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The BioHealth Capital Region Forum Planning Committee has made the difficult decision to postpone our 6th annual BioHealth Capital Region Forum that was scheduled for April 14th and 15th at AstraZeneca. We believe the health and safety of all participants is of paramount importance. Following the most recent reports from the CDC, the WHO, and the state of Maryland’s ban on gatherings of 250 people or more, we have made this decision.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is teaming up with Wellcome and Mastercard to form the COVID-19 Therapeutics Accelerator, a $125 million effort to help find potential treatments for the coronavirus epidemic and future threats.

The accelerator will bring together the World Health Organization, pharmaceutical companies, biotech firms, government, and other philanthropic groups to develop therapies for COVID-19.

Image: Mark Suzman. (Gates Foundation Photo)

U.S. prescription drugs can broadly be divided into two categories: 1) small molecule drugs and 2) biologics. Small molecule drugs tend to be chemically synthesized and often have molecular weights under 1,000 Daltons. Contrastingly, biologic drugs are larger and more complex molecules, for example proteins, viruses, and living cells such as CAR-T cells.

OSLO, NORWAY, March 10, 2020 – CEPI, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, today announced the expansion of its COVID-19 vaccine portfolio. CEPI will be investing a further $4.4 million in partnering agreements with Novavax, Inc. and The University of Oxford to rapidly develop vaccine candidates against COVID-19. This brings CEPI’s total investment in COVID-19 vaccine R&D to $23.7 million.

Columbia, MD – March 11, 2020 – Welldoc, a leading digital health company, announced today a collaboration with Dexcom, the global leader in continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) systems for people with diabetes. Welldoc and Dexcom signed an initial data partnership in 2019. This new collaboration will allow Welldoc’s award-winning BlueStar®, a digital health product for individuals living with type 1 and type 2 diabetes, to deliver insights to Dexcom G6® CGM system users. These insights go beyond glucose trends to inform individuals how their glucose is being affected by other key parameters, including medication adherence, activity, nutrition, sleep and more. The parties will also explore additional opportunities with Welldoc customers to leverage a more integrated offering.

GAITHERSBURG, Md., March 10, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Emergent BioSolutions Inc. (NYSE:EBS) announced today that it has entered into an agreement with Novavax, Inc. (NASDAQ:NVAX) whereby Emergent will collaborate with Novavax, utilizing its molecule-to-market contract development and manufacturing (CDMO) services to support bringing into the clinic Novavax’s novel experimental vaccine candidate to protect against coronavirus disease (COVID-19). Under the terms of the agreement, Emergent will produce the COVID-19 experimental vaccine candidate, which is based on the proprietary recombinant protein nanoparticle technology platform of Novavax and utilizing their proprietary Matrix-M™ adjuvant to enhance immune responses. Emergent has initiated work for this program anticipating that the COVID-19 experimental vaccine candidate will be used in a Phase 1 clinical study within the next four months.

MENLO PARK, Calif. and NEW YORK, March 11, 2020 /PRNewswire/ — New Enterprise Associates, Inc. (NEA) today announced that it has closed on $3.6 billion for its latest fund, bringing the firm’s committed capital to nearly $24 billion over its 42-year history. In conjunction with the new fund, Liza Landsman has been named General Partner. Landsman, who joined the firm’s New York office as a Venture Partner in 2018 after serving as president of NEA portfolio company Jet.com, focuses on software and services investments across the consumer landscape.

Precise loading of diverse peptides for vaccination is enabled by a strategy for peptide–TLR7/8 conjugate self-assembly of uniform nanoparticles. The approach is compatible with the development of personalized strategies, such as cancer vaccines targeting patient-specific neoepitopes.