Symmetry Salon Studios planning to add sites
The Bethesda-based salon and spa company announced the launch of an additional investment campaign on Thursday, after it raised $750,000 in June toward branching out further into the Washington region.
The newest round of funding is expected to be completed in late 2019, which should allow the company to execute expansion plans.
Founded in 2013 as a business providing studios to stylists and spa professionals, the company has grown to four locations, including in Bethesda, Rockville and Gaithersburg. The Gaithersburg location added 11 studios in May, upping the Gaithersburg Square space from 5,000 square feet to more than 8,000.
Symmetry has raised more than $5 million from a group of 20 investors since 2013.
Gaithersburg bio company acquires pharmaceutical developer
Altimmune Inc. announced the acquisition of Spitfire Pharma Inc., a California drug developer working to treat non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), a liver disease caused by the buildup of fat.
Altimmune’s primary focus is liver disease.
Spitfire shareholders will get $5 million in Altimmune stock up front, followed by $8 million if future clinical milestones are reached, according to a news release.
Spitfire was created for the sole purpose of developing a drug to treat NASH, which will now be added to the Altimmune live treatment arsenal.
“NASH is a significant unmet need,” Altimmune President and CEO Vipin K. Garg, Ph.D., said in a statement. “There are no approved treatments available, and prevalence is growing worldwide as a consequence of an expanding obesity epidemic.”
The Washington Business Journal first reported the acquisition, adding that Altimmune’s stock jumped nearly 20% following the announcement.
Washington Gas, Pepco exceed diversity spending goal
Washington Gas and Pepco in 2018 both exceeded the Maryland Public Service Commission’s (PSC) target of spending at least 25% of their procurement dollars on diverse suppliers.
According to the PSC, Washington Gas spent $138.4 million on diverse suppliers, 25.1% of its total spending, and Pepco spent $163.5 million, 28.7% of its total.
Overall, utilities operating in Maryland spent $945 million on diverse supplier procurements in 2018, more than 26% of their combined total spending, the first time in a quarter century the group has collectively met the supplier diversity goal.
Seven of the 16 companies filing annual reports with the commission exceeded the 25% goal.
Diverse suppliers include women-owned, minority-owned and service-disabled veteran-owned companies, along with nonprofit organizations.
MedStar Montgomery Women’s Board earns Sandy Spring Museum award
The philanthropic group was named the recipient of the Maryland Champion Award by the museum on Friday.
The annual award goes to the person or organization that has effected change at the statewide level. The Women’s Board helped found the medical center in Olney a century ago, the first rural hospital in the country, according to a museum news release.
The board is now the largest charitable group of MedStar Montgomery, having grown to more than 100 members.
“In a rural area like Olney-Sandy Spring, the community had to provide for its own needs,” Sandy Spring Museum Executive Director Allison Weiss said in a statement. “Honoring the role members of the Women’s Board played in the establishment of the first rural hospital in the United States is our way of paying tribute to these community heroines.”
