433rd Edition, February 17, 2021

Troy A LeMaile-Stovall, CEO and Executive Director of TEDCO, joins Rich Bendis BioTalk to discuss his background, the local ecosystem, and their vision for the future here in Maryland

Listen now via Apple http://apple.co/3tMsGQ4 , Google http://bit.ly/372QPs5 , http://spoti.fi/3tV2vXI , and TuneIn http://bit.ly/3aOuuzC.

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Are you a 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 here: www.tinyurl.com/EIRfeedback.  These take place by videoconference via Zoom.  Pre-registration and forwarding of a power point deck one week before the session is required. For questions, more information, or to be added to the wait list, please contact BHI.

Please review the available slots below and click on the button to register. Thank you!

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Germantown, MD, February, 9, 2021 – Seraxis, a biotech company developing a cell replacement therapy for insulin-dependent diabetes today announced the successful closing of a $40M Series C private financing round. The financing was led by Eli Lilly and Company, with participation from Frazier Healthcare Partners, Polaris Ventures, JDRF T1D Fund, and other investors.

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GAITHERSBURG, Md., Feb. 11, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — NexImmune, Inc., a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing a novel approach to immunotherapy designed to employ the body’s own T cells to generate a specific, potent and durable immune response that mimics natural biology, today announced the pricing of its upsized initial public offering of 6,471,000 shares of its common stock at a price to the public of $17.00 per share. The gross proceeds to NexImmune from the offering, before deducting the underwriting discounts and commissions and offering expenses, are expected to be approximately $110 million.

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Luis Diaz, co-founder of PGDx, said the new funding will allow the company to “go out and sell” the cancer diagnostics tech it has been working on for a decade.

Image: Baltimore’s Personal Genome Diagnostics (PGDx) has raised about $214 million in funding to date. CARLEY MILLIGAN

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The vaccine was found to generate a robust immune response in animals exposed to the vaccine with strong data indicating safety and efficacy, according to the study published recently in the journal Nature Communications. The results have been used to begin testing the vaccine in human trials in the United States with a Phase 3 trial that recently launched at UMSOM’s Center for Vaccine Development and Global Health (CVD).

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U.S. drug maker Emergent BioSolutions began speeding up its acquisition of drug supplies beginning early last year, as the coronavirus outbreak was erupting in China. In addition to producing drugs like the opioid overdose-reversing Narcan nasal spray, the firm develops vaccines and antibody therapeutics and had scored lucrative contracts for key biodefense medicines over the decades. 

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(Reuters) – Genetic testing specialist Qiagen’s Chief Executive Thierry Bernard said the company is interested in organic growth and “bolt-on” acquisitions, when asked about recent merger and acquisition speculation during a results conference call on Wednesday.

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University System of Maryland (USM) asked members of its community to get creative with approaches to educating the public on COVID-19 safety ahead of vaccination.

Among the top submissions: a puppet show, an action film parody and, because this is Maryland, a crab.

USM, which oversees a dozen public higher education campuses in the state, issued a Public Health Challenge through its research and innovation task force in December. It called for videos and images “to highlight how USM students, members of the broader university community, and all Marylanders can stay safe and healthy while waiting for a vaccine.”

Image: From “Pandemic Puppet Fatigue.” (Screenshot via University System of Maryland)

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The Montgomery County startup is raising new funding — and eyeing an eventual sale of the business.

Image: Sue Carr designed an alternative to the traditional system used for liquid pharmaceuticals. ANDREW BROOKES

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Maryland is now one of only six states with more than one university entity spending $1 billion or more per year on research, according to the latest rankings from NSF.

Image: A large portion of Johns Hopkins University’s total research and development spending can be attributed to the school’s Applied Physics Laboratory based in Laurel. COURTESY OF JOHNS HOPKINS APPLIED PHYSICS LABORATORY

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GENEVA (Reuters) – The World Health Organization (WHO) on Monday listed AstraZeneca and Oxford University’s COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use, widening access to the relatively inexpensive shot in the developing world.

“We now have all the pieces in place for the rapid distribution of vaccines. But we still need to scale up production,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General, told a news briefing.

Image: FILE PHOTO: A vial of AstraZeneca coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine is pictured at St. Mary’s Hospital, in Phoenix Park in Dublin, Ireland, February 14, 2021. REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne

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Easy to manufacture and update, these new vaccines may be a powerful tool against emerging variants and other infectious diseases

Even the experts were startled by the remarkable success of the two first-of-their-kind messenger RNA vaccines developed by Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech against COVID-19.

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Last month, biotechnology company United Therapeutics began tearing down the historic Elion-Hitchings building in Research Triangle Park, a Mid-Century, Brutalist structure built by the famed architect Paul Rudolph.

While the move was met with dismay from architecture lovers, the demolition could portend a large expansion on the building’s 132-acre property in the coming years.

Image: United Therapeutics currently employs more than 400 people in Research Triangle Park. UNITED THERAPEUTICS.

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Creating university communities of innovation is AURP’s core expertise. And as university innovation communities evolve, AURP announces university innovation community builders’ latest professional development opportunity — Innovation U Virtual Seminars. We’ll be featuring information and knowledge about the latest trends in innovation and university districts — the why, the how-to and “the who is doing it and where?”

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The Port Covington Development Team consisting of lead investors Sagamore Ventures and Goldman Sachs Urban Investment Group, and lead developer Weller Development Company, today announced that financing for the next development phase has been finalized. The capitalization totals more than $650 million, including approximately $137 million in Tax Increment Financing (TIF) bonds. The closing of the financing marks a significant milestone for one of the largest urban revitalization efforts in the country, signifying vertical construction is underway. In conjunction with the closings, the Port Covington Development Team funded more than $9 million to the South Baltimore 7 (SB7) Coalition, as part of its Community Benefits Agreement (CBA).

Image: https://pc.city/chapter-1b-underway/

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Here’s a look at how Johns Hopkins’ COVID-19 website was created and how it grew visits to more than 38 million in seven months.

Image: https://www.healthcarefinancenews.com

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GAITHERSBURG, Md., Feb. 15, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Novavax, Inc. (Nasdaq: NVAX), a biotechnology company developing next-generation vaccines for serious infectious diseases, and SK Bioscience, a vaccine business subsidiary of SK Group, today announced an expanded collaboration and license agreement. In addition to the already existing manufacturing arrangement, SK Bioscience has obtained a license to manufacture and commercialize NVX-CoV2373, Novavax’ COVID-19 vaccine, for sale to the Korean government. SK Bioscience will add significant production capacity under this new agreement. Novavax recently reported positive interim efficacy results for the vaccine candidate in an ongoing Phase 3 clinical trial in the United Kingdom and is also currently conducting a Phase 3 trial in the U.S. and Mexico.

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A key component of America’s ability to innovate is its world-renowned system of higher education, which is the envy of the world. owever, there’s room for improvement. Universities can do more to promote the inventive talents of their students and faculty. Recently, I discussed this potential — and the steps higher education institutions should take in order to realize it — in an interview with Korok Ray.

Korok is an associate professor at the Mays Business School of Texas A&M University and the director of the Mays Innovation Research Center. He’s also the author of the recent National Affairs article, “The Innovative University.”

Image: KOROK RAY – https://mays.tamu.edu/directory/korok/

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Artificial intelligence is often depicted in popular movies and TV dramas as technology that is determined to take over the world. Just a few weeks ago, a new series on Fox premiered, highlighting “a rogue AI with the ability to constantly improve itself that may spell doom for humankind.”

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The Center for Advancing Point of Care Technologies (CAPCaT) in Heart, Lung, Blood, and Sleep Disorders (U54HL143541) announces the 2021 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 four awards of up to $100,000 over 12 months, with one or more award(s) focused on complementary and integrative health.

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Johns Hopkins University led all U.S. universities in research and development spending for the 41st consecutive year in fiscal year 2019, spending a record $2.917 billion.

The university’s total R&D expenditure for fiscal year 2019—the most recent year for which nationwide data is available—rose 9.6% from the previous year, according to the annual National Science Foundation report on higher education R&D.

Image: https://hub.jhu.edu

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Baltimore, Md. (Feb. 11, 2020) – The University System of Maryland (USM) COVID Research & Innovation Task Force today announced the six winning teams for its Public Health Challenge. Undertaken with the generous support of several local organizations, the Task Force in mid-December invited members of the USM community to take part in this multimedia challenge, seeking creative ways to highlight how USM students, members of the broader university community, and all Marylanders can stay safe and healthy while waiting for a vaccine.

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Fossilised remains of a fish that grew as big as a great white shark and the largest of its type ever found have been discovered by accident.

The new discovery by scientists from the University of Portsmouth is a species of the so-called ‘living fossil’ coelacanths which still swim in the seas, surviving the extinction that killed off the dinosaurs.

The discovery was purely serendipitous. Professor David Martill, a palaeontologist from the University’s School of the Environment, Geography and Geosciences, had been asked to identify a large bone in a private collection in London.

Image: IMAGE: AN EXAMPLE OF WHAT A COMPLETE FISH FOSSIL COELACANTH LOOKS LIKE. THIS ONE IS FROM THE JURASSIC OF GERMAN. view more CREDIT: PROFESSOR DAVID MARTILL, UNIVERSITY OF PORTSMOUTH

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