News Archive

Intralytix receives Phase II Fast Track NIH SBIR contract to continue development of a universal, scale-independent AI-based platform for manufacturing high titer bacteriophage preparations for clinical applications.

Columbia, Maryland, USA. – August 22, 2022 – Intralytix, Inc. announced today that it has received a Phase II contract in the amount of $1,498,045. This contract is made through the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR)  program from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). This project is the continuation of a successfully completed NIAID-funded Phase I contract (see Intralytix, Inc.) and will further leverage Intralytix’s existing proprietary PhageSelector™ program, big data, and manufacturing know-how along with machine learning to advance an artificial intelligence (AI)-based universal manufacturing platform, the PhageEngine™, to deliver methods for producing high titer, high quality bacteriophage preparations suitable for clinical applications. Dr. Alexander Sulakvelidze, President and CEO of Intralytix and the Principal Investigator of the SBIR contract, commented, “We are very pleased to further extend this work with support from NIH after successfully competing Phase I of the project. The resulting technology will significantly increase Intralytix’s capabilities as well as help advance the phage biocontrol and phage therapy fields in general and will ultimately have a very significant positive impact on public health. We look forward to continuing this important project in collaboration with NIH. “

Tonix Pharmaceuticals, a company that has a research lab in Frederick, is developing a vaccine to prepare for a future where the monkeypox virus is endemic outside of Africa.

To do that, the company is looking more than 200 years in the past.

The base infrastructure that Tonix researchers use to design vaccines for infectious diseases is based on a virus called horsepox. That’s the same virus Dr. Edward Jenner used when he started developing the first smallpox vaccine in 1796.

Dr. Amrie Grammer, co-founder of AMPEL BioSolutions, joins the show to discuss biotech and her company Hosted by Paul Sweeney and Matt Miller.

After getting smallpox vaccine ACAM2000 from Sanofi and an anthrax treatment called raxibacumab from GlaxoSmithKline, Emergent BioSolutions is buying again, this time an entire company: PaxVax.

In an all-cash deal worth $270 million, Maryland-based Emergent, a vaccine company that has focused on biodefense, will buy California-headquartered specialty vaccine maker PaxVax, which also has close ties with the government.

Congress has approved a new agency — the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) — that will ‘supercharge’ breakthrough medical research and provide over $1 billion in new research funding.

A fight has broken out, however, over ARPA-H’s headquarters’ location. The Maryland congressional delegation is working to locate it in state, but when a majority in Congress senses a chance to put a prestigious scientific headquarters in their home districts, Maryland likely will not win this battle.

Emergent BioSolutions is mobilizing its M&A war chest again. Hard on the heels of its $270 million deal for vaccine expert PaxVax, the frequent government contractor is buying Adapt Pharma and its opioid overdose-reversing drug Narcan.

The Maryland-based firm is paying $635 million upfront and up to $100 million for potential sales-based milestones through 2022. Narcan, the only FDA-approved nasal spray of naloxone, has been on the market since 2016. Emergent  estimates the drug will contribute $200 million to $220 million to the company’s top line in 2019. In addition to Narcan and an opioid overdose-focused pipeline, about 50 Adapt employees will come aboard Emergent.

We just released 8 new high priority funding opportunities where your company can make a difference in meeting the needs of cancer patients… Please see the solicitation and join our webinar on August 24th….

SEATTLE, Aug. 16, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — AGC Biologics, a leading global Biopharmaceutical Contract Development and Manufacturing Organization (CDMO), announced today a strategic partnership with RoosterBio Inc., a leading supplier of human mesenchymal stem/stromal cells (hMSCs), highly engineered media, and bioprocess development services.

The partnership creates an end-to-end solution for the development and production of hMSC and exosome therapeutics leveraging RoosterBio’s well-established cell and media products and process development services, coupled with AGC Biologics’ global cell and gene therapy manufacturing capabilities.

The fiscal year 2022 program is now closed.  The fiscal year 2023 program will begin accepting applications as follows: Commerce will begin accepting Form B QMBC applications on 8/23/2022, and Form A Investor applications on 9/7/2022. Additional information is available under the “Apply” section.

BIITC provides an investor with a refundable State income tax credit for an eligible investment in a Qualified Maryland Biotechnology Company (QMBC). The program supports investment in seed and early stage biotech companies to promote and grow the biotech industry in Maryland.