464th Edition, July 13, 2021

Howard Carolan, Co-Founder and CEO  of CoapTech, Inc., and Neil Davis, Program Director of the Biomedical Entrepreneurship Graduate Certificate program at the University of Maryland Baltimore (UMB), joins Rich Bendis to discuss Startups, Tech Transfer, and the Funding.

Listen now on Google https://bit.ly/36fStWr, Apple https://apple.co/2UpA0UO, Spotify https://spoti.fi/36igrjG, and TuneIn https://bit.ly/3hpCRpT.

Mr. Davis is currently Program Director of the Biomedical Entrepreneurship graduate certificate program at the University of Maryland Baltimore (UMB).  This unique 12 credit graduate certificate provides the student with an opportunity to learn the process of creating valuable intellectual property (IP) and moving it into commercial application.  This process begins with the creation of IP, continues to its licensing and the formation of a venture through the growth of the venture, and culminates with the monetization of that venture.

Read More

ROCKVILLE, MARYLAND, July 6, 2020 – The Board of Directors of BioHealth Innovation, Inc. (BHI) unanimously approved the appointment of Jeff Boyle as a new board member. Jeff Boyle is the President of Ellume USA LLC and leads the team establishing the manufacturing operation and commercial headquarters in Maryland; and is responsible for all aspects of the North American business operation. Jeff has previously held leadership positions at CSL, Cellestis, and most recently with QIAGEN as a Global Franchise Head.

Read More

LEIDEN, The Netherlands, July 06, 2021 / B3C newswire / — MIMETAS, a leader in organ-on-chip-based disease models and technology, and Roche, a world-leading pharmaceutical company, announced today that they have entered into a collaboration to develop human disease models to characterize novel compounds in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and hepatitis B virus infections (HBV). Under the terms of the agreement, MIMETAS is eligible to receive an upfront payment and milestone payments from Roche.

MIMETAS will be responsible for developing tissue-based disease models and assays in the OrganoPlate, its proprietary organ-on-chip platform that increases predictability of biomarkers and reduces animal use in scientific testing. Roche will gain access to technology, disease models, and scientific results. Roche will also receive an option to exclusively license specific disease models and assays for use in drug discovery.

Read More

The companion diagnostics market is on track to reach $6.8 billion by 2025 (from $3.7 billion in 2020), according to a Markets and Markets report , driven by the growing need for targeted therapy, the rising importance of personalized medicine, the increasing global incidence of cancer, and a raging demand for next-generation sequencing (NGS). So it’s not surprising to see more and more alliances between pharmaceutical companies and diagnostics companies.

Read More

The BioHealth Capital Region Forum is free Virtual 2 Half-Day event for executive-level biotech leaders. The theme of the forum this year is “Big Data…Big Data…Converging” with panels on Big Data in Biotech, nfectious Diseases, Developing Talent, Regional Real Estate, IP Analysis and Protection, Funding, and a Fire Side Chat with Dr. Anthony Fauci, NIAID Director.

The 7th Annual BioHealth capital Region Forum is organized by event partners – Association of University Research Parks, AstraZeneca, BioHealth Innovation, BRAINBox Solutions, Inc, Children’s National Hospital, Emergent BioSolutions, George Mason University, Johnson & Johnson Innovation – JLABS @ Washington, DC, Maryland Department of Commerce, and Virginia Bio. Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, DC set the bar high for biotech innovation. Please join us for our 7th Annual BioHealth Capital Region Forum that will highlight the accomplishments of today and chart our successes of tomorrow. We hope you’re able to join us!

Read More

Registration is now open for the BioHealth Capital Region 6th Annual Crab Trap Competition. The Crab Trap this year will be held virtually in affiliation with the 7th Annual BioHealth Capital Region Forum with attendees receiving a link to watch live on September, 29th, 2021. Judges Sally Allain, Head, JLABS @ Washington, DC, Johnson & Johnson Innovation, Andrea Alms, Co-Fund Manager, BioHealth Capital Fund, Troy LeMaile-Stovall, Chief Executive Officer, TEDCO, Conley Jones, Senior Associate, Alexandria Venture Investments, and John Newby, Chief Executive Officer, Virginia Biotechnology Association, join Moderator, Rich Bendis, President and CEO of BHI, to choose one biohealth startup with the most commercial potential.

Companies interested in applying, please visit https://bit.ly/crabtrap2021 today.

Read More

The firm helps gene therapy and vaccine companies develop and manufacture products for rare diseases.

Image: Vigene Biosciences, led by CEO Zairen Sun, right, and Chief Commercial Officer Jeffrey Hung, has been acquired. EMAN MOHAMMED

Read More

GAITHERSBURG, Md.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Adaptive Phage Therapeutics, Inc. (“APT”), a clinical-stage biotechnology company dedicated to providing therapies to treat infectious diseases, today announced the appointment of Evan Loh, M.D., CEO of Paratek Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: PRTK), Jonathan Leff, Partner at Deerfield Management, and Jana Jensen, Ph.D., Chief Operating Officer at Deerfield Discovery and Development, to the company’s Board of Directors.

Read More

Johns Hopkins University’s board of trustees has voted unanimously to add a new five-year term to the presidential tenure of Ron Daniels, an extension through June 2029 that “reflects the board’s full and unwavering confidence in the trajectory of our institution and its remarkable people—our students, faculty, staff, alumni, and friends—supported and sustained by President Daniels’ able leadership,” Lou Forster, the board’s chair, wrote in a message to the Hopkins community today.

Image: Johns Hopkins University President Ron Daniels speaks at the 10,000 Small Businesses graduation ceremony in Baltimore in November 2019. CREDIT:WILL KIRK / JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY

Read More

This week, a pair of Frederick companies raised millions in new investment, offering evidence of the Maryland city’s growing role as one of the region’s tech hubs. Check out the specifics on those companies and more:

Image: Frederick, Maryland. (Courtesy photo)

Read More

Go pakh your cahr, Boston. Grab some granola, California. It’s D.C.’s moment in life sciences.

For years, the Washington metropolitan area has been one of the nation’s fastest-growing and largest life sciences markets. Growth during the pandemic and the market’s singular location are launching it into a whole other stratosphere.

Image: ST. JOHN PROPERTIES’ MATT HOLBROOK AT RIVERSIDE TECH PARK IN FREDERICK. PHOTO: BY ST. JOHN PROPERTIES

Read More

• This document has been redacted by Sam Collaudin, Kinexum Business Strategy Consultant, independently from any pharmaceutical and biotech companies
• It synthesizes selected data presented during the ATTD 2021 conference
• Grey rectangles are personal comments and opinions, underlined words are clickable links to other slides or external references
• If you have comments, please contact me by email (samcollaudin@kinexum.com)
• Disclosure: Business strategy consultant at Modular Medical, CEO of Abvance Kinexum , consultant for Therapeutics, chairman of a non for profit French health care insurance company (Groupe Operating Since 2003 Uitsem)

Read More

We are excited to announce a partnership between CEID and CONNECTED DMV. We will be cooperating with CONNECTED DMV in their Pandemic Prevention and Biodefense Initiative and serve as a key partner in the Global Pandemic Prevention and Biodefense Center and AHEAD100 initiative.

Read More

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) continued to take action in the ongoing response to the COVID-19 pandemic:

Today, the FDA authorized the use, under the emergency use authorization (EUA) for the Janssen COVID-19 vaccine, of an additional batch of vaccine drug substance manufactured at the Emergent facility. To date a total of four batches of Janssen drug substance that were manufactured at the Emergent facility have been authorized. The FDA conducted a thorough review of facility records and the results of quality testing performed by the manufacturer. Based on this review and considering the current COVID-19 public health emergency, the FDA has concluded that these batches are suitable for use. While the FDA is not yet ready to include the Emergent BioSolutions plant in the Janssen EUA as an authorized manufacturing facility, the agency continues to work through issues there with Janssen and Emergent BioSolutions management.

Read More

In Greater Washington, we spotlight these VC firms raising new funds or adding dollars to their existing ones.

Read More

Arriving in Washington in the midst of a pandemic, the Biden administration has been laser-focused on funding life sciences, announcing support for the onshoring of crucial manufacturing and proposing vast increases in National Institutes of Health funding and the creation of ARPA-H, a new multibillion-dollar applied research center for the health sciences.

Image: Courtesy of Central Indiana Corporate Partnership Congress has passed a series of bills that may send billions of dollars of funding to life sciences clusters across the country.

Read More

By the end of this week, the world should cross two small but significant milestones on the road to overcoming COVID-19—getting at least 5% of the global population fully vaccinated against SARS-CoV-2, with at least 10% receiving one dose of vaccines that require two.

According to Our World in Data, a collaboration of the Oxford Martin Programme on Global Development at the University of Oxford and the nonprofit Global Change Data Lab, 376,173,766 people were fully vaccinated as of May 20 (4.8% of global population), while 739,208,299 people had received one dose (9.5%).

Read More

Thanks to unprecedented development speed and mostly strong safety and efficacy data, vaccines have dominated the response to COVID-19. But ending the pandemic will also require development of numerous therapeutics.

Seven COVID-19 drugs have shown promise recently. Positive signs include the accumulation of encouraging data, participation in the Accelerating COVID-19 Therapeutic Interventions and Vaccines (ACTIV) trials, and/or progress toward regulatory authorizations.

Read More

Entrepreneurs who require funding for their startup have long counted on self-accredited high net worth individuals (“angels”) to fill their needs, after friends and family, and before they qualify for institutional investments (“VCs”). The many crowd funding platforms on the Internet, led still by Kickstarter and IndieGoGo, were expected by many to put regular people in charge of funding new opportunities, and kill the need for angel groups.

Image: https://blog.startupprofessionals.com

Read More