Developing medication, devices, and products for children is not a matter of “shrinking” down the adult version. Delivering solutions to our littlest patients requires a long-term approach that deliberately centers children in all stages of innovation – from ideation to incubation, from clinical trials to market.
Around the world, populations are getting older, and their health needs are becoming more complex. At the same time, technological advances are changing healthcare delivery. In this edition, The Next Normal explores how hospitals will innovate in the coming decade—and what it will mean for both patients and healthcare professionals.
February is Rare Disease Awareness Month, a month-long celebration focused on the suffering and triumphs of patients and their families stricken by rare diseases culminating on February 29th – International Rare Disease Day. The rapidly developing cell and gene therapy fields in recent years have led to a rare disease R&D boom of sorts, with an estimated 800 rare disease-focused clinical development projects currently in process. The biotech industry sees a new window for improving rare disease patient’s lives and potentially curing rare diseases that impact one in ten American and an estimated 400 million people globally.
Image: https://biobuzz.ios
GlaxoSmithKline has licensed a tuberculosis vaccine to the Bill & Melinda Gates Medical Research Institute (MRI). The deal sets the stage for a push to build on recent phase 2b data and make the vaccine available in low-income countries where TB is prevalent.
The vaccine, M72/AS01E, is made up of an immunogenic fusion protein based on two TB antigens. GSK combined that protein with the adjuvant found in its shingles prophylactic Shingrix to create a subunit vaccine. Last year, a phase 2b trial linked the vaccine to 50% protection against progression to active pulmonary tuberculosis for three years in adults infected with the mycobacterium.
Image: Bill Gates (CC BY 2.0/Ben Fisher/GAVI Alliance)
The Johns Hopkins Center for Systems Science and Engineering has built and is regularly updating an online dashboard for tracking the worldwide spread of the coronavirus outbreak that began in the Chinese city of Wuhan.
Lauren Gardner, a civil engineering professor and CSSE’s co-director, spearheaded the effort to launch the mapping website on Wednesday. The site displays statistics about deaths and confirmed cases of coronavirus, or 2019-nCoV, across a worldwide map. It also allows visitors to download the data for free.
Image: https://hub.jhu.edu
Boston Properties has entered into a joint venture with Alexandria Real Estate Equities to build a 1.7M SF life science campus in South San Francisco.
Boston Properties confirmed the deal in its Q4 2019 earnings call this week.
The project will involve about 640K SF of ground-up development, and the potential repositioning of about 1M SF of office space into new life science buildings, according to Boston Properties.
Image: Wikimedia Commons/Coolcaesar at the English language Wikipedia
What Nobel Laureate Dr. Jim Allison’s Story Can Teach Entrepreneurs and Innovators
Jim Allison shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2018, along with Tasuku Hanjo, for pioneering the use of immune checkpoint inhibitors to develop cancer therapies.
Allison’s remarkable and groundbreaking research into T-Cell activation, and his subsequent work developing his discoveries into viable cancer treatment, has extended the lives of thousands of cancer patients. Allison’s work is more than remarkable: It represents an earth-shaking paradigm shift in scientific thought about how cancer works and could be defeated.
Benjamin Wu, the new CEO and president of the Montgomery County Economic Development Corp., is quickly building out his staff.
The former top adviser to Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan has brought on five new hires since stepping in to lead Montgomery’s economic development efforts on Dec. 18, including a new senior vice president for business development and an opportunity zones project leader.
Theraly Fibrosis, a preclinical-stage biotechnology company focused on development and commercialization of drugs for various fibrotic diseases today announced the company has been awarded a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II grant by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the amount of $3.9 million to support development of TLY012 for treatment of chronic pancreatitis.
Vigene Biosciences Inc.’s has opened its new research facility in Rockville.
The opening of a new laboratory at 5 Research Court — near Interstate-270’s Shady Grove Road exit — significantly increases the biotech’s Rockville footprint, adding 51,000 square feet to its existing 20,000 square feet at a separate facility nearby. The project cost more than $20 million, according to Vigene.
