News Archive

The New Haven area has become a hub for thriving and growing young bioscience companies like Arvinas and Cybrexa Therapeutics, which are working to develop potentially game-changing cancer cures.

The region’s biotechs are developing treatments for a range of ailments, from Alzheimer’s disease to spinal-cord injuries.

But just as a growing infant can’t stay in an incubator for long, many New Haven-born bioscience companies need room to grow — and fast.

Image: PHOTO | NEW HAVEN BIZ – John Keogh, senior broke with Colliers International, in lab space at 5 Science Park on Winchester Avenue in New Haven.

AstraZeneca said today it will create new R&D centers focused on drug development and artificial intelligence (AI) in Shanghai, as well as partner with state-run China International Capital Corporation Limited (CICC) to launch a potentially $1 billion fund whose investments will aim to advance innovation in China’s healthcare system.

Image: AstraZeneca’s China headquarters at Shanghai Zhangjiang Hi-Tech Park – https://www.genengnews.com

Gaithersburg, MD, November 5, 2019 – Cartesian Therapeutics, a fully integrated, clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing cell and gene therapies for cancer and autoimmune diseases, today announced that it has initiated a Phase 1/2 clinical trial (NCT04146051) of its lead CAR-T candidate, Descartes-08, in patients with generalized myasthenia gravis (GMG).  To the company’s knowledge, the program is the first CAR-T investigational candidate to enter clinical development for an autoimmune disease.

“Patients with severe GMG have limited treatment options and are often dependent on nonselective, chronic immunosuppressive therapies (ISTs) that have long-term toxicities,” said Volkan Granit, MD, the trial’s principal investigator and Assistant Professor of Neurology at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. “Cartesian’s CAR-T technology selectively targets the primary culprit in the disease:  antibody-producing plasma cells.  Such selective targeting would be a first in GMG and could help patients discontinue use of chronic ISTs.”

For those that lived through the devastation and horror of the HIV/AIDS epidemic of the early 1980s, effective treatment, let alone a cure for Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), seemed unimaginable. 

Some three decades later, a host of Maryland life science companies and research organizations are getting closer to making what was once unthinkable, real.

So little was known about this devastating immune disorder in the early phases of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. 

RADNOR, Pa. and DUBLIN, Nov. 6, 2019 /PRNewswire/ — Avantor, Inc. (NYSE: AVTR) and the National Institute of Bioprocessing Research and Training (NIBRT) today announced they are teaming up to address downstream bottlenecks in buffer preparation when producing monoclonal antibodies (mAbs). As part of the joint effort, Avantor® is providing in-line dilution systems for hands-on experience at NIBRT’s prestigious training and research facility dedicated to supporting the global bioprocessing industry. Avantor’s technology adds to NIBRT’s full complement of bioprocessing capabilities.

The growth of the BioHealth Capital Region (BHCR) and its position as a global biohealth cluster is a hot topic of discussion—often filtered through a broad, conceptual lens focused on big-picture trends, GEN publication rankings and widely discussed areas of industry need.

The development and growth of the BHCR is also a story that supports the life science boom in the region and is steeped in real estate development, communities of innovation, bricks and mortar, architectural plans, and construction management, as well as facility and lab design innovation.

Image: https://biobuzz.io

The Maryland Technology Development Corporation (TEDCO) held its inaugural Entrepreneur Expo in 2011. The first Expo attracted approximately 300 attendees. Three times that number descended on The Hotel at the University of Maryland for its 9th annual Entrepreneur Expo on October 29th.

Entrepreneurs, thought leaders, small business owners, angel and venture investors, federal and state economic development teams and university leaders from across Maryland, the Biohealth Capital Region (BHCR) and beyond gathered at the event to network, share ideas and showcase their programs, technologies and companies.

The Chesapeake Bay Area Chapter of ISPE has partnered with the Regional Manufacturing Institute of Maryland and the Montgomery County Executive’s Office to bring some vital state and local resources to our industry at a trade-show like event on November 8 at the Washington DC/Rockville Hilton Hotel from 7:30-11:00 a.m.  The event is targeted at manufacturing executives, HR, CFOs and Engineering & Facility managers from leading biotech, pharma, IT, defense, printing and other industry executives from Montgomery County.  Please join us and find out how you can access thousands of dollars of state and local resources and meet the experts for those programs to address your workforce needs, reduce energy expenses and find grant funding, access financing/tax credit programs and more….all in one place.