News Archive

Monoclonal antibodies have become one of humanity’s most powerful, multi-use tools in biology and medicine. Once the field of immunology established that they could be produced to bind very specifically to almost any suitable substance, science has had a means of detecting and/or purifying those substances or, in the case of viruses, identifying the antibodies that will serve as effective treatments. And in these times of pandemic, tools to detect viruses such as SARS-CoV-2 at the point of care and produce novel vaccines are more important than ever. 

Image: Dr. James Crowe, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee

AstraZeneca’s Evusheld (tixagevimab co-packaged with cilgavimab), a long-acting antibody (LAAB) combination, has received emergency use authorisation (EUA) in the US for the pre-exposure prophylaxis (prevention) of COVID-19, with first doses expected to become available very soon.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted the EUA for Evusheld for pre-exposure prophylaxis of COVID-19 in adults and adolescents (aged 12 and older who weigh 40kg or more) with moderate to severe immune compromise due to a medical condition or immunosuppressive medications and who may not mount an adequate immune response to COVID-19 vaccination, as well as those individuals for whom COVID-19 vaccination is not recommended. Recipients should not be currently infected with or had recent known exposure to a person infected with SARS-CoV-2.

ROCKVILLE, Md., Dec. 08, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Supernus Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: SUPN), a biopharmaceutical company focused on developing and commercializing products for the treatment of central nervous system (CNS) diseases, today announced it has resubmitted its New Drug Application (NDA) for its apomorphine infusion device (SPN-830) for the continuous treatment of motor fluctuations (OFF episodes) in Parkinson’s Disease (PD).

Following the original submission of the NDA for SPN-830, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a Refusal to File (RTF) letter in November 2020 indicating that the NDA was not sufficiently complete to permit a substantive review. The FDA provided additional clarity related to the contents of the November 2020 RTF letter and the requirements for resubmission during a Type A meeting with Supernus in March 2021

Rockville, Md. — Montgomery County is home to the new Global Pandemic Prevention and Biodefense Center launched by Connected DMV. The Center will be co-located in Rockville at the US Pharmacopeia offices at 12601 Twinbrook Pkwy, Rockville, MD 20852. 

Connected DMV, a leading Greater Washington organization that seeks to help solve complex regional challenges, spearheaded efforts to establish the Global Pandemic Prevention and Biodefense Center in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Center’s goal is to help prevent future outbreaks from becoming pandemics by developing a stockpile of human monoclonal antibodies in advance for emerging infectious diseases and by integrating antibody distribution and delivery across the global health and pandemic prevention ecosystem. Montgomery County is uniquely positioned to be the host location for the Center, which aims to harness the rich talent and critical health research, biotech, defense, and government assets required to deliver a full-scale response.

Our internal 24-hour circadian clock regulates many aspects of physiology, including the response to infectious disease and vaccination. A new study published in the Journal of Biological Rhythms demonstrates that antibody levels are higher when people receive the SARS-CoV-2 vaccine in the afternoon versus the morning.

Image: https://news.harvard.edu/

COLLEGE PARK, Md., December 07, 2021–(BUSINESS WIRE)–IonQ, Inc. (“IonQ”) (NYSE: IONQ), a leader in trapped-ion quantum computing, today announced its participation at the fifth Q2B Practical Quantum Computing Conference (Q2B 2021). On the heels of multiple recent milestones, the IonQ team will discuss strategies and tactics for a successful enterprise partnership approach, as well as practical machine learning applications as the team paves the way for quantum computing commercialization.

The transition from Angel to institutional funding is a key step (but not quite an absolute requirement) in the evolution of a start-up bringing a new device to market. Broadening investments accompany deepening organizational sophistication, as start-ups more and more take on the business and regulatory trappings of larger device companies. However, even the best medical devices proposed by the best founding teams must cross the most critical governing threshold before reaching the market.

Image: https://medium.com

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Innoforce (“INF”), a biopharmaceutical manufacturing & development company, announced today the completion of a 1 billion CNY ($156.6M) Series A financing, with the closing of an additional 375M CNY ($58.7M) following the first tranche of 625M CNY ($96M) completed in March 2021.

The Series A financing round was co-led by Yanchuang Capital and South China Venture Capital (SCVC) with additional investment from existing investor Quan Capital Management. In the most recent tranche, Yanchuang Capital increased its investment and additional investors joined, including Advantech Capital, Triwise Capital, CICC Capital, Highrun Capital, Euland Venture, S&G CAPITAL and others.

The critical shortage of “wet lab” space in Baltimore is an indictment of a city economic development strategy more concerned with real estate development than with job development (”Baltimore officials hoping to address shortage of ‘wet lab’ space to retain more innovators,” Nov. 15). Colin Tarbert, head of the Baltimore Development Corporation, warned that the shortage jeopardizes the city’s ability to retain existing life science companies, let alone attract new ones.

Image: https://www.baltimoresun.com/opinion/readers-respond/bs-ed-rr-wet-labs-letter-20211206-dgtyymlxqrbgnijb4xg277gpje-story.html