GAITHERSBURG, Md., Feb. 26, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Novavax, Inc. (NASDAQ: NVAX), a late-stage biotechnology company developing next-generation vaccines for serious infectious diseases, today announced progress in its efforts to develop a novel vaccine to protect against coronavirus disease COVID-19. Novavax has produced and is currently assessing multiple nanoparticle vaccine candidates in animal models prior to identifying an optimal candidate for human testing, which is expected to begin by the end of spring 2020.

Todd Haim(TH): I began working on small business grant programs at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) more than 10 years ago when I joined the National Cancer Institute (NCI) as an AAAS Science and Technology Policy Fellow. After 9 years at NCI, I was asked to lead the launch of a new Office of Small Business Research (OSBR) at the National Institute on Aging (NIA). NIA’s OSBR was created just over 1 year ago. It serves as the main coordinating office for Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) grants that are awarded to companies working on solutions to address aging and aging-related diseases.

Image: https://blog.lifesciencenation.com

BALTIMORE, Feb. 25, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Capsulomics, Inc., a Baltimore-based molecular diagnostics company whose mission is to detect and prevent cancer through earlier detection, today announced a research partnership with Johns Hopkins University, funded by a 5-year, $3.7 Million NIH Academic-Industrial Partnership grant, to conduct an important clinical research study to detect esophageal cancer and its precancerous precursor condition, Barrett's esophagus (BE).

Alex Triantis, dean of the Carey Business School at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, says a new $25 million gift from the school’s namesake foundation will go toward accelerating the transformation of the MBA curriculum into a much more healthcare-oriented experience, among other uses. Carey photo

At Johns Hopkins University, nearly a quarter of the Carey Business School’s full-time faculty study or teach in health-related fields. About 38% of current full-time MBA students and 35% of part-time MBA students focus on health-related areas of study.

Image: https://poetsandquants.com

Congratulations to Sonavex, Inc. CEO David Narrow on being selected as an Innovation Leader at Emerging Medtech Summit 2020.

More: https://lnkd.in/e3Z8fUv

The map allows you to see which parts of the world are impacted the most by it.

A chart is placed to the left of the map showing the number of confirmed cases for specific countries, states, and cities.

Two charts are placed to the right of the map.

Image: https://www.arcgis.com/

GAITHERSBURG, Md., Feb. 28, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Arcellx today announced that the first patient has been dosed with its engineered T cell therapy utilizing a novel deimmunized synthetic binding domain in the treatment of patients with relapsed and refractory multiple myeloma. This first-in-human Phase 1 trial is the first in a series of clinical trials planned for efficient, stepwise development of the Arcellx ARC-T + sparX cell therapy platform, with BCMA as an initial target.

Judy Costello is the Managing Director of Economic Development for BioHealth Innovation, Inc. (BHI). A longtime supporter of the region’s entrepreneur and start-up communities, Judy Costello joined BioHealth Innovation in August 2017. Prior to that she served as Director of the Maryland Department of Commerce's Office of BioHealth and Life Sciences and Deputy Director of the department's BioMaryland Center. She previously worked for fifteen years for the Business Alliance organizing venture pitch forums, entrepreneur bootcamps, tech transfer showcases, educational seminars, and other programs connecting entrepreneurs, faculty innovators, students, and industry leaders in Maryland, DC and Virginia with each other and with those providing funding and other resources to young companies.

If you have been in fundraising mode anytime in the past 2-3 years and have gotten any term sheets with terms that were either outrageous or draconian, we want to hear from you. BHI Entrepreneur-in-Residence, Ethel Rubin is working on a future blog post and would like to hear from you. Email here at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and share your term sheet stories today. Any information shared will be de-identified before adding to her post and you name/company will be kept confidential.

By Ethel Rubin

Opportunities abound for every investor looking for deal flow. Conversely, there have never been so many opportunities for entrepreneurs to pitch, network and mingle with investors. No matter what space you are in – fintech, biotech, edtech, cleantech, medtech – the world of investor showcases is exploding. Nevertheless, whatever the stage of your technology, there is nothing like a “warm” introduction and a few surefire ways of getting investors to take a look at you:

Most companies would admit that they miss more often than they hit when it comes to talent.

McKinsey & Company recently cited three rather stunning stats about talent: (1) 82% of Fortune 500 companies don’t believe they recruit highly talented people; (2) Of companies that do believe they recruit great talent, only 7% believe they can retain it; (3) and only 23% of managers and senior executives that deal with talent-related issues believe their current strategies actually work.

Date: 1/22/2020 Expressions of Interest are due no later than 4:59pm EST on Monday, March 2, 2020.  CAPCaT Contact: Mary Dubuque  Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Funding Opportunity The Center for Advancing Point of Care Technologies (CAPCaT) in Heart, Lung, Blood, and Sleep Disorders (U54HL143541) announces the 2020 solicitation of grant applications focused on developing, adapting, or validating point of care technologies that can be rapidly applied to heart, lung, blood, or sleep disorders, with additional interest in projects that incorporate complementary and integrative health approaches.  We plan, based on the receipt of meritorious applications, to fund up to six awards of up to $100,000 over 12 months, with one or more award(s) focused on complementary and integrative health.

Less than 4% of money raised for cancer research targets pediatric cancers, but a D.C.-area charity that’s devoting resources to benefit young cancer victims is sponsoring trials at Children’s National Hospital.

Clinical trials underway for about a year are turning patients’ own immune system cells into an army of soldiers to attack their brain cancer tumors.

“We’re all really excited,” said Dr. Eugene Hwang, associate division chief of oncology at Children’s National Hospital. “The biggest problem would have been if we ran into a big side effect or toxicity signal, and we have not.”

WASHINGTON (February 19) – Today, a diverse group of research and scientific organizations, as well as those directly involved in commercializing new products, launched Bayh-Dole 40, a coalition that will celebrate and protect the University and Small Business Patent Procedures Act of 1980, better known as the “Bayh-Dole Act.”

The Bayh-Dole Act has empowered universities, small businesses, and nonprofits that have received federal grants to retain ownership of any patented inventions — and license those patents to private firms, who then turn promising ideas into real-life products that improve peoples’ lives.

Image: https://www.ipwatchdog.com

The BioHealth Capital Region (BHCR) is evolving quickly and it can be tough to keep pace with the latest news emerging from the host of biotech, medical device and cell, and gene therapy companies in the area. BioBuzz, when combined with some strategic social media follows, can help you stay on top of the latest developments, news and thought leadership coming out of the BHCR. 

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

Incoming University of Maryland President Darryll Pines may describe himself as a bit of a joker — but he is serious about building out the school’s tech and startup ecosystems.

“The university is an incredible innovation ecosystem, but we were not leveraging every aspect of it. Now you will start to see a lot more startups coming out of the University of Maryland,” Pines told the Washington Business Journal in an interview after a Friday press conference punctuated by accolades, off-script jokes by Pines and plenty of Terrapin pride.

Image: Darryll Pines has been named the next president of the University of Maryland, College Park. JOHN CONSOLI, UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND

It’s highly appropriate that the 40th anniversary of the Bayh-Dole Act occurs in a year as politically contentious as that in which it passed. In 1980, many predicted that our best years were behind us and that the United States would soon lose its place as the world’s economic superpower. Experts proclaimed the best remedy was to adopt the “Japan, Inc.” model,  where the government  bureaucracy orchestrated a coalition of dominant companies boldly plotting the future (that idea was particularly popular with many in Washington, D.C.). The patent system was under constant attack for being unfair, the U.S. suffered from double digit unemployment and inflation (dubbed “the misery index”) and energy costs skyrocketed. Congress discovered that despite billions of dollars invested annually in federally funded R&D, few inventions were being brought to the marketplace where they could benefit the American people. It felt like the bottom had fallen out from under the feet of our nation.

Image: https://www.ipwatchdog.com

Doylestown-based Pennsylvania Biotech Center (PABC) this week announced a sponsorship program intended to support early-stage biotech companies via supplier services, education and collaboration.

This comes seven months after PABC announced a $50 million dollar investment fund and accelerator providing seed and Series A and B funding to its incubator companies.

The program was created by Hatch Biofund Management, LLC, the operators of the life science venture fund. Sponsors in the program will specifically work with early-stage companies in PABC’s incubator and the Unite IQ incubator PABC runs at The Discovery Labs in King of Prussia.

Image: Pennsylvania Biotech Center's future expanded campus.

U.S. healthcare providers in 2019 experienced almost triple the number of breaches to their records than they did in 2018.

That’s the assertion of healthcare compliance analytics platform Protenus in its Protenus Breach Barometer report, which reported that 41 million patient records were breached in 2019. The increase in breaches was a 48.6% difference from 15 million in 2018, while the trend of at least one health data breach per day — a trend first reported in 2016 — remains.

BALTIMORE, Feb. 20, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The W. P. Carey Foundation, whose generosity launched Johns Hopkins Carey Business School, has made a $25 million commitment to the school to recruit renowned faculty, enhance academic programs, and help launch student careers. The gift will be matched with commitments from Johns Hopkins University and contributions from other donors for a total of $50 million.

The W. P. Carey Foundation's new gift provides Carey Business School with support to ensure its path of growth and advancement in shaping business leaders of the future.

Image: Johns Hopkins Carey Business School

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--LumaCyte, an advanced bioanalytical instrumentation company specializing in vaccine and cell and gene therapy bioprocess, production, and R&D analytical capabilities, announces its expansion into Europe with the establishment of LumaCyte, B.V. in The Netherlands. LumaCyte has experienced a rapid increase in global demand for Radiance®, it’s label-free single cell analysis instrument, with a large portion of that demand coming from Europe. In the fall of 2019, LumaCyte reported that it was strengthening its infrastructure to support a growing customer base, with strong efforts being placed on servicing the expansive European market. The company has expanded its US headquarters, significantly increasing manufacturing and laboratory footprints, as well as completed the rigorous EU specific regulatory CE mark certification, indicating Radiance® conformity with EEA health and safety standards, which is a prerequisite for its instrument sale and use.

Orgenesis Inc (NASDAQ:ORGS) announced a collaboration with Johns Hopkins University to utilize its point-of-care platform to develop and supply gene therapies and technologies. 

The company’s POCare cell therapy platform is designed to advance the development of Advanced Therapy Medicinal Products — medicines based on genes, tissues or cells — through collaborations and in-licensing with other companies. 

CEO Vered Caplan is confident in the pedigree and resources of the Baltimore research university. 

BALTIMORE, February 18, 2020 (Newswire.com) - Over 40 million patient records were breached in 2019, according to new data released today in the Protenus Breach Barometer®. Published by Protenus, a healthcare compliance analytics platform that protects patient data for the nation’s leading health systems, the Breach Barometer is the industry’s definitive source for health data breach reporting.  

Two commercial real estate firms with a significant presence in the marketing of life sciences properties have issued reports over the past 12 months that illustrate the growth in industry employment in recent years.

One life sciences segment, “Research and Development in Biotechnology” (NAICS code 541714), has largely driven that growth, with its number of jobs more than doubling over the past decade, to 204,800 as of 2019, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data cited by Cushman & Wakefield in “Life Sciences 2020: The Future Is Here,” a report released February 6. Between 2010 and 2019, biotech R&D employment grew 5.1%, compared with 1.6% for total employment. Most of the increase, more than 70,000 jobs, occurred between 2013 and 2019.

Pete Briskman, an Executive Managing Director with JLL, leads the Tenant Advisory and brokerage business for JLL in Maryland, sits down with BioTalk Host Rich Bendis to talk his role with JLL, his focus on Life Sciences, and vision of the BioHealth Capital Region

Pete Briskman works with many of the regions' most exciting and fastest growing Life Science Companies assisting them with their real estate and site selection strategies for Headquarter transactions, relocations, build-to-suits, renewals, expansions, and consolidations. Pete and his team bring proprietary tools to help organizations make informed decisions around the size and scale of their operation, assessment of labor, modeling and programming of occupancy, approach to optimizing business and economic incentives, and very unique real estate market intelligence that can be communicated via our proprietary geo-spatial market intelligence platform.  He is the recipient of GWCAR's Commercial Leasing Broker of the Year and has been recognized with GWCAR Office Leasing Transactions of the Year for multiple clients.

SANTA MONICA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 10, 2020-- Kite, a Gilead Company (Nasdaq: GILD), today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has accepted the Biologics License Application (BLA) and granted Priority Review designation for KTE-X19, an investigational chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapy for the treatment of adult patients with relapsed or refractory mantle cell lymphoma (MCL).

FREDERICK, Md.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Maryland Tech Council (MTC) announced today it has expanded its offices to Frederick to broaden its reach throughout the State of Maryland and to meet the growing needs of its members. The satellite office will be located at 12 West Church Street. Additionally, MTC is planning a move of its Montgomery County satellite office to the Universities at Shady Grove (USG) in Rockville. MTC will continue to utilize its satellite offices in Annapolis and other key life science and tech hubs throughout Maryland.

HHS on Monday launched a new program to spur development and commercialization of technologies that would help the U.S. respond to health security threats and disasters.

The Foundry for American Biotechnology, a public-private partnership, will be jointly managed by the department's Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response—or ASPR—and the New Hampshire technology firm Deka Research and Development Corp.

Feb. 10, 2020 -- Linda Larrimore has been getting chemotherapy every other week for 6 years to treat and manage colon cancer.

The chemotherapy is keeping her health stable, so it’s well worth it to the mother and grandmother to regularly get the treatment. Usually, she spends the 4½ hours every other week reading, watching TV, or chatting.

Image: https://www.webmd.com

New Enterprise Associates Partner Sara Nayeem sat down with Proactive’s Christine Corrado at the BIO CEO & Investor Conference in New York.

The venture capital fund, which has a cumulative committed capital of $20 billion, focuses on investing in across all verticals in healthcare and in technology.

Image: https://www.proactiveinvestors.com

Mtech Ventures, a University of Maryland technology company incubator program, won a $50,000 U.S. Small Business Administration Growth Accelerator Fund competition award to support innovation in federal Opportunity Zones in the Baltimore-Washington metropolitan area.

Through the grant, Mtech Ventures is partnering with the Association of University Research Parks (AURP) and the Center for Accelerating Innovation to organize community-needs roundtables, identify promising innovations, develop entrepreneurs and build awareness of Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) or Small Business Tech Transfer (STTR) program in low-income census tracts called federal Opportunity Zones (OZ). Maryland has 149 Opportunity Zones, while the District of Columbia has 25. Federal tax incentives for new investments are available in these zones.

WASHINGTON – The National Capital Consortium for Pediatric Device Innovation (NCC-PDI) announced today that the application deadline for its annual “Make Your Medical Device Pitch for Kids!” competition is extended one week to Feb. 22 at midnight EST. Innovators and startup companies with devices in the pediatric cardiovascular, orthopedic and spine, or NICU sectors are invited to apply for a share of up to $250,000 in FDA-funded awards and access to a newly created NCC-PDI pediatric device accelerator program led by MedTech Innovator. Applications are being accepted now.

The University System of Maryland Maryland Momentum Fund and the University of Maryland, Baltimore, have invested $350,000 in a medical technology startup, the 11th investment from the fund. University of Maryland BioPark startup ARMR Systems Inc. was awarded $350,000, the first time a BioPark resident has received an investment from the fund. The university investments led ARMR’s ...

Here’s a useful article that looks at the fate of university-licensed startup (ULS) life sciencecompanies over the last few years. There are more and more such companies (a greater than tenfold increase in their number since 1990), but a comprehensive look at success rates (and how such rates vary according to the universities involved) has been harder to come by. A lot of work went into this overview, and I’m glad the authors were able to assemble it. They spent a lot of time digging through tech-transfer records and contacting universities to make sure that they’d covered everything, checking venture capital announcements and state corporate registrations, and searching through press releases, LinkedIn pages, and more. The data that they have produced look like the best we have on the subject.