The Top 10 BioBuzz Feature Stories of 2022
Happy 2023, BioBuzz readers! While you start to map out your professional and personal plans for the next year, let’s take a brief trip down memory lane and look at some of the highlights from 2022.
This past year was both exciting and challenging, as the world started to regain some normalcy following the COVID-19 pandemic. Mask mandates were lifted, travel restrictions lessened, and more companies reopened their offices for in-person work. While many of us are relieved by these recent changes, the pandemic has irreversibly impacted our way of life and how we work, especially for those of us invested in the biotech industry. Public opinion on science and medicine has become increasingly more polarized and politicized, and conversations about vaccination have never been louder. Apart from outside voices, the industry has struggled under continued supply chain shortages, staffing issues, market woes, and layoffs.
As we put 2022 behind us and look ahead to the new year, here are the most-read BioBuzz feature stories from the past year:
#10 – Five Philly Gene Therapy Companies You Should Know
The road to implementation of gene therapy has not always been smooth. But this road has run through Philadelphia. The death of a patient in a clinical trial that was led by gene therapy pioneer Dr. James Wilson and colleagues at the University of Pennsylvania put a chill on gene therapy research. Philly’s resilience and collaborative infrastructure, however, led to a renaissance and the development of the first approved in vivo therapy by Spark Therapeutics, with more potential gene therapies on the horizon.
#9 – Philadelphia’s Vacant Budd Plant Becomes a Biomanufacturing Center
A facility that once fabricated metal products for the automotive and transportation industry central to a bygone era of Philadelphia’s economy has found a new life as a biomanufacturing center, a key industry for the city’s economic future. The Plymouth Group, which owns the property, has partnered with Centerbridge Partners, L.P. to turn the former Budd Plant in Philadelphia into a facility that will support biomanufacturing efforts of companies across the region. The new site will position Philadelphia as a key lynchpin in biomanufacturing and continue the city’s growth as one of the top biopharma hubs in the United States.
#8 – 5 Major Issues Affecting Manufacturing in 2022
This piece was guest-authored by Chris Monchinski, VP of Manufacturing Intelligence at Automated Control Concepts (ACC). Monchinski discusses how ACC has struggled with labor shortages, supply chain instability, smart factory initiatives, cybersecurity, and sustainability. ACC’s three teams (Automation & Controls, Manufacturing Intelligence, and IT4OT) work together to support US manufacturing companies as they meet these challenges head-on.
#7 – How to Prepare Now for Possible Biotech Layoffs
Biotech and the life sciences industry have hit a bump in the road. After a major boom spurred by the pandemic investment and the emergence of a host of promising cell and gene therapy companies, the life sciences—along with a multitude of other business segments—are feeling the downward push fomented by the pandemic, war, inflation, and the subsequent higher cost of goods.
#6 – Before You Accept the Job, Understand the Basics of Stock Options and Long Term Incentives
There has never been a more exciting time to be in the biotech industry. Scientific and technical advancements in the fields of gene and cell therapy that promise cures for HIV, cancer and rare diseases, in addition to record levels of investment have created a biotech jobs boom. With the abundance of job opportunities available, navigating the job market can surface many questions on which direction to take your career.
#5 – 5 Top Maryland Cell and Gene Therapy Companies Actively Searching for Talent
Cell and gene therapies are at the leading-edge of scientific advancement with vast potential to change the lives of patients across the globe suffering from devastating diseases. The BioHealth Capital Region (BHCR) and Greater Philadelphia biopharma clusters sit at the center of this ongoing medical revolution. The BHCR cluster, in particular, includes a host of emerging and established cell and gene therapy companies, as well one of the deepest and most advanced biomanufacturing infrastructures in the U.S.
#4 – In Conversation: Jeff Boyle, Chief Science Officer at American Gene Technologies
American Gene Technologies recently named Dr. Jeff Boyle as its new Chief Science Officer. Boyle was previously President at Ellume USA where he led the build out of the company’s 180,000 square foot manufacturing facility in Frederick, Maryland that produces the first COVID-19 home self-test to receive an EUA from the FDA. We caught up with Boyle just a short time after he joined American Gene Technologies to discuss his career, why he chose to join the company, and why there’s so much excitement around its HIV cure program and pipeline.
#3 – 5 Real Estate Development Projects to Watch in Philadelphia
The rapidly growing Philadelphia life sciences sector is hungry for lab and manufacturing space. Real estate developers are meeting that demand with ambitious projects to build, rebuild, and overbuild sites to produce facilities that will retain and attract life sciences companies. These projects are taking advantage of the favorable infrastructure that made Philly a manufacturing powerhouse throughout the 20th century.
#2 – NRx Aims to Bring Zyesami to Market Based on Real-World Data in Treating Seriously Ill COVID-19 Patients
COVID-19 infection rates are declining following the latest surge driven by the Omicron variant. Despite the falling infections, the virus is expected to remain an endemic concern and can still pose a serious threat, particularly to those who are not vaccinated. For Jonathan Javitt, former Chief Executive Officer of NRx Pharmaceuticals, the company’s experimental COVID-19 treatment aviptadil, which will be known by the trade named Zyesami, can play a key role in saving the lives of those patients who are seriously ill and have failed to respond to Gilead Sciences’ antiviral drug, Remdesivir.
#1 – HIV Functional Cure Momentum Builds as American Gene Technologies Approaches Data Readout
After achieving several important clinical milestones, momentum and excitement have been building for months around AGT’s lead pipeline candidate AGT103-T, which is a potential HIV functional cure. In the coming months, the company expects to have the latest data readout for its Phase 1 trial. AGT103-T is a single-dose HIV gene therapy that could potentially replace antiretroviral therapy (ART) with a functional cure.
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Eliana Spiess is BioBuzz’s Editorial Intern. She is currently working towards her BA in Human Biology and English Literature, and her MPH in Epidemology and Biostatistics. Eliana is passionate about increasing scientific literacy in the general population and loves writing about all things science, biotech, and finding one’s niche in those spaces as she works toward finding her own.
