US FDA APPROVES PRESTIGE BIOPHARMA'S IND FOR PHASE 1/2A TRIAL OF FIRST-IN-CLASS PANCREATIC CANCER TREATMENT, PBP1510

SINGAPORE, June 27 (Bernama-BUSINESS WIRE) -- Prestige Biopharma Limited, a Singapore-based biopharmaceutical company with operations in USA and South Korea, announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the Phase 1/2a clinical trial of its first-in-class anti-PAUF monoclonal antibody, PBP1510 (INN: Ulenistamab), for the treatment of pancreatic cancer. 

The clinical trial will be conducted on patients with advanced/metastatic pancreatic cancer in the Massachusetts General Hospital and the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center by Principal Investigators (PI) comprised of leading authorities at Harvard Medical School and UCLA School of Medicine. The study aims to identify an optimal dose of PBP1510 in combination with gemcitabine through Phase 1 study and continue on Phase 2a to investigate clinical efficacy.

Pancreatic cancer is a highly aggressive malignancy which contributes to high morbidity and mortality with an overall survival rate in the U.S. of around 11%^¹)  at five years. Currently, the only curative options are surgical resection in combination with adjuvant chemotherapy. However, only 10 to 15%^²) of patients are candidates as the diagnosis occurs in advanced or metastatic stages that are surgically inoperable. Limited efficacy of treatment modalities and rapid progression of pancreatic cancer can be partly explained by Pancreatic Adenocarcinoma Up-regulated Factor (PAUF) found in majority of pancreatic cancer patients. PAUF plays an important role in disease progression, but no targeted molecular therapy against PAUF currently exists. Prestige BioPharma’s anti-PAUF antibody PBP1510 is envisioned to provide significant benefit to all patients affected by PAUF-positive pancreatic cancer.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and Korean MFDS granted Orphan Drug Designation (ODD) to PBP1510 in 2020. ODD is granted to investigational drugs intended for the safe and effective treatment of rare diseases with an unmet medical need that affect few individuals but cause great suffering. This designation provides certain benefits and incentives including clinical protocol assistance, differentiated evaluation procedures for health technology assessments in certain countries, and if approved, marketing exclusivity in the EU for 10 years, in the U.S. for 7 years.

PBP1510 is also expected to be eligible for FDA’s accelerated approval program if certain conditions are met. This program allows for earlier approval of drugs that treat serious conditions and fill an unmet medical need based on a surrogate endpoint. The company believes that PBP1510 will be able to apply for the accelerated approval program with the validated surrogate endpoint from its Phase 2 study. 

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OMERS Infrastructure declares agreement acquiring Australia’s Stilmark

KUALA LUMPUR, June 23 (Bernama) -- OMERS Infrastructure announced that OMERS has signed an agreement to acquire Stilmark, an independent Australian developer, owner and operator of mobile tower assets.

The transaction will be OMERS second tower investment in Australia in two months, following the announcement on May 9, that it signed an agreement to acquire 100 per cent of TPG Telecom Limited’s mobile tower and rooftop portfolio. 

The details of this transaction are not being disclosed. The closing of the transaction is expected in Q3 2022, subject to customary regulatory approvals, according to a statement.

Christopher Curtain, Senior Managing Director, Asia-Pacific for OMERS Infrastructure said: “We have developed a strong relationship with and respect for the Stilmark management team and their capabilities. 

“Stilmark is an excellent fit for our new Australian digital infrastructure portfolio, as it complements our recent investment in TPG’s mobile tower and rooftop portfolio.”

Meanwhile, commenting on the sale, Stilmark Chairman, Graham Bradley said: “We are delighted that our business will be joining the OMERS Infrastructure portfolio in Australia and are excited about the opportunities this creates for our team to continue our innovation leadership in the tower market.”

Since its establishment in 2013, Stilmark has delivered numerous development and build projects for TPG and Optus, and has grown a national portfolio and pipeline of towers, with all sites secured under long-term revenue agreements.

Stilmark is currently owned by its founders, management team, family offices and US-based ATN International.

Once the Stilmark and TPG tower asset transactions close, the consolidated towers business will be part of OMERS Infrastructure’s growing portfolio of assets in Australia, alongside Port of Melbourne, Transgrid and renewable energy firm FRV Australia.

It will also be part of OMERS Infrastructure’s global portfolio of digital infrastructure assets, alongside Deutsche Glasfaser/inexio in Germany, and XP Fibre in France.

More details at www.omersinfrastructure.com.

-- BERNAMA

Cloudflare announces several new capabilities for Cloudflare One platform

KUALA LUMPUR, June 21 (Bernama) -- Cloudflare Inc, the security, performance, and reliability company helping to build a better Internet, has announced several new capabilities for Cloudflare One, its Zero Trust SASE platform, making it the only cloud-native Zero Trust solution with global network scale.

According to a statement, new features for Cloudflare One include sophisticated email security protection, data loss prevention tools, cloud access security broker (CASB), and private network discovery.

Now, any organisation can use Cloudflare One for a comprehensive and deeply-integrated Zero Trust security and networking solution to protect and accelerate the performance of devices, applications, and entire networks to keep workforces secure and productive.

“We believe Zero Trust must extend to the entire network, all the way from email to data centres, and accelerate user and endpoint connections, not slow people down,” said Matthew Prince, co-founder and CEO of Cloudflare. 

“And we want to give every customer a step-by-step guide for what they can do today, this week, and this month to make themselves more secure regardless of what vendor they use.”

Cloudflare One unifies network security as-a-service built natively into one of the world’s largest networks, providing fast, reliable global connectivity; cloud-based security; and better visibility and control through a common dashboard and API. 

With Cloudflare’s Zero Trust platform organisations can easily secure their applications and employees against the modern threat landscape without the complex integration costs or disrupting employee productivity like many legacy systems.

Cloudflare One provides a comprehensive Zero Trust SASE solution that is built natively into Cloudflare’s global network, spanning more than 270 cities in over 100 countries.

More details at www.cloudflare.com.

-- BERNAMA

MOJALOOP FOUNDATION ANNOUNCES MOJALOOP CBDC CENTER OF EXCELLENCE LAUNCH IN SINGAPORE

KUALA LUMPUR, June 22 (Bernama) -- The Mojaloop Foundation has announced the launch of its Mojaloop Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) Center of Excellence (COE) in Singapore to advance financial inclusion in emerging markets.

In addition, the Mojaloop Foundation announced the appointment of Nick Drury, a seasoned executive with nearly 25 years of experience innovating payments technology to drive inclusion, as the Mojaloop CBDC COE Director.

Drury will oversee the operations and strategic growth of the COE and its initiatives, such as hackathons, workshops, and pilot projects. Through these efforts, the COE will examine how Mojaloop open source software can leverage CBDCs to reduce the costs and inefficiencies of fast payment platforms and cross-border payments.

The COE will extend Mojaloop’s ecosystem engagement, leverage Singapore’s proximity and connectivity to other regions and connect the underserved with financial services firms and government entities in the emerging digital economy.

According to a statement, to help guide the direction of the COE’s initiatives, the Mojaloop Foundation has also formed a Mojaloop CBDC COE Working Group comprising appointees from Mojaloop Foundation members, including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Coil, Google, ModusBox, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), RedCompass Labs, Ripple and Sybrin.

“The Mojaloop CBDC Center of Excellence will further expand the Mojaloop Foundation’s efforts to advance financial inclusion in emerging markets.

“Led by our COE Director Nick Drury and supported by our Working Group, the COE will examine the ways in which CBDCs have the potential to make a wider spectrum of Mojaloop-enabled push-payment capabilities available to central banks and their citizens, merchants and digital financial institutions,” said Mojaloop Foundation Executive Director Paula Hunter.

Meanwhile, Drury said: “I am excited about the opportunity to lead the Mojaloop CBDC COE’s Working Group members and bring in additional organisations from across the region to investigate the ways that Mojaloop and CBDC technology can solve real-world challenges for emerging markets.”

COVID-19 and the rise of contactless payments have prompted many central banks to consider CBDCs as a way of lowering the cost of settlement. By making digital payments and cross-border transfers seamless, the Mojaloop CBDC COE aims to identify ways to remove the restrictive hurdles and high fees that have been barriers to advancing financial inclusion in the past.

For more information, visit https://mojaloop.io/.

-- BERNAMA

UNIPHORE SOLUTIONS NOW AVAILABLE AS GENESYS PREMIUM APPFOUNDRY APPLICATION

Leading conversational AI provider brings cost savings to Genesys customers

PALO ALTO, Calif., June 21 (Bernama-BUSINESS WIRE) -- Uniphore, the leader in Conversational Automation, today announced that Uniphore U-Assist In-Call and U-Assist Aftercall are now available as premium applications on Genesys AppFoundry®—the industry’s largest dedicated marketplace focused on customer experience solutions. The AppFoundry allows Genesys customers from all market segments to discover and rapidly deploy a broad range of solutions making it easier to interact with consumers, engage employees and optimize their workforce.

The value of conversations in delivering stellar customer experience (CX) has never been more important. In fact, studies show 80% of consumers stop doing business with a brand after a bad customer service experience and 57% of consumers prefer to speak with a live agent. To enable the best CX, Uniphore has built the most comprehensive and powerful conversational automation platform that combines conversational AI, workflow automation and robotic process automation (RPA) with integrated low code/no code capabilities to harness the power of conversations.

Uniphore U-Assist In-Call, the industry’s most advanced agent assist solution delivers real-time agent guidance and next-best action, leveraging the intent, sentiment analysis as well as desktop automation using attended RPA. U-Assist Aftercall saves agents valuable time by summarizing the call and ensuring all promises made during the call are captured and fulfilled.

“We are proud to partner with Genesys to help unleash the power of conversations for contact centers everywhere,” said Umesh Sachdev, co-founder and CEO, Uniphore. “Together, we are equipping Genesys customers with the latest conversational AI and automation products that bring added value and cost savings across their entire business.”

Uniphore U-Assist In-Call and U-Assist Aftercall will help Genesys customers realize major business cost savings. Benefits include:

• Reduction of after-call work from an average of 2.5 minutes to a minute
• 90% reduction in error rate
• 75% reduction in agent on-boarding time

Additionally, as a premium app on the Genesys AppFoundry, Genesys customers have the benefit of having their Uniphore Accelerator subscription included on their Genesys invoice thereby simplifying vendor management.

To learn more about the specific features and benefits of Uniphore’s Genesys Cloud CX™, integration, visit: https://www.uniphore.com/genesys-and-uniphore-partnership/

About Uniphore

Uniphore is the global leader in Conversational Automation. Every day, billions of conversations take place across industries — customer service, sales, HR, education and more. Whether they are human to human, human to machine or machine to machine, conversations are at the heart of everything we do, and the new currency of the enterprise.

At Uniphore, we believe companies that best understand and take action on those conversations will win. We have built the most comprehensive and powerful platform that combines conversational AI, computer vision, emotion and tonal analysis, workflow automation, and RPA (Robotic Process Automation) with a business-user-friendly UX in a single integrated platform to transform and democratize customer experiences across industries.

Follow our blog and connect with us on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. 

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NIPPON EXPRESS LAUNCHES NEW TRANSPORT SERVICE USING ENVIRONMENT-FRIENDLY ISOTHERMAL PACKAGING

TOKYO, June 21, 2022 /Kyodo JBN- AsiaNet/ --

-First Japanese Logistics Company to Collaborate with EMBALL'ISO, Experienced in Vaccine Transport-   Nippon Express Co., Ltd., a group company of Nippon Express Holdings, Inc., has become the first Japanese logistics company to collaborate with EMBALL'ISO, a French company with a proven track record in vaccine transport, by launching a new international air freight service using environment-friendly isothermal packaging produced by EMBALL'ISO.   Logo: https://kyodonewsprwire.jp/img/202206172666-O3-21gHn0Zz   Environment-friendly isothermal packaging: https://kyodonewsprwire.jp/prwfile/release/M103866/202206172666/_prw_PI1fl_d758x95t.jpg     Background to service development The medical and pharmaceutical industries among others require strict temperature control of their products during transport, and there is growing interest in environment-friendly logistics services across all industries. As a key measure in its growth strategy for core businesses, the NX Group has positioned the pharmaceutical industry as a priority industry in the "NX Group Business Plan 2023 -- Dynamic Growth" and has accordingly been expanding its temperature-controlled transport services.   Nippon Express is the first Japanese logistics company to partner with EMBALL'ISO by developing a new service combining EMBALL'ISO's reusable passive (non-powered) high-performance isothermal packaging with international air transport, thereby enhancing its temperature-controlled transport services. This new environment-friendly service will help reduce its customers' CO2 emissions while strictly maintaining the required temperatures during transport.   Service overview   Service name NX-SOLUTION Temperature-controlled Transport Service Using Environment-friendly Isothermal Packaging   Features -The service uses packaging with high isothermal performance that satisfies the ISTA 7D standard*. -The environment-friendly isothermal packaging can be collected in 80 countries/regions around the world. -Transporting goods in reusable packaging will help reduce supply-chain CO2 emissions.   *An international test standard developed by the International Safe Transit Association (ISTA) and widely adopted around the world for packaged cargo. Packages are exposed for stipulated periods of time to specified temperature environments for summer and winter to test their internal temperature retention time.   Lineup Packaging for three temperature ranges can be selected in the sizes best suited for customers' cargo volume.   Image: https://kyodonewsprwire.jp/prwfile/release/M103866/202206172666/_prw_PI2fl_0ihi4245.png     Going forward, the NX Group will continue enhancing and expanding end-to-end services that meet the need for increasingly sophisticated and diversified pharmaceutical logistics.   About EMBALL'ISO: https://kyodonewsprwire.jp/attach/202206172666-O1-rWQgxhQh.pdf   Nippon Express website: https://www.nipponexpress.com/   NX Group's official LinkedIn account: https://www.linkedin.com/company/nippon-express-group/  http://mrem.bernama.com/viewsm.php?idm=43465

Ciena WaveLogic supports MSAR mission to fiberise Peninsular Malaysia

KUALA LUMPUR, June 17 (Bernama) -- MSA Resources Sdn Bhd (MSAR), a telecommunications infrastructure provider based in Peninsular Malaysia, has selected Ciena to help build its Digital Super Highway Network.

MSAR will leverage Ciena’s 6500, WaveLogic 5 Extreme (WL5e) coherent optics, and Manage, Control and Plan (MCP) domain controller to reach data transmission speeds of 800Gb/s line rate and total network capacity of 33.6Tb/s per fibre pair.

With more than two decades of experience in the telecommunications sector in Malaysia, MSAR is building the foundation upon which upcoming technologies such as 5G can be implemented, including connecting key data centres, submarine cable landing stations and international borders through its fibre optic networks.

To meet the goals of global hyperscalers for faster speeds, better reachability, and increasing need for data capacity, MSAR is teaming up with Ciena to capitalise on its new fibre network to increase efficiencies and create a super resilient and scalable network.

“The ability to power record-breaking capacities across long distances will help MSAR rapidly increase the reach of its network to more users and differentiate its service offerings,” said Dion Leung, Regional Managing Director, Ciena ASEAN in a statement.

“We are creating a more robust and adaptive network that helps MSAR to unleash the limitless potential of digital connectivity in Malaysia.”

Meanwhile, MSAR Managing Director Saiful Husni Samak added: “Ciena’s coherent optical technology will bring unparalleled capacity, enabling the fastest transfer of data across the network. The Digital Super Highway Network will serve as a platform for the adoption of future technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT), smart highways, 5G and more.”

Together with CommVerge Solutions, a leading technology and business solutions integrator, MSAR is set to deploy Ciena’s WL5e programmable 800G transponder platform, enabling the speedy transfer of large amounts of data over a resilient and software configurable network.

Ciena is a networking systems, services and software company providing solutions that help customers create the Adaptive Network™ in response to the constantly changing demands of their end-users.

More details at www.ciena.com.

-- BERNAMA