466th Edition, July 27, 2021

Jeff Boyle, President of Ellume USA, joins Rich Bendis on BioTalk to chat about his history, their Flagship U.S. Manufacturing Facility in Frederick, MD, and why BioHealth Capital Region is a right fit for their company goals.

Listen now on Google https://bit.ly/3i0XFUO, Apple https://apple.co/2TDD1kg, Spotify https://spoti.fi/3kWwP1P, and TuneIn https://bit.ly/3BGPDrP

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GAITHERSBURG, Md., July 26, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — MaxCyte, Inc., (LSE: MXCT) (LSE: MXCN), a leading provider of platform technologies for cell engineering, today announced the commencement of an underwritten offering of 12,000,000 shares of common stock (the “Offering”) at an expected offering price between $11.50 and $13.50 per share. All shares to be sold in the Offering will be offered by MaxCyte. In addition, MaxCyte intends to grant the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to 1,800,000 additional shares of common stock.

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The extension follows a tumultuous time for the Gaithersburg company, making it unclear if the government would proceed with deals as normal.

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German-based BioNTech has announced that it will soon be joining Montgomery County’s growing list of world-renowned international companies in the “Immunology Capital Next to the Nation’s Capital.” BioNTech is acquiring a Gaithersburg manufacturing facility and cell therapy research and development platform from Kite, a unit of Gilead Sciences, to support the development of BioNTech’s expanding pipeline of novel cell therapies.

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MAINZ, Germany & SANTA MONICA, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–BioNTech SE (Nasdaq: BNTX, “BioNTech”) and Kite, a Gilead Company (Nasdaq: GILD, “Kite”) today announced the two companies have entered into a purchase agreement for BioNTech to acquire Kite’s solid tumor neoantigen T cell receptor (TCR) R&D platform and clinical manufacturing facility in Gaithersburg, MD. The acquired Gaithersburg facility will provide production capacity to support clinical trials in the United States and will complement BioNTech’s existing cell therapy manufacturing facility in Idar-Oberstein, Germany. The facility will support the development of BioNTech’s expanding pipeline of novel cell therapies, including cancer product candidates based on its CAR-T Cell amplifying mRNA vaccine (CARVac) and NEOSTIM platforms as well as the newly acquired individualized neoantigen TCR program.

Image: https://biobuzz.io

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Montgomery County is set to consider plans for the first phase of a five-building life sciences project in Rockville.

An affiliate of life sciences giant Alexandria Real Estate Equities filed plans for a 200K SF research and development building as part of an 18-acre project on Darnestown Road. The Montgomery County Planning Board is scheduled to hear the plans on July 29.

Image: Montgomery County Planning Department A rendering of the 200K SF lab building on Darnestown Road in Rockville.

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Matan Companies breaks ground on Progress Labs at Riverside I The City-based project will feature 215,000 square feet of biomanufacturing-ready space — including a 96,000 square foot existing building, which is available for immediate occupancy, as well as a 118,000 square foot expansion building, which will be delivered in June 2022.

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Come join the Virginia Tech Corporate Research Center for Game Changer Week! Game Changer Week, set for August 23-27, 2021 will bring together industry disruptors, entrepreneurs, innovators, and researchers for a variety of online and in-person events. Events include webinars, happy hours, start-up mentoring, special guests, open houses, and more!

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The Endless Frontier bill, now incorporated into the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act, made progress in the U.S. Senate while parallel legislation in the House also advanced to create a Technology Directorate in the NSF. Congress and the Administration also advanced through the budget process and other Congressionally authorization bills billions of dollars to create new tech hubs, advanced manufacturing, increased tech transfer, test beds, and applied research. Collectively this is one of the largest investments in applied research and tech based economic development undertaken by the federal government.

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ROCKVILLE, MD, July 15, 2021 /Globe Newswire/ — American Gene Technologies (AGT) announced today that the Data and Safety Monitoring Board (DSMB) voted unanimously to continue AGT’s HIV cure program without modification, after safety analysis of the participant’s data revealed no adverse effects from the treatment. AGT’s Phase 1 trial of AGT103-T, a new cell and gene therapy for HIV disease, is designed to induce durable viral suppression by delivering therapeutic genes to the recipient’s immune cells. The cells are collected by leukapheresis, modified outside the body, then re-infused. Once infused, the cells are expected to durably suppress the virus at undetectable levels without the need for antiretroviral treatment.

Image: https://www.americangene.com

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ROCKVILLE, Md.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Immunomic Therapeutics, Inc., (“ITI”), a privately-held clinical stage biotechnology company pioneering the study of nucleic acid immunotherapy platforms, announced today that its’ academic collaborator, Dr. John Sampson of Duke University’s Department of Neurosurgery, has been recognized as a World Expert in Glioblastoma by Expertscape, an online resource that identifies the world’s top experts in all medical fields. The publication recognized the top 0.1% of scholars writing about glioblastoma over the past ten years, a level they label as “World Expert”. Dr. Sampson’s recognition as a World Expert in glioblastoma is part of Glioblastoma Awareness Day, which is being celebrated today, Wednesday, July 21, 2021.

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The biomedical research ecosystem has delivered advances that not long ago would have been inconceivable, exemplified by highly effective COVID-19 vaccines developed by global partners and approved in less than a year. The United States stands at a moment of unprecedented scientific promise and is challenged to ask: What more can we do to accelerate the pace of break-throughs to transform medicine and health? Toward that end, President Biden recently proposed to create a new entity, the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H), within the National Institutes of Health (NIH) “to develop breakthroughs—to prevent, detect, and treat diseases like Alzheimer’s, diabetes, and cancer,” requesting $6.5 billion in the fiscal year 2022 budget.

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The US National Institutes of Health (NIH) are the largest public supporter of basic life science in the world.

With an FY2020 budget of $42 billion, most of their expenditures are university grants supporting either new discoveries or early-state clinical studies of promising treatments and diagnostic tests.

Since 1982, Congress has mandated that a fraction of the total annual NIH budget be put to work via grants or contracts to small life science and biotech companies rather than academic institutions.

Image: Photo by National Cancer Institute on Unsplash

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You have invested the time, expertise, and financial resources to develop a therapy that changes patient lives for the better. After all of your hard work and dedication, how can you ensure your product reaches patients? What are the key commercialization considerations for healthcare innovators, large and small? Learn how to unlock product potential in this step-by-step guide to making the most of your commercialization investments.

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The German firm hopes to expand its cancer treatments with the purchase.

Image: BioNTech is buying a Gaithersburg manufacturing facility on Clopper Road from Kite Pharma. GOOGLE STREET VIEW

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