Company News

03/03/2023

Indivior Completes Acquisition of Opiant Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Indivior PLC  announced that it has completed the acquisition of Opiant Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (“Opiant”). The transaction strengthens Indivior’s addiction treatment and science portfolio by adding Opiant’s late-stage assets, notably OPNT003, an investigational opioid overdose treatment designed to offer an important treatment option to address the current wave of US opioid overdoses from powerful synthetic opioids,

03/01/2023

AMPEL BioSolutions’ Breakthrough Predicts Drug Options to Slow End Stage Renal Disease

AMPEL BioSolutions  announced a genomic precision medicine test for chronic kidney diseases, such as Lupus Nephritis, that could save lives by predicting kidney damage before it is irreversible and providing decision support for prophylactic therapies.  Genes that drive the inflammatory pathways characteristic of different stages of kidney damage are revealed in the peer-reviewed journal Frontiers

02/22/2023

SRI scientists are developing therapeutics to help fight the next pandemic

SRI International, an independent nonprofit research institute, has been awarded a $4.95 million contract, with options to fund up to $21 million, from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) to develop drugs to increase the nation’s therapeutic arsenal against new or existing viral pathogens. The funds are part of the US government’s

02/09/2023

CytoRecovery Awarded National Science Foundation Phase II SBIR Research Grant

CytoRecovery, Inc., a leader in marker free technologies for the enrichment, sorting, and recovery of live cells, announced that the National Science Foundation (NSF) has approved its application to receive a Phase II SBIR Research Grant. Titled “Bioelectrical Cell Enrichment, Sorting, and Recovery with On-Chip Sample Prep and Monitoring,” the grant will provide $952,558 in

02/01/2023

Engineered BioPharmaceuticals to Expand in Virginia

Governor Glenn Youngkin announced that Engineered BioPharmaceuticals, Inc., a pharmaceutical engineering and manufacturing company dedicated to advancing cost effective, state-of-the-art medicine, will invest $6.1 million to expand in the City of Danville. The company will expand from its current lab space in the Dan River Business Development Center into its first standalone manufacturing facility at

02/01/2023

Adial Pharmaceuticals Enters Into Option Agreement for Sale of Purnovate Assets to Adenomed

Adial Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing therapies for the treatment and prevention of addiction and related disorders, announced it has entered into an option agreement for the sale of the assets of Purnovate, Inc. (“Purnovate”), a wholly owned subsidiary of Adial, to Adenomed, LLC (“Adenomed”), a new company formed by Purnovate

01/31/2023

AMPEL BioSolutions’ Breakthrough Predicts Drug Options for Fibromyalgia

AMPEL BioSolutions announced a breakthrough in precision and personalized medicine that could revolutionize the way doctors treat chronic pain syndromes, such as fibromyalgia. Revealed in the peer-reviewed journal Lupus Science and Medicine, the paper details AMPEL’s breakthrough approach to characterize the underlying disease activity from gene expression data obtained from patient blood samples. The FibroGENE® lab

01/23/2023

Curate Biosciences launches its first product to transform cell therapy manufacturing costs and performance

Curate Biosciences  announced the commercial launch of its Curate® Cell Processing System. The first-of-its-kind Curate System produces better starting materials for CAR-T cancer therapies and other cell therapies. Its exceptionally gentle microfluidic process recovers about 90% of white blood cells with elimination of more than 90% of red cells and 99% of platelets from patient-sourced

01/23/2023

Nonprofit drug maker to begin manufacturing this year at $140M Petersburg plant

Richmond, VA (Richmond Bizsense/ January 23, 2023 – A Utah-based nonprofit pharmaceutical manufacturer is gearing up to kick off production at its new Petersburg plant about two years after breaking ground. With construction largely complete on the $140 million facility, Civica Rx expects to start making insulin there this year, Senior Vice President Allan Coukell

01/10/2023

Forest man invents device to control flow of fentanyl from patches

  Forest, VA /The News and Advance/ – In 2011, Forest resident and former auditor Neil Jackson was diagnosed with chondrosarcoma — a type of cancer that affects the bones and joints. It is a rare cancer that accounts for about 20% of bone tumors. After undergoing life-threatening surgery and surviving, Jackson, now 73, was

01/05/2023

Zimmer Biomet to Acquire Embody, Inc.

Deal Strengthens Zimmer Biomet’s Growing Sports Medicine Portfolio and Supports Continued Company Transformation WARSAW, Ind., /PRNewswire/ — Zimmer Biomet Holdings, Inc. (NYSE and SIX: ZBH), a global medical technology leader, today announced that it has reached a definitive agreement to acquire Embody, Inc., a privately-held medical device company focused on soft tissue healing, for $155 million at

01/02/2023

A Petersburg plant will sell insulin at 10% of retail price, possibly upending the market

Americans living with diabetes are sometimes forced to pay $350 for a vial of lifesaving insulin. But a nonprofit pharmaceutical company coming to Petersburg plans to sell the medicine at no more than $30 a vial. The nonprofit, Civica Inc., is nearing completion on a 140,000-square-foot facility in the city’s southeast corner and plans to

12/14/2022

BrightSpec Announces $18.4 Million Financing Round Led by Genoa Ventures and Arboretum Ventures

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va., /PRNewswire/ — BrightSpec, Inc., a life science tools company commercializing Molecular Rotational Resonance (MRR) spectroscopy, announced today the closing of an $18.4 million Series C financing round, led by Genoa Ventures and Arboretum Ventures. The round includes participation from existing investors including Medvest Capital, Felton Group LLC, and the UVA Seed Fund.  Jenny Rooke, Ph.D.,

12/12/2022

Phlow Corp. and U.S. Pharmacopeia Announce the Opening of Laboratories at the Advanced Pharmaceutical Development Center in Richmond, Virginia

Phlow Corp. and U.S. Pharmacopeia Announce the Opening of Laboratories at the Advanced Pharmaceutical Development Center in Richmond, Virginia Richmond, VA., – Phlow Corp., a U.S.-based public benefit corporation and contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO), and the U.S. Pharmacopeia (USP), announced the opening of laboratories co-located at the Advanced Pharmaceutical Development Center at Virginia

12/05/2022

Activation Capital Names New Vice President for Operations

Activation Capital, an innovation ecosystem development organization, announced that it has appointed Kipton Currier as its Vice President of Operations. The new role comes as the organization clarifies its strategic direction, begins raising growth capital, and adopts a fresh operational approach to its mission. Currier will help build infrastructure across multiple organizational areas, including people,

12/05/2022

Danville organization invests in Blacksburg’s CytoRecovery medical cell sorting company

Danville’s investment might mean a CytoRecovery presence in Danville, such as office operations or an internship at Danville Community College. CytoRecovery’s cell sorting could improve understanding of disease and development of drugs. CytoRecovery, an early-stage company that invented and patented less invasive cell sorting, will be able to bring its cell research platform to market

12/01/2022

Ceres Nanosciences Receives $1.4M From NIH RADx Initiative to Add Five Additional Wastewater-Based Epidemiology Centers of Excellence

MANASSAS, Virginia – Ceres Nanosciences (Ceres), a privately held company that makes innovative products to improve life science research and diagnostic testing, is announcing today that it is expanding the network of wastewater-based epidemiology centers of excellence that was established with support from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) RADx® initiative. With a new $1.4

11/16/2022

Alliance for Building Better Medicine Names Joy Polefrone as Executive Director

Joy Polefrone, Ph.D. will Lead the Organization in Its Mission to Create a Reliable Supply of Safe, High-Quality, and Affordable Medicines in the U.S. Richmond/Petersburg– Alliance for Building Better Medicine, a coalition of public and private sector stakeholders in the Richmond-Petersburg region, today announced that it has appointed Joy Marie Polefrone, Ph.D., as the organization’s executive director.

11/16/2022

BRAINBox Solutions Enrolls 1000th Patient in Pivotal, HeadSMART II Clinical Study of BRAINBox TBI Concussion Diagnostic and Prognostic Test

RICHMOND, VA. – BRAINBox Solutions today announced that the company  has enrolled the 1,000th patient in the pivotal, HeadSMART II study of its concussion diagnostic  and prognostic test, BRAINBox TBI. The multi-national, multi-site, trial is designed to  support an application for regulatory clearance by the U.S. FDA.   “We are developing the BRAINBox TBI (Traumatic Brain

11/16/2022

ZielBio Receives Orphan Drug Designation for ZB131 for the Treatment of Cholangiocarcinoma

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va.,/PRNewswire/ — ZielBio, Inc., a clinical-stage biotechnology company discovering new treatments for cancer and other serious diseases through its innovative drug discovery platform, today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted Orphan Drug Designation to its lead program, ZB131, for the treatment of cholangiocarcinoma, a rare solid-tumor cancer originating from

11/05/2022

EARLY GENETIC TESTING PREDICTS HEART DISEASE AND NOVEL THERAPIES FOR WOMEN WITH LUPUS

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va., /PRNewswire/ — AMPEL BioSolutions today announced a genetic precision medicine test for lupus patients that could save lives by predicting heart disease before it happens and providing decision support for prophylactic therapies.  Shared genes that predispose both to lupus and cardiovascular disease are revealed in the peer-reviewed journal Cell Reports Medicine.  AMPEL’s breakthrough approach characterizes inherited

11/02/2022

New Jeeva eClinical Research Technology Enables Global Diversity Inclusion and Multi-Center Collaboration

MANASSAS, VA. (PRWEB) – Diversity and inclusion in clinical trials are critical to achieving accurate and reliable results.(1) Participation in clinical trials is voluntary, and individuals of different ages, genders, races, ethnicities, genetic backgrounds, geographic locations, and environments will respond differently to the same treatments. An effective way to achieve diversity in clinical trials is

10/26/2022

AgroSpheres Raises $22 million Series B to Accelerate Commercialization and Manufacturing of Reliable Biobased Solutions

CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA – AgroSpheres, a leader in developing the next generation of environmentally friendly crop health products, announced today that it had raised $22 million in a Series B financing round led by Lewis & Clark AgriFood and Ospraie Ag Science. Bidra Innovation Ventures and its existing investor, Cavallo Ventures, participated in the financing round.

10/04/2022

BRAINBox Solutions Announces New U.S. Patent Allowance, Strengthening Biomarker Portfolio for Multi-Modal Mild Traumatic Brain Injury Test

BRAINBox Solutions, Inc announced that the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office (PTO) issued a notice of allowance for a patent covering methods for detection of mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI), also known as concussion, using Brain Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF). BDNF is an important component of the biomarker panel in the multi-modal diagnostic prognostic and