498th Edition, March 8, 2022

SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., March 02, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — CareDx, Inc. (Nasdaq: CDNA) – The Transplant Company™ focused on the discovery, development, and commercialization of clinically differentiated, high-value healthcare solutions for transplant patients and caregivers – today announced that it is teaming up with the National Kidney Foundation (NKF) to support National Kidney Month initiatives aimed at improving outcomes for kidney transplant recipients and those suffering from kidney failure.

This marks the seventh consecutive year that CareDx is supporting NKF’s Kidney Patient Summit on Capitol Hill, which is taking place virtually this year on March 2, 2022. Patient representatives will be advocating for more research funding to accelerate the early detection of chronic kidney disease, which could help physicians reverse or delay the need for transplantation.

March 2, 2022 — The U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) will offer reimbursement for software from Medimaps Group that performs osteoporosis risk fracture assessment via trabecular bone scores (TBS).

The agency assigned the Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) code 77089 for Medimaps' TBS iNsight, which provides a trabecular bone score for x-ray and dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry. It was effective January 2022.

Image: https://www.auntminnie.com

WHAT YOU'LL LEARN

• As new markets are embracing the Life Science industry, why are users feeling bullish in investing and developing in the Mid-Atlantic area? How is our region competing with different markets? 
• Strategic Design & Development: How are investors and developers meeting the latest demands when it comes to design and amenities? What is being implemented to ensure purpose-built life science facilities? 
• How are developers and tenants finding more space as demand for facilities continues to rise? Are we seeing more vacant buildings being converted into labs and other biotech facilities to meet the high demand? 
• With the rise in market opportunity, where is the public and private funding coming from for life science real estate? 
• I-270 Corridor Update: What are the newest projects and investments in the development pipeline? What is expected for this life science & biotech corridor in terms of tenants, investments and development in 2022? How are DC & NoVa competing against this corridor and securing their spot in the asset class?

“I never had been in an ecosystem that had more potential, more assets, that was more disconnected, than this region was at that time.” -Rich Bendis of BioHealth Innovation, Inc. on why Maryland was a great place to grow the BioHealth Capital Region.

Watch: https://bit.ly/3trKMYm

Maryland is home to one of the largest life science clusters in the nation. According to the Maryland Department of Commerce, the State has nearly 2,300 life science companies and 476 private research and development biotechnology firms (NAICS 541714), which represents 5.3% of this U.S. industry.

Some of the nation’s most important research occurs within Maryland at National Institute of Health (NIH), Food & Drug Administration (FDA), federal laboratories, Johns Hopkins, and the University of Maryland. In fiscal year 2018, Maryland received $1.5 billion from NIH for biomedical research, behind four other states (NIH 2018 report):

Image: https://www.americangene.com

With the Bisciotti Foundation Translational Fund, John Hopkins University School of Medicine is bringing seed funding to three teams of researchers creating innovative medical devices.

Each of these devices, which are being developed by Hopkins professors and fellows, aim to dramatically decrease costs on hospitals and improve patient care by taking anesthesia out of the equation. Recipients were awarded between $25,000 and $100,000 to conduct their work during a period of up to nine months.

Image: (L to R) Therese Canares, Mathias Unberath, Clifford Weiss and Ethan Tumarkin. (Courtesy image)

Robert Gourdie, a trailblazing cardiovascular scientist at the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC, is the first Virginia Tech researcher to receive an Outstanding Investigator Award from the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

The seven-year, $6.4 million grant is funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), part of the NIH. Known as an R35, the grant provides Gourdie with increased freedom to carry out inventive research concepts that aren’t tethered to specific, finite projects.

Image: Robert Gourdie, the Commonwealth Research Commercialization Fund Eminent Scholar in Heart Reparative Medicine Research and director of the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute’s Center for Vascular and Heart Research, is Virginia Tech’s first recipient of a National Institutes of Health Outstanding Investigator Award. Photo by Clayton Metz for Virginia Tech.

Foresite Capital, a firm that invests in early-stage healthcare and life sciences companies, today launched a $173 million fund designed to further finance startups launched by its Foresite Labs entrepreneurial innovation hub.

The new fund will be one source of capital for Foresite Labs startups, which will continue to be funded through the $969 million raised last year by Foresite Capital—consisting of the $775-million Fund V and a $193.75 million fund for selectively making additional investments in their highest conviction Fund V portfolio companies, called the Opportunity Fund.

Image: Vikram (Vik) Bajaj, PhD, a managing partner with Foresite Capital and the Co-Founder and CEO of the firm’s Foresite Labs entrepreneurial innovation hub.