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The Johns Hopkins University researchers behind two of Baltimore’s most successful biotech firms have founded a new company that has now raised $56 million to create a new diagnostic tool for cancer.

Haystack Oncology plans to use the funding from its series A round to kickstart a move into a large lab inside of City Garage in Port Covington, which was recently renamed Baltimore Peninsula. The company also plans to invest in more clinical trials to get additional data to support the effectiveness of Haystack’s cancer detection blood test. The 50-person company, currently based at Hopkins’ FastForwardU, plans to have a commercial launch in 2023.

From New York to Paris and London, life sciences companies are being drawn to parts of town often more synonymous with financial services. In London, the Canary Wharf Group and Kadans Science Partner are jointly developing Europe’s largest commercial laboratory building. Life science organization Genomics England will move in later this year, joined by a mix of startups, academics, clinicians and established pharmaceutical companies.

Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, a leading science and technology company, invests more than € 290 million in its biosafety testing capacity at Rockville, Maryland, USA. This will significantly increase the company’s ability to conduct biosafety testing and analytical development services. Biosafety testing and analytical development are critical and fundamental requirements of the drug development and commercialization process to ensure the safety of medicines. Global demand for these services is growing at a double-digit rate.

A few of BioBuzz’s favorite stories from late summer/early fall Over the past several months, life sciences companies across the BioHealth Capital Region showcased their innovative capabilities and pipeline development program. BioBuzz takes a look back at five key events that took place in the third quarter.

BioFactura Moves Forward with Stelara Biosimilar

Frederick, Maryland-based BioFactura is beginning to see the fruits of its labors with the development of ustekinumab (BFI-751), its biosimilar for Janssen’s Stelara. In October, the company announced Phase 1 data that showed pharmacokinetic comparability to the comparison drug.

The company also reported there were no marked differences in the safety and tolerability profile for subjects receiving ustekinumab. BioFactura intends to conduct a confirmatory safety and efficacy study in patients to pave the way for global registration.

Image: https://biobuzz.io/

BALTIMORE, MD (November 16, 2022) — Governor Larry Hogan today announced that MilliporeSigma, an international biosciences company, is growing its presence in Montgomery County with a $286 million investment to expand its biosafety testing capacity.

The company, known locally as BioReliance Corporation, currently has five locations in Rockville and is planning to consolidate in a new 250,000-square-foot facility at 9820 Darnestown Road at the Alexandria Center® at Traville Gateway campus, which is being developed and operated by Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc. MilliporeSigma will maintain one additional facility at 9630 Medical Center Drive and will retain at least 600 full-time employees during the expansion, while creating more than 500 new jobs over the next four years.

BELTSVILLE, Md. and DAEJEON, South Korea, Nov. 15, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — NextCure, Inc. (Nasdaq: NXTC) and LegoChem Biosciences, Inc. (LCB, KOSDAQ: 141080) today announced a collaboration and co-development agreement focused on generating a B7-H4 antibody drug conjugate (ADC) and options for two additional targets. The B7-H4 ADC will utilize NextCure’s B7-H4 antibody and LCB’s ConjuAllTM ADC technology.

Under the terms of the agreement, both parties will equally share the costs to develop the molecules and profits on commercialized products. The parties will utilize their respective product development capabilities to generate the B7-H4 ADC and advance it to the clinic. In addition, there are options for the parties to nominate two additional targets for ADC development beyond B7-H4.

RICHMOND, Va., Nov. 14, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — BRAINBox Solutions today announced that the company has enrolled the 1,000th patient in the pivotal, HeadSMART II study of its concussion diagnostic and prognostic test, BRAINBox TBI. The multi-national, multi-site, trial is designed to support an application for regulatory clearance by the U.S. FDA.

“We are developing the BRAINBox TBI (Traumatic Brain Injury) test as the first objective test to aid in the diagnosis of concussion and to provide an assessment of the risk of post-concussive symptoms,” said Donna Edmonds, BRAINBox Solutions’ CEO. “We are now in the home stretch of this very important study for the field. We believe the test has great potential to change clinical practice in the diagnosis and management of concussion and will define for the first time, objective diagnostic criteria for this condition, termed Acute Traumatic Encephalopathy (ATE). As such, the trial has been rigorously designed in collaboration with leading experts in traumatic brain injury and emergency medicine. The study evaluates patients in multiple settings and includes state of the art expert adjudication panels.”

GAITHERSBURG, Md., Nov. 14, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Emergent BioSolutions Inc. (NYSE:EBS) announced today a research award by the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs (CDMRP) to evaluate efficacy of the company’s single-dose chikungunya virus virus-like particle (CHIKV VLP) vaccine candidate. Emergent will begin the planning phase, the first of two phases, in collaboration with the Armed Forces Research Institute of Medical Sciences (AFRIMS) and academic partners, to enable a post-approval field efficacy study in areas with active chikungunya virus (CHIKV) transmission.

The University of Maryland Strategic Partnership: MPowering the State (MPower) has announced that it is establishing an Institute for Health Computing that will focus on artificial intelligence and advanced computing to further develop the field of precision medicine and improve health care for patients across the state.

The University of Maryland Strategic Partnership: MPowering the State (MPower) today announced a transformative partnership to establish the University of Maryland 3 – Institute for Health Computing (UM-3-IHC), which is being led by the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) and the University of Maryland, College Park (UMCP), in collaboration with the University of Maryland Medical System (UMMS) and Montgomery County, Md. This new Institute will leverage recent advances in artificial intelligence (AI) and computing to create a premier learning health care system that evaluates both de-identified and secure digitized medical health data to diagnose, prevent and treat diseases in patients across the state of Maryland.

Image: Bruce Jarrell, MD, FACS