The chief executive will stay in his role, and on the board, until his successor is appointed or early next year, whichever comes first.

he man was 66 when he came to the hospital with a serious skin infection. He had a fever and low blood pressure, as well as a headache. His doctors gave him a brain scan just to be safe. They found a very small bulge in one of his cranial arteries, which probably had nothing to do with his headache or the infection.

American Gene Technologies (AGT), a leading gene and cell therapy company in the discovery and development of lentiviral vector based therapeutics, announces that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) received orphan-drug designation #DRU-2018-6572 for the treatment of phenylketonuria (PKU) using its proprietary, lentiviral vector based technology. PKU is a debilitating inherited disease affecting 1 in 13,500 children born in the U.S. Mandatory screening identifies affected children who can be supported with a strict synthetic diet that does not cure disease. If successful, AGT's lentiviral vector approach will provide a permanent cure, improving quality of life for more than 16,000 people living with PKU in the U.S. alone.

PathoVax, a Johns Hopkins–born startup developing a vaccine for human papillomavirus virus (HPV), raised $2.75 million in new funding, cofounder Joshua Wang said.

United Therapeutics will license, develop, and commercialize CollPlant Holdings’ recombinant human collagen (rhCollagen) and BioInk technology for 3D bioprinting of solid-organ scaffolds for human transplants, the companies said today, through a collaboration that could generate more than $44 million.

REGENXBIO Inc. (Nasdaq: RGNX), a leading clinical-stage biotechnology company seeking to improve lives through the curative potential of gene therapy based on its proprietary NAV® Technology Platform, today announced that Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical Inc. has exercised an option for an exclusive worldwide license to REGENXBIO's NAV Vectors, including NAV AAV9, for the treatment of CDKL5 Deficiency Disorder (CDD).

Children benefit from little of the $156 billion annual U.S. market for medical devices, but a “Shark Tank”-inspired partnership between the University of Maryland and Children’s National Health System is looking to change that.

Jean Cui led the invention of Pfizer's Xalkori. Now she has her own company focusing on drug-resistant cancers, and it has raised $147 million.

Investors sentiment decreased to 1.37 in 2018 Q2. Its down 0.26, from 1.63 in 2018Q1. It dived, as 22 investors sold GlycoMimetics, Inc. shares while 16 reduced holdings. 25 funds opened positions while 27 raised stakes. 45.91 million shares or 6.89% more from 42.95 million shares in 2018Q1 were reported.

Viela Bio heads to the 2018 American College of Rheumatology / Association of Rheumatology for Health Professionals (ACR/ARHP) Annual Meeting in Chicago, 19-24 October 2018, with a late-breaking poster presentation for a novel engineered CD40L antagonist, VIB4920.

Meet the physicians, scientists, and business and political leaders whose work is transforming health care right now

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is doing everything from sharing more data to cultivating entrepreneurial talent and engaging in partnerships in order to support medical device innovators, the department’s CTO Ed Simcox told than 100 industry insiders in the Twin Cities today.

VLP Therapeutics announced the issuance of US Patent 10,098,943 titled, “Flavivirus virus-like particle” on October 16, 2018. This patent supports VLP Therapeutics’ Native Virus Modification virus-like particle platform on which the Company’s dengue vaccine is based and which could form the basis for other flavivirus vaccines. The patent relates to a virus-like particle vaccine comprising flavivirus structural proteins to prevent or treat flavivirus infection. Flavivirus includes dengue virus, West Nile virus, Japanese encephalitis, hepatitis C virus, and Zika virus.

Rexahn Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NYSE American: RNN) today announced it has entered into definitive agreements with institutional investors to purchase approximately 5.77 million shares of its common stock and warrants exercisable for up to approximately 5.77 million shares of its common stock for gross proceeds of approximately $7.5 million. The shares and warrants are being sold in units, each consisting of one share of common stock and a warrant to purchase one share of common stock, at an offering price of $1.30 per unit. The warrants will be exercisable six months following the date of issuance, will expire on the fifth anniversary of the initial exercise date and will have an exercise price of $1.67 per share. The closing of the offering is expected to take place on or about October 19, 2018, subject to the satisfaction of customary closing conditions.

Top 3 by 2023

State of the BioHealth Capital Region’s EcoSystem

Rich Bendis

President & CEO, BioHealth Innovation Inc.

Pharma hasn’t traditionally been known as a sector that welcomed innovation from the outside. But now companies are putting “not invented here” bias aside as they seek to widen their aperture for innovation.

Based in Rockville, MD

Management Recruiters – Mid Hudson Valley is an executive search firm focused solely in serving the nonprofit sector.  We have a national practice and the large majority of our placements are executive leadership and senior fundraising professionals.

Our client is Montgomery College, a community college of more than 60,000 students in Montgomery County, MD. The College is seeking a Vice President for Development and Alumni Relations who also serves as the Executive Director of the Montgomery College Foundation. The position is a College employee.

The Cybersecurity Association of Maryland, Inc. (CAMI) and Universities at Shady Grove invite you to attend their November 9 & 10 Maryland Cybersecurity Career & Education Fair.

Maryland is at the forefront of our nation’s rapidly growing cyber market and opportunities abound for professionals in our region—both those who are new to the field, and long-time members of the industry. Join us at the Universities at Shady Grove for two dynamic days that put on display why Maryland is where cyber works. Friday will feature a career and education fair, connecting cybersecurity job seekers with opportunities across the state of Maryland. Those looking to expand their cybersecurity competency can also connect on-site with Maryland education and training resource. On Saturday, cyber warriors of high school through undergraduate skill levels are invited to compete in our "Catch the Phish: An AI Capture the Flag Event" cyber challenge.

MaxCyte, the global cell-based medicines and life sciences company, announced today that the first patient has been dosed in its Phase I dose-escalation clinical trial in the United States with the Company’s lead wholly-owned chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) therapeutic candidate, MCY-M11. The study is designed to evaluate MCY-M11, a mesothelin targeting CAR, in individuals with relapsed/refractory ovarian cancer and peritoneal mesothelioma.

More than 300 representatives of companies from throughout the BioHealth Capital Region took over BowlMore Gaithersburg last Thursday for a fun evening of networking. The 5th annual BioBowl cohosted by MedImmune and BioHealth Innovation included teams from Baltimore and DC to Montgomery and Frederick counties. Qiagen took home the First Place prize and the Women in Bio event were recognized for their efforts with a Rubber Chicken Award.

Have you register for this year’s Women Building Bio event? The third Annual Women Building Bio Conference is taking place October 17 at the Inova Center for Personalized Health. This is a one-day regional conference converging extraordinary men and women, industry and academia, researchers and innovators, professionals and decision-makers gathering together to cultivate relationships and making an impact. Click here for the agenda and more information. (For a discount code, email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and register by 3 p.m., Tuesday, October 16th.)

Emergent BioSolutions Inc. (NYSE: EBS) announced today that it has completed its acquisition of PaxVax, a company focused on developing, manufacturing, and commercializing specialty vaccines that protect against existing and emerging infectious diseases. With the closing of this transaction, Emergent acquires two marketed vaccines – Vivotif® (Typhoid Vaccine Live Oral Ty21a), the only oral vaccine licensed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the prevention of typhoid fever, and Vaxchora® (Cholera Vaccine, Live, Oral), the only FDA-licensed vaccine for the prevention of cholera, a potentially serious intestinal disease, caused by Vibrio cholerae serogroup O1. The acquisition broadens the company’s development pipeline with vaccines that address adenovirus types 4 and 7, which are common causes of acute respiratory disease, and chikungunya, a viral disease spread to humans by infected mosquitoes that can cause severely debilitating joint pain. The acquisition also expands the company’s sales capabilities with a global specialty salesforce and marketing and distribution partners focused on the travelers’ market and establishes an international manufacturing footprint with European-based cGMP biologics facilities.

Pharma major Lupin announced that it has received tentative approval for its Lurasidone Hydrochloride Tablets, 20 mg, 40 mg, 60 mg, 80 mg and 120 mg from the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to market a generic version of Sunovion Pharmaceuticals Inc.’s (Sunovion) Latuda Tablets, 20 mg, 40 mg, 60 mg, 80 mg and 120 mg.

Lupin’s Lurasidone Hydrochloride Tablets, 20 mg, 40 mg, 60 mg, 80 mg and 120 mg is the generic version of Sunovion’s Latuda Tablets, 20 mg, 40 mg, 60 mg, 80 mg and 120 mg.

The Food and Drug Administration approved or tentatively approved a record-setting 971 generic drugs in fiscal year 2018 that ended last month, the agency announced on Thursday.

The University of Maryland Center of Excellence in Regulatory Science and Innovation (M-CERSI) has been renewed for funding under a cooperative agreement grant from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). A collaborative partnership led by James Polli, PhD, the Shangraw/Noxell Endowed Chair in Industrial Pharmacy and Pharmaceutics at the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy, and William E. Bentley, PhD, the Robert E. Fischell Distinguished Chair of Engineering at the University of Maryland, College Park (UMCP), M-CERSI is one of only four FDA-funded CERSIs in the U.S., and the only CERSI to receive continuous funding from the FDA since it first launched in 2011. This latest renewal, which allows for up to $5 million per year over five years, will allow M-CERSI to continue its mission to contribute to modernizing and improving the ways in which drugs and medical devices are reviewed and evaluated.

Montgomery County is proving to be a premium address for the growing biotechnology sector. 

The BioHealth Capital Region, which includes Maryland, Virginia and Washington D.C., is ranked No. 4 on the 2018 list of top biopharma centers by Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News (GEN). The cluster moves up from a No. 5 ranking in 2017.

GEN ranks regions nationally based on several factors, including National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding, venture capital investment, patents, lab space and jobs in biotech. 

Five consecutive quarters—and counting—of declining deal counts in pre-seed and seed-level investments for health technology startups in the U.S.

We're thrilled to announce Molly McCartin, Partner, Drive Capital, will be a featured speaker at the Fall 2018 Inova Discovery Series!

Molly McCartin is an investing partner with a focus on healthcare at Drive Capital, a venture capital firm based in Columbus, OH founded by two former Sequoia partners. Molly started her career at JP Morgan Chase in Equity Research. She then moved to 7Wire Ventures investing in healthcare companies that empower the health consumer. Molly spent the last four years at Livongo Health, helping the company grow from 6 employees to over 150 and over 200 customers. Molly graduated from MIT with a degree in Applied Math and Economics.

It’s cybersecurity month at Technical.ly and this new accelerator program is here to heat up the discussion.

There are lessons for other industries in the way pharma companies use mergers to innovate, work more efficiently, and bolster product portfolios.

Baltimore-based AgeneBio announced a pair of grants from the National Institutes of Health that will assist with clinical trials of a treatment to combat the progression of Alzheimer’s disease.

MaxCyte announced the first patient has been dosed in its Phase I dose-escalation clinical trial in the United States with the company's lead wholly-owned chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) therapeutic candidate, MCY-M11. The study is designed to evaluate MCY-M11, a mesothelin targeting CAR, in individuals with relapsed/refractory ovarian cancer and peritoneal mesothelioma.

However long a business has operated, investors will look for three big things if they are going to invest.

U.S. healthcare companies have collected $23.4 billion in venture capital funding this year — already surpassing the amount the sector obtained in all of 2017, according to a recent report from Pitchbook, which tracks VC investments.