Falls Church Teen Competes for Virginia

Virginia Bio and the Virginia Bioscience Foundation have named Justice High School’s, Andrew Tran of Falls Church as the winner of the 2020 Virginia BioGENEius Challenge, the premier competition for high school students that recognizes outstanding research and innovation in the biotechnology field. As the Virginia BioGENEius finalist, Andrew will attend the 2020 BIO Digital Conference, where he will engage with leading companies, scientists and innovators currently transforming the scientific landscape in order to gain invaluable insights into an industry making significant contributions to the world.

Andrew’s project was titled “Opidroid: A Fully Autonomous, Dynamic Opioid Administration Platform for Targeted Postoperative Pain Remediation”. The project was selected by an independent panel of volunteer judges representing the Virginia Bio membership.

Op-Ed: Getting breakthrough coverage right: Rep. Griffith’s critical role

Virginia finds itself at the center of an important health care debate, and Southwest Virginia’s own U.S. Rep. Morgan Griffith, R-Salem, is in the driver’s seat as chair of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health. Here’s the problem: Medicare beneficiaries can wait years — sometimes averaging half a decade — between when the …

11/02/2025

AstraZeneca, Eli Lilly, Merck commit $120M to Virginia pharma training

Pharmaceutical giants AstraZeneca, Eli Lilly & Co. and Merck & Co. have committed a cumulative $120 million to develop a workforce training center for advanced pharmaceutical manufacturing in Central Virginia. The companies, each of which is planning to build manufacturing facilities in Virginia; the state government, including Virginia Innovation Partnership Corp.; and multiple Virginia colleges …

10/27/2025

Virginia can lead biotech manufacturing renaissance – if policymakers help

Last week, pharmaceutical giant Merck broke ground on a new $3 billion facility in Virginia that will create 8,000 construction jobs and 500 permanent manufacturing jobs. The new 400,000 square-foot, state-of-the-art plant isn’t merely the latest addition to Virginia’s rapidly growing biotech industry footprint. It’s a sign that America is making quick progress towards President …

News