Biohealth Innovation - 467th Edition, August 3, 2021

BioHealth Innovation

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August 3, 2021

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Paul Rennie OBE and Professor Jason Snape Join Rich Bendis on BioTalk

Paul Rennie OBE, Counsellor for Global Issues in the Global Economy Group at the British Embassy, Washington DC, and Professor Jason Snape, Head of Environmental Protection within AstraZeneca’s Global Sustainability Team, join Rich Bendis to Discuss Life Sciences, Climate Change, COP26 - UN Climate Change Conference, and The Race to Zero Campaign.

Listen now via Apple https://apple.co/3ls3EEp, Google https://bit.ly/3liTlSU, Spotify https://spoti.fi/3ylxair, and TuneIn https://bit.ly/3rS9Giz.

AstraZeneca chief calls for global cooperation in the fight against COVID-19 and climate change - I by IMD

The chief executive of AstraZeneca has underscored the importance of multilateral cooperation in the fight against COVID-19 as well as other systemic global challenges such as climate change, calling global warming “the biggest threat to humanity”.

In a wide-ranging and exclusive interview, Pascal Soriot expressed unease over what he saw as an excessive focus on Western nations in the context of vaccinations. He told IMD’s President Jean-François Manzoni: “The whole discussion is about [the] US and Europe, but there are 7 billion people outside of those two regions.”

MaxCyte Announces Pricing of Upsized Offering and Approval to List on the Nasdaq Global Select Market

GAITHERSBURG, Md., July 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- MaxCyte, Inc., (LSE: MXCT, MXCN), a leading provider of cell-engineering platform technologies, today announced the pricing of its upsized offering of 13,500,000 shares of common stock at an initial offering price of US$13.00 per share (the "Offering").

MaxCyte has granted the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to 2,025,000 additional shares of common stock at the initial offering price per share of common stock less underwriting discounts and commissions.

The closing of the Offering is expected to occur on August 3, 2021, subject to customary closing conditions.

Emergent BioSolutions to restart COVID-19 vaccine manufacturing in Baltimore - Technical.ly Baltimore

Maryland biotech company Emergent BioSolutions said on Thursday that it was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to resume manufacturing of Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine at its Bayview plant in East Baltimore. The Gaithersburg-based company, which serves as a contract manufacturer for pharma companies, has an agreement with J&J to provide doses of its one-shot vaccine.

Image: Emergent Biosolutions' Bayview facility. (Courtesy photo)

The Storied 25 Year History Behind the Baltimore Biotech Manufacturing Facility Producing COVID-19 Vaccines · BioBuzz

Emergent Biosolutions’ vaccine manufacturing plant in Baltimore has been the subject of many headlines this past year for its’ role in producing several COVID-19 Vaccines. However, the history of this facility goes back more than two decades.

For the past 25 years, this Baltimore biopharmaceutical facility has played a significant role in Maryland’s life sciences ecosystem. Over the course of its life, the building has gone from being home to vaccine and small molecule manufacturing to the development of countermeasures for biologic threats, including COVID-19.

Image: https://biobuzz.io

BHI EIR Feedback Day August 18th. Register Now!

Are you a biohealth start-up in Maryland, DC or Virginia seeking feedback on your biohealth business idea, pitch deck, or commercialization plan? Schedule your feedback session with BHI EIRs on one of the following dates. Pre-registration is required; Sign up here tinyurl.com/EIRfeedback

For questions/more information, contact BHI.

Immunomic Therapeutics Expands Board of Directors with Appointments of Two New Members – Immunomic Therapeutics

ROCKVILLE, Md.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Immunomic Therapeutics, Inc., (“ITI”), a privately-held clinical stage biotechnology company pioneering the study of nucleic acid immunotherapy platforms, announced today that it has appointed Steve Sang Young Park and Robert V. Ahlgren as new members to its Board of Directors, expanding the board to eight members.

“We are pleased to welcome Steve and Robert to Immunomic’s Board. Our scientific platform, financial acumen and growth strategies are strengthened by their wealth of knowledge and leadership experience,” commented Dr. William Hearl, CEO of ITI. “Each brings deep and diverse expertise across global financial markets and large healthcare companies that will be meaningful to us as we advance our immunotherapy pipeline and strategic vision.”

Mason’s Michael Buschmann and team at start-up AexeRNA Therapeutics Inc. pursue patents for improved COVID-19 vaccines

George Mason University bioengineering professor Michael Buschmann and a team of scientific collaborators have devised improved lipid nanoparticle technologies to deliver mRNA that could make mRNA vaccines such as the COVID-19 vaccines less costly, with fewer side-effects and more available worldwide.

Image: Michael Buschmann (seated) and his team that includes (l to r) Aarthi Narayanan, Mikell Paige and Caroline Hoemann have developed improved technology that could help make COVID-19 vaccines better and more readily available. Not pictured: Pat Gillevet. Photo by Evan Cantwell/Creative Services

New Collaboration Aims to Improve Measurement of Viral Vectors Used in Cutting-Edge Gene Therapies

A large interlaboratory study of adeno-associated virus (AAV), an important tool in gene therapy, will be led by USP and NIST in collaboration with NIIMBL.

Rockville, MD, July 27, 2021 —The United States Pharmacopeia (USP), the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and The National Institute for Innovation in Manufacturing Biopharmaceuticals (NIIMBL) have announced a research collaboration to assess analytical methods and develop standards for adeno-associated virus (AAV), an important mechanism for delivering gene therapies.

AAVs are particularly useful for gene therapies because they are not known to cause human disease and cannot replicate on their own. AAV-based therapies are currently used to treat a type of inherited retinal dystrophy that causes blindness and spinal muscular atrophy in children, and treatments for many more diseases are currently being developed. However, to use AAVs most effectively, scientists need to accurately measure attributes related to their quality. These attributes include the purity of the AAV product and the relative number of virus particles that contain the full genetic payload.

Shuttle Pharma Awarded a New Patent for Selective Inhibitors for Cancer Treatment

ROCKVILLE, Md., July 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Shuttle Pharmaceuticals Holdings, Inc (Shuttle Pharma), a Maryland-based developer of new drugs for cancer treatment, was awarded US Patent No.: 11,034,667 B2 for "Selective Histone Deacetylase Inhibitors for the treatment of Human Disease." These non-cytotoxic, highly selective inhibitors target the histone deacetylase 6 (HDAC6) enzyme to stimulate the immune system for applications in the treatment of cancers, neurological diseases and immunological disorders.

Lead inventor Scott Grindrod, PhD describes histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitors as "a novel class of drugs that target enzymes involved in regulation of critical cellular functions that can inhibit cancer growth and activate cellular immunity. These are key target functions to improve cancer treatment. HDAC6 regulates the innate immune system and will be tested to activate an anti-cancer immune response to increase the effectiveness of chemotherapy and radiation therapy. The molecules in this patent enhance Shuttle Pharma's platform technology of selective inhibitor discovery for cancer treatment."

Cerecor Announces Positive Initial Phase 1b Results for CERC-002 in Moderate to Severe Crohn's Disease Patients

ROCKVILLE, Md. and CHESTERBROOK, Pa., July 26, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Cerecor Inc. (NASDAQ: CERC), a biopharmaceutical company focused on becoming a leader in the development and commercialization of treatments for immunologic, immuno-oncologic and rare genetic disorders, today announced positive initial results from a Phase 1b proof-of-concept study evaluating CERC-002, an investigational first-in-class fully human anti-LIGHT (tumor necrosis factor superfamily member 14 (TNFSF14)) monoclonal antibody, in adult patients with moderate to severe Crohn's disease (CD). Crohn’s disease is a disorder affecting as many as 780,000 people in the United States.

Check-out JLABS quarterly portfolio update

Each quarter we bring you an update from our Johnson & Johnson Innovation – JLABS Portfolio of ompanies across our 13 sites, from San Diego to Shanghai. Beyond news of our companies milestones, we also report on the diversity of our JLABS Portfolio leadership as we seek to reflect the patients we serve.

This past quarter JLABS @ Washington, DC opened its doors and welcomed the inaugural class of residents with areas of focus ranging from health equity to broad-spectrum antivirals. Housed at the new Children's National Research & Innovation Campus, JLABS @ Washington, DC also serves as the BLUE KNIGHT™ hub in collaboration with the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA). You can read more about our newest site in Fierce Biotech and you can always find our latest stats and companies via our JLABS Portfolio Navigator. Finally, don't forget to register to virtually join the JLABS @ Washington, DC Grand Opening celebration on September 22!

Boston Properties to Acquire Maryland Biotech Campus for $117M – Commercial Observer

Boston Properties (BXP) is set to acquire the Shady Grove Bio+Tech Campus, a seven-building, 435,000-square-foot office park in Rockville, Md., for $116.5 million, from Lantian, the company announced.

The deal is expected to close in the third quarter of this year.

The 31-acre property, located at 9600 Gudelsky Drive, is situated within the Shady Grove life sciences cluster, home to a host of companies in the biotechnology sector. It is also currently home to the Universities at Shady Grove, a biomedical and tech-focused university that is part of the University System of Maryland.

Image: PETE OTTENI. PHOTO: BY BXP

The Delta Variant: How Companies Should Respond

The rapidly spreading Delta variant is forcing employers to rethink their strategies for handling the pandemic. Policies they should reconsider include encouraging or requiring employees to be vaccinated, whether to hold off on having remote workers return to company facilities, rules for social distancing and wearing masks at job sites, ventilation, testing, travel restrictions, communicating exposures, and support for mental health care. This article offers advice on how to think through these issues.close

Why is the delta variant of Covid-19 more transmissible? — Quartz India

The delta variant spreads much faster than other Covid-19 strains—and scientists may now know why.

People infected with the delta variant have more than 1,260 times the viral load—the concentration of viral particles in the body—than those with the original strain found in China, a group of scientists has reported in a preprint paper. A higher viral load can have many implications such as more severe disease. Its most significant contribution is to a virus’s higher transmissibility.

Image: https://qz.com