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Maryland Life Sciences Advisory Board Update | Third Edition
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FISCAL YEAR 2019 - MAJOR BUDGET PROPOSALS
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Objective 3, Recommendation (A) of the April 2017 LSAB recommendations calls for full state funding of existing state BioHealth programs. During the last week of February and early March, Commerce Secretary Mike Gill testified in Annapolis in support of existing state fiscal programs supporting the BioHealth and Life Science Industry. Although the 2018 Legislative Session of the Maryland General Assembly does not end until April and budget decisions are not finalized until then, there are no proposed reductions for Commerce's key fiscal programs. The following are brief updates on the top programs supporting the state’s bio industry:
- Maryland Economic Development Assistance Authority and Fund (MEDAAF) – Continued funding of Maryland’s primary economic development direct assistance program. The total funding is $25M. This funding is needed to support a high level of demand for major economic development projects statewide.
- More Jobs for Marylanders - $10M for two new tax credit reserve funds. The new credits will create thousands of jobs by reducing taxes for manufacturing employers in qualifying high-unemployment areas.
- Biotechnology Investment Incentive Tax Credit – Level funding at $12M for a high demand program in a key industry sector.
- Maryland Small Business Development Financing Authority (MSBDFA) - $4.9M in total funding for business assistance to facilitate the development of Maryland small businesses.
- Sunny Day Fund – The budget allowance provides $10M to fund existing commitments, including a final $5M installment to Northrop Grumman and the first $5M in funding to Marriott International. There is an additional $10M in the Sunny Day account that demonstrates the Governor’s commitment to attracting Amazon’s new corporate headquarters.
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NEW BIOTECH COMPANY, VIELA BIO, LAUNCHES IN MARYLAND
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One of the key goals of the LSAB is attraction, expansion and retention of major corporations in the biohealth arena. On February 27, 2018, Viela Bio, a newly-formed spinout of MedImmune, one of Maryland’s largest life sciences companies and the global biologics R&D arm of AstraZeneca, announced plans to locate its headquarters and research lab in Montgomery County, Maryland.
With plans to create 100 new jobs within three to five years, this company will focus on advancing a number of MedImmune’s potential medicines, which are already in the clinical phases of development, making Viela Bio one of the leading biotech companies in Maryland.
Congratulations to Jarrod Borkat, LSAB member, for helping to shepherd this effort to its successful launch. The Maryland Department of Commerce assisted in providing a $2 million conditional loan through the Maryland Economic Development Assistance Authority and Fund (MEDAAF). Additionally, Montgomery County is providing a $750,000 conditional grant for project costs, including lab equipment.
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LARAZOTIDE ACETATE MOVING INTO PHASE 3 CLINICAL TRIALS, INNOVATE BIOPHARMACEUTICALS GOES PUBLIC
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Innovate Biopharmaceuticals, a clinical stage biotechnology company focused on developing novel autoimmune and inflammation therapeutics, announced the completion of its merger with Monster Digital. In connection with the completed merger, Monster Digital was renamed Innovate Biopharmaceuticals. Innovate’s rich, late-stage clinical pipeline focuses on addressing unmet needs in diseases such as celiac disease, inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). Innovate began trading under the NASDAQ ticker INNT on January 31, 2018.
LSAB member Wendy Perrow was the CEO of Alba Therapeutics and took Larazotide Acetate from a pre-clinical product from the University of Maryland through seven clinical trials in patients with Celiac Disease. Alba Therapeutics also created the Celiac Disease Patient Reported Outcome which FDA allowed as the primary endpoint of the Phase 3 clinical trials at the end of Phase 2. Wendy helped to complete the deal with Innovate Biopharmaceuticals which will now take the product through the Phase 3 clinical trials and submission to the FDA and other regulatory bodies for patients with Celiac Disease. Congratulations to Wendy for helping to launch another successful Maryland biohealth story. |
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NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR INNOVATION IN MANUFACTURING BIOPHARMACEUTICALS (NIIMBL)
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The NIIMBL is a $240 million public-private consortium with the goal of advancing innovation in biopharmaceutical manufacturing. The NIIMBL mission is to accelerate biopharmaceutical innovation, support the development of standards that enable more efficient and rapid manufacturing capabilities, and educate and train a world-leading biopharmaceutical manufacturing workforce, fundamentally advancing U.S. competitiveness in this industry. NIIMBL awards funding for proposals to advance its mission.
The Maryland Department of Commerce is actively engaged to support the development of efforts in Maryland to support industry participation in the NIIMBL initiative. To date, the University of Maryland, College Park has partnered on two successful proposals totaling more than $400,000 in NIIMBL funding. Additional winning proposals from the University of Maryland, Baltimore, Johns Hopkins University and RoosterBio have just recently been announced.
Although these institutions are partnered with other entities, total funding for these awards are more than $2 million, with significant amounts of the work to advance biomanufacturing being conducted in Maryland. We congratulate these award winners and stay tuned for additional efforts to advance this major innovation effort in our state.
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MARYLAND INNOVATION MARKETPLACE
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Objective 2 of the LSAB final recommendations sought to identify assets, resources and market differentiators and promote them within and outside Maryland to increase connection and collaboration opportunities throughout the state and beyond. To that end, each month we will seek to identify small startup companies in the biohealth, life science and health IT arenas and provide them a forum to the LSAB members and beyond. Our hope is that we may create synergistic opportunities that help more established companies to innovate and grow, while providing a potential opportunity for partnerships for the startup. The following are our March company profiles:
Tacrea
Tecrea is a biotechnology company founded in 2012 as a spinout from the University of London. Following years of intensive research on a novel nanopolymer based delivery platform, Tecrea launched the Nanocin range of research reagents in 2014, which improve scientific experiments through enhanced delivery of various cargo molecules into cells and tissue. These cargos include proteins/peptides, RNA, Plasmid DNA and small molecules such as pharmaceutically active small molecule compounds. Nanocin is a leading edge cell delivery technology which is non-toxic and effective, working easily with a range of primary and stable cell lines as well as suspension and substrate dependent cells.
The company also provides GMP grade Nanocin which enables translation of research from bench to bedside for new drug formulations. Tecrea has out-licensed its Nanocin-GMP platform to a number of human and animal healthcare pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies in the fields of infectious diseases, ophthalmology, dermatology, inflammation and oncology. The Tecrea technology platform has the capacity to support many of the existing research programs within the Maryland Bioscience cluster.
MileMarker
Baltimore-based MileMarker has developed a one-minute assessment, administered on any mobile device, to rate a surgical resident’s performance after every procedure, shortening the feedback loop and meeting new regulatory goals. Created by faculty at Johns Hopkins University and The University of Maryland, MileMarker is leading the way to the future of competency-based training. By reducing training time and costs, MileMarker has the potential to have a significant financial impact on the healthcare industry. Watch this video and read this article to learn more.
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