News Archive

Stem cell-derived blood and platelet products have the potential to meet critical medical needs. Remaining challenges exist in both the manufacturing process and additional discovery research. The manufacturing process needs to be made more efficient and cost-effective while assuring the effectiveness and safety of the blood products and enable their commercial viability. RFA-HL-15-022 supports R01 grants to address the basic or early translational research needs whereas RFA-HL-15-029 and RFA-HL-15-030 support small business awards to enable further advances in the manufacturing processes (tools and technologies) to take advantage of the existing knowledge and recent advances in the field to produce safe and functional blood and platelet products at reduced costs.

Chairwoman of the Senate Appropriations Committee and the Commerce, Justice, Science (CJS) Appropriations Subcommittee, today announced the Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act of 2015 provides increased funding to support American jobs and innovation, including funds for trade and economic development programs, and investment in scientific research and exploration.

A rich new Credit Suisse report, “Global Biotechnology – An Outlook for 2015,” was flush with cool data about trends in the biotech industry. The analysis lists out 10 key themes for 2015. Here’s the highlight reel:

Building a biotechnology startup is a lot like getting a private university education: To make progress, you have to get past the high-cost barrier to entry.

First and foremost, biotech requires expensive clinical studies and the use of state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities.

The U.S. Senate gave final passage on Saturday to an overdue spending bill for the 2015 fiscal year that provides modest increases for research, while holding education spending mostly flat.

As reported in a story earlier this morning, Oregon is preparing to join 15 states that have implemented rules to let businesses raise money through investment crowdfunding.

An advanced protective suit for healthcare workers who treat Ebola patients, devised by a Johns Hopkins team, has been selected as a winning design in a global competition aimed at quickly getting new tools into the field to combat this deadly disease.

ATCC, the premier global biological materials resource and standards organization, and LGC, a leading global producer and distributor of reference materials and proficiency testing (PT) programs, announce a new agreement to provide high-quality proficiency testing programs supporting the food, beverage, animal feed, and pharmaceutical quality control markets in the United States.

San Diego-based BioMed Realty Trust Inc. has sold a 289,900-square-foot bio-manufacturing facility at 9911 Belward Campus Drive for $322.5 million to private equity firm GI Partners.

The selling price translates into a whopping $1,112 per square foot.