Company News

Virginia Innovation Partnership Corporation (VIPC) has announced a new name for CIT GAP Funds: Virginia Venture Partners. The family of funds places equity investments in Virginia’s high-growth based technology, life science, and cleantech companies at the earliest developmental stages. This new name reflects the investment program’s renewed commitment to the Commonwealth and enduring partnerships with Virginia’s high-tech …

Athari Biosciences, a rapid-growth, minority- and woman-owned startup focused on improving equity and inclusion across all facets of healthcare, announced it has selected Loudoun County, Virginia, for its new corporate headquarters. The project includes a wet lab, a tech lab, research and development and office space and is expected to open in early 2022. The …

Landos Biopharma Inc. ,a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company utilizing its LANCE® Advanced A.I. platform to discover and develop novel oral small-molecule therapeutics for patients with autoimmune diseases, today announced that Josep Bassaganya-Riera, Ph.D., has stepped down as Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer, effective immediately. Tim M. Mayleben, a member of the Landos Board, has been …

New York-based Marathon Asset Management LP announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Richmond-based privately held pharmaceutical company Kaléo Inc., which is known for treating allergic anaphylaxis and opioids overdoses. The total base purchase price is approximately $310 million in cash, less certain adjustments and includes potential net revenue-based milestone payments of …

BrainBox HeadSmart II Study Investigators Aim to Provide Clinicians with First-Ever Biomarkers and other Functional measurements for Acute Traumatic Encephalopathy (ATE.) A clinical trial of multi-modal diagnostic/prognostic test, already underway, is published in Frontiers in Neurology/NeuroTrauma. Investigators in a major clinical trial of patients with mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI or concussion) describe for the …

Euclid Systems Corporation, a global leader in advanced orthokeratology and proactive myopia management, today announced two exceptional additions to its leadership team as well as the expansion of its manufacturing facility in Sterling, Virginia. The changes come at a time when Euclid’s next-generation of Ortho-K lens, Euclid MAX, is helping to combat the battle against …

HemoShear Therapeutics, Inc. announced today that a second target identified utilizing the company’s REVEAL-Tx™ human disease modeling platform has been selected by Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited (“Takeda”) for further drug discovery activities for nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). This marks the successful completion of HemoShear’s exclusive collaboration with Takeda to discover novel targets and develop therapeutics for …

Seven years after its founding as a startup business in Richmond, Grenova Inc. has moved into a new phase of development as a company. “We have been growing quite significantly,” said Ali Safavi, the founder and CEO of Grenova, which has a mission to reduce waste, pollution and costs in the global laboratory industry. Grenova, …

The Virginia Catalyst, also known as the Virginia Biosciences Health Research Corporation (VBHRC),  announced that it has awarded $1.9 million in grants to three life and bioscience projects in the Commonwealth of Virginia. These grants, which will be met with significant matching funds from partner companies, were awarded through Grant Round 12 of Virginia Catalyst’s …

CEL-SCI Corporation announced it has completed the expansion of its existing dedicated Multikine* (Leukocyte Interleukin, Injection) cGMP manufacturing facility. The expansion was undertaken in anticipation of filing a Biologics License Application (BLA) which, if approved, will allow Multikine produced in the facility to be commercially distributed. The construction, which began in 2020, expanded the facility and …

RIVANNA®, developers of imaging-based medical solutions, announced that they have received a contract from the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), a division of the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR) within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), for the design and development of a computer-aided 3D …

Contraline, Inc., a venture-backed medical device company devoted to providing men and couples with long-lasting, safe, and effective male contraception, has closed $10.7 million in its Series A financing. The financing round was led by MBX Capital, a venture capital firm that invests in early-stage healthcare and life sciences companies. Additional investors in Contraline include: …

AgroSpheres, Inc. has been awarded a National Science Foundation (NSF) Phase II Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant for $999,653 to progress its R&D collaboration with the University of Tennessee on an RNAi biological insecticide targeting fall armyworm (FAW). Larvae of FAW are one of the most economically devastating insect pests in its native region …

Landos Biopharma, Inc. (NASDAQ: LABP), a late clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company utilizing its LANCE® Advanced A.I. platform to discover and develop novel therapeutics for patients with autoimmune diseases, announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has cleared the Company’s Investigational New Drug (IND) application for LABP-104, a novel, oral, systemically distributed LANCL2 agonist, for …

Virginia Commonwealth University is working on the development of a potential treatment for Covid-19. Michael Peters, Ph.D., a professor in VCU’s Department of Chemical and Life Science Engineering, is leading the research. Peters said he works everyday in response to the pandemic, which led him to the discovery of a possible lifesaving novel peptide therapeutic …

Nanochon, a Washington, D.C. based company in the BioHealth Capital Region, applying novel materials to replicate bone and cartilage, and high-end 3-D printing to create an implant which can permanently repair debilitating joint injuries, was selected from five finalists as the company with the most commercial potential at the 6th Annual Crab Trap Competition. This year’s …

Cadence and several other local Shenandoah Valley, Virginia-based manufacturers are teaming up with the Virginia Economic Development Partnership (VEDP) and Blue Ridge Community College for their new Job Starter training program.  Job Starter is a paid training program that allows potential job candidates the opportunity to receive training and meet local employers during a 3-week …

Caretaker Medical, a pioneer in wireless “beat by beat” continuous, non-invasive, advanced patient monitoring, announced U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) clearance of the company’s next-generation VitalStream™ wireless blood pressure and hemodynamic monitoring platform. Continuous monitoring of blood pressure is of great importance to detect and treat dynamic changes. Traditionally, blood pressure is measured intermittently …

The inaugural Pitch Virginia event, powered by Activation Capital, will take place on Wednesday, November 10 at the newly opened Shift Retail Lab at VCU, an initiative of the VCU da Vinci Center.  Kicking off with a design thinking workshop in the morning, the day will be filled with pitches from high growth, main street …

This year brought in a record number of applications with over 1,100 submissions from 54 countries and 42 U.S. states. With less than a 5% acceptance rate, 50 companies were selected to participate in the MedTech Innovator Showcase, with a subset receiving a place in the MedTech Innovator Accelerator. Over four months, 25 Accelerator companies …

HemoShear Therapeutics, a privately held clinical stage biotechnology company, has earned a milestone payment for the advancement of potential lead product candidates for the treatment of gout under its collaboration with Horizon Therapeutics plc (Nasdaq: HZNP). This milestone marks the fourth payment that HemoShear has earned, following previous payments for the identification and validation of …

Embody, Inc., a privately held medical device company focused on soft tissue healing, announces new appointments to its board and leadership team following the recently announced growth funding round of $20.5M to support continued commercial growth. The company adds Rene Salas to its Board of Directors.  Rene is a 30-year life science veteran and previously …

Tiny Cargo Co., a biotech startup founded by Rob Gourdie, professor at the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC, is among five companies to receive a Washington, DC Health Innovation QuickFire Challenge award. Spencer Marsh, a postdoctoral researcher in Gourdie’s laboratory, presented the pitch that awarded the company $50,000, the opportunity to reside at JLABS @ Washington, D.C. with …

ATCC, the world’s premier biological materials management and standards organization, announced that Dr. Melissa Rewolinski, Steve Curts and Heather Kiessling have joined its board of directors. ATCC’s board helps advise the senior leadership team on a variety of business, strategy and science-related issues. Board members work closely with management to identify new opportunities to deepen …