297th Edition – March 27, 2018

The Montgomery County Council on Tuesday unanimously approved Tuesday a county matching fund for businesses that receive federal grants.

Councilmember George Leventhal spearheaded the grant, which was co-sponsored by the eight remaining council members.

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A biotech company founded by Johns Hopkins researchers to develop new drugs to fight cancer said this week that it is raising $40 million in Series A funding.

The round for Dracen Pharmaceuticals was led by Deerfield Management Company, a New York–based firm which invested $36 million in the round.

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TEDCO announced investments from its seed fund in five startups this week, including three from Baltimore.

Taken together, the latest funding from Maryland’s quasi-public agency backing early-stage companies totals $1.2 million. Here’s the funding breakdown:

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Wednesday, April 18, 20185:00 PM – 8:00 PM

Please join us on Wednesday, April 18, 2018 for a Healthcare Panel presentation and networking event at the INOVA Personalized Health Conference Center.

Cocktails and hors d’oeuvres will be provided.

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Novavax may be years away from a potential approval of its RSV vaccine, but on the company’s recent year-end conference call, executives talked up the candidate’s commercial appeal and the steps they’re taking now to prepare for a possible rollout.

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Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc. (NYSE:  ARE), an urban office REIT uniquely focused on collaborative life science and technology campuses in AAA innovation cluster locations, today announced that its board of directors has appointed Jennifer J. Banks and Larry J. Diamond as co-chief operating officers, effective April 23, 2018. Ms. Banks will assume additional responsibilities related to leading the company’s risk management operations and will continue as general counsel and corporate secretary. Mr. Diamond will assume a national role overseeing the company’s real estate property operations and will continue as regional market director of Maryland.

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In some ways Martine Rothblatt, the founder and chairwoman of United Therapeutics, a Maryland-based biotechnology company, and James Park, the CEO and co-founder of consumer fitness company Fitbit, are unusual health care leaders and entrepreneurs. Both came from outside the industry—Rothblatt previously created SiriusXM radio, among other things; meanwhile the inspiration for Park’s popular family of wearable devices was the Nintendo Wii— and neither set out steeped in the regulatory arts of American healthcare.

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The Maryland state Senate signed off on $5.6 billion in tax incentives to lure Amazon.com Inc. to Montgomery County on Monday night.

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Baltimore medical device firm Perceptive Navigation LLC is looking to raise $4 million in new funding, according to a recent filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

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Investors got big returns on the initial sale and could see millions more over the coming years, as Harpoon’s device continues on the path to U.S. regulatory approval.

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American Gene Technologies International Inc. (AGT), a leading gene and cell therapy company, today announced receipt of a second immuno-oncology patent on the stimulation of gamma delta T cells for treating solid tumors in epithelial cancers. U.S. Patent No: 9,914,938 dated March 13, 2018 further consolidates AGT’s intellectual property position surrounding its novel gene therapy platform. The patent describes AGT’s unique lentivirus vector approach to modify tumors for potent activation of naturally-occurring T cells in the immune system providing a highly-effective immune response and destruction of tumors.

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April 23-24  |  1 MedImmune Way, Gaithersburg MD 20878 

This invitation-only event is free for executive level biotech leaders and is presented by BioHealth Innovation, VirginiaBio, Inova, Children’s National Health System, QIAGEN, Maryland Tech Council, University System of Maryland and MedImmune/AstraZeneca. Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, DC set the bar high for biotech innovation. So please join us for our Annual BioHealth Capital Region Forum that will highlight the accomplishments of today and chart our successes of tomorrow.

We are excited to bring you an exceptional line up of speakers. The program will feature sessions that focus on the Advancing Science and Accelerating Innovation.

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You thought the Shark Tank was tough…

wait until you enter the the BioHealth Capital Region Crab Trap!

Submit your application for the opportunity to be named the company with the most commercial potential at the 2018 BioHealth Regional Forum, $10,000, and MORE!

Application Deadline: March, 30th 2018 

Finalists will be announced: April 9th, 2018 

Finalist Presentations BioHealth Capital Region Forum Event: April 24th, 2018

Submit an Application »

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Eighteen companies ranging in maturity and focus, from software building to bag making, will be housed in the newly renovated HQ by the end of the month.

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A pair of bio-oriented spaces in Baltimore are looking to provide extra help to scientists building companies out of discoveries.

The Inner Harbor–based Institute of Marine and Environmental Technology (IMET) and Baltimore Under Ground Science Space (BUGSS) have a new partnership, according to leaders from both spots.

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Johns Hopkins University led all U.S. universities in research and development expenditures for the 38th consecutive year in fiscal year 2016, spending $2.431 billion on projects like fighting dengue, finding the functional age of cells, and explaining why the universe is making fewer stars.

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WellDoc®, a leading digital therapeutic company, announces today the formation of its scientific advisory team whose expertise spans cardiology, health behavior, endocrinology, primary care and pharmacy-based diabetes education and care. Richard Katz, MD, Janet Duni, RN, BSN, MPA, CCM, Pablo Mora, MD, Nancy D’Hondt, RPh, CDE, FAADE, Edwin Fisher, PhD and Charlene Quinn, PhD have each been involved in WellDoc’s digital health journey with product enhancement, evaluation, or implementation and have been asked to now formally serve as scientific advisors to the company.

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CASI Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: CASI), a biopharmaceutical company dedicated to bringing high quality, cost-effective pharmaceutical products and innovative oncology therapeutics to patients, announces today a $50 million private placement. The Company has entered into definitive securities purchase agreements pursuant to which the Company will issue 15,432,091 shares of its Common Stock with accompanying warrants to purchase 6,172,832 shares of its Common Stock. The purchase price for each share of Common Stock and warrant is $3.24. The warrants will become exercisable 180 days after issuance at a $3.69 per share exercise price, and will expire five years from the date of issuance. On March 19, 2018, the consolidated closing bid price per share of Common Stock was $3.19.

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Akonni Biosystems Inc. and Chinese in vitro diagnostics company, Righton, announce a commercial agreement that enables Righton to sell Akonni’s products for nucleic acid purification and molecular diagnostics to researchers, clinical laboratories, and hospitals in China. The products to be sold include TruTip®, Akonni’s best-in-class sample preparation technology, which is low-cost and simple, yet highly effective at purifying DNA and RNA from the most difficult sample types. In addition, for diagnostic applications, Righton plans to commercialize Akonni’s TruDiagnosis® system based on the proprietary TruArray® multiplexed diagnostic solutions. Righton has made an equity investment of $7.5 million USD in Akonni’s series D fundraising round bringing the total investments in the Series D round to $13.9 million USD.

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Our country faces an ever-growing number of challenges in the 21st century, but all too often our political dialogue can’t even begin to scratch the surface. While Washington remains mired in its usual partisan fights, entire communities across the country — especially in the Midwest — have been locked out of an economy that has moved away from the manufacturing base that helped build the strongest middle class the world has ever seen.

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Friday, May 18, 2018 7:30AM – 3:00PM

Largest Regional Small Business Procurement Conference

MCCC GovConNet Procurement Conference gives over 800 attendees the unique opportunity to gain valuable insights and meet directly with key purchasing agents from a variety of prime contractors and federal, state, and local government agencies.

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Pharma major Lupin announced the launch of its Carbidopa Tablets 25mg having received an approval from the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) earlier.

Lupin’s Carbidopa Tablets, 25mg is the generic equivalent of Aton Pharma, Inc.’s Lodosyn® Tablets, 25 mg. It is indicated for use with carbidopa-levodopa or with levodopa in the treatment of the symptoms of idiopathic Parkinson’s disease (paralysis agitans), postencephalitic parkinsonism, and symptomatic parkinsonism, which may follow injury to the nervous system by carbon monoxide intoxication and/or manganese intoxication.

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The $1.3 trillion fiscal 2018 funding package sent to President Trump early Friday includes big boosts for almost all of the major federal agencies, thanks to a broader two-year budget deal increasing spending caps that President Trump signed last month.

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On Wednesday, the Department of Health and Human Services announced that Secretary Alex Azar will name Robert R. Redfield, M.D., as the 18th Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Administrator of the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry.

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Elizabeth M. Jaffee, MD, will become president of American Association for Cancer Research next month.

Jaffee is deputy director of Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins, as well as associate director of Bloomberg-Kimmel Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy at Johns Hopkins.

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The state of Maryland and the Anne Arundel County Economic Development Corp. (AAEDC) announced today their support of Paragon Bioservices’ new commercial manufacturing facility under development in Anne Arundel County and the addition of 200 new jobs over the next four years. Earlier this year, Paragon, a leading biologics contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) with expertise in gene therapy and next-generation vaccines, announced plans to lease 150,000 square feet in the BW Gateway development on Harmans Road.

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Tampa Bay Lightning owner and developer Jeff Vinik is investing $12 million in Dreamit, an early-stage venture fund and startup accelerator with offices in New York, Philadelphia and — in the foreseeable future — Tampa.

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Do you find it nearly impossible to resist the opportunity to devour a cupcake, brownie, or doughnut? You’re not alone. Most of us jump at the chance to satisfy our sweet tooth, even though we know it isn’t good for us. Too many people, however, take an all-or-nothing approach when it comes to junk food, which can make it hard to quit. You don’t have to stop eating sugar completely, but eating less of it could improve and even save your life.

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If you’ve been to the hospital recently, you’ve probably noticed that the hospital relies on nurses in order to keep everything running smoothly. In fact, according to the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are over 3.1 million nurses in the United States alone.

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This spring, the National Institutes of Health will start recruiting participants for one of the most ambitious medical projects ever envisioned.

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Tweeting has long posed a dilemma for scientists. There’s abundant evidence that widely sharing a research finding in just one or two simple sentences greatly increases its use and effectiveness.

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USC researchers have launched a massive scientific effort to construct a detailed, virtual 3-D model of the pancreatic beta cell and its components — a global project that aims to one day curb the worldwide rise of diabetes.

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