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• Emergent BioSolutions (NYSE:EBS) will manufacture doses of Providence Therapeutics’ PTX-COVID19-B COVID-19 mRNA drug candidate under a five-year agreement. 
• The agreement is valued at $90M, and covers manufacturing services, studies to support global supply chain activities, and facility and equipment investments. 
• Next year, Emergent will manufacture tens of millions of doses of PTX-COVID19-B, as well as batches of PTX-COVID19-B formulated bulk drug substance that can yield hundreds of millions more doses.

“Anyone who wants a COVID test can get one.” When that proclamation was made back in May 2020, it wasn’t true. There was a scarcity of testing supplies and limited sites, and it could take weeks to get back the results — making many of them essentially useless in clinical decision-making. The initial rapid tests on the market were a wild west of different companies who failed to ensure accuracy of their tests — -resulting in significant error rates.

As a life sciences cluster, the BioHealth Capital Region is poised to become a top-three cluster in the Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News (GEN) Top 10 Biopharma Clusters ranking on the strengths of early-stage companies becoming commercial successes and the construction of millions of square feet of new wet lab space.

For 2021, the BHCR held onto the fourth-place position behind New York/ New Jersey, San Francisco Bay Area, and the greater Boston area. The latest ranking was revealed at the seventh annual BioHealth Innovation Forum. The region held onto the coveted spot for multiple reasons, including significant funding from the National Institutes of Health, available wet lab space, and patent strength protecting intellectual property.

Rockville, MD, September 13, 2021 – The U.S. Pharmacopeia (USP) announces the launch of a new department, the Office of Organizational Culture, Equity and Inclusive Excellence (Equity Office). Headed by Chief Equity Officer (CEqO) and Senior Advisor to the CEO, Debra Joy Pérez, Ph.D. (she/her/ella), the Equity Office will shape and implement all diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging (DEIB) programs and initiatives. 

“Our DEIB work should always be about seeing diverse perspectives and how to approach complex problems from different viewpoints. DEIB is all about culture building, it is a way of looking at the work and the world that fosters the best workplace for our people,” said Debra Joy Pérez, Ph.D, USP CEqO and Senior Advisor to the CEO. “Evidence shows that when more diverse perspectives are included, there is more innovation, creative thinking and better problem solving—three critical drivers in applying our science to fulfill our public health mission. Our fundamental belief at USP is that equity equals excellence – excellence in our staff and excellence in our science. Only when we fully embrace the practice of equity can we benefit from the richness and talents of our staff.”  

IonQ, Inc. (IonQ), the leading developer of quantum computing devices, and the University of Maryland (UMD), an international powerhouse in quantum research and applications, today announced a partnership to create the National Quantum Lab at Maryland (Q-Lab). The Q-Lab will be the nation’s first user facility that enables the scientific community to pursue world-leading research through hands-on access to a commercial-grade quantum computer. UMD-affiliated students, faculty, researchers, staff and partners across the country will have an unprecedented opportunity to gain experience with IonQ’s industry-leading trapped-ion quantum computer hardware and collaborate with IonQ scientists and engineers.

BALTIMORE, Sept. 7, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — Isoprene Pharmaceuticals, Inc., an early-stage small molecule oncology company developing oral therapeutics for triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) and other cancers, today announced that the National Institute of Health’s (NIH) NCI has awarded the company a two-year $2 million Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Direct-to-Phase II grant. This grant will support ongoing advanced pre-clinical studies intended to lead to the filing of an investigational new drug (IND) application with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), as a prelude to Phase I clinical trials. Vidya P. Ramamurthy, PhD, Isoprene’s chief scientific officer, and Vincent C. O. Njar, PhD, co-founder and chief executive officer of Isoprene and Professor at the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM), are the principal investigators for the program.

Dr. Xavier Barril, Chief Scientific Officer, Gain Therapeutics, and Hartaj Singh, Managing Director and Senior Analyst, Oppenheimer & Co. Inc., Join BioTalk to discuss Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning in Drug Discovery Wall Street’s Views on this Exciting Science.

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