, DC or Virginia seeking feedback on your biohealth business idea, pitch deck, or commercialization plan? Schedule your feedback session with BHI EIRs on one of the following dates. Pre-registration is required; Sign up here tinyurl.com/EIRfeedback
For questions/more information, contact BHI.
GAITHERSBURG, Md., July 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- MaxCyte, Inc., (LSE: MXCT, MXCN), a leading provider of cell-engineering platform technologies, today announced the pricing of its upsized offering of 13,500,000 shares of common stock at an initial offering price of US$13.00 per share (the "Offering").
MaxCyte has granted the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to 2,025,000 additional shares of common stock at the initial offering price per share of common stock less underwriting discounts and commissions.
The closing of the Offering is expected to occur on August 3, 2021, subject to customary closing conditions.
Maryland biotech company Emergent BioSolutions said on Thursday that it was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to resume manufacturing of Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine at its Bayview plant in East Baltimore. The Gaithersburg-based company, which serves as a contract manufacturer for pharma companies, has an agreement with J&J to provide doses of its one-shot vaccine.
Image: Emergent Biosolutions' Bayview facility. (Courtesy photo)
ROCKVILLE, Md., July 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Shuttle Pharmaceuticals Holdings, Inc (Shuttle Pharma), a Maryland-based developer of new drugs for cancer treatment, was awarded US Patent No.: 11,034,667 B2 for "Selective Histone Deacetylase Inhibitors for the treatment of Human Disease." These non-cytotoxic, highly selective inhibitors target the histone deacetylase 6 (HDAC6) enzyme to stimulate the immune system for applications in the treatment of cancers, neurological diseases and immunological disorders.
Lead inventor Scott Grindrod, PhD describes histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitors as "a novel class of drugs that target enzymes involved in regulation of critical cellular functions that can inhibit cancer growth and activate cellular immunity. These are key target functions to improve cancer treatment. HDAC6 regulates the innate immune system and will be tested to activate an anti-cancer immune response to increase the effectiveness of chemotherapy and radiation therapy. The molecules in this patent enhance Shuttle Pharma's platform technology of selective inhibitor discovery for cancer treatment."
GAITHERSBURG, Md., July 29, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Emergent BioSolutions Inc. (NYSE:EBS) announced today that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is allowing Emergent’s Bayview manufacturing facility to resume production of Johnson & Johnson’s (J&J) Covid-19 vaccine bulk drug substance. This resumption of manufacturing follows extensive reviews by FDA, weeks of diligent work, and close coordination with J&J and FDA to execute on Emergent’s quality enhancement plan.
“We are proud to be resuming production of bulk Covid-19 vaccine batches following additional reviews and collaboration with FDA and our manufacturing partners,” said Emergent chief executive officer, Robert Kramer. “We are in the unique business of producing life-saving medications for catastrophes that we hope never occur like anthrax attacks, opioid overdoses, and Covid-19.”
Emergent Biosolutions’ vaccine manufacturing plant in Baltimore has been the subject of many headlines this past year for its’ role in producing several COVID-19 Vaccines. However, the history of this facility goes back more than two decades.
For the past 25 years, this Baltimore biopharmaceutical facility has played a significant role in Maryland’s life sciences ecosystem. Over the course of its life, the building has gone from being home to vaccine and small molecule manufacturing to the development of countermeasures for biologic threats, including COVID-19.
Image: https://biobuzz.io
Boston Properties (BXP) is set to acquire the Shady Grove Bio+Tech Campus, a seven-building, 435,000-square-foot office park in Rockville, Md., for $116.5 million, from Lantian, the company announced.
The deal is expected to close in the third quarter of this year.
The 31-acre property, located at 9600 Gudelsky Drive, is situated within the Shady Grove life sciences cluster, home to a host of companies in the biotechnology sector. It is also currently home to the Universities at Shady Grove, a biomedical and tech-focused university that is part of the University System of Maryland.
Image: PETE OTTENI. PHOTO: BY BXP
The rapidly spreading Delta variant is forcing employers to rethink their strategies for handling the pandemic. Policies they should reconsider include encouraging or requiring employees to be vaccinated, whether to hold off on having remote workers return to company facilities, rules for social distancing and wearing masks at job sites, ventilation, testing, travel restrictions, communicating exposures, and support for mental health care. This article offers advice on how to think through these issues.close
The delta variant spreads much faster than other Covid-19 strains—and scientists may now know why.
People infected with the delta variant have more than 1,260 times the viral load—the concentration of viral particles in the body—than those with the original strain found in China, a group of scientists has reported in a preprint paper. A higher viral load can have many implications such as more severe disease. Its most significant contribution is to a virus’s higher transmissibility.
Image: https://qz.com
ROCKVILLE, Md. and CHESTERBROOK, Pa., July 26, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Cerecor Inc. (NASDAQ: CERC), a biopharmaceutical company focused on becoming a leader in the development and commercialization of treatments for immunologic, immuno-oncologic and rare genetic disorders, today announced positive initial results from a Phase 1b proof-of-concept study evaluating CERC-002, an investigational first-in-class fully human anti-LIGHT (tumor necrosis factor superfamily member 14 (TNFSF14)) monoclonal antibody, in adult patients with moderate to severe Crohn's disease (CD). Crohn’s disease is a disorder affecting as many as 780,000 people in the United States.
Each quarter we bring you an update from our Johnson & Johnson Innovation – JLABS Portfolio of ompanies across our 13 sites, from San Diego to Shanghai. Beyond news of our companies milestones, we also report on the diversity of our JLABS Portfolio leadership as we seek to reflect the patients we serve.
This past quarter JLABS @ Washington, DC opened its doors and welcomed the inaugural class of residents with areas of focus ranging from health equity to broad-spectrum antivirals. Housed at the new Children's National Research & Innovation Campus, JLABS @ Washington, DC also serves as the BLUE KNIGHT™ hub in collaboration with the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA). You can read more about our newest site in Fierce Biotech and you can always find our latest stats and companies via our JLABS Portfolio Navigator. Finally, don't forget to register to virtually join the JLABS @ Washington, DC Grand Opening celebration on September 22!
ROCKVILLE, Md.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Immunomic Therapeutics, Inc., (“ITI”), a privately-held clinical stage biotechnology company pioneering the study of nucleic acid immunotherapy platforms, announced today that it has appointed Steve Sang Young Park and Robert V. Ahlgren as new members to its Board of Directors, expanding the board to eight members.
“We are pleased to welcome Steve and Robert to Immunomic’s Board. Our scientific platform, financial acumen and growth strategies are strengthened by their wealth of knowledge and leadership experience,” commented Dr. William Hearl, CEO of ITI. “Each brings deep and diverse expertise across global financial markets and large healthcare companies that will be meaningful to us as we advance our immunotherapy pipeline and strategic vision.”
George Mason University bioengineering professor Michael Buschmann and a team of scientific collaborators have devised improved lipid nanoparticle technologies to deliver mRNA that could make mRNA vaccines such as the COVID-19 vaccines less costly, with fewer side-effects and more available worldwide.
Image: Michael Buschmann (seated) and his team that includes (l to r) Aarthi Narayanan, Mikell Paige and Caroline Hoemann have developed improved technology that could help make COVID-19 vaccines better and more readily available. Not pictured: Pat Gillevet. Photo by Evan Cantwell/Creative Services
A large interlaboratory study of adeno-associated virus (AAV), an important tool in gene therapy, will be led by USP and NIST in collaboration with NIIMBL.
Rockville, MD, July 27, 2021 —The United States Pharmacopeia (USP), the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and The National Institute for Innovation in Manufacturing Biopharmaceuticals (NIIMBL) have announced a research collaboration to assess analytical methods and develop standards for adeno-associated virus (AAV), an important mechanism for delivering gene therapies.
AAVs are particularly useful for gene therapies because they are not known to cause human disease and cannot replicate on their own. AAV-based therapies are currently used to treat a type of inherited retinal dystrophy that causes blindness and spinal muscular atrophy in children, and treatments for many more diseases are currently being developed. However, to use AAVs most effectively, scientists need to accurately measure attributes related to their quality. These attributes include the purity of the AAV product and the relative number of virus particles that contain the full genetic payload.
GAITHERSBURG, Md., July 26, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- MaxCyte, Inc., (LSE: MXCT) (LSE: MXCN), a leading provider of platform technologies for cell engineering, today announced the commencement of an underwritten offering of 12,000,000 shares of common stock (the "Offering") at an expected offering price between $11.50 and $13.50 per share. All shares to be sold in the Offering will be offered by MaxCyte. In addition, MaxCyte intends to grant the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to 1,800,000 additional shares of common stock.
Jeff Boyle, President of Ellume USA, joins Rich Bendis on BioTalk to chat about his history, their Flagship U.S. Manufacturing Facility in Frederick, MD, and why BioHealth Capital Region is a right fit for their company goals.
Listen now on Google https://bit.ly/3i0XFUO, Apple https://apple.co/2TDD1kg, Spotify https://spoti.fi/3kWwP1P, and TuneIn https://bit.ly/3BGPDrP
The US National Institutes of Health (NIH) are the largest public supporter of basic life science in the world.
With an FY2020 budget of $42 billion, most of their expenditures are university grants supporting either new discoveries or early-state clinical studies of promising treatments and diagnostic tests.
Since 1982, Congress has mandated that a fraction of the total annual NIH budget be put to work via grants or contracts to small life science and biotech companies rather than academic institutions.
Image: Photo by National Cancer Institute on Unsplash
German-based BioNTech has announced that it will soon be joining Montgomery County’s growing list of world-renowned international companies in the “Immunology Capital Next to the Nation’s Capital.” BioNTech is acquiring a Gaithersburg manufacturing facility and cell therapy research and development platform from Kite, a unit of Gilead Sciences, to support the development of BioNTech’s expanding pipeline of novel cell therapies.
The Endless Frontier bill, now incorporated into the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act, made progress in the U.S. Senate while parallel legislation in the House also advanced to create a Technology Directorate in the NSF. Congress and the Administration also advanced through the budget process and other Congressionally authorization bills billions of dollars to create new tech hubs, advanced manufacturing, increased tech transfer, test beds, and applied research. Collectively this is one of the largest investments in applied research and tech based economic development undertaken by the federal government.
You have invested the time, expertise, and financial resources to develop a therapy that changes patient lives for the better. After all of your hard work and dedication, how can you ensure your product reaches patients? What are the key commercialization considerations for healthcare innovators, large and small? Learn how to unlock product potential in this step-by-step guide to making the most of your commercialization investments.
Matan Companies breaks ground on Progress Labs at Riverside I The City-based project will feature 215,000 square feet of biomanufacturing-ready space -- including a 96,000 square foot existing building, which is available for immediate occupancy, as well as a 118,000 square foot expansion building, which will be delivered in June 2022.
ROCKVILLE, MD, July 15, 2021 /Globe Newswire/ -- American Gene Technologies (AGT) announced today that the Data and Safety Monitoring Board (DSMB) voted unanimously to continue AGT’s HIV cure program without modification, after safety analysis of the participant’s data revealed no adverse effects from the treatment. AGT’s Phase 1 trial of AGT103-T, a new cell and gene therapy for HIV disease, is designed to induce durable viral suppression by delivering therapeutic genes to the recipient's immune cells. The cells are collected by leukapheresis, modified outside the body, then re-infused. Once infused, the cells are expected to durably suppress the virus at undetectable levels without the need for antiretroviral treatment.
Image: https://www.americangene.com
The extension follows a tumultuous time for the Gaithersburg company, making it unclear if the government would proceed with deals as normal.