
Baltimore-based AgeneBio announced a pair of grants from the National Institutes of Health that will assist with clinical trials of a treatment to combat the progression of Alzheimer’s disease.

MaxCyte announced the first patient has been dosed in its Phase I dose-escalation clinical trial in the United States with the company’s lead wholly-owned chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) therapeutic candidate, MCY-M11. The study is designed to evaluate MCY-M11, a mesothelin targeting CAR, in individuals with relapsed/refractory ovarian cancer and peritoneal mesothelioma.

However long a business has operated, investors will look for three big things if they are going to invest.

U.S. healthcare companies have collected $23.4 billion in venture capital funding this year — already surpassing the amount the sector obtained in all of 2017, according to a recent report from Pitchbook, which tracks VC investments.

The number of open innovation challenges in pharma grows by the day. But what’s driving them? That’s what Luminary Labs wanted to know. So the consultancy, which works with pharma and other industries to design and execute those kind of challenges, surveyed the executives at companies that run the contests and asked why and how they do it.

The first Biohealth Capital Region Investment Conference kicks off this week in Montgomery County. The conference marks an important inflection point for a region whose entrepreneurs have been calling for more active investment resources for years. The event also fulfills a promise made by organizers at past BioHealth Capital Region Forums to bring more investment activity to the region.

Europe’s biotech industry recently celebrated its growth and progress with more than 120 events taking place across 18 European countries September 24 –30, in what organizers call “European Biotech Week.”

Biopharma venture capital activity maintained its red-hot pace during the third quarter of 2018, driven by a handful of deals exceeding $200 million, according to a report released this week.

This has been a year marked by many notable biotech deals, especially in the immunotherapy market. One deal, in particular, has generated more local excitement in the BioHealth Capital Region than any other; that is the BeneVir acquisition by Janssen, a JNJ company. Likewise, of the many startup stories and local entrepreneurs we’ve highlighted this past year, none is as unique and interesting as that of BeneVir Co-Founder and COO, Katherine (Katie) Sacksteder, PhD.
