StemCell Therapy

2019 was an eventful year in the BioHealth Capital Region (BHCR), to say the least, and BioBuzz has been there to document it every step of the way.

Whether it was the retirement of the MedImmune brand, Viela Bios $150M IPO, the $1.2B acquisition of Paragon Bioservices, Kite Pharmas new manufacturing site in Frederick County, Maryland, an HIV cure emerging in Maryland or our continued coverage of the regions expanding cell and gene therapy cluster-its been a truly remarkable year within the BHCR.

In many cases, BioBuzzs most popular featured stories mirror many of the most important trends impacting the industry, both regionally and nationally.

Before we reveal our top 10 most viewed BioBuzz articles of 2020, wed like to take a moment to thank our sponsors and readers for an amazing year. Wed also like to thank all of the BHCR thought leaders, industry executives, entrepreneurs, investors and others that have trusted us to cover these stories by being so open and generous with their time and being actively engaged in our regional community.

Now, to the top ten

To succeed in thisfield, this new breed of biotechnology companies needs to understand andreimagine almost everything in their operationfrom supply chain and logisticsto workflow, manufacturing, quality, safety, and labor. Each of thesecomponents impacts facility design and engineering. Its such a new industrythat many processes havent even been developed, making it all that morechallenging for companies to navigate their growth.

To dig deeper intothis topic, we reached out to CRBs process architect, Grace Linton, RA, AIA, LEED APBD+C, who has been involved in designing commercial manufacturing facilitiesfor multiple cell and gene therapy companies.

704 QO offersready-to-occupy lab/office spaces for companies of all sizes. What really makesthis new building stand out isnt just the fully customizable individual labunits, but the suite of amenities that are tailored to the specific needs ofemerging life science companies in the BioHealth Capital Region and theemployees that work for them.

Frederick, Marylandcontinues to be a hotbed for biotech and a destination of choice for many newstartups. The last few years have seen one-time startups like RoosterBio, Inc., BioFactura, Inc. and Akonni Biosystems thrive and growwithin the Frederick life science support ecosystem.

These milestonesrepresent just a few recent examples of Frederick startup success. Now, a newgroup of Frederick startups are poised to spur the next generation of greatbiotech success stories. Lets take a look at a few of the hottest startupsready to take a big leap forward.

Paragon BioServices, the home-grown Maryland biotechcompany that started in a Baltimore incubator 30 years ago, has grown to morethan 400 employees and is two weeks away from beginning production in a brandnew 150,000 square foot state-of-the-art, world-class GMP manufacturingfacility for gene therapies.

However, before a single new production run will take place, Catalent, a world-leading Contract Development and Manufacturing Organization (CDMO) with $2.4B annual sales are set to make Paragon its latest acquisition to expand its gene-therapy manufacturing capabilities with a $1.2B all-cash deal.

These CEOs and theirteams have been inventing everything from novel vaccines and therapeutics togroundbreaking medical devices and equipment. Weve been following the progressof these companies and their founders, many since the beginning, and are readyto spotlight the ones that are on the rise.

Kite Pharma, a California-based biopharmaceutical company that developsinnovative cancer immunotherapies, announced plans today to open a newbiologics manufacturing facility in Frederick County that will produceinnovative cell therapies for people with cancer. A Gilead company, Kite willopen the new facility on a 20-acre site in the Urbana Corporate Center, withplans to create a significant number of job opportunities.

The BioHealth Capital Region (BHCR) is rapidly becoming an industry hub for companies that are developing next-generation therapeutics that focus on personalized and regenerative medicine for the treatment and potential cure of unmet medical needs. Autolus, Inc., a CAR T-cell therapy company, and REGENXBIO, a gene therapy company focused therapies for rare diseases, are two examples of emerging leaders in the personalized medicine field making their imprint on the region.

A host of other BHCR companies are focused onregenerative medicine and are developing a range of cutting edge stem celltherapies.

Two of Marylands gene therapy companies are amongst the Top 10 players in the CAR T-celltherapy development field, and two of the four current FDA approved genetherapies, Yescarta and ZOLGENSMA, are also tied to Maryland companies. Thiscommercial success will secure more capital for these companies to fuel theirpipelines and allow the region to further advance new technologies that canimpact even more patients.

These five gene therapy companies in Maryland are creating innovativesolutions to combat disease and cancers and bring new hope to patients in direneed.

there is a whole ecosystem of innovative biotech andlife science technology companies behind them that are developing the tools,technologies, and infrastructure that is propelling the industry forward.

We have identified five companies that stand out fortheir unique technologies and solutions that are responsible for driving progressin the cell and gene therapy field and helping their partners bring theirproducts through the clinic and to the patients that need them.

It would be a fittingconclusion for an HIV cure to emerge from the state where the virus was firstlinked to AIDS and where the first human diagnostic was developed.

Multiple Maryland companies and research institutions are on the leading-age of HIV research and development, making the state a hotbed of potential next-generation HIV therapies and, possibly, the source of a cure for this devastating global health issue. Some of the most promising cure candidates are coming out of Marylands thriving cell and gene therapy cluster.

What will 2020 bring for the BioHealth Capital Region? Whatever is in store for the year to come, be sure that BioBuzz will be there to cover the important issues and bring you all of the top stories of the new decade!

Over the past 8 years, Chris has grown BioBuzz into a respected brand that is recognized for its community building, networking events and news stories about the local biotech industry. In addition, he runs a Recruiting and Marketing Agency that helps companies attract top talent through a blended model that combines employer branding and marketing services together with a high powered recruiting solution.

The rest is here:
2019s Top 10 Most Read Biotech News Stories from the BioHealth Capital Region - BioBuzz

This entry was posted on December 30, 2019 at 3:58 am and is filed under Gene therapy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed. |