Biologics

Despite doubled revenues, this Rockville biotechnology company said yesterday that its loss tripled, to $2.5 million, or 23 cents a share, in the second quarter, which ended June 30, compared with the same period the year before.The company attributed the loss to the growth of its work force from 25 employees to 100 this year andthe cost of adding several new products to its development plans.Three months ended 6/30/92KA.. ... .. .. .. .. .. Revenue .. .. .. Net .. .. .. .. .. Share'92 .. .. .. .. .. ..711,000 .. .. ..(2,546,497)

In 1988, I became extremely ill. I had many tests, saw many doctors and was given various medicines. Some caused allergic reactions. Through it all, I remained sick — and actually became worse. Eventually, I was diagnosed with autoimmune hepatitis, a very rare disorder. Much of the information I read said I had about 10 years to live. Making matters worse, I was soon diagnosed with another autoimmune disease, rheumatoid arthritis (RA). My treatment options for RA were severely limited because of my autoimmune hepatitis, as most of the RA drugs would filter through the liver and could initiate another attack.

MicroCarb Inc. officially changed its name yesterday to Antex Biologics and is trading under a new ticker symbol.The Gaithersburg-based company's common stock now is quoted on the OTC Bulletin Board under the ticker symbol ANTX.Dr. Vic Esposito, chairman and chief executive officer of the 5-year-old biotechnology company, said the company changed its name because MicroCarb no longer describes the technologies that the company is working to develop."We wanted to more accurately reflect our mission of developing and marketing products based on our anti-infective technologies," he said.

Howard H. Seliger, a retired Johns Hopkins University biology professor who fulfilled a childhood fascination with fireflies by later investigating the science behind their light-making properties, died of coronary artery disease Dec. 20 at his Mount Washington home. He was 88. Family members said that he was an expert on bioluminescence. He helped to show that fireflies and microorganisms found in bioluminescent bodies of water have enzymes that trigger a chemical reaction that make them light up. Dr. Seliger was also principal scientist at the Chesapeake Bay Institute from 1972 to 1989.

When Congress members return in two weeks, they will be discussing a health care reform bill that attempts to provide care for the uninsured and to address our skyrocketing health care costs. Simultaneously, however, the House and Senate are considering proposals that would prevent lower-cost pharmaceuticals from coming to market by regulating generic versions of biologics known as follow-on biologics or "biosimilars." Biologics, protein-based pharmaceuticals produced within living cells, include all vaccines, most new cancer agents, and critical arthritis and psoriasis drugs.

Del. Cardin apologizes for marriage-proposal stunt I would like to apologize for my actions surrounding my marriage proposal, any confusion that my absence on a previously scheduled vacation may have contributed, and the embarrassing attention that it has engendered. What should have been a joyous time of my life became one that was instead marked by errors in judgment. I take full responsibility for initiating this incident. I should have been sensitive enough to realize that these are extraordinarily difficult times in Baltimore, both financially and from a public safety perspective.

The nation's sole licensed producer of anthrax vaccine will open a plant in Frederick, a potential $100 million facility that adds to Maryland's growing strength in vaccine research and production. Officials of Emergent BioLogics Inc. -- a unit of newly created parent Emergent BioSolutions of Gaithersburg -- said yesterday that the plant will employ 100 workers in its first phase and eventually as many as 300 to produce BioThrax, the only anthrax vaccine approved for use in the United States.

Layoffs at U.S. firms hit highMajor corporations announced 108,000 layoffs in January, the highest monthly level in the four years since the figures have been tracked, a consulting firm said yesterday.Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc., based in Chicago, said the level of announced layoffs topped even the worst of the 1990 recession.Communications companies GTE Corp., NYNEX Corp. and Pacific Telesis Group cut a total of almost 44,000 workers.Spectrum to sue Sculley todaySpectrum Information Technologies Inc., the wireless data company stunned Monday by the resignation of John Sculley as chairman and chief executive officer, said yesterday that it planned to file a federal lawsuit against Mr. Sculley, claiming damages of more than $300 million.

Nabi Biopharmaceuticals officially moved its headquarters yesterday to Rockville, where it has maintained a research facility, after selling its previous location in Florida, along with its largest division. Nabi will now focus on new products in development, including NicVAX, a vaccine for smoking cessation. The reshaped Nabi has about 50 employees, who will remain in Rockville. It will add 15 people to perform functions, such as accounting and human resources, that had been done in Florida, according to Greg Fries, manager of investor relations and corporate communications.

GM shares fall to 52-week lowGeneral Motors Corp.'s shares fell for a second day yesterday, to a 52-week low, as four investment houses cut their earnings estimates yesterday following Thursday's disappointing third-quarter results.Analysts panned the stock, saying some of the problems that led to a $328 million loss at GM's North American car and truck business -- high costs for overtime, freight and new-model launches -- are likely to continue.GM stock has lost 12 percent of its value since Wednesday.

Johns Hopkins University adjunct biology professor Donald Brown has won the 2012 Lasker-Koshland Special Achievement Award in Medical Science for his work in genetics, as well as mentoring young scientists. He is the sixth Hopkins faculty member to win the prestigious award for basic and clinical research. Brown, who also is director emeritus of the Carnegie Institution for Science Department of Embryology, was recognized for work he and others did in gene amplification, one process that is responsible for runaway growth of chemotherapy-resistant cancer cells.

The space sure looked like a science lab, with beakers full of brightly-hued potions and a dry-erase board covered in graphs and mathematical scrawl. But at the heart of the operation sits a hunk of metal with a hand crank on the side. "It's a pasta maker," said Barry Margulies, a biology professor who presides over the Towson University lab. No joke. When it occurred to Margulies' graduate researcher that Williams Sonoma might have the answer to their prayers, it was a major breakthrough for the lab's efforts to treat one of America's most prevalent sexually transmitted diseases.

Ann M. Klingaman, a retired Baltimore County public school educator whose career spanned more than three decades, died Sunday of complications from a broken hip at Gilchrist Hospice in Columbia. The former longtime Catonsville resident was 88. The daughter of a West Baltimore pharmacist and a homemaker, Ann Rebecca Meeth was born in Baltimore and raised in Catonsville. She was a 1940 graduate of Catonsville High School and earned a bachelor's degree in 1944 from what was then Western Maryland College.

The All-Star Game brings more than just a midseason shot of excitement to Major League Baseball. It provides much-needed rest for the players, a four-day respite in a 162-game season that often produces fatigue and injury. The players who most need rest are the starting pitchers, who, paradoxically, get the most rest during the season, playing only every fifth day. Yet, midseason pitching swoons, like the Oriole starters have recently experienced, are not uncommon. Perhaps the best-known case of pitching fatigue to occur around the All-Star break was that of Bob Feller, the Cleveland fireballer who at age 17 struck out 17 batters in his fifth major-league start.

Electrical engineers from the U.S. Army Edgewood Chemical Biological Center (ECBC) helped 125 fifth-graders at Homestead Wakefield Elementary School translate science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education into real-world engineering projects May 17. Focused on making Engineering is Elementary's storybook A Reminder for Emily come alive for students, ECBC Electrical Engineer Mark Colgan – supported by his colleagues ECBC Electrical Engineer Jerry Huen and Computer Scientist Azra Malik – led a STEM lesson that was out of the ordinary.

Pamela Furness Engel, an Anne Arundel County biology teacher and teaching adviser, died of pancreatic cancer May 16 at Baltimore-Washington Medical Center. She was 58 and lived in Linthicum. Born Pamela Furness in Baltimore and raised in Catonsville and Columbia, she was a 1971 Atholton High School graduate. She earned a degree in biology at what is now McDaniel College and had a second degree in education at the Notre Dame of Maryland University, as well as a master's degree in biology from Towson University.

MedImmune decides not to buyMedImmune Inc. said yesterday that it had ended negotiations to buy Melville Biologics because the proposed purchase was not in the best interests of its shareholders.Gaithersburg-based MedImmune had previously signed a letter of intent to acquire the Melville Biologics division of the New York Blood Center for $40 million in common stock, about $4 million in cash and some royalty payments.MedImmune develops, makes and markets therapeutics and vaccines for the treatment of certain infectious diseases and cancers.

Life sciences firms getting MIPS grantsWhere's the state of Maryland putting its money to develop industry? On a better way to raise a fish called tilapia, on a new vaccine for strep and on a plastic that degrades better in sunlight.Those are three of the projects funded by the Maryland Industrial Partnerships, which give $1.8 million a year to small businesses to help them develop new processes and products. The goal: seeding ideas that might not be funded by the private sector, but that allow Maryland companies to grow and provide jobs.

We live in fascinating times. On the one hand, it is OK to detail the most intimate aspects of a woman's reproductive health in congressional testimony and to demand "free" birth control pills from employers and/or the government. It is also OK to label those who object to such public displays of personal choice and state-sponsored free love as leading a "war on women. " On the other hand, it is also OK for those who hew to the same ideology as that above to condemn a woman who chooses to raise her children for a living as someone who "never worked a day in her life.

In a recent column, Dan Rodricks ("The absurd arguments against same-sex marriage," Feb. 2) failed to interact with the actual points I made in my testimony against redefining marriage in Maryland. I pointed out that "the law is a teacher" and predicted that "birth rates would fall" because "[w]e would teach that procreation is no longer a uniquely important public interest. " Mr. Rodricks responds that "gay and lesbian couples have found ways of having babies. " This says nothing about whether we would maintain a "replacement rate," or plunge into demographic crisis, like we see in Japan and many European countries.