Emergent BioSolutions (EBS) – Get Report shares rose Wednesday after the life sciences company and Mount Sinai Health System announced a trial for Emergent’s coronavirus preventative with $34.6 million of support from the Pentagon.
Emergent recently traded at $92.70, up 2.84%, and has surged 71% year to date amid investor enthusiasm for companies involved with Covid treatments.
Washington, D.C.-based Children’s National Hospital is partnering with the National Institutes of Health and tech firm NVIDIA to launch a challenge in which participants will develop artificial intelligence tools to improve the detection of COVID-19 in the lungs, the hospital announced Jan. 7.
Participants in the COVID-19 Lung CT Lesion Segmentation Grand Challenge will use a multi-institutional, multinational NIH dataset that houses data on patients with a diverse range of age, gender and disease severity to create AI-powered imaging models to help clinicians better identify and treat COVID-19 infection in patients’ lungs.
Richmond, VA, Jan. 07, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — The Center for Innovative Technology (CIT) announced today its Request for Proposals (RFP) for the first solicitation under the newly formed Commonwealth Commercialization Fund (CCF).
The CCF was launched on July 1, 2020 to foster innovative and collaborative commercialization efforts in Virginia, consolidating two legacy programs: the Commonwealth Research Commercialization Fund (CRCF) and the Virginia Research Investment Fund (VRIF). In FY2021, CIT is conducting a single CCF solicitation for young Virginia companies that have strong potential to drive economic growth in Virginia, including through revenue and job creation. Up to $7 million is available to award; a one-to-one match is required.
This competitive round will provide grants up to $100,000 to support companies’ commercialization and market entry goals through product or service development, market research, intellectual property protection, marketing, pilots, and more. High-potential projects are sought in seven strategically important sectors: agricultural and environmental technologies, autonomous systems, clean energy, cybersecurity, data science and analytics, life and health sciences, and space and satellites. All Virginia companies that meet the eligibility criteria are invited to seek funding.
US healthcare venture fundraising soared in 2020, totaling $17B, a 57% increase over 2019’s record.
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Headquartered in Prague, Czech Republic, Neox is a CRO with over 150 employees who support biotechnology, pharmaceutical, and medical device customers. Neox has provided clinical research support for more than 1,000 studies and has built deep experience across multiple therapeutic areas. The company has operations primarily in central and eastern Europe, with a direct presence in the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia. Neox operates in another 11 European countries, including a recently established entity in the United Kingdom.
CAMBRIDGE, MA and GAITHERSBURG, MD, January 11, 2021 — Myeloid Therapeutics, Inc., a company harnessing and reprogramming yeloid cells to treat cancers, and MaxCyte, Inc., a global cell-based therapies and life sciences company, today announce the signing of a clinical and commercial licensing agreement.
Myeloid Therapeutics will obtain non-exclusive clinical and commercial rights to use MaxCyte’s Flow Electroporation® technology and ExPERT™ platform. This agreement enables Myeloid to advance its pipeline programs, including for engineered cell therapies targeting solid tumors, T cell lymphoma, and glioblastoma. In return, MaxCyte is entitled to receive undisclosed development and approval milestones, and sales-based payments, along with other licensing fees.
Sykesville, MD, and Fairfax, VA, December 21, 2020 – Noble Life Sciences (NLS), a preclinical contract research organization located in Sykesville, MD, has signed a Collaboration Agreement with George Mason University (Mason) to access the National Center for Biodefense and Infectious Diseases (NCBID) BSL-3 facility located within their Biomedical Research Laboratory at Mason’s Science and Technology Campus in Manassas. The Agreement enables NLS to perform federal and non-federally funded BSL-3 animal model projects to support the development of new antiviral and antibacterial agents against infectious and resistant pathogens.
With more than $650 million in financing in place, vertical construction in excess of 1.1 million square feet of mixed-use space at Port Covington in Baltimore is set to begin at the 235-acre redevelopment site along the city’s waterfront.
This $500 million development phase, known as Chapter 1B, includes 440,000 square feet of office, 586,000 square feet of residential with 537 units, 116,000 square feet of retail, more than 1,000 parking spaces and 10 acres of parks and public space.
Image: Port Covington. Image courtesy of Weller Development Co.
Ernesto Chanona joined Glen Burnie-based CSSi LifeSciences as its director of business development.
The organization works with companies to advance drugs and medical device technologies from discovery to commercialization.
“The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic has catalyzed business growth throughout the industry, and as such, CSSi LifeSciences is poised to expand in 2021,” Chanona said. “Initially, I’ll be focusing on managing the company’s early-stage clients, housed at incubators all over the world. Growing the pipeline through strategic partnerships with economic development agencies, incubators, universities and startups is also part of the plan.”
Last year, when GEN prepared an editorial titled Eight Biopharma Trends to Watch in 2020, who could have foreseen COVID-19 and the deaths, illnesses, and economic disruption that the disease would wreak? And who could have foreseen how armies of industry and academic researchers would race to develop hundreds of new and repositioned vaccines and drugs? (GEN tracks more than 300 on its COVID-19 Drug and Vaccine Tracker webpage).
While biopharma was dominated by COVID-19, which prompted a surge of research and business activity, the industry also saw developments that will position it for further growth even after the virus is brought under control.
