The past few years in the biotech industry have been filled with challenges and promise.

From the rapid and successful deployment of the COVID-19 vaccine and the explosion of the cell and gene therapy sector to a hiring boom, remarkable advances in tissue engineering and strong biomanufacturing growth, the BioHealth Capital Region (BHCR) has played a pivotal role in it all.

To say a lot has changed is the understatement of the century. The question remains, however: Where is the BHCR headed?

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Since BHI's founding in 2011, the organization has had many interns come through the doors in support of Analytics, Marketing, Communications, Social Media, Business, Legal, Accounting, and more.

BHI wanted to give an update on some names you may remember if you worked with us over the years.

Click here to download the PDF.

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Currently reporting to the Vice President of Economic Development, the Senior Life Sciences BusinessStrategist evaluates the commercial potential of emerging technologies and provides recommendations ongo-to-market strategies.

This is a customer facing role with a focus on supporting clients in the development of commercial analysesand federal grant proposals.

The Senior Life Sciences Business Strategist also supervises junior Life Sciences Business Strategists andmanages consultants, as needed.

Click here for more information.

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Intralytix receives Phase II Fast Track NIH SBIR contract to continue development of a universal, scale-independent AI-based platform for manufacturing high titer bacteriophage preparations for clinical applications.

Columbia, Maryland, USA. – August 22, 2022 – Intralytix, Inc. announced today that it has received a Phase II contract in the amount of $1,498,045. This contract is made through the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR)  program from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). This project is the continuation of a successfully completed NIAID-funded Phase I contract (see Intralytix, Inc.) and will further leverage Intralytix’s existing proprietary PhageSelector™ program, big data, and manufacturing know-how along with machine learning to advance an artificial intelligence (AI)-based universal manufacturing platform, the PhageEngine™, to deliver methods for producing high titer, high quality bacteriophage preparations suitable for clinical applications. Dr. Alexander Sulakvelidze, President and CEO of Intralytix and the Principal Investigator of the SBIR contract, commented, "We are very pleased to further extend this work with support from NIH after successfully competing Phase I of the project. The resulting technology will significantly increase Intralytix’s capabilities as well as help advance the phage biocontrol and phage therapy fields in general and will ultimately have a very significant positive impact on public health. We look forward to continuing this important project in collaboration with NIH. "

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Tonix Pharmaceuticals, a company that has a research lab in Frederick, is developing a vaccine to prepare for a future where the monkeypox virus is endemic outside of Africa.

To do that, the company is looking more than 200 years in the past.

The base infrastructure that Tonix researchers use to design vaccines for infectious diseases is based on a virus called horsepox. That’s the same virus Dr. Edward Jenner used when he started developing the first smallpox vaccine in 1796.

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The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory has been awarded a contract for research, development, test and evaluation of military-related technology that could be worth up to $10.6 billion, the Defense Department announced Monday.

The lab, based in Laurel, Maryland, was awarded a $4.4 billion cost-plus-fixed-fee, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for RDT&E programs throughout the DOD that fall “within its core competency areas including strategic systems test and evaluation; submarine security and survivability; space science and engineering; combat systems and guided missiles; air and missile defense and power projection; information technology, simulation, modeling, and operations analysis; and mission related research, development, test and evaluation,” according to the DOD contract award announcement.

Image: Photo of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab's Kossiakoff Center. (Photo courtesy of JHU-APL)

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HCV envelope-antibody interaction

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID) awarded a $6.9 million grant to researchers at the Institute for Bioscience and Biotechnology Research (IBBR) to design a vaccine to combat the virus that causes Hepatitis C, an illness that affects an estimated 71 million people worldwide.  Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) puts people at heightened risk for severe liver disease, including fibrosis, cirrhosis, and hepatocellular carcinoma (liver cancer).  Although treatments are available, an HCV vaccine currently does not exist to help prevent infections and reduce the global burden of the disease.

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ANNAPOLIS, MD—Governor Larry Hogan today announced Maryland programs funded by the State Small Business Credit Initiative (SSBCI) are open. Up to $198 million in federal small business relief is being administered by three state agencies: the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD), the Maryland Department of Commerce, and the Maryland Technology Development Corporation (TEDCO). These agencies will use funds to expand and enhance nine existing state business lending and investment programs.

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AstraZeneca CEO Pascal Soriot raised questions Tuesday about the company’s future in vaccines while hinting at potential M&A activity on the near horizon.

In an interview with Reuters, Soriot discussed the company's plans, which he said include building on its portfolio of antibody therapies. AstraZeneca is also considering bolt-on acquisitions in oncology and cardiovascular areas, Soriot said.

Getting out of the COVID-19 Vaccine Business?

Overall, in the COVID-19 space, the company has shifted its resources to antibody therapies.

Image: Pascal Claude Roland Soriot - 23 May 1959 (age 63) France - Wikipedia

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Novel Nanotechnology Supercharges Immune System Molecules to Fight Cancer

Researchers from Cytimmune Sciences presented new data at a cancer therapeutics conference in Boston, MA demonstrating the potential of their nanoparticle-based platform to supercharge synergistic immune system stimulators called cytokines.

SUMMARY OF DATA PRESENTED

• Data focused on industry leading, first-in-class, multi-cytokine immunotherapies
• CYT-IFNg-TNFa (A dual cytokine immunotherapy nanomedicine)
  • 100x increase in direct cancer cell killing potency vs native cytokines
  • 30x increase in cytokine accumulation in tumor tissue
  • Induction of a cancer specific immune response after treatment
• Other novel cytokine-based immunotherapies
  • Introduction of nanomedicines including combinations of IL-12, IL-2, IL-15 & IL-1b
  • 175x increase in potency of IL-12 presented on nanoparticles vs. native IL-12
• CYT-6091 (high dose TNF alpha)
  • Unpublished preclinical data showing CYT-6091 induces cytotoxic T-Cell tumor infiltration
  • Phase 1 clinical safety data and preclinical mechanism of action data

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Deloitte Consulting remained atop Modern Healthcare’s annual ranking of the largest healthcare management consulting firms based in the US.

Deloitte US’ sizable healthcare consulting practice realized $2.698 billion in revenue in 2021, with $962.8 million coming from healthcare providers.

Guidehouse jumped from third place 2020 to second place in 2021, achieving $970 million in healthcare consulting revenue, with approximately half from providers. The firm was boosted a significant industry acquisition in 2021, adding Dovel, an 1,800-person IT consultancy with a focus on health IT, life sciences, and public safety.

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