News Archive

RIVERDALE, Md., Aug. 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — Medcura, Inc., a commercial-stage medical device company, today announced it has raised $7.4 million in private equity to support its growing product line and development of its lead surgical candidate for clinical evaluation. The financing includes the sale of Series A Preferred stock as well as common stock based, in part, from certain investors benefitting from a Maryland Investment Incentive Program. 

“Medcura has reached a pivotal point in our growth,” said Larry Tiffany, CEO of Medcura. “Our products are positively impacting the lives of patients and our community. With these funds we can accelerate product development, expand our commercial footprint and bring the company’s potentially lifesaving technology to operating rooms and battlefields worldwide.”  

August 11, 2021 (Washington, D.C.) – A bold new public-private partnership to prevent future viral outbreaks from becoming pandemics has moved one step closer to realization, as the Greater Washington cross-sector nonprofit, Connected DMV, has announced the formal launch of a Global Pandemic Prevention and Biodefense Center (GPPBC). The Center will serve as a vehicle to foster greater collaboration among pandemic prevention stakeholders to deliver on strategic projects needed to advance pandemic preparedness and avoidance. The signature initiative of the Center accelerates the development of human monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) to treat the world’s top 100 pathogens across 25 pathogen families most likely to result in disease outbreaks.

One of the top questions that employers in the Life Sciences community within the Capital Region are asking is how companies are approaching bringing employees back to the office. That’s why we asked nearly 30 top employers in the area to share their strategies in a recent survey conducted by BioBuzz Media.

OVERVIEW:

• Free, half-day virtual event.
• Hear from inventors from the National Cancer Institute and the Frederick National Laboratory  about technologies primed for commercialization and/or collaboration; great opportunity for biotech stakeholders and companies of all sizes, including start-ups.
• Panel sessions focused on technology commercialization.
• Lightning Pitch & Poster Session highlighting additional NIH technologies available for licensing and collaborative development presented by the NCI Technology Transfer Ambassadors Program.

As a trifecta of crises upended life in 2020, the need for a diverse scientific and medical community grew ever more clear. George Floyd’s murder elicited worldwide protests against racial injustice. COVID-19 affected all of our lives and had an outsize impact on Black and brown communities. And COVID-19’s economic fallout only exacerbated extreme wealth inequality. 

On August 6th, 2021, FDA released an update on various matters related to COVID-19. Among these topics was an update on Emergent BioSolutions, a manufacturer who has come under fire for their mishandling production of COVID-19 vaccines.

However, FDA has now approved certain lots of the AstraZeneca vaccine made at the facility suitable for export. While the AstraZeneca vaccine is not approved for use within the United States, it is used by various countries overseas.

HILDEN, Germany & WALTHAM, Mass. & GERMANTOWN, Md.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–QIAGEN (NYSE:QGEN; Frankfurt Prime Standard: QIA) and OncXerna Therapeutics, Inc. (“OncXerna”), a precision medicine company using an innovative RNA-expression based biomarker platform to predict patient responses to its targeted oncology therapeutic candidates, today announced signing a master companion diagnostics (CDx) agreement to develop a NGS CDx for OncXerna’s product candidate, Navicixizumab, and a non-exclusive license to the Xerna™ TME panel.

ARLINGTON, Va., Aug. 9, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — Sands Capital held a first and final closing of its second life sciences dedicated fund, Sands Capital Life Sciences Pulse Fund II, L.P. (“Pulse II”), raising $560 million. This close increases total Pulse Strategy assets under management to more than $950 million, including Sands Capital Life Sciences Pulse Fund, L.P. (“Pulse I”) and related vehicles. The team will continue investing with the same emphasis on private therapeutics, diagnostics, and life sciences tools businesses. The strategy’s mission is to help transform how diseases are defined, diagnosed, and treated.