438th Edition, March 23, 2021

Wednesday, March 24, 2021

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.

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“Who do you know that others need to know?

We are always one conversation away from changing our lives, and Rich Bendis of BioHealth Innovations started the BioTalk podcast to connect the world of biohealth better.

In a world where medical science advances are growing at the fastest pace in human history, we can still run into a problem where the people who know each other don’t get connected to advance therapy, new medicine, or new approaches.”

Key Topics:

What is the goal of Biohealth Innovations (1:44)

How has the medical research changed as a result of COVID (3:24)

How was the COVID vaccine researched (8:06)

What made podcasting the right next step for BioHealth (10:22)

Who has benefited from the podcast (12:29)

Visit https://causepods.org/podcast/the-more-we-know-with-rich-bendis-of-the-biotalk-podcast/ to listen.

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BIoHealth Innovation is sad to hear of the passing of Jose Basegla, the Head of the ASTRA Zeneca Oncology R&D business and the Gaithersburg Site Head. Jose was a strong proponent for making the BIoHealth Capital Region a leading BIoHealth hub with a connected ecosystem. AZ was also a founding member of BIoHealth Innovation and continues to support us today.

An outstanding scientific leader, José leaves a lasting legacy in the scientific community and here at AstraZeneca. He set our Oncology R&D function on a remarkable trajectory, and his visionary leadership, deep scientific expertise and strategic insight have delivered so many achievements that we can all be proud of and that will benefit patients’ lives in the years to come.

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RICHMOND, Va., March 18, 2021 – Phlow Corp., a U.S.-based, public benefit corporation committed to a bold mission of providing every American with access to affordable, high-quality essential medicines, today joins in announcing the launch of a groundbreaking Children’s Hospital Coalition: Powered by PhlowTM (CHC). This first-in-kind coalition brings together some of the top children’s hospitals across the nation, in collaboration with Phlow, to provide certainty in availability and access for key medicines necessary to sustain life and conquer disease and to address the nation’s broken essential medicines supply chain.

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More than 160 entrepreneurs attended last week’s BHI Virtual Non-Dilutive Funding Workshop with 1:1 Partnering cohosted by BioHealth Innovation and Montgomery County Economic Development Corporation (MCEDC). Attendees learned about funding opportunities, resources and best practices from program officers at NIH, NSF and the University of Maryland, and also about additional resources and tips for winning applications from experts at MCEDC, the City of Gaithersburg, Maryland Department of Commerce, and BioHealth Innovation. More than 460 partnering meetings were requested. Many took place during the event last week, and others will happen in the near future. Most of the panelists have agreed to share their presentations and panel recordings. These will be available through BHI within the next two weeks. BHI would like to thank the participants who took the time to prepare, present, and/or partner at the event. They include:

• Henry Ahn – Program Director, National Science Foundation (NSF)
• Lynne Stein Benzion – Director, Economic Development, Montgomery County Econ. Dev. Corp. (MCEDC)
• Katie Bratlie – Program Director, National Science Foundation (NSF)
• Christie Canaria, PhD – Program Director, SBIR Development Center, National Cancer Institute (NCI)
• Judy Costello – Managing Director, Economic Development, BioHealth Innovation (BHI)
• Stephanie Davis, PhD – Small Business Program Coordinator, NIH Nat’l Heart Lung & Blood Inst. (NHLBI)
• Sharon Disque, Economic Development Manager, City of Gaithersburg, Maryland
• Stephanie Fertig, HHS Small Business Program Lead, National Institutes of Health (NIH)
• Jonathan Franca-Koh, PhD – Program Director, SBIR Development Center, National Cancer Inst (NCI).
• Armineh Ghazarian – Senior Program Analyst, NIH National Institute on Aging (NIA)
• Colleen Gibney, SBIR Deputy Project Manager, US Army Medical Research & Dev. Command (USAMRDC)
• Luis Gutierrez – Entrepreneur-in-Residence, BioHealth Innovation, Inc. (BHI)
• Todd Haim, PhD – Chief, Office of Small Business Research, NIH National Institute on Aging (NIA)
• Elena Koustova, PhD, MBA – Director, Office of Translational Initiatives and Program Innovations (OTIPI), NIDA SBIR/STTR Coordinator, NIH National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA) Office of Director
• Ashwin Kulkarni, COO, miRecule; Associate, BioHealth Innovation, Inc. (BHI)
• Natalia Kruchinin, PhD – SBIR/STTR Program Coordinator, RTSP, DEA, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
• Carla Merritt, Senior Business Development Representative, Maryland Department of Commerce
• JR Myers, SBIR Project Manager, US Army Medical Research & Development Command (USAMRDC)
• Mike Minicozzi, PhD, Senior Program Officer, DAIT, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
• Alastair Monk – Program Director, National Science Foundation (NSF)
• Deepa Narayanan – Program Director and Team Lead, NIH National Cancer Institute SBIR Development Center (NCI)
• Rini Pek, PhD – Senior Analyst, BioHealth Innovation, Inc. (BHI)
• Erik Pierstorff – Program Director, National Science Foundation (NSF)
• Victor Prikhodko – Senior Business Dev. Mgr., SBIR/STTR NIH National Inst. of Drug Abuse (NIDA)
• Monique Pond, PhD – Program Director, SBIR Development Center, National Cancer Institute
• Reema Railkar, PhD – Program Manager, SBIR Development Center, National Cancer Institute
• Saroj Regmi, PhD – Health Science Administrator, Office of Small Business Research, NIH National Institute on Aging
• Andrea Renner – Technical Assistance Advocate, US Army Medical Research & Dev Command (USAMRDC)
• Ethel Rubin, PhD – Entrepreneur-in-Residence, BioHealth Innovation, Inc. (BHI)
• Anthony Saleh, PhD – CEO, miRecule
• Ben Schrag,PhD – Program Director, National Science Foundation (NSF)
• John Sullivan – Entrepreneur-in-Residence, BioHealth Innovation, Inc. (BHI)
• Onur Unal, Manager, Life Sciences Projects, Maryland Industrial Partnerships (MIPS), Maryland Technology Enterprise Institute (MTech), University of Maryland

 Register (no fee) today!    www.tinyurl.com/2021SBIR  Questions: BHI@BioHealthInnovation.orgNOTE:  Different institutes are available to meet at different times during the March 17-19th period.               You will be able to request meetings once you have registered and received the partnering log-in.

Register Now!

Click here to view the agenda.

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The 8-year-old vaccine maker focuses on addressing unmet medical needs.

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OXFORD, United Kingdom, March 17, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Vaccitech Ltd (“Vaccitech”), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company engaged in the discovery and development of novel immunotherapeutics and vaccines for the treatment and prevention of infectious diseases and cancer, today announces that it has raised $168 million in a Series B financing. This includes $43 million in convertible loan notes previously issued by Vaccitech that converted into Series B shares.

The Series B financing round was led by M&G Investment Management (part of M&G plc), with further participation from new investors including Tencent, Gilead Sciences, Monaco Constitutional Reserve Fund, and Future Planet Capital among others. The Series B financing round was also supported by existing investors, including Oxford Sciences Innovation.

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“We lost about nine months in time,” said Galen Robotics CEO Bruce Lichorowic.

Image: David Saunders (left) and Bruce Lichorowic are the co-founders of Baltimore-based medical robotics startup Galen Robotics. GALEN ROBOTICS

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AstraZeneca announced on Monday that its vaccine was 79 percent effective in preventing symptomatic COVID-19 in Phase III U.S. testing with no safety concerns found.

The company said in a statement that the vaccine was also found to be 100 percent effective in preventing serious cases of the disease and hospitalizations.

AstraZeneca said it will submit the findings to the Food and Drug Administration in a bid for emergency use authorization in the U.S.

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Blacksburg, VA – March 18, 2021 — The Virginia Tech Corporate Research Center (VTCRC) in partnership with the Virginia Tech Foundation (VTF) has been awarded a grant from the GO Virginia program to fund the evaluation and design of new lab concepts to serve southwest Virginia’s growing life and health sciences industry. The award is part of the Enhanced Capacity Building program that will support Virginia’s Region 2.

“We’re honored to be selected to lead this project. The VTCRC is dedicated to making flexible lab space more accessible for smaller startups as well as some of our high-growth companies. This effort will lead to much-needed resources that will help us grow our biotech industry, recruit new companies, and create valuable jobs for our local economy,” said Brett Malone, Ph.D., CEO of the VTCRC.

Image: https://www.vtcrc.com

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Visualized: Key Events in the COVID-19 Timeline It’s been a long and eventful year since COVID-19 was officially declared a global pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) on March 11, 2020.

The tangible and intangible costs of COVID-19 have been severe. In this visual COVID-19 timeline, we delve into some significant milestones that have occurred around the world.

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It is with immense gratitude and sincere best wishes that I announce National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) Director Christopher P. Austin, M.D. will be departing NIH. His last day will be April 15, 2021. After nearly a decade of bold leadership as the founding director of NCATS, Chris will become CEO-partner at Flagship Pioneering, a life science platforms company in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Image: NCATS Director Christopher P. Austin, M.D.Daniel Soñé Photography, LLC

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Stefanie Tompkins takes the reins today as the 23rd director of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.

With nearly eleven years of DARPA service under her belt, Tompkins, a former military intelligence officer in the U.S. Army, has an exceptional understanding of the agency’s culture. From 2007 through 2017, she held multiple positions, including program manager and deputy director of the Strategic Technology Office, a systems-oriented technical office; DARPA chief of staff; and director of the Defense Sciences Office, a highly exploratory office that identifies and accelerates new technologies. In 2017 and into the beginning of 2018, she served as the acting deputy director of the agency.

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As COVID-19 became a growing concern around the world early last year, Lauren Gardner tapped into her research expertise as an infectious disease modeler. Gardner, director of the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University, along with her Ph.D. student, were motivated to create a dashboard to track the spread of the novel coronavirus. During a panel Tuesday at this year’s virtual South by Southwest conference, she shared how the journey unfolded.

Image: https://www.cnet.com/

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Amalgam Rx, Inc., the leader in connecting healthcare providers and life sciences companies through a SaaS-enabled digital marketplace and product platform, is announcing the appointment of Jennifer Main as chief operating officer (COO) and chief financial officer (CFO). On April 5, 2021, Ms. Main will join Amalgam Rx from Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) where she has served as COO, responsible for a wide range of functions, including financial management, information technology, acquisition, human capital, facilities, strategic planning, and enterprise risk management. Prior to that, she held senior executive titles, including that of CFO, in five different public and private organizations over the span of her 25+ year career.

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Four Johns Hopkins professors have received grants for their research through the Bisciotti Foundation Translational Fund.

Established with a generous multiyear gift from the Stephen and Renee Bisciotti Foundation, the fund provides $300,000 annually in seed money to advance Johns Hopkins discoveries on a commercial path. Recipients are awarded from $25,000 and $100,000 to conduct their work during a period of up to nine months.

Image: The faculty winners of prizes from the Bisciotti Foundation Translational Fund are (clockwise from top left) Vivek Kumbhari, Xingde Li, Sung Hoon Kang, and Alan Cohen

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Richmond-based Phlow Corp. announced Thursday the launch of a coalition that will help ensure that children’s hospitals across the country receive key medications. The Virginia Commonwealth University-affiliated Children’s Hospital of Richmond is one of 11 founding hospital members.

Children’s Hospital Coalition (CHC) aims to provide certainty in availability and access to medicine and address supply chain issues. Citing a 2019 survey of 330 American hospitals — including 29 children’s hospitals — Phlow says that medicine shortages disproportionately and uniquely impact children’s hospitals. The company also says that the pandemic has further exposed the vulnerabilities of the supply chain.

Image: Dr. Eric Edwards, co-founder and CEO of Richmond-based Phlow Corp.

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LONDON—The Oxford startup behind AstraZeneca PLC’s Covid-19 vaccine has raised $168 million in new funding, which it plans to use to adopt its vaccine technology for the treatment of other diseases.

The move is a step in Vaccitech Ltd.’s preparations for going public as soon as this year, according to people familiar with the plans. The moves were first reported by The Wall Street Journal.

Image: Royal Navy personnel administer the Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine at a center in Bath, England. PHOTO: BEN BIRCHALL/ZUMA PRESS

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Launching an innovative product or technology takes more than a good idea, and there are many actions startups can take to strengthen their offering and overall chance of success as they develop the latest innovations to bolster health security, including battling COVID-19. Over the last year, the global scientific community has proven critical to our collective ability to combat the pandemic, and BLUE KNIGHT™ offers a new way to build the kinds of partnerships needed to advance potentially life-saving technology during public health emergencies.

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Here are eight recent health IT vendor contracts and go-lives accelerating digital transformation efforts at healthcare organizations.

1. Highmark Health, the parent company of Pittsburgh-based Allegheny Health Network, is building upon its tech partnership with Google Cloud through a new six-year collaboration with the tech giant’s sister company Verily.

2. The Department of Veterans Affairs, in partnership with T-Mobile, is deploying 5G technologies to the Miami VA Healthcare System.

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WASHINGTON, MARCH 19, 2021 – This week, U.S. Senators Chris Coons (D-Del.) and Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), both members of the Senate Appropriations Committee and Senate Competitiveness Caucus, reintroduced the Innovation Centers Acceleration Act, a bill which would expand research and development (R&D), targeted to reach a broader portion of the country. The legislation would complement a nationwide effort to compete with China economically by placing renewed emphasis on sectors key to economic resiliency and productivity, including biomedical technology, advanced manufacturing, and more.

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In March 2021, the Dutch government celebrates the start of Horizon Europe. Horizon Europe is the new European framework programme for research and innovation. During a series of online events, we will inform you about the possibilities within this large funding programme.

The National Contact Points from the Netherlands Enterprise Agency organise these events.

The series of events starts with an online kick-off event about the importance of Horizon Europe for the Netherlands. This event focusses on the policy aspects of the programme and is in Dutch. Find out more about the kick-off event (in Dutch).

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