News Archive

MIAMI, June 22, 2020 /PRNewswire/ — Esteemed lawyer, author, and entrepreneur, Martine Rothblatt, Ph.D., found a thoughtful and practical way to thank her employees at United Therapeutics, who have been going above and beyond during this time of the coronavirus crisis. The team at United Therapeutics, a biopharmaceutical company, has always been dedicated to working hard on life-saving biotech innovations. During the global coronavirus pandemic, United Therapeutics has recognized the dire need to develop treatments for COVID-19 patients and has responded quickly by initiating three projects intended to help with COVID-19, including an artificial lung technology that could help avoid the need for the use of ventilators.

Image: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martine_Rothblatt

GERMANTOWN, Md., June 22, 2020 /PRNewswire/ — Precigen, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company specializing in the development of innovative gene and cell therapies to improve the lives of patients, today announced preclinical data for its innovative investigational PRGN-3005 UltraCAR-T® in patients with advanced, recurrent platinum resistant ovarian, fallopian tube or primary peritoneal cancer has been published as an e-poster and accompanying audio presentation at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Virtual Annual Meeting II. The e-poster presentation titled PRGN-3005 UltraCAR-T: Multigenic CAR-T Cells Generated Using Non-viral Gene Delivery and Rapid Manufacturing Process for the Treatment of Ovarian Cancer (Abstract 6593) is part of the Immunology/Adoptive Cell Therapy session and is accessible on the AACR e-poster website.

GAITHERSBURG, Md., June 22, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Altimmune, Inc. (Nasdaq: ALT), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has cleared its Investigational New Drug (IND) application to conduct a Phase 2 trial of HepTcell, a peptide-based immunotherapeutic for the treatment of chronic hepatitis B. The Company is also filing clinical trial applications in Canada, Spain, Germany and the United Kingdom. Altimmune plans to initiate a multinational trial in Q4 of this year, subject to an ongoing assessment of the impact of COVID-19 on study conduct.

Emergent Biosolutions has set out to capture a share of the expanding viral vector and gene therapy sector.

The US countermeasures developer said it will spend $75 million to add viral vector and gene therapy manufacturing capacity at a facility in Canton, Massachusetts.

At present the plant – which was acquired from Sanofi in 2017 – produces drug substance for live viral vaccines, including Emergent’s smallpox jab ACAM2000.

Pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca has struck a deal with Europe’s Inclusive Vaccines Alliance to supply up to 400 million doses of an experimental Covid-19 vaccine, as efforts to boost manufacturing capacity continue at pace.

The alliance, which was forged by Germany, France, Italy and the Netherlands to speed up production of a vaccine, is set to take delivery of the material being tested by the University of Oxford by the end of 2020.

WASHINGTON, June 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ — Children’s National Hospital in Washington, D.C., was ranked No. 7 nationally in the U.S. News & World Report 2020-21 Best Children’s Hospitals annual rankings. This marks the fourth straight year Children’s National has made the list, which ranks the top 10 children’s hospitals nationwide. In addition, its neonatology program, which provides newborn intensive care, ranked No.1 among all children’s hospitals for the fourth year in a row.

The Children’s National Hospital neonatology program, which provides newborn intensive care, ranked No.1 in the nation by U.S. News for the fourth year in a row.

Children’s National Hospital ranked a top 10 children’s hospital and No. 1 in newborn care nationally by U.S. News for fourth year in a row

George Mason University on Monday announced three development and property management firms as finalists to build and operate its proposed $250 million Institute for Digital InnovAtion (IDIA), set to open in September 2025 on its Arlington campus. The university released a request for proposals in February, to which 105 developers responded.

Image: Concept rendering of George Mason University’s Institute for Digital InnovAtion (IDIA) in Arlington – https://www.virginiabusiness.com

British drugmaker AstraZeneca is shooting for the moon with its plan to produce 2 billion doses per year of a potential COVID-19 vaccine. To reach that lofty goal, AstraZeneca has reached a deal with New Jersey-based Catalent to help with the final stages of the shot’s manufacturing.

Catalent will be tasked with finishing and packaging duties for AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford’s COVID-19 vaccine candidate, AZD1222, at its 305,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Anagni, Italy, the CDMO said Monday.

Image: Catalent will be tasked with helping finish and package AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine candidate. (Catalent)

The University of Maryland Medical System will receive more than $18.7 million in funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in the ongoing effort to combat the coronavirus, the arm of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced Monday.