News Archive

According to researchers at the MIT Sloan School of Management, the probability of FDA approval of an industry-sponsored drug entering Phase One of the clinical trial process is 13.8%(1). A major factor in a trial’s success or failure, notes Dr. Harsha Rajasimha, founder and CEO of Jeeva(TM) Informatics, is the trial sponsor’s ability to recruit and retain patients. Current statistics show that 85% of all clinical trials are delayed during patient recruitment, and 30% are terminated early due to failure to recruit enough patients. Those small proportion of trials that do enroll the required subjects experience 30% dropout rate on an average.(2) “This is bad news,” says Dr. Rajasimha, “not just for the sponsors of these trials and the participants, but for a world in serious need of new and better tools to fight disease.”

Scientists and engineers are still toiling in labs in a race to develop quantum computers that would significantly outperform traditional computers.

But that isn’t holding venture capitalists back. They’re pouring record-high funding into work on computing power that is still considered years away from being ready.

Investors have invested $1.02 billion into quantum computing companies so far this year. That’s more than was funneled into the industry during the previous three years combined, according to PitchBook data.

Image: https://pitchbook.com

Somewhere in India last October, a person—likely immunocompromised, perhaps taking drugs for rheumatoid arthritis or with an advanced case of HIV/AIDS—developed COVID-19.

Their case might have been mild, but because of their body’s inability to clear the coronavirus it lingered and multiplied. As the virus replicated and moved from one cell to another, parts of the genetic material copied itself incorrectly. Maybe the person lived in a crowded home or went out to buy food in a busy market, but wherever it happened, the altered virus was spread to others. Experts believe this singular situation in one individual is likely how the Delta variant now wreaking havoc in the U.S. and around the world was born.

If the response to the COVID-19 pandemic has taught us anything, it is that in building a patient-centered future, the pharmaceutical industry plays a key role. It has to constantly find new ways to customize medicines while researching and developing new tools and drugs.

By embracing disruptive technologies like 3D printed drugs, artificial intelligence guided therapies, and preventive medicine while working with regulatory agencies, the pharmaceutical companies will benefit from having a digital revolution.

Image: https://www.visualcapitalist.com

In a misguided attempt to control drug costs, some Congressional leaders are urging the Biden administration to misapply a 40-year-old law that supports 6 million jobs, helped launch 15,000 start-up companies, and contributed $1.7 trillion to U.S economic output. The lawmakers — Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and Representative Lloyd Doggett (D-Tex.) — want the Department of Health and Human Services, as well as the Department of Defense, to misuse the march-in provision of the Bayh-Dole Act to set the price of federally-funded medicines — something the provision does not authorize. Such an action would undermine the intention of Bayh-Dole, while inflicting devastating damage on the U.S.

American Gene Technologies (AGT) announces the appointment of Dr. Robert R. Redfield, former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and co-founder of the Institute for Human Virology, as special advisor to AGT CEO Jeff Galvin.

Dr. Redfield is well known for his decades of dedicated work in virology, immunology and clinical research. He has helped lead collaborative research into HIV/AIDS since the beginning of the epidemic during his years as a U.S. Army physician and at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. Dr. Redfield has held multiple advisory positions, including with the President’s Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS, the National Institutes of Health and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. He was the CDC director from March 2018 to January 2021, leading the agency through a period of historic challenges, including the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“5 Questions With…” is a weekly BioBuzz series where we reach out to interesting people in the BioHealth Capital Region to share a little about themselves, their work, and maybe something completely unrelated. This week we welcome Bill Snider, Partner, BroadOak Capital Partners.

Bill Snider is a Partner at BroadOak and leads the firm’s growth capital investing activities. Mr. Snider has more than 25 years of institutional investment experience. Prior to BroadOak, he was a general partner and co-founder of Emerging Technology Partners (ETP), LLC, a life sciences-focused venture capital firm. Before ETP, Bill was a vice president and portfolio manager at T. Rowe Price, where his responsibilities included managing $2 billion of mutual fund and institutional client portfolios. He currently serves on the boards of Codex DNA, Halo Labs, Science and Medicine Group, and the MdBio Foundation. He has made more than 50 growth capital investments while at BroadOak and looks forward to making 50 more.

Robert E. Fischell Institute for Biomedical Devices Director William Bentley was named the recipient of the 2021 Society for Biological Engineering D.I.C. Wang Award for Excellence in Biochemical Engineering. This annual award recognizes individuals for their contributions to the field and to the practice of biochemical engineering through their position in industry or academia as exemplified by Professor Daniel I.C. Wang of MIT. 

Wang made tremendous contributions to the biochemical engineering profession and biotechnology community, both in this country and internationally. He was a pivotal leader in developing the biotechnology industry and in shaping biochemical engineering education and training over the past five decades.

BETHESDA, Md., Sept. 08, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Gain Therapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq: GANX) (“Gain”, or the “Company”), a biotechnology company focused on identifying and optimizing allosteric binding sites never before targeted in neurodegenerative diseases and lysosomal storage disorders, today announced topline data from the Company’s study, conducted at the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM). The study, evaluating two lead Structurally Targeted Allosteric Regulators (STARs) compounds – GT-02287 and GT-02329 – for the treatment of Gaucher and GBA1 Parkinson’s Disease, demonstrated positive effects on all tested phenotypes.