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308th Edition – June 19, 2018




BioHealth Innovation


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June 19, 2018



BIO 2018 Recap

Business partnering, education and networking was the focus of 3500 biohealth industry leaders who attended the BIO International Convention (BIO) Conference earlier this month in Boston.  At the event, BIO set the GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS title for the Largest Business Partnering Event with 41,400 partnering meetings.  Many of these meetings took place in the pavilion hosted by the Maryland Department of Commerce which included space for meetings BioHealth Innovation, Montgomery County Economic Development Corp (MCEDC), Rockville Economic Development (REDI), the City of Gaithersburg, Viva White Oak, PIC-MC (Montgomery College), University of Maryland Ventures, Johns Hopkins University, Fina BioSolutions, Integrated Pharma Services,  Pharmaceuticals International, Inc., Emergent BioSolutions, AsclepiX, and US FDA’s Tech Transfer Office.  Others from the BioHealth Capital Region who attended included:  ABL, American Gene Technologies, AstraZeneca / MedImmune, Altimmune, BioMarker Strategies, Bytegrid, Children’s National Health, CRBE, Creatv Microtech, GlycoMimetics, IDT Biologica, Immunomics, Intrexon, Leidos Health, MacroGenics, Maryland Tech Council, MaxCyte, Newport Board Group, Novodux Paragon Bioservices, REGENXBIO, MacroGenics, Neuronascent, Scheer Partners, Smithers Avanza, TEDCO, the University of Maryland Baltimore, and the University of Maryland’s Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology Research.

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Gaithersburg Ranks Among Top 10 Best Cities For STEM Workers | Gaithersburg, MD Patch

Based on data collected by Livability.com, a website that explores what makes small-to-medium sized cities ideal places to live, the City of Gaithersburg ranked in the top 10 of a 2018 listing of Best Cities for STEM Workers, coming in at #6. The site analyzed data from 2,000 cities and towns across the country, looking at such factors as share of total jobs that fall into the STEM category, the median income for those jobs, and the median income for STEM jobs in relation to overall median income within each city. Number one on the list was Huntsville, Alabama.

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Neuralstem Awarded Phase I SBIR Contract to Support Research into Neural Stem Cell Therapy for Severe Traumatic Brain Injury Nasdaq:CUR

Neuralstem, Inc. (Nasdaq:CUR), a biopharmaceutical company developing novel treatments for nervous system diseases, today announced that it has been awarded a Phase I Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contract by the Department of Defense (DoD). The award of $150,000 will support the Company’s ongoing efforts to develop its NSI-566 human neural stem cell line as a candidate therapeutic for severe Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI).

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Johns Hopkins spinout LifeSprout raises $6.5 million – Technical.ly Baltimore

Johns Hopkins spinout LifeSprout recently closed on $6.5 million in funding as it looks to bring soft tissue replacement technology to market, according to CEO Sashank Reddy.

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How Adaptive Phage Therapeutics Inc. is saving lives with bacteria-killing viruses – Washington Business Journal

The Gaithersburg-based company is raising $5 million, ahead of a planned Series A round of at least $30 million in the first quarter of 2019, to bring a therapy for drug-resistant bacteria to market as soon as possible.

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Insilico Medicine receives strategic investment from Chinese biotech firm – Technical.ly Baltimore

Baltimore-based Insilico Medicine landed a new strategic investment from Chinese biotech company WuXi AppTec.

The amount of the funding was not disclosed, but the investment also includes a strategic partnership between Insilico and WuXi, which specializes in contract research for the pharmaceutical and medical device industries.

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United Therapeutics (UTHR) Announces Collaboration with XVIVO Perfusion to Reduce Organ Shortage

United Therapeutics Corporation (NASDAQ: UTHR) and XVIVO Perfusion, Inc., a subsidiary of XVIVO Perfusion AB (STO: XVIVO), today announced that the use of XVIVO’s ex-vivo lung perfusion (EVLP) technology will be incorporated into the Silver Spring, Maryland laboratory of Lung Bioengineering Inc., a subsidiary of United Therapeutics’ public benefit corporation subsidiary Lung Biotechnology PBC.

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TEDCO launching fund to serve the young startups venture capitalists often overlook – Baltimore Business Journal

Maryland Technology Development Corp. is launching a new fund that will offer early stage investments of $50,000 to startups that may be overlooked by other funding organizations.

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Baltimore biotech WindMIL Therapeutics raises $32.5 million – Baltimore Business Journal

Baltimore biotechnology firm WindMIL Therapeutics has raised a $32.5 million to support clinical trials and further development for new cancer therapies.

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Lockheed Martin Doubles Venture Capital Fund To $200 Million – Defense Daily Network

Lockheed Martin [LMT] on Wednesday said it has added another $100 million to its venture capital fund, doubling the firepower of Lockheed Martin Ventures for investments in early-stage companies that are developing advanced technologies.

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Eight startups join Maryland duo-backed accelerator · Articles · Global University Venturing

Eight US-based startups have been accepted onto the 2018 cohort of Trajectory Next, a second-stage accelerator run by Johns Hopkins University (JHU), University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) and incubator Betamore.

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July 12th Deadline to Apply – StartRight Business Plan Competition

The StartRight! Women’s Business Plan Competition was founded in 2004 by Rockville Economic Development, Inc. (REDI) to encourage and support women’s entrepreneurship. Now run by the Maryland Women’s Business Center, an initiative of REDI, StartRight! awards prizes for winning business plans each year. The women who enter our competition receive more than the opportunity to win a top prize of $5,000; they also receive valuable coaching and feedback on their business plan!

Complete plans are due electronically by July 12th. For more information, click here.

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REGENXBIO Receives FDA Fast Track Designation for RGX-111 Gene Therapy for the Treatment of Mucopolysaccharidosis Type I | REGENXBIO Inc.

REGENXBIO Inc. (Nasdaq: RGNX), a leading clinical-stage biotechnology company seeking to improve lives through the curative potential of gene therapy based on its proprietary NAV® Technology Platform, today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted Fast Track designation for RGX-111. RGX-111 is a novel, one-time investigational treatment for Mucopolysaccharidosis Type I (MPS I), that is designed to deliver the human iduronidase (IDUA) gene directly to the central nervous system (CNS) using the NAV AAV9 vector.

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RoosterBio Inc. Becomes Industry Partner in NSF-Funded Public-Private Cell Manufacturing Technologies Initiative

RoosterBio Inc. has joined the new NSF Engineering Research Center for Cell Manufacturing Technologies, known as CMaT. The center, launched in 2017 with a $20 million investment from the National Science Foundation, aims to revolutionize the treatment of cancer, heart disease, autoimmune diseases and other disorders by enabling scalable manufacturing and broad use of potentially curative therapies that utilize living cells – such as immune cells and stem cells – as “drugs.”

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REGENXBIO Receives $100 Million Accelerated License Payment Due to Acquisition of AveXis by Novartis | REGENXBIO Inc.

REGENXBIO Inc. (Nasdaq: RGNX), a leading clinical-stage biotechnology company seeking to improve lives through the curative potential of gene therapy based on its proprietary NAV® Technology Platform, today announced that it has received an accelerated license payment of $100 million under its license agreement (the License Agreement) with AveXis, Inc. (AveXis) for the development and commercialization of products to treat spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), due to the acquisition of AveXis by Novartis AG (Novartis).

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Pigs into people: UW joins renewed effort to use animals as organ donors | Local News | host.madison.com

For half a century, doctors have said human organ transplants will someday be replaced by xenotransplantation, or putting animal organs into people.

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Alexandria LaunchLabs, the Premier Life Science Startup Platform, Strategically Located at the Alexandria Center for Life Science – NYC, Celebrates First Anniversary and Announces First Investments through the Alexandria Seed Capital Platform – GuruFocus.

Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc. (NYSE: ARE), an urban office REIT uniquely focused on collaborative life science and technology campuses in AAA innovation cluster locations, celebrated the first anniversary of Alexandria LaunchLabs®, which opened at the Alexandria Center® for Life Science – New York City in June 2017.

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NYC Better Brace Itself for Wave of Life Science Companies – Commercial Observer

The life science industry is growing rapidly around the country and New York City is poised for an explosion of new companies—but there isn’t enough real estate to accommodate them in Gotham, according to industry experts at the first-ever Life Sciences 2018 Real Estate Development Symposium on June 12.

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Biotech Task Force offers suggestions to reinvigorate life science industry, but warns, ‘there is no magic bullet’ – ROI-NJ

The state’s Biotechnology Task Force released a 44-page report of recommendations to the state that could help New Jersey reinvigorate its life sciences sector.

Many of the themes from the report echo comments from the Biotechnology Innovation Organization’s annual conference in Boston recently.

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Smart City Works DEMO DAY S18

Wed, Jun 20, 2018 at 1:00 PM

Come meet our Spring Cohort of next generation technology ventures in: AR/ VR, Smart Parking, Intelligent Buildings, Mobile Wallet, Multi-modal Transport, Cyber Security, that are changing the way we design, build, and operate cities!

Paid Public Parking is available in the garage beneath the Virginia Tech Research Centre. Garage entrance is off 9th Street at the corner of Glebe Road.

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Rare Genomics Institute Announces Winners of BeHEARD (Helping Empower and Accelerate Research Discoveries) Rare Disease Challenge — Rare Genomics Institute

The Rare Genomics (RG) Institute is delighted to announce the winners of the 2017 BeHEARD (Helping Empower and Accelerate Research Discoveries) science challenge, a global competition that offers rare disease researchers, who traditionally have difficulty attracting funding, grants of the latest life science innovations and technologies. This unique crowdsourced biotechnology competition allows companies to contribute their technology to make a difference for the rare disease community.

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Top 10 Under 40 – The Lists – GEN

If indeed “innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower,” as Steve Jobs wrote in 2001, then this year’s Top 10 Under 40 are well on the way to becoming leaders in biopharma research and business.

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CRISPR Could Help Us Cure Diseases. It Could Also Cause Cancer.

You know already about the promise for CRISPR-Cas9 — it might revolutionize fields from medicine to agriculture.

It might also eventually cause tumors.

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Next Chapter For Biotech? Many Say ‘Convergence’ With Data Science | CommonHealth

So far, the digital revolution has mostly been a disappointment in health care. Doctors stare at their screens instead of us. Specialists and emergency rooms still don’t have all our records.

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Gates Foundation debuts nonprofit biotech firm at BIO – MedCity News

Biotechnology is one of the hottest areas in business and investing, so it might seem a bit counterintuitive that a new biotechnology firm just launched that won’t seek to make any profit. But the new nonprofit drugmaker seeks to do precisely that, in order to tackle some of the worst health crises in the developing world.

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Gottlieb at BIO: FDA developing processes around right-to-try law – MedCity News

Perhaps it was inevitable that with Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb speaking before an auditorium full of biotechnology executives, a particularly contentious topic would come up: the new right-to-try law.

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