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Hilden, Germany, and Germantown, Maryland, March 17, 2020 – QIAGEN (NYSE: QGEN; Frankfurt Prime Standard: QIA) today announced plans to dramatically ramp up global production capacity of RNA extraction kits that are used as part of workflows around the world to detect nucleic acid from SARS-CoV-2, the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19.
QIAGEN has historically allocated global production capacity to manufacture RNA nucleic extraction reagents to supply about 1.5 million patient tests on a monthly basis. Now QIAGEN is ramping up production capacity for these reagents to support a level of more than 6.5 million patient tests a month by the end of April 2020 and over 10 million patient tests a month by the end of June 2020. A significant capacity expansion project is underway at sites in Europe and the United States to reach more than 20 million patient tests on a monthly basis by the end of 2020 to support the response to this global public health crisis.
Gaithersburg-based Emergent Biosolutions on Wednesday said it signed a second agreement in a week that will bring manufacturing of a coronavirus vaccine candidate to Baltimore.
The new agreement is with Vaxart, a San Francisco-based biotechnology company that is developing an experimental oral vaccine candidate that would be administered by tablet.
Image: https://technical.ly – Courtesy photo
ROCKVILLE, Md., March 18, 2020 /PRNewswire/ — Cellphire, Inc., the global leader in long-term stabilization and storage of platelets, announced today that it has received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to start a Phase 2 clinical trial of Thrombosomes in bleeding patients with thrombocytopenia.
In July 2019, Cellphire successfully completed a Phase I clinical trial of its lead product, Thrombosomes, a platelet-based freeze-dried hemostatic. Utilizing its patented technology to stabilize and freeze-dry platelets, Cellphire is developing next-generation therapeutics to treat bleeding patients. Standard liquid platelets only have a 5- to 7-day shelf life, making inventory management difficult and can lead to widespread platelet shortages during public health emergencies. By contrast, Thrombosomes have a 3-year shelf life.
Following up on the recent article Two Maryland Biotechs Partner to Bring Coronavirus/COVID-19 Vaccine Candidate into Clinical Trials, BioBuzz had the opportunity to speak with Emergent BioSolutions Executive Vice President, Manufacturing and Technical Operations, Sean Kirk.
Let’s start by having you provide a brief background on your role at Emergent.
I have been with the company for nearly 17 years, and have had the good fortune of working in and being responsible for many key parts of the business including manufacturing operations, quality assurance, regulatory affairs, product development, U.S. government program management, global operational excellence, global supply chain, medical and clinical affairs. In these roles I have spent a lot of time across Emergent’s sites and have been based in Lansing, Mich. – where I started – Gaithersburg, Md, and Winnipeg, Manitoba.
GAITHERSBURG, Md., March 18, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Emergent BioSolutions Inc. (NYSE:EBS) announced today that it has entered into an agreement with Vaxart, Inc. (Nasdaq: VXRT), a clinical-stage biotechnology company, whereby Emergent has agreed to utilize its molecule-to-market contract development and manufacturing (CDMO) services to develop and manufacture Vaxart’s experimental oral vaccine candidate for coronavirus disease (COVID-19). Development services will begin immediately, and upon Vaxart’s election, Emergent agrees to produce clinical material expected to enable Vaxart to initiate a Phase 1 clinical study anticipated early in the second half of 2020. Vaxart’s oral recombinant vaccine candidate is based on its proprietary VAAST™ platform.
GERMANTOWN, Md. — German company Qiagen is racing to assemble new COVID-19 test kits. Already approved for use in Europe, Qiagen’s new kits are now getting assembled in their North American headquarters in Germantown, Maryland.
Image: Qiagen’s North American headquarters in Germantown, Maryland Nathan Baca
Anthony Fauci, MD, Director of the NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), offered hope to the thousands of people with confirmed cases of COVID-19, and the millions around the world whose lives have been disrupted by the pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2, when he expressed to a congressional panel last week his hope that the first patients would be dosed with vaccines in development for the novel coronavirus “in a few weeks.”
MORRISTOWN, N.J., March 18, 2020 /PRNewswire/ — In an ongoing series of research conducted by KMK Consulting, Inc. covering Innovation & Customer Value, GSK was ranked as the top company delivering superior customer value and sales force engagement, as well as delivering therapeutic innovation in the asthma market according to pulmonary disease specialists. The research was conducted in February 2020, using KMK’s Rapid Pulse Survey platform. AstraZeneca, Genentech, and Novartis rounded out the top organizations driving innovation and customer value in this space.
Novavax and Emergent Biosolutions are not the only Maryland companies developing COVID-19 countermeasures. More than 15 local companies will meet virtually Friday to share their efforts.
Image: Maryland biotechs are coming together to build vaccines and diagnostic tests for COVID-19. CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION