BioHealth and Life Sciences Update - 8/10/16
Altimmune Receives up to $120M from BARDA for Vaccine Development
Gaithersburg's Altimmune receives a BARDA contract of up to $120.2M to fund clinical development of its First-in-Class Anthrax vaccine candidate Nasoshield.  The company has two proprietary platform technologies, each of which has been shown to activate the immune system in distinctly different ways than traditional vaccines.
BioHealth and Life Sciences News
Rockville's GenArraytion, Inc. designed the Zika Molecular Detection Assay for Luminex which just was granted Emergency Use Authorization by the U.S. FDA. 

Baltimore's Personal Genome Diagnostics collaborates with Illumina to develop cancer in-vitro diagnostic test kits on their NGS platforms, and with Cure Forward enabling their patients to access precision medicine treatment options. 

Gaithersburg's Vtesse, Inc. secures $17M in additional Series A funding in support of its global, pivotal clinical trial of VTS-270 for Niemann-Pick Type C1 disease.

Rockville's REGENXBIO granted Rare Pediatric Disease designation to RGX-121 gene therapy for the treatment of Mucopolysaccharidosis Type II (MPS II).

Baltimore digital health technology leader WellDoc partners with Human API to explore enhanced data integration capabilities for its BlueStar� digital therapeutic. 

Gaithersburg's VLP Therapeutics wins $2.4M from the U.S. Dept. of Defense to support further development of its novel malaria vaccine candidate VLPM01. 

Baltimore's Ceracore receives $1M R&D grant from NIH's National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, and also from the U.S. Department of Defense to Study CERC-501 in Animal Models for Co-Morbid PTSD and Alcohol Use Disorder.

Rockville's GlycoMimetics announces dosing of first patient in Phase 2 portion of Clinical Trial of GMI-1271 in newly diagnosed Acute Myeloid Leukemia.

Rockville's Synthetics Biologics completed and End of Phase 2 meeting with FDA for SYN-010, intended for the treatment of IBS with Constipation (IBS-C).

Germantown's Intrexon is the parent company of Oxitec, the company whose genetically modified mosquitoes were just approved by the FDA to fight Zika.

TEDCO's Life Sciences Fund invests $200K each in four Maryland early stage companies: AsclepiX TherapeuticsSonavexVasoptic Medical, Inc., and Gel-e.

Baltimore's Tissue Analytics and Rockville's Promaxo receive Innovation Scholarships to attend AdvaMed 2016.  

MdBioLab, the mobile laboratory inspiring students around the state to pursue STEM careers, announced its 2016-2017 visit schedule was filled within one hour. 

NIH's next SBIR/STTR deadline is September 6th and their Commercialization Accelerator Program for Phase II awardees application deadline is August 30th.  
Your Input Requested - Growing BioHealth Industry in Maryland 
The Maryland Life Sciences Advisory Board (LSAB) is developing recommendations to support the continued growth of the BioHealth industry in Maryland.  You are invited to participate in this process by providing input regarding one or more of the six topic areas listed below: 

#1) Foundational Support (stakeholder involvement; brand
#2) Access to Capital  
#3) Convergence of IT and Bioscience Technology
#4) Workforce
#5) Tech Transfer Acceleration  
#6) Manufacturing  

If you are interested in sharing your thoughts and recommendations regarding any of these topics, please forward at least one near- or mid-term key criteria or goal you would like to see included in the LSAB's final recommendations to the Maryland Department of Commerce by next Wednesday, August 17th.  
Upcoming Deadlines and Events
8/17  5-7:30 p.m. - Ultimate Crab Feast & BBQ Networking Bash (Gaithersburg)
8/18  9:30-11 a.m. - TEDCO Funding Briefing (Baltimore) 
8/25  6-8:00 p.m. - WIB Summer Networking Happy Hour (Rockville) 
8/31  12-3 p.m. - MdBioLab Open House (Rockville)
  9/1 8-9:30 a.m. - How to Obtain Cash without Giving Up Equity (Baltimore) 
9/15 3-5:00 p.m. - BioNetworking - In the BioHealth Capital Region (Gaithersburg)
9/22 5-7:00 p.m. - BioBuzz (Gaithersburg)
10/17-10/19 - AdvaMed 2016 (Minneapolis)
Look Who's Hiring 
     
      GSK (Rockville)
                                                                                               To view more job opportunities,
      Novavax (Gaithersburg)                                                            
                                                                                               please check at the bottom of the 

      Personal Genome Diagnostics (Baltimore)             .                                 
                                                                                                             MD COMMERCE     
      REGENXBIO (Rockville)
                                                                                             BioHealth and Life Sciences website
      WellDoc (Baltimore)                                                                           
            
The Maryland Department of Commerce focuses on attracting, retaining, and expanding businesses and creating jobs in Maryland, and also markets Maryland's many assets to companies across the nation and abroad.  

The Department's Office of BioHealth and Life Sciences s
upports innovative start-ups and companies focused on animal and human health, health IT, research tools, and related technologies.  These include those involving agricultural and marine bio, biodefense, therapeutics, vaccines, diagnostics, medical devices, biologics, nutraceuticals, personalized and regenerative medicine, digital health, mHealth, telemedicine, EHR, bioinformatics, data center services, patient engagement, and wellness.
Maryland Department of Commerce
 
Office of BioHealth and Life Sciences 
401 East Pratt Street
7th Floor  |  Baltimore, MD 21202
410.767.0505

9600 Gudelsky Drive
Rockville, MD 20850
240.314.6171

[email protected]

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