News Archive

American Gene Technologies International Inc. (AGT), a leading gene and cell therapy company, today announced receipt of a second immuno-oncology patent on the stimulation of gamma delta T cells for treating solid tumors in epithelial cancers. U.S. Patent No: 9,914,938 dated March 13, 2018 further consolidates AGT’s intellectual property position surrounding its novel gene therapy platform. The patent describes AGT’s unique lentivirus vector approach to modify tumors for potent activation of naturally-occurring T cells in the immune system providing a highly-effective immune response and destruction of tumors.

In the second financing round announced in one day for an immunometabolism startup, Johns Hopkins spinout Dracen Pharmaceuticals just wrapped up a $36 million investment deal from Deerfield.

The $1.3 trillion fiscal 2018 funding package sent to President Trump early Friday includes big boosts for almost all of the major federal agencies, thanks to a broader two-year budget deal increasing spending caps that President Trump signed last month. 

New York-based investment firm Deerfield Management is leading a $40 million Series A funding round for Baltimore’s Dracen Pharmaceuticals Inc.

Novavax may be years away from a potential approval of its RSV vaccine, but on the company’s recent year-end conference call, executives talked up the candidate’s commercial appeal and the steps they’re taking now to prepare for a possible rollout. 

On Wednesday, the Department of Health and Human Services announced that Secretary Alex Azar will name Robert R. Redfield, M.D., as the 18th Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Administrator of the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry.

Alexandria Real Estate Equities Inc, a real estate investment trust focused on collaborative life science and technology campuses in AAA innovation cluster locations, has named Jennifer J. Banks and Larry J. Diamonds as co-chief operating officers. Their appointments become effective April 23, 2018. Banks joined Alexandria in 2002 and has served as the company’s general counsel since 2008 while Diamond joined the company in 1998 to open a regional office in Alexandria’s Maryland life science cluster.

In some ways Martine Rothblatt, the founder and chairwoman of United Therapeutics, a Maryland-based biotechnology company, and James Park, the CEO and co-founder of consumer fitness company Fitbit, are unusual health care leaders and entrepreneurs. Both came from outside the industry—Rothblatt previously created SiriusXM radio, among other things; meanwhile the inspiration for Park’s popular family of wearable devices was the Nintendo Wii— and neither set out steeped in the regulatory arts of American healthcare.

The Maryland state Senate signed off on $5.6 billion in tax incentives to lure Amazon.com Inc. to Montgomery County on Monday night.