News Archive

Regina E. Dugan is chief executive of Wellcome Leap, a nonprofit that seeks breakthroughs in human health. From 2009 to 2012, she served as director of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.

The global pandemic is a hinge in history. Hundreds of thousands of lives lost globally; trillions in economic damage. It is as if the 1918 flu and the 1929 crash happened in the same year. It is the kind of event that alters the course of history so much that we measure time by it: before the pandemic — and after. It is a Sputnik moment.

Image: Astronaut Buzz Aldrin walks on the surface of the moon on July 20, 1969. (Neil Armstrong/NASA via AP)

Johns Hopkins cancer diagnostics spinoff Thrive Earlier Detection Corp. has raised $257 million in new funding a little over a year after it closed another huge round.

Thrive launched in May 2019 with $110 million in funding for its cancer-detecting blood test developed by researchers at Johns Hopkins. That Series A round was remarkable for its size. It was the largest ever raised in support of a Hopkins-licensed technology, and among the largest raised by any firm co-based in the Baltimore area.

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ROCKVILLE, Md., July 28, 2020 — American Gene Technologies (AGT), an internationally recognized leading gene and cell therapy company in Rockville, Maryland, today announced it has leased a spacious, modern facility in the Maryland life sciences corridor, across from National Cancer Institute and Johns Hopkins Shady Grove Campus.

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Future pandemics—and suffering of the kind inflicted by COVID-19—could be avoided if we troubled ourselves to see where dangerous pathogens lie in wait. We could, two unrelated studies suggest, save ourselves untold woe and conserve our fortunes if we were to look into matters geographic, zoologic, and genomic. More specifically, we need to keep our eyes wide open when we venture into the planet’s last wild places. There, we may run into wild animals that are infected with pathogens harboring wild genetic traits—which is to say, genetic traits that evolved naturally, beyond our gaze, and that waited patiently, perhaps decades, for a chance to strike.

Biotechnology led the healthcare industry in investment activity from private equity and venture capital during the first half of 2020, drawing nearly $12.60 billion in funding, up from $7.28 billion for the year-ago period.

The biotechnology sector either announced or concluded 342 deals globally as of June 30, comprising mergers and acquisitions and private placements, where the main investor was either a venture capitalist, a hedge fund manager or a private equity company, according to an analysis by S&P Global Market Intelligence.

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Innate Pharma SA (Euronext Paris: IPH – ISIN: FR0010331421; Nasdaq: IPHA) (“Innate” or the “Company”) today announced the publication of a Nature paper entitled, “Association of COVID-19 inflammation with activation of the C5a-C5aR1 axis,” authored by Innate researchers in partnership with scientists from Hôpitaux Universitaires de Marseille AP-HM (La Timone and North Hospitals), Laveran Hospital, Aix Marseille University, the Centre d’Immunologie de Marseille-Luminy (Inserm, CNRS, AMU) and Marseille Immunopole/AP-HM immunoprofiling laboratory at La Timone Hospital.

This Marseille-based exploratory research taskforce, named EXPLORE COVID-19, analyzed immune cells in COVID-19 patients at different stages of the disease. The goal of the study was to gain translational insights to better understand the immune response in COVID-19 patients and identify potential targets to fight the viral infection.

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GAITHERSBURG, Md., July 23, 2020 /PRNewswire/ — Shreis Scalene Therapeutics LLC (SSTx), a MD-USA-based medical device company will fast-track the manufacture and distribution of the CE-marked (EU-Class 1) Scalene Hypercharge Corona Canon (SHYCOCAN) under US FDA ‘Enforcement Policy for Sterilizers, Disinfectant Devices, and Air Purifiers During the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Public Health Emergency.”