Day: July 6, 2021

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CoImmune, Inc. Appoints Michael Fekete and Greg Tibbitts to its Board of Directors

DURHAM, N.C., July 06, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — CoImmune, Inc., a clinical stage immuno-oncology company that will redefine cancer treatment using best-in-class yet more affordable cellular immunotherapies, today announced the appointments of Michael Fekete and Greg Tibbitts, to the Company’s board of directors. Mr. Fekete and Mr. Tibbitts bring with them a wealth of financial, capital markets and strategic expertise, and prior board level experience.

Mr. Fekete is an advisor and board member for companies in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device industries. His areas of expertise include business strategy, capital markets, M&A and corporate governance developed through 35 years as an investment banker, independent advisor and board member for U.S. and international public and private companies. He currently serves as a member for SeaSpine, Inc. (NASDAQ: SPNE), a California based medical technology company focused on surgical solutions for the treatment of spinal disorders, and DFB Pharmaceuticals, a Texas based, private investment and development company focused on the formation and building of businesses in the pharmaceutical industry. He previously worked as an investment banker for Wells Fargo/Wachovia Securities, CIBC World Markets, Oppenheimer & Co., and L.F. Rothschild, Unterberg, Towbin. He obtained his B.S. in Finance from The Pennsylvania State University.

Mr. Greg Tibbitts is a Certified Public Accountant and has over 30 years of experience as a financial executive and a public accountant. His expertise includes addressing technical accounting issues, multiple public and private equity financings, complex operations, and direct interactions with the SEC on IPO and secondary offerings. He has worked as a Chief Financial Officer for both public and private companies and now operates a business advisory firm. He served as a board member for IDMI Pharma, Inc., a NASDAQ listed biotech company prior to its acquisition. He obtained a B.B.A. in Accounting at University of San Diego and a M.B.A. at San Diego State University.

“We are excited to welcome Mike and Greg to the CoImmune board,” stated Dr. Charles Nicolette, chief executive officer and member of the board of directors. “These gentlemen bring considerable biotechnology industry and strategic expertise that will benefit CoImmune as we seek to advance our novel pipeline of cell-based immunotherapies directed at important diseases, including acute lymphoblastic leukemia and advanced renal cell carcinoma.”

About CoImmune, Inc.
CoImmune is a privately held, clinical stage immuno-oncology company that will redefine cancer treatment using best-in-class yet more affordable cellular immunotherapies. Our allogeneic CAR-CIK technology platform for liquid and solid tumors is a variation on CAR-T therapy that promises enhanced efficacy with greatly reduced toxicity. Our autologous RNA-loaded dendritic cell technology for solid tumors uses amplified total tumor mRNA to program highly engineered dendritic cells to generate immune responses against neoantigens without the need to identify them.

For more information, visit www.coimmune.com.

Contact:
Lori Harrelson
Chief Financial Officer
lharrelson@coimmune.com
919-287-6349

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TRIO Completes Enrolment for Phase 2 Giredestrant Early Breast Cancer Trial Ahead of Schedule

58 Clinical Trial Sites, 11 Countries

EDMONTON, Alberta, July 06, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Translational Research in Oncology (TRIO), a global academic clinical research organization, announced today enrolment completion in coopERA Breast Cancer (WO42133/TRIO038), a Phase 2 randomized, multi-center, open-label clinical trial of giredestrant (GDC-9545) sponsored by F. Hoffmann-La Roche. This comes shortly after completion of the planned study interim analysis provided encouraging results and supported continuation of the study.

Giredestrant is an oral selective estrogen receptor degrader (SERD) that was shown to be well tolerated with encouraging tumour activity both alone and in combination with palbociclib in estrogen-receptor positive (ER+) metastatic breast cancer patients.

The trial is investigating the ability to expand the safety and efficacy of giredestrant as monotherapy and in combination with palbociclib into the early breast cancer setting. Enrolment of 221 patients was completed three months ahead of schedule. The trial design evaluates the efficacy, safety, and pharmacokinetics of presurgical treatment with giredestrant plus palbociclib compared with anastrozole plus palbociclib for postmenopausal women with ER+ and HER2-negative untreated early breast cancer.

“To have patient enrolment completed three months ahead of schedule, despite the global pandemic, reinforces the strength of commitment of TRIO’s investigator network,” stated Dr. Vanesa Quiroga, a member of the trial’s Steering Committee, GEICAM and Catalan Institute of Oncology. “The scale of interest from patients further underlines the urgency to bring forward new treatment options to treat early stage breast cancer.”

More information on the coopERA Breast Cancer trial (WO42133/TRIO038/coopERA) can be found at clinicaltrials.gov (NCT04436744).

About TRIO
TRIO advances translational cancer research by introducing innovative and novel targeted therapeutic concepts into the clinical trial setting. With international offices in Edmonton (Canada), Paris (France), Montevideo (Uruguay), TRIO’s global reach is expansive. Our goal as an academic clinical research organization is to find the shortest path to saving lives. Additional information on TRIO can be found by visiting https://www.trioncology.org. Interested parties may also follow TRIO on Twitter (twitter.com/TRIOncology).

TRIO Media Inquiries:
Launa Aspeslet, PhD
CEO, TRIO
Email: launa.aspeslet@trioncology.org
Phone: 780-702-2260

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The Globe and Mail’s Sophi.io Wins WAN-IFRA’s North American Digital Media Award

TORONTO, July 06, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Sophi.io, The Globe and Mail’s artificial intelligence-based automation, optimization and prediction engine, won WAN-IFRA’s 2021 North American Digital Media Award in the category of Best Paid Content Strategy. This is Sophi’s fourth award in the last month.

The North American Digital Media Awards honour news publishers that have delivered cutting-edge, unique and original digital media projects in the past year.

“Through the use of this [dynamic paywall] technology, The Globe and Mail truly understands its readers’ habits, leading to best practices in advertising and paid content, smartly adjusting their business strategy,” WAN-IFRA said when announcing the decision.

Phillip Crawley, CEO and Publisher of The Globe and Mail, said: “Winning a WAN-IFRA North American Digital Media Award for the second year in a row demonstrates Sophi’s ability to show the publishing industry what the future looks like. We are proud to be able to bring these AI and ML-powered tools to organizations across the globe.”

Sophi was developed by The Globe and Mail to help the newsroom make important strategic and tactical decisions. It is a suite of tools that includes Sophi Automation and Sophi for Paywalls as well as Sophi Analytics, a newsroom decision-support system.

Sophi is an artificial-intelligence system that helps publishers identify and leverage their most valuable content. It has powerful predictive capabilities – using natural language processing, Sophi Dynamic Paywall is a fully dynamic, real-time, personalized paywall engine that analyzes both content and user behaviour to determine when to ask a reader for money or an email address, and when to leave them alone.

As the North American award winner, Sophi is now a contender for the WAN-IFRA World Digital Media Awards, where the winners from North America, Latin America, Asia, Europe, Africa, India, and the Middle East compete.

About Sophi.io

Sophi.io (https://www.sophi.io) is a suite of AI-powered optimization and prediction tools developed by The Globe and Mail, Canada’s foremost news media company, to help content publishers make important strategic and tactical decisions. Sophi solutions range from Sophi Site Automation and Sophi for Paywalls to Sophi Analytics, a decision-support system for content publishers. Sophi is designed to improve the metrics that matter most to any business, such as subscriber retention and acquisition, engagement, recency, frequency and volume.

Contact

Jamie Rubenovitch
Head of Marketing, Sophi.io
The Globe and Mail
416-585-3355
jrubenovitch@globeandmail.com

 

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Neology Strengthens Nordic Footprint with Norwegian Public Roads Administration by Deploying Advanced Mobile ANPR Solution for Safer Communities

Multi-year Agreement for Mobile Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) Solutions Support Road Safety and More Efficient Customs and Border Enforcement

Mobile ANPR Solution for Norwegian Public Roads Administration

Multi-year Agreement for Mobile Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) Solutions Support Road Safety and More Efficient Customs and Border Enforcement in Norway

SAN DIEGO, July 05, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Neology, Inc., a global innovator that is re-imagining mobility for smart cities and safer communities, today announced an expanded, multi-year agreement with Norwegian Public Roads Administration (NPRA) for its traffic enforcement solutions driven by the latest in mobile ANPR camera and artificial intelligence (AI) technology to support real-time analytics and decision making.

Safeguarding the national road network and enabling border security agencies and their officers the capability to make accurate, informed decisions while keeping travel and trade flowing is the ultimate goal for NPRA. Neology’s ANPR safer community solutions provide enhanced performance, creating immediate impact where other solutions fail. The dual camera system, coupled with advanced AI-powered vehicle recognition technology, enables officers to detect and focus on non-compliant vehicles with enhanced vision system capabilities.

“We are thrilled that NPRA has expanded its partnership with Neology to meet its mobile ANPR requirements. Against a strong set of competitors, our solutions demonstrated both superior value and strong quality, plus our leading AI-based solutions outperformed our competitors in real-world testing during the tender evaluation stage,” said Luke Normington, General Manager of Neology. “When demands on transport authorities and law enforcement agencies are increasing, our innovative solutions help create safer, cleaner, more efficient mobility experiences that support sustainable growth and help communities thrive.”

About Neology, Inc.
Neology is re-imagining mobility to help our customers accelerate their vision for smart cities and safer communities. Our Mobility Platform™ is setting the industry standard through a unique combination of AI-powered adaptive solutions, a proven integration process, and unparalleled lifecycle support. Backed by a culture of innovation, our mobility experts work closely with global customers and a top-tier partner ecosystem to connect existing infrastructure assets with next-generation technology to modernize the way people move. To create safer, cleaner, more efficient mobility experiences, visit www.neology.net.

About NPRA
The Norwegian Public Roads Administration (NPRA) intends to lead the way in the development of an efficient, safe, comprehensive and coherent transport system adapted to tomorrow’s needs and technology. Our responsibility for national and European roads, as well as for road users and vehicles makes the NPRA the most prominent participant in the road transport sector in Norway. Accounting for two thirds of all traffic, our national and European roads make up the main transport system artery tying our country together. The NPRA is responsible for planning, building, operating and maintaining this part of the road network. We have national responsibility for emergency preparedness on the road as well as developing clear rules and standard specifications for smart transport and modern road construction for all roads. Through our work to supervise and inspect road users and vehicles, new technology and development of digital services, we will ensure that road users, businesses and industries have simple, efficient, safe and environmentally friendly transport options.

Neology Media Contact:
Kelly Foster
kelly@johnkellyfoster.com
+1 619-224-1261

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/78e279e1-6140-400f-859d-eac3d9b5c683

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Vietnam attends 25th ASEAN-RoK dialogue

Vietnamese Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Nguyen Quoc Dung has asked the Republic of Korea (RoK) to continue helping ASEAN countries improve their medical capacity at the 25th ASEAN-RoK Dialogue at the deputy foreign ministerial level held in the form of teleconference on July 6.

Dung, who is also head of Vietnam’s ASEAN SOM, called on the RoK to coordinate in vaccine research and production, and ensure the fair supply of vaccines.

He appealed to the RoK to assist the ten-member group in promoting equitable and sustainable development in ASEAN’s sub-regions, including the Mekong.

Dung emphasised the need to maintain and boost multilateral cooperation, step up dialogues and trust building, uphold international law, and peacefully settle disputes, especially in the context of more and more emerging challenges, so as to ensure a peaceful, stable and favourable environment for development.

He affirmed that ASEAN supports the RoK’s efforts in promoting the peace process on the Korean Peninsula, calling on relevant sides to resume peace dialogues and make more contributions to gain peace, long-term stability and full denuclearisation on the peninsula.

ASEAN stands ready to facilitate dialogues between concerned sides at ASEAN-led mechanisms, he said.

Dung used the occasion to reiterate ASEAN’s principled stance on the East Sea, and expressed his hope that the RoK will continue to play a constructive role and support the bloc’s efforts to turn the East Sea into waters of peace, friendship and cooperation, as well as ASEAN’s role in supporting Myanmar.

At the event, ASEAN and the RoK highlighted the positive developments in their cooperation, including their effective coordination in pandemic response and an increase of 9 percent year-on-year in trade that amounted to around 53 billion USD in the first four months of this year.

Deputy Foreign Minister Yeo Seung-bae, who is head of the RoK SOM, said the RoK attaches importance to the strategic partnership with ASEAN, noting the grouping is a priority in the country’s New Southern Policy Plus strategy.

The RoK backs ASEAN’s centrality in the regional architecture, as well as the ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific, he noted.

The RoK informed that it has contributed additional 200 million USD to the COVAX Advance Market Commitment (COVAX AMC) and pledged to further assist ASEAN in the pandemic fight through implementing the 10-million USD COVID-19 rapid response programme and establishing a dialogue channel between the two sides.

The two sides agreed to continue prioritising cooperation in the COVID-19 combat, and coordinate in mitigating the pandemic’s socio-economic impact for comprehensive recovery and sustainable growth.

The countries also stressed efforts for the early ratification and enforcement of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) agreement.

Regarding regional and international issues of shared concern, the countries agreed on the need to maintain an environment of peace, security and stability to facilitate anti-pandemic and recovery efforts.

They called on relevant parties to soon resume dialogues, fully implement resolutions adopted by the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) and reached agreements, promote dialogues and cooperation, and maintain peace, stability, denuclearisation on the Korean peninsula.

The RoK affirmed its support for ASEAN’s stance on the East Sea issue and lauded the grouping’s role in forging cooperation, dialogue and trust building in the region, and in building an effective and efficient Code of Conduct in the East Sea (COC) in accordance with international law and the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (1982 UNCLOS).

As for the Myanmar situation, the RoK welcomed outcomes of the ASEAN Leaders’ Meeting on April 24, saying it backs ASEAN’s role in promoting dialogues and helping Myanmar seek solutions to stabilise the situation./.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

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Vietnam’s average monthly income in 2020 down 1 percent

Per capita monthly income of Vietnamese people was averaged at 4.2 million VND (182.7 USD) in 2020, down 1 percent year-on-year, according to a survey conducted by the General Statistics Office (GSO).

Speaking at a press conference on July 6, GSO deputy head Nguyen Trung Tien attributed the decrease to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The office data also released that last year the monthly income in urban areas was 1.6 times higher than that in rural areas.

Tien said that in the first six months of 2021, over 1.1 million people in the working age were unemployed, 101,700 people higher than the same period last year.

In the second quarter, Vietnam saw nearly 1.2 million people jobless, 87,100 people than that of the previous quarter, and 82,100 people lower than the same period in 2020.

Tien said that the fourth wave of COVID-19 outbreaks caused the unemployment rate of people in the working age in urban areas to increase in a higher level than that in rural areas (2.8 percent and 2.49 percent respectively)./.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

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Temporary suspension of HCM City – Phu Quoc flights considered

The Ministry of Transport has said it is considering a proposal of the Kien Giang Provincial People’s Committee to temporarily suspend flights between the Mekong Delta province’s Phu Quoc island and Ho Chi Minh City, the country’s current largest COVID-19 hotspot.

Aiming at strengthening COVID-19 prevention and control, the proposal was submitted to the ministry on July 5, requesting the suspension to begin at 0:00 on July 6.

According to the People’s Committee, Kien Giang has yet to confirm any local COVID-19 infections. Meanwhile, Phu Quoc is an island city that is far from the maindland with restricted medical resources, particularly for COVID-19 testing and quarantine.

In the past week, more than 3,000 new cases of the novel coronavirus were added to the national count, with most of them detected in HCM City.

Earlier, a number of localities, including Ba Ria – Vung Tau, Thanh Hoa, Quang Ninh, Hai Phong, Gia Lai, Quang Binh, Nghe An, Quang Nam, and Thua Thien – Hue, have made similar proposals, which were approved./.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

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HCM City develops response plan to care for up to 500 critically-ill COVID-19 patients

The Ho Chi Minh City Department of Health has developed a response plan for a scenario in which the number of COVID-19 patients reaches 10,000 – 15,000, including 500 severe cases.

The city plans to add more hospital beds and designate the Thu Duc Hospital for COVID-19 Treatment in Thu Duc as a medical facility providing intensive care for patients in critical conditions.

Some 50 – 100 ICU beds will be added to Cho Ray Hospital, the Hospital for Tropical Diseases in HCM City, and Pham Ngoc Thach, Trung Vuong and Thu Duc Hospitals for COVID-19 treatment.

HCM City’s daily count of new cases has increased to three digits over the last few weeks with the total infections since April 27 exceeding 6,200, making the city the country’s largest COVID-19 hotspot at present. The city is making all-out efforts to significantly reduce the number of local infections by the end of July.

Additionally, three hi-tech solutions were proposed by the municipal Department of Information and Communications on July 6 to help monitor people self-quarantining.

They include a mobile app called VHD (Vietnam Health Declaration) developed by military-run telecom group Viettel, to be used to keep track of people who entered Vietnam from pandemic-hit regions.

STAYHOME, a home quarantine control device developed by TMS Solutions, will be used to track the location of a person in self-quarantine in real time and monitor the person’s body temperature. If the quarantined leaves his/her residence or has high temperature, the device will automatically send a warning to authorities for an in-time response.

HCMCovidSafe, meanwhile, is a mobile SIM-based device built by Tech4Covid, a group of researchers from the University of Science and the University of Information Technology under the Vietnam National University HCM City (VNU-HCM). It is also designated to keep an eye on quarantined people.

The municipal Department of Information and Communications said it expects the three solutions will help the city monitor how F1 cases observe quarantine rules and promptly send warnings if there are violations.

The solutions are scheduled to be piloted in Districts 7 and 12, Tan Binh, Go Vap and VNU-HCM in the first phase which takes place this month. The pilot project will be extended to all districts in the second phase in August.

The move came as HCM City prepares to pilot a scheme in which people having close contact with COVID-19 patients, or F1 cases, are allowed to undergo home isolation instead of mandatory centralised quarantine./.

Source: Vietnam News Agency