News Archive

New Members Continue GSK and NEA’s commitment to the BHI mission and the BioHealth Capital Region

ROCKVILLE, MARYLAND, April 6, 2020 – The Board of Directors of BioHealth Innovation, Inc. (BHI) unanimously approved the appointments of two new board members, Rebecca Farkas, PhD, Director, External R&D, Scientific Collaborations at GSK, and Sara Nayeem, M.D., Partner at New Enterprise Associates (NEA). BHI’s leadership also thanked outgoing Board of Directors members Rip Ballou of GSK and David Mott of NEA for their contributions to the organization and friendship of many years.

 “I am honored to welcome both Rebecca and Sara to our Board of Directors,” said Richard Bendis, BHI President and CEO. “They both bring a combination of experience and fresh vision to our already robust collection of industry leaders. We are excited to to work with them to help grow the BioHealth Capital Region industry cluster.”

Immunomic Therapeutics Inc. is pivoting, as many are, in this new era to work on a vaccine for the novel coronavirus. But it’s also pursuing goals that would be considered ambitious even before the world changed: It’s closing in on a $50 million raise, advancing its brain cancer program — and positioning itself for an initial public offering.

The Rockville vaccine maker secured the first $10 million of this latest fundraising round at the end of January from Korean investment group HLB, and it expects to close on another $40 million-plus in the next couple of weeks, said Bill Hearl, founder and CEO of ITI. That capital would support the immuno-oncology company’s therapy for glioblastoma, an aggressive brain cancer, now heading into a phase 2 clinical trial after a successful phase 1 study that extended the typical 14- to 16-month median survival rate to 41 months.

Image: Bill Hearl is CEO and founder of Immunomic Therapeutics in Rockville. COURTESY IMMUNOMIC THERAPEUTICS

Not long ago, working from home was an option for some of us.

Today, it’s the norm for nearly all of us. 

Unless your job absolutely requires you to be on the front lines, the coronavirus pandemic has caused us all to set up home offices and social distance ourselves from coworkers and clients alike. 

That shift has likely carried some stumbling blocks, something even the most seasoned remote worker can attest to.

Image: https://www.bizjournals.com

GlaxoSmithKline and AstraZeneca are considering forming a joint laboratory to help the U.K. government stretch and expand its supplies for COVID-19 diagnostic tests, according to a report from Bloomberg.

Even though diagnostics are not their core efforts, the plan is for the two Big Pharmas to test a range of different reagents, chemical mixtures and other materials for new ways to help detect the spreading novel coronavirus. Successes would be provided to other manufacturers or the U.K.’s National Health Service.

Image: Global supplies of testing reagents and other materials, including swabs, have been faced with overwhelming demand in recent weeks. (NIAID – Rocky Mountain Laboratories)

On April 3^rd, 2020, DLA Piper and BioHealth Innovation, Inc. (BHI) presented an overview of the key provisions for BioHealth Capital Region Life Sciences companies in the $2 trillion Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act stimulus package via webinar.

The hour-long review and discussion was recorded and is NOW AVAILABLE to access online.

We’re currently tracking 95 potential treatments and 52 potential vaccines in the pipeline to combat hashtag#COVID19.

There are thousands of researchers all over the world racing to get a treatment or vaccine to market.

The NIH is deeply concerned for the health and safety of people involved in NIH research, and about the effects on the biomedical enterprise in the areas affected by the HHS declared public health emergency for COVID-19. Due to the potential exceptional impact, we want to assure our recipient community that NIH will be doing our part to help you continue your research.

SAN FRANCISCO–(BUSINESS WIRE)– venBio Partners LLC today announced the closing of venBio Global Strategic Fund III (“venBio Fund III”), its third life sciences venture capital fund, exceeding its target and closing on approximately $394 million in capital commitments in an oversubscribed fundraise. The capital was raised from existing and new investors, including a broad range of institutional investors comprising pharmaceutical companies, corporate pensions, financial institutions, endowments and foundations, family offices and funds-of-funds.

ROCKVILLE, Md., April 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ — Emmes today announced that Heather Hill, Dr. Adam Mendizabal and Dr. Nilay Shah have been promoted to vice president.  According to Dr. Anne Lindblad, president and chief executive officer, “These promotions reflect their talent and value to the organization.  Heather, Adam and Nilay demonstrate our commitment to developing staff and promoting from within.  They will strengthen and add great value to our leadership team and will support our plans to grow both internally and externally.”

Heather Hill

Dr. Adam Mendizabal

Dr. Nilay Shah

One of America’s biggest companies has teamed up with one of the country’s least-known federal agencies to make doses of a coronavirus vaccine. Lots of them. 

The deal underscores the important role that the U.S. Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, or BARDA, plays behind the scenes in protecting Americans—and everyone, really—from pandemics.