497th Edition, March 1, 2022

POSITION DESCRIPTION – Entrepreneur-In-Residence

EIRs will work in collaboration with SEED to mentor innovators and provide guidance to help them de-risk the technical and business elements of their product development projects. EIRs will also help NIH and individual innovators ensure the long-term success of their projects by facilitating connections with investors and strategic partners who can help achieve commercial success and healthcare consumer access. To be successful in this role, entrepreneurial, commercial or product development experience in areas of social impact including wellness & prevention, healthcare access/community health and a wide network in social impact ventures is required.

This position is currently remote (with opportunity for future in-person activities) and part time (20 hrs/week with potential for expansion); occasional travel may be required (when conditions permit).

Johns Hopkins University led all U.S. institutions in total National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding for federal fiscal year 2021, with more than $820 million in awards, $824,856,274 to be exact. The rest of the top ten institutions were:

After struggling through COVID-19 vaccine production woes in 2021, Emergent BioSolutions has another surprise for its investors in early 2022. 

Last month, Emergent projected revenues of $1.4 billion to $1.5 billion for this year. Now, the company has dropped the figure to $1.3 to $1.4 billion. 

Why the adjustment?

In its quarterly report, Emergent credited its decision to undergo maintenance on its troubled Baltimore Bayview facility “earlier than anticipated,” and to expand the project to set the facility up for “future non-pandemic work.”

USP Developing mRNA Quality Guidelines to help companies and regulators bring innovative medicines to market faster   Rockville, Md., February 23, 2022 – U.S. Pharmacopeia (USP), a global independent scientific organization, is seeking scientific input on new draft guidelines, “Analytical Procedures for mRNA Vaccine Quality.” USP and a group of leading mRNA experts have identified the need for analytical procedures and best practices to support quality assessments for mRNA vaccines and therapies in development pipelines for infectious diseases, cancer, cystic fibrosis and other disorders.

To build public trust and confidence in innovative products like mRNA-based therapies, they must be of good quality, safe, and effective. Since the successful application of mRNA technology is relatively new, regulatory guidelines and industry standards are still evolving. A common approach for assessing mRNA quality would support developers, manufacturers, regulatory agencies, and national control laboratories worldwide, and provide tools to help accelerate the development of safe and effective mRNA-based products.