News Archive

Maryland has one of the nation’s strongest life sciences industries. The state’s array of universities, federal labs, and firms employ 54,000 people, generate breakthrough discoveries, and supply a range of technologies that have been key to the COVID-19 pandemic response. Despite Maryland’s high concentration of employment in research and development (R&D), the sector’s 7.4 percent growth between 2015 and 2020 trailed other leading states such as Massachusetts (58 percent) and North Carolina (38 percent). Beyond R&D employment, the state’s life sciences manufacturing sector expanded at one of the fastest rates nationwide (31 percent), but remains relatively less concentrated than the national average, indicating significant potential for further growth. Maryland’s life sciences industry also faces competition from other states for investment, particularly in entrepreneurs and startup firms that have the potential to sustain job creation across the state.

CHATHAM, N.J., Oct. 04, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Tonix Pharmaceuticals Holding Corp. (Nasdaq: TNXP) (Tonix or the Company), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, announced it has completed the acquisition of its new research and development center (RDC) located in Frederick, Md. The approximately 48,000 square foot facility will support Tonix’s expanding infectious disease pipeline, including:

• TNX-1800 – a live virus vaccine designed to protect against COVID-19 
• TNX-801 – a live virus vaccine designed to protect against smallpox and monkeypox 
• TNX-3500 – a small molecule antiviral under development to treat COVID-19 
• TNX-2100 – a peptide based skin test to measure functional T cell immunity to SARS-CoV-2 

Tonix purchased the RDC from Southern Research, a collaborating partner on TNX-1800 and TNX-801 development.

RICHMOND, Va., Oct. 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — Activation Capital, a leading entrepreneurship and ecosystem development organization, announced the launch of a cluster accelerator to catalyze the growth of advanced pharmaceutical manufacturing and R&D in Central Virginia. A coalition of private-public entities from Greater Petersburg and Greater Richmond helped form the accelerator, secured $2.5M in seed funding from GO Virginia and others, and appointed Activation Capital as the organizing entity – a first-of-its-kind initiative for the Commonwealth of Virginia.

NIA participates in a broad range of funding opportunities, research and development (R&D) programs, and technical assistance that address innovations in healthy aging as well as Alzheimer’ disease (AD) and AD-related dementias (ADRD).

COLLEGE PARK, Md., October 01, 2021–(BUSINESS WIRE)–IonQ, Inc. (“IonQ” or the “Company”) (NYSE: IONQ), a leader in quantum computing, completed its previously announced business combination with dMY Technology Group, Inc. III (“dMY”) (formerly NYSE: DMYI), a publicly traded special purpose acquisition company, on September 30, 2021. Starting this morning, the common stock and warrants of the combined company, IonQ Inc., will be listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbols “IONQ” and “IONQ.WS,” respectively.

IonQ is a trailblazer in quantum computing with the world’s most powerful trapped-ion quantum computer, and is the only company with its quantum systems available through the cloud on Amazon Braket, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud. This business combination provided IonQ with $636 million in gross proceeds to fund future growth and accelerate the commercialization of its industry-leading quantum computers.

WASHINGTON (FOX 5 DC) – Children’s National Hospital in D.C. has announced that 100% of its workforce, around 8,500 team members, is compliant with its COVID-19 vaccination policy. 

“Back in December when vaccines first became available, around 1,500 of those team members were hesitant to get the shot,” a spokesperson for Children’s National said. “So a lot of targeted work and action took place since then to get to 100% compliance…”

Image: https://www.fox5dc.com

GERMANTOWN, Md. & HILDEN, Germany–(BUSINESS WIRE)–QIAGEN N.V. (NYSE: QGEN; Frankfurt Prime Standard: QIA) today announced that it had won a U.S. government contract to increase the production capacity for consumables used on its NeuMoDx 96 and 288 integrated PCR testing systems, an important step to support laboratory testing as the COVID-19 pandemic continues.

Tweet this QIAGEN was awarded a $3.4 million contract by the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD), on behalf of and in coordination with the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), to expand production capacity for COVID-19 tests running on NeuMoDx instruments at its site in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The platforms offer a unique combination of speed, flexibility, throughput and ease of use for molecular diagnostics testing, including laboratory-developed tests. By the end of March 2022, QIAGEN plans to scale up production to more than 16 million tests per year, up from the current level of about 10 million.

Life science and healthcare companies have many avenues available to raise capital at various stages, each with its own benefits and considerations. Savvy founders and startup leaders should understand which asset class can offer the best opportunity to advance and support their company’s success. Across all sectors – therapeutics, diagnostics, tools, medical devices and digital health – the approach you take today to create your syndicate of investors will impact all future funding rounds.

The BioHealth Capital Region Forum offered many insights into the state of the industry, but the most prevalent theme was certainly big data. Panelists and keynote speakers across multiple events spoke about the importance of data in the biohealth and life sciences industry and how artificial intelligence will help the sector innovate.

Keynote speaker Chris Monroe, co-founder and chief scientist at IonQ, discussed how biotech experts can use quantum mechanics and quantum computers to solve problems within the healthcare industry. Monroe is a faculty member at Duke University and the University of Maryland and studies how Q-bits and quantum computers can help optimize complex problems

Dr. Kelly brings 15 years of executive-level experience to RoosterBio after having led several highly specialized life sciences manufacturing companies

FREDERICK, Md., Oct. 5, 2021 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ — RoosterBio, Inc., a leading supplier of human mesenchymal stem/stromal cell (hMSC) bioprocess systems for cell and gene therapy product developers, today announced Timothy M. Kelly, PhD, has joined the company as Chief Executive Officer and as a member of the Board of Directors. Dr. Kelly brings 15 years of executive-level experience to RoosterBio after having led several highly specialized life sciences manufacturing companies in the U.S. and Europe.