GENEVA (Reuters) - The World Health Organization (WHO) on Monday listed AstraZeneca and Oxford University’s COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use, widening access to the relatively inexpensive shot in the developing world.

“We now have all the pieces in place for the rapid distribution of vaccines. But we still need to scale up production,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General, told a news briefing.

Image: FILE PHOTO: A vial of AstraZeneca coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine is pictured at St. Mary's Hospital, in Phoenix Park in Dublin, Ireland, February 14, 2021. REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne

GAITHERSBURG, Md., Feb. 15, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Novavax, Inc. (Nasdaq: NVAX), a biotechnology company developing next-generation vaccines for serious infectious diseases, and SK Bioscience, a vaccine business subsidiary of SK Group, today announced an expanded collaboration and license agreement. In addition to the already existing manufacturing arrangement, SK Bioscience has obtained a license to manufacture and commercialize NVX-CoV2373, Novavax’ COVID-19 vaccine, for sale to the Korean government. SK Bioscience will add significant production capacity under this new agreement. Novavax recently reported positive interim efficacy results for the vaccine candidate in an ongoing Phase 3 clinical trial in the United Kingdom and is also currently conducting a Phase 3 trial in the U.S. and Mexico.

Artificial intelligence is often depicted in popular movies and TV dramas as technology that is determined to take over the world. Just a few weeks ago, a new series on Fox premiered, highlighting “a rogue AI with the ability to constantly improve itself that may spell doom for humankind.”

Fossilised remains of a fish that grew as big as a great white shark and the largest of its type ever found have been discovered by accident.

The new discovery by scientists from the University of Portsmouth is a species of the so-called 'living fossil' coelacanths which still swim in the seas, surviving the extinction that killed off the dinosaurs.

The discovery was purely serendipitous. Professor David Martill, a palaeontologist from the University's School of the Environment, Geography and Geosciences, had been asked to identify a large bone in a private collection in London.

Image: IMAGE: AN EXAMPLE OF WHAT A COMPLETE FISH FOSSIL COELACANTH LOOKS LIKE. THIS ONE IS FROM THE JURASSIC OF GERMAN. view more CREDIT: PROFESSOR DAVID MARTILL, UNIVERSITY OF PORTSMOUTH

A key component of America’s ability to innovate is its world-renowned system of higher education, which is the envy of the world.  owever, there’s room for improvement. Universities can do more to promote the inventive talents of their students and faculty. Recently, I discussed this potential — and the steps higher education institutions should take in order to realize it — in an interview with Korok Ray.

Korok is an associate professor at the Mays Business School of Texas A&M University and the director of the Mays Innovation Research Center. He’s also the author of the recent National Affairs article, “The Innovative University.”

Image: KOROK RAY - https://mays.tamu.edu/directory/korok/

Easy to manufacture and update, these new vaccines may be a powerful tool against emerging variants and other infectious diseases

Even the experts were startled by the remarkable success of the two first-of-their-kind messenger RNA vaccines developed by Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech against COVID-19.

It's the latest in a series of public offerings for Greater Washington life sciences companies.

Image: John Celebi is CEO of Sensei Biotherapeutics RICHARD PASLEY

 Renée JG Arnold, John Reinhart, Don Rose, and Kwame Ulmer join Diverse Entrepreneurs-in-Residence (EIR) Team

ROCKVILLE, MARYLAND, February 8, 2021 – BioHealth Innovation Inc., (BHI), announces the addition of Renée JG Arnold, PharmD, RPh, President & CEO, Arnold Consultancy & Technology, LLC, John P. Reinhart, CPA, MBA, Co-founder and Board Member of the Thrive Center in Louisville, Kentucky, Don Rose, Ph.D., Special Advisor to Hatteras Venture Partners, and Kwame Ulmer, Principal at Ulmer Ventures to the growing Entrepreneurs-in-Residence (EIR) team. The Entrepreneur-in-Residence Program at BHI aims to ensure that disruptive technologies receive all the resources required to transform the technology from a discovery into a commercially relevant product and eventually have a measurable impact on human health. The program was created to support scientists, early-stage startups, and licensed technologies to provide them with access to these resources. These four additions to the team will be working with the National Institutes of Health (NIH), specifically the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), and the National Institute on Aging (NIH).

 “I am honored to welcome Renée, John, Don, and Kwame to our EIR Program,” said Richard Bendis, BHI President, and CEO. “Our relationship with NIH is very important and these four immensely talented individuals will help us support our commitment to the NIH and the Biohealth Capital Region.”

BALTIMORE and COLLEGE PARK, Md. – The University of Maryland achieved its highest ranking ever in the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Higher Education Research and Development (HERD) survey for fiscal year (FY) 2019, placing 14th overall nationally and 8th among all public institutions in Research & Development (R&D) spending. For the first time, the University of Maryland, College Park and the University of Maryland, Baltimore were linked together as one research enterprise in the ranking, with combined research expenditures of $1.1 billion.

Immunomic Therapeutics, Inc. (ITI), a privately held, Maryland-based biotechnology company, announced today that the company will present at the BIO CEO & Investor Digital Conference, February 16-18, 2021. Chief Executive Officer at ITI, Dr. Bill Hearl, will present a talk titled, “ITI-1000-A Novel Immunotherapy for GBM.” Dr. Hearl will discuss ITI’s investigational UNiversal Intracellular Targeted Expression (UNITE) platform and its application in immuno-oncology, specifically glioblastoma multiforme (GBM). ITI’s technology platform has the potential to utilize the body’s natural biochemistry to develop a broad immune response and is currently being employed in a Phase II clinical trial as a cancer immunotherapy.

Vari ants to the SARS-CoV-2 virus have emerged of late as yet an oth er threat to a pan dem ic that’s al ready killed over 2.2 mil lion peo ple world wide.

The Covid-19 vac cines al ready on the mar ket have so far man aged to re tain at least some lev el of ef fi ca cy in treat ing new, more in fec tious strains of the res pi ra to ry virus — but con cern about oth er mu ta tions re mains pal pa ble as a slow, churn ing vac cine roll out con tin ues across the globe.

Image: Linda Marbán, Capricor CEO

The Rockville-based National Foundation for Cancer Research is accepting applications through February 28 from academic laboratory and early stage start-up-based promising oncology technology projects for its 2021 Salisbury Award Competition for Entrepreneurial Cancer Research. Top-rated submissions will be invited to participate as finalists in a Zoom-enabled mid-year event judged by a panel of world-class cancer research, technology and investment figures. In addition to increased exposure, insight and access to NFCR’s network, cash prizes totaling $10,000 will be provided to the top three finishers and the winner will be introduced to the AIM-HI Accelerator Fund for consideration of investment. A newly formed spin-off company associated with the 2019 Salisbury Award Competition winning project of the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center’s Bert Vogelstein, Emily Han-Chung Hsiue and Jacqueline Douglass is receiving AIM-HI investment. Learn more and apply here: https://www.nfcr.org/salisbury-award/.

The new funding operation will be led by a pair of investment industry veterans who previously worked at Brown Advisory.

Image: George Petrocheilos (right) and R. Jacob Vogelstein are the co-founders and managing partners of venture investment firm Catalio Capital Management LP. MARK DENNIS  

FRANKFURT, Feb 3 (Reuters) - Britain’s GlaxoSmithKline and German biotech firm CureVac struck a deal to develop next-generation vaccines against COVID-19 that target several variants in one product.

In a joint statement on Wednesday, the partners said they were targeting a possible launch in 2022.

2020 brought about a lot of growth across the BioHealth Capital Region (BHCR) as dozens of organizations responded with urgency to address the COVID-19 pandemic.  With 20% of the world’s vaccine leaders residing in the region, the BHCR has played a critical role in the pandemic response.  In Maryland, nearly $8 Billion in federal, private, and foundational funding has been invested in life sciences companies for coronavirus vaccine research and other immunotherapeutic developments. 

Image: https://biobuzz.io

Vigene Biosciences is planning a major expansion in Montgomery County, where it will add up to 245 new jobs by the end of 2025.

A global leader in gene therapy development, Vigene will expand into a new facility to accommodate industry demand for its gene and cellular therapy products. In addition to its existing headquarters, R&D and manufacturing locations in Rockville, the company will lease 52,000 square feet of manufacturing space at 14200 Shady Grove Road, bringing the total lab and manufacturing space of the company to 110,000 square feet. Vigene currently employs 125 workers in the county.

PASADENA, Calif., Feb. 3, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc. ("Alexandria" or the "Company") (NYSE: ARE) today announced that it has priced a public offering of $900,000,000 aggregate principal amount of 2.000% senior notes due 2032 and $850,000,000 aggregate principal amount of 3.000% senior notes due 2051 (the "notes"). Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC, BofA Securities, Inc., Citigroup Global Markets Inc., J.P. Morgan Securities LLC, Evercore Group L.L.C., Mizuho Securities USA LLC, RBC Capital Markets, LLC, Scotia Capital (USA) Inc., SMBC Nikko Securities America, Inc., U.S. Bancorp Investments, Inc., Barclays Capital Inc. and BBVA Securities Inc. are acting as joint book-running managers in connection with the public offering and BNP Paribas Securities Corp., Capital One Securities, Inc., Fifth Third Securities, Inc., PNC Capital Markets LLC, Regions Securities LLC, TD Securities (USA) LLC and Truist Securities, Inc. are acting as co–managers in connection with the public offering.

The Association of University Research Parks (AURP), the world’s leading network of research community professionals, invites you to share your knowledge, expertise and experience by presenting at this year’s International Conference.

Important Deadlines to Remember:

• Fri, April 2: Submissions Due 
 
• Fri, June 1: Notification of Acceptance Mon, 
• Oct 4: FINAL Presentations

Due for Review and Address DUE TO VIRTUAL FORMAT, NO EXTENSIONS WILL BE ACCEPTED

The name and photo associated with your Google account will be recorded when you upload files and submit this form.

Any files that are uploaded will be shared outside of the organization they belong to.

The latest on innovation and entrepreneurship in Maryland

TEDCO's Rural and Underserved Business Recovery from Impact of COVID-19 (RUBRIC) Program is a $5M economic relief initiative to benefit socially and economically disadvantaged and rural early-stage technology-based businesses hit hardest by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Amazon has unveiled the design for HQ2, its futuristic new campus in northern Virginia. 

The new headquarters will be home to 2.8 million square feet of office space across three buildings and 2.5 acres of public space. The centerpiece of the campus will be the Helix, a glass structure with walking paths winding around the outside of the building. 

Image: The Helix at Amazon's new HQ 2 in Virginia. NBBJ/Amazon

The Port Covington Development Team announced last week that four additional companies have joined the roster of businesses located at office buildings City Garage and Impact Village.

The companies are:

• Olive, an AI-as-a-Service company designed specifically for healthcare 
• Conscious Venture Lab, an early-stage business accelerator 
• LINQ, a managed service provider for corporate cellular communication needs 
• CoFactor Ventures, an Opportunity Zone private equity firm investing in local technology companies 

Image: https://www.southbmore.com

BALTIMORE, Maryland, February 4, 2021 — RNA Disease Diagnostics, Inc. (RNADD) has secured an exclusive global license to a cutting-edge sensor technology jointly owned by University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) and the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC). RNADD’s first product will be a rapid point-of-care (POC) COVID-19 test with accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity that is comparable to the gold standard RT-PCR lab diagnostic. 

Dipanjan Pan, MSc, PhD and his teams at UMB and UMBC developed the sensor technology, which will be used to support RNADD’s development and manufacture of proprietary molecular disease diagnostic testing kits, enabling the Company to quickly and accurately detect multiple infectious diseases, helping to lead to the prevention of their transmission and spread.

BLACKSBURG, Va., Feb. 03, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) --Landos Biopharma, Inc., a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery and development of therapeutics for patients with autoimmune diseases, today announced the pricing of its initial public offering of 6,250,000 shares of common stock at the public offering price of $16.00 per share, for total gross proceeds of $100 million, before deducting underwriting discounts and commissions and offering expenses payable by Landos Biopharma. All of the shares of the common stock are being offered by Landos Biopharma.

At the beginning of 2020, the proposed most profitable businesses to open in Kenya ranged from photography, mobile money shops, travel agencies, cake & snack suppliers, bodaboda riders, printer/computer sales, and garbage collection. However, once it became clear that we would be in the ‘new normal’ for the foreseeable future; winners & losers of the pandemic started to emerge.

The immediate winners were those that experienced performance improvement due to the pandemic. Examples of these have been fin-techs like Mpesa whose revenue moved to top gear once the decree was made to reduce or avoid handling of cash altogether.

Image: https://nairobigarage.com

Thirty-five years ago, there was no Internet as we know it. No Facebook. No Twitter. And no Zoom meetings! 

But in 1986 a group gathered in Arizona to form a non-profit international association to advance outreach, innovation, and corporate partnerships through research parks and what would later be called innovation districts. Among those gathered in the Arizona sun were Stanford University Research Park, Arizona State University, Edmonton Canada Research Park Authority, RPI from New York, Research Triangle in North Carolina, Texas A&M, and Central Florida University.

University tech transfer offices were then in their infancy. The Bayh-Dole Act allowing universities to own intellectual property from federally sponsored research had passed only a few years earlier. Few university incubators existed. Entrepreneurship as an academic discipline or interest among student or faculty groups was just beginning. Venture and angel capital was emerging as a financing tool. AUTM had not been formed. iNBIA did not exist. Research parks then had a narrow focus on financial returns from leasing property.

Before the pandemic, AstraZeneca was highly regarded in the business and pharmaceutical world – seen as one of the UK’s best companies. Now, thanks to Britain’s successful vaccine programme, it is a household name.

When a child is seriously sick or injured, an entire lifetime hangs in the balance. Yet, nationally, funding for pediatric research continues to trail efforts targeted for adults. Children deserve innovation inspired by their needs.

That’s why Children’s National Hospital is creating a one-of-a-kind pediatric research and innovation hub. Located on a nearly 12-acre portion of the former Walter Reed Army Medical Center campus, we will combine our strengths with those of public and private partners who share our vision. Here, breakthrough discoveries can more quickly be translated into new treatments and technologies benefitting kids.

Virginia Tech Corporate Research Center President and CEO, Brett Malone, Ph.D., joins Rich Bendis on BioTalk to discuss regional expansion plans, strategic partnerships, and success stories.

Listen now via Apple http://apple.co/3cPyW3t, Google http://bit.ly/3a1kP9m, Spotify http://spoti.fi/3cSwQ2Q, and TuneIn http://bit.ly/3a1kYJW

The Maryland Business Innovation Association (MBIA) has partnered with the Maryland Department of Commerce to launch the inaugural Maryland Business Innovation Challenge, which will aim to break down barriers and create opportunities for collaboration between Maryland's corporate and innovation communities.

Betsy O’Neill Collie, senior director of operations and programming for MBIA, said the challenge is aimed at companies looking to "to tap into the kinds of brilliance we have in Maryland." As opposed to other kinds of challenges, such as startup pitch competitions, O'Neill Collie said this will offer the chance for more direct business collaborations.

THE BIDEN administration announced Monday that it is investing $230 million in Ellume, an Australian company, for millions of its at-home coronavirus testing kits.

The deal, struck by the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Defense, ensures 100,000 over-the-counter test kits will arrive in the U.S. starting this month through July, acting Centers of Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Andy Slavitt said Monday during a White House briefing.

Medical device engineering firm, Engenious Design, partners with Innara Health to design the 2nd generation of their ground-breaking technology designed to improve feeding outcomes in premature infants. Prairie Village, KS: Engenious Design, a 39-person creative product development firm specializing in electronic medical device design, has partnered with Kansas City-based start-up Innara Health to develop Innara’s next-generation NTrainer System ®, designed to improve access to more patients by reducing the size and cost of the system, enabling Innara to expand into new markets and provide better access to life-changing therapy and assessment tools for infants.

The Children’s National Research & Innovation Campus (RIC), the first-of-its-kind pediatric research and innovation hub located in Washington, D.C., now has its first occupant – the Rare Disease Institute (RDI).

The institute, which includes the largest clinical group of pediatric geneticists in the nation, focuses on developing the clinical care field of the more than 8,000 rare diseases currently recognized and advancing the best possible treatments for children with these diseases.

Image: https://innovationdistrict.childrensnational.org/

The COVID-19 pandemic is a stark wake-up call for the United States to take biological threats seriously. The virus is on track to take the lives of more than 400,000 Americans and cost our economy trillions of dollars. The risks of future pandemics increase as technological progress eases barriers to modifying pathogens, raising the specter of novel biological agents causing diseases much worse than humanity has ever faced. Meanwhile, U.S. vulnerabilities to biological attacks have never been clearer to our adversaries.

However, there is a path forward. The Apollo Program for Biodefense would provide the United States the opportunity to mobilize the nation and lead the world to meet these challenges: a world where we detect and continually trace any new pathogen from the source; where we can distribute rapid point-of-person tests to every household in the country within days of that detection; where effective treatments are already in-hand; where vaccine development and rollout occur in weeks rather than years; and where pandemics will never again threaten the lives and livelihoods of Americans and people around the world.

Two young pharmaceutical companies are teaming up to bring a sizable new facility and nearly 200 new jobs to Petersburg.

Gov. Ralph Northam announced Thursday that Civica Inc., a Utah-based drug manufacturing nonprofit, will build a $124.5 million pharmaceutical plant along North Normandy Drive in Petersburg.

Image: The proposed $125 million pharmaceutical plant in Petersburg will total 120,000 square feet. (Courtesy of Phlow)

The move comes less than three years after the Gaithersburg biotech spun out of MedImmune.

Image: Viela Bio CEO Bing Yao, pictured here on the company's IPO day at the Nasdaq. LIBBY GREENE