June 28, 2022

Citeline and Norstella Unite to Offer Life Sciences Clients a Full Suite of Commercial and Clinical Solutions

The new organization will help life sciences companies improve strategic decision-making and accelerate the mission of smoothing access to therapy from pipeline to patient

Yardley, PA, June 28, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Norstella, an organization that helps life sciences companies navigate the complexities of the drug life cycle, and Citeline (formerly Pharma Intelligence)—a leading provider of specialist intelligence, data and software for clinical trials, drug development and regulatory compliance—have announced an agreement to merge the companies.

By uniting Norstella, which is comprised of four prominent pharmaceutical solutions providers—Evaluate, MMIT, Panalgo and The Dedham Group—with Citeline, the combined company will be well positioned to help life sciences companies reach patients faster by providing clients with the intelligence and answers they need from early clinical development through to commercialization. This move reflects the shared goal of becoming an end-to-end solution provider, helping patients access life-saving therapies.

As life sciences companies drive innovation toward more specialized therapeutics across all disease areas including oncology and rare disease, and patient populations become more targeted, they need to make critical decisions about how to bring the right drugs to market, how to construct clinical trials leveraging the latest innovations in real-world data and data science—and with end points that consider future payer reimbursement decisions—and, ultimately, how to reach patients in need.

“Accelerating innovation and ensuring that every patient gets the therapy that they need is our North Star,” said Norstella CEO Mike Gallup. “By bringing clinical and commercial intelligence together—along with real-world data—the combined company will be well positioned to deliver on its mission.”

Together, Norstella and Citeline will play a critical role in helping pharmaceutical manufacturers plan for and overcome barriers to access, not just during clinical trials but at every stage in the drug development life cycle. Citeline’s solutions, including its portfolio of clinical trial products, provide insights that improve the speed and efficiency of clinical trials and reduce risk. Now, the Citeline solutions—along with MMIT’s PAR data and other complementary Norstella data assets—can be powered by Panalgo’s Instant Health Data Analytics platform to provide transformative answers that will improve workflow and decision-making and, ultimately, help products get to market and to patients quicker than ever before.

“At Citeline, our mission is to accelerate the connection of treatments to patients and patients to treatments. Ultimately, this marriage of commercial and clinical capabilities will advance the mission and enable the pharmaceutical C-suite to manage portfolio strategy like never before,” said Ramsey Hashem, CEO, and Jay Nadler, Executive Chair, of Citeline. “This includes deciding which drug to bring to market, what new indications to pursue for a drug and how to target patients for clinical trials more quickly and with reduced cost. And now, this includes understanding how to design clinical trials that yield the types of data that payers need to make appropriate reimbursement and formulary decisions.”

“It’s about making a difference in the lives of patients,” said Gallup. “This move will help us make our vision of a more innovative, accessible healthcare marketplace a reality.”

The merger is expected to close in the second half of 2022 subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals.

About Norstella
At Norstella, our mission is simple: to help patients gain access to life-saving therapies. Norstella consists of several prominent organizations—Evaluate, MMIT, Panalgo and The Dedham Group—that have united to offer a full range of pharmaceutical consultancy services and solutions. As one organization, Norstella provides life sciences clients with the right tools and expertise to navigate complexities at each step of the drug development life cycle, from pipeline to patient. For more information, visit Norstella and follow on LinkedIn.

About Citeline
Citeline (formerly Pharma Intelligence) powers a full suite of complementary business intelligence offerings to meet the evolving needs of health science professionals to accelerate the connection of treatments to patients and patients to treatments. These patient-focused solutions and services deliver and analyze data used to drive clinical, commercial, and regulatory related-decisions and create real-world opportunities for growth.

Our global teams of analysts, journalists and consultants keep their fingers on the pulse of the pharmaceutical, biomedical and medtech industries, covering it all with expert insights: key diseases, clinical trials, drug R&D and approvals, market forecasts and more. For more information on one of the world’s most trusted health science partners, visit Citeline.

Melody Udell
Norstella
312-618-5968
melody.udell@norstella.com

Blair Dawson
Citeline
919-413-4616
blair.dawson@informa.com

June 28, 2022

Seegene develops PCR test to detect monkeypox virus

Assay targets monkeypox virus and can deliver results in 90 minutes
Company swiftly rolls out product using its automated assay development system
“Seegene will strive to make accurate tests for emerging viruses to help prevent future pandemics”

SEOUL, South Korea, June 28, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — Seegene Inc. (KQ965390), South Korea’s leading molecular diagnostics (MDx) company has developed a PCR test to detect the monkeypox virus. The Novaplex™ MPXV Assay, which specifically targets the monkeypox virus, was swiftly developed using the company’s AI-based automated test development system, known as SGDDS (Seegene Digitalized Development System), and technologies refined over 20 years of MDx expertise.

The World Health Organization says the monkeypox virus is an “evolving health threat that requires collective attention and coordinated action,” calling on member states to step up surveillance, contact tracing and testing. The monkeypox virus has been detected in over 50 nations, with South Korea confirming its first case last week. The strain currently circulating in the Northern Hemisphere has an estimated fatality rate of between 3-6 percent and is considered especially dangerous for children and those with weak immune systems.

As with many infectious diseases, accurate diagnosis is crucial as treatments are more effective in the early stages of infection. This makes timely PCR testing vital, especially for individuals with a suspected case, as the incubation period for the monkeypox infection ranges between five to 21 days.

The Novaplex™ MPXV Assay can identify positive cases of the monkeypox virus in 90 minutes. The company swiftly developed the product to help curb the worldwide spread. Seegene plans to provide the assays to countries that have detected the virus.

“The monkeypox virus outbreak shows that endemic viruses can rapidly spread to the rest of the world and it’s a warning that new pandemics can emerge and threaten our lives at any time,” said Dr. Jong-Yoon Chun, CEO of Seegene. “We will continue our efforts to develop products that can accurately diagnose any virus to help prevent new infectious diseases from taking hold and becoming a pandemic.”

Logo – https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1357790/Seegene_logo_Logo.jpg

June 28, 2022

Hitachi Energy and Petrofac to collaborate in growing offshore wind market

Collaboration combines complementary technologies and expertise of both companies to increase customer value and help accelerate the energy transition

Zurich, Switzerland, June 28, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Hitachi Energy a market and technology leader in transmission, distribution and grid automation solutions, and Petrofac, a leading international service provider to the energy industry, have entered into a collaboration to provide grid integration and associated infrastructure to support the rapidly growing offshore wind market.

This collaboration builds on the complementary core technologies and expertise of both companies in offshore wind to support the decarbonization of power systems and deliver clean energy. It covers high-voltage direct current (HVDC), as well as high-voltage alternating current (HVAC) solutions.

Hitachi Energy’s HVDC Light^® and modular HVAC grid technologies and solutions and Petrofac’s world-class engineering, procurement, construction and installation capabilities for offshore platforms and offshore and onshore civil works, will bring considerable benefits to the efficient implementation of offshore wind projects and help accelerate the energy transition.

“We are delighted to collaborate with Petrofac to help meet the growing need for large-scale offshore wind generation and deliver clean renewable electricity to consumers. As leaders in our respective fields, this collaboration will create added value for our customers and help accelerate the energy transition,” said Niklas Persson, Managing Director of Hitachi Energy’s Grid Integration business. “Our HVDC and HVAC solutions are key enablers of the transition to a global energy system that is more sustainable, flexible and secure.”

“Offshore wind plays a crucial role in the transition to clean, affordable energy and we’ve been successfully delivering major projects in the sector for more than a decade now,” said Elie Lahoud, Chief Operating Officer, Engineering & Construction of Petrofac. “Hitachi Energy is well known for its long track record in providing innovative technologies and solutions across the power grid value chain. We look forward to bringing our industry-leading experience and deep domain knowledge together, to benefit our customers and power millions more homes using renewable energy.”

Recent Hitachi Energy HVDC offshore wind projects include Dogger Bank, the world’s largest offshore wind farm off the UK coast, and four of the DolWin and BorWin HVDC hubs that connect multiple wind farms in the North Sea to the German power grid.

Hitachi Energy is also a global leading supplier of grid connection solutions for the AC offshore wind farms industry.

Editor’s notes

Offshore wind is undergoing unprecedented growth globally. In 2021, a record 15.7 gigawatts (GW) of capacity were added, compared to around 5.2 GW per year in 2020 and 2019, according to World Forum Offshore Wind.¹

Hitachi Energy pioneered HVDC almost 70 years ago and has delivered more than half of the world’s HVDC projects and more than 70 percent of the world’s voltage source converter (HVDC Light) installations. HVDC Light is the technology of choice for transferring power over long distances from offshore wind farms to the mainland grid. Its defining features include uniquely compact converter stations (which is extremely important in space-critical applications like offshore wind platforms), exceptionally low electrical losses of less than 1 percent, and black-start capability to restore power after a grid outage.

https://wfo-global.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/WFO_Global-Offshore-Wind-Report-2021.pdf

About Hitachi Energy Ltd.

Hitachi Energy is a global technology leader that is advancing a sustainable energy future for all. We serve customers in the utility, industry and infrastructure sectors with innovative solutions and services across the value chain. Together with customers and partners, we pioneer technologies and enable the digital transformation required to accelerate the energy transition towards a carbon-neutral future. We are advancing the world’s energy system to become more sustainable, flexible and secure whilst balancing social, environmental and economic value. Hitachi Energy has a proven track record and unparalleled installed base in more than 140 countries. Headquartered in Switzerland, we employ around 38,000 people in 90 countries and generate business volumes of approximately $10 billion USD.

https://www.hitachienergy.com

https://www.linkedin.com/company/hitachienergy

https://twitter.com/HitachiEnergy

About Hitachi, Ltd.

Hitachi drives Social Innovation Business, creating a sustainable society with data and technology. We will solve customers’ and society’s challenges with Lumada solutions leveraging IT, OT (Operational Technology) and products, under the business structure of Digital Systems & Services, Green Energy & Mobility, Connective Industries and Automotive Systems. Driven by green, digital, and innovation, we aim for growth through collaboration with our customers. The company’s consolidated revenues for fiscal year 2021 (ended March 31, 2022) totaled 10,264.6 billion yen ($84,136 million USD), with 853 consolidated subsidiaries and approximately 370,000 employees worldwide. For more information on Hitachi, please visit the company’s website at https://www.hitachi.com.

Jocelyn Chang
Hitachi Energy Ltd.
jocelyn.chang@hitachienergy.com

June 28, 2022

Germany returns artefacts taken from Africa during colonial rule

BERLIN— Priceless artefacts removed and looted from African nations during Germany’s colonial period will be permanently returned, officials said.

The Berlin-based Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, which manages the German capital’s many museums, said on Monday it had entered into negotiations on the returns of artefacts to Namibia, Tanzania and Cameroon.

Among the artefacts to be returned is a shell-studded statue of the mother goddess Ngonnso’, which holds great spiritual significance for the Nso’ people of northwest Cameroon, the foundation said.

The statue has been part of the collection of Berlin’s Ethnological Museum since 1903, after it was “donated” by a German colonial officer who had taken it by force from the Nso’.

The board also approved the permanent return of 23 artefacts, including jewellery, tools and fashion items, to Namibia. The objects, also stolen during the colonial period from 1884 to 1919, were sent to Namibia last month for research purposes and will now remain there.

The foundation said its president had also been authorised to sign an agreement on the return of objects Germany looted from Tanzania during the Maji Maji Rebellion and other conflicts during its early 20th-century colonial rule.ADVERTISING

The foundation’s president, Hermann Parzinger, welcomed the move to return the artefacts.

“The decision makes clear that the issue of the return of items collected in a colonial context does not always come down to injustice,” he said.

“The special significance – in particular spiritual – of an artefact for the community it originated from may also justify return,” he added.

Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK

June 28, 2022

Children in Armed Conflict Subjected to Unspeakable Horrors: UNICEF

The U.N. children’s fund says more than 266,000 violations were committed against children in armed conflict between 2005 and 2020.

An analysis of more than 30 conflicts across Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Latin America finds children continue to bear the brunt of war and are forced to endure what it calls unspeakable horrors.

Authors of a report on the subject say the figure in the report represents just a fraction of the violations believed to have occurred and does not reflect the magnitude of the crimes committed against children caught in conflict.

Tasha Gill is UNICEF’s senior adviser, Child Protection in Emergencies. She says children are victims of a staggering average of 71 verified grave violations every day. She says the report documents the killing and maiming of more than 104,000 children in conflict.

“Between 2016 and 2020, 82 percent of all verified child casualties occurred in only five situations: Afghanistan, Israel and the State of Palestine, Syria, Yemen, and Somalia. It is also important to note that many children experience more than one violation, increasing their vulnerability,” Gill said.

She notes abduction often leads to other violations, such as recruitment and sexual violence. The report has verified at least 25,700 child abductions by parties to conflict and more than 93,000 children recruited as soldiers by all parties to conflict.

Additionally, the report says children have been raped, forcibly married and sexually exploited, with at least 14,200 children also having been subjected to other forms of sexual violence. Gill calls sexual violence against children the most underreported of all violations.

“Sexual violence does occur against children. It is used as a tactic of war. It is one of the lowest numbers because of the access issue but also the stigma and fear attached to reporting in conflicts across the board … Children are often used for many different reasons, which can be considered deliberate targeting. Our request is that all parties immediately cease and desist from using children in armed conflict,” Gill said.

She notes children are recruited as soldiers, and many also are used by the warring parties as porters, sexual slaves, and messengers. She says the violations must stop.

UNICEF is calling on parties to conflict and states to abide by their obligations under international humanitarian and human rights law and implement concrete measures to protect children.

Agency officials say they have met with success in preventing some violations against children and putting a stop to others by engaging with those responsible for the violations. For example, over the past two decades they say at least 170,000 children have been released from armed forces and armed groups.

Source: Voice of America

June 28, 2022

US eyes Biden, Xi meeting in coming weeks, sees growing convergence on China

SCHLOSS ELMAU (Germany)— US President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping are expected to speak in the next few weeks, US national security adviser Jake Sullivan said, citing growing convergence among NATO and G7 members about the challenge China poses.

The Group of Seven rich democracies will address China’s non-market economic practices, its approach to debt and its human rights actions in a communique on Tuesday, while a NATO strategic concept to be released later this week would address China in “ways that are unprecedented”, he said.

“We do think that there is increasing convergence, both at the G7 and at NATO, around the challenge China poses,” Sullivan told reporters at the G7 summit in southern Germany.

G7 leaders saw an “urgent need” for consultation and alignment on issues such as China’s non-market economic practices, its practices with regard to developing countries’ debt, and its approach to human rights, Sullivan said.

But he said the increased attention to China’s actions on both the economic and security front did not mean the West was looking to launch a new Cold War.

“We’re not looking to divide the world into rival blocs and make every country choose” he said. “We want to stand for a set of principles that are fair to everybody. And we want to ensure that we’re working with like-minded partners to hold China accountable to adhere to those rules.”

G7 leaders on Sunday pledged to raise US$600 billion in private and public funds over five years to finance needed infrastructure in developing countries and counter China’s older, multitrillion-dollar Belt and Road project.

Biden and other G7 leaders launched the newly renamed “Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment” to support projects in low- and middle-income countries that help tackle climate change as well as improve global health, gender equity and digital infrastructure.

Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK