Category: Uncategorized

DALLAS, Nov 24 (Bernama-BUSINESS WIRE) — This November,Mary Kay Inc. is excited to announce its partnership with The Nature Conservancy to protect the critically endangered species of hawksbill sea turtles through the fostering of female-led ecotourism in the Solomon Islands. Through this collaboration with The Nature Conservancy, Mary Kay will support the skills development of a local women’s group, known as KAWAKI, facilitating food safety and personal hygiene training, critical for the launch of the Solomon’s first women-led eco-tourism venture, located in the remote Arnavon Islands.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: 
https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20201123006284/en/

The KAWAKI group is a local women’s organization in the Solomon Islands dedicated to marine conservation and turtle protection for the Arnavon Islands. Their mission is to unite women around conservation, culture and community to create a better future for their children and the generations to come. KAWAKI’s biggest conservation project is located in the Arnavon Islands, home to the largest rookery for hawksbill turtles in the South Pacific. The hawksbill is a species of turtle primarily threatened by poaching and habitat loss—specifically, the loss of nesting beaches due to coastal erosion driven by storms and sea-level rise. Tourism is a major development priority for the Solomon Islands, and with a growing number of tourists visiting the Arnavons each year, provincial authorities have identified the area as a prime opportunity for niche eco-tourism that can help lift communities out of poverty and provide the needed resources for effective turtle conservation. However, local infrastructure and marketing have not yet been developed for sustainable eco-tourism to accommodate the steady increase of visitors to the Arnavons.

Another challenge South Pacific nations, such as the Solomon Islands, face is limited access to health care. And with the spread of COVID-19, the situation got worse. Since the Solomon Islands government declared a national emergency earlier this year, many Solomon Islanders traveled from the capital city of Honiara back to their home villages. The KAWAKI women have been working with local Ministry of Health officers, church leaders and schools to provide training on handwashing and other precautionary measures to remote communities as well as resources such as soap, which is often difficult to obtain.

“Women’s participation and leadership are critical to safeguarding positive conservation outcomes and the health of at-risk communities,” said Trina Leberer, Director of The Nature Conservancy Pacific Islands Division. “We are incredibly honored to have Mary Kay’s support of the KAWAKI women’s group and our work in the Solomon Islands. Through this partnership, we are taking an integrated approach to conservation and preventive health, empowering local women in developing sustainable eco-tourism while supporting the health of remote communities who may not have access to medical facilities.”

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KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 23 — An international culture week focusing on brocade and embroidery works stamped its mark on Nov 19, in Haikou’s Historic Qilou Street, capital of south China’s Hainan Province.

The six-day event ending tomorrow, features activities which include exhibitions, light shows and fashion shows in Haikou, Sanya City and Baoting Li and Miao Autonomous County, according to the Department of Tourism, Culture, Radio, Television and Sports of Hainan Province, in a statement.

Among others, the event featured a Li Brocade Culture Fantasy Show with an immersive digital light performance, a ‘Charming Li Brocade’ Fashion Show, a Brocade and Embroidery Show, as well as a Brocade and Embroidery World Art Show, perfectly combining the charm of Hainan’s intangible cultural heritage and Haikou’s several hundred years old Historic Qilou Street.

As an important activity of the 21st Hainan Island Carnival, Culture Week themed ‘Inheriting, innovating, and creating a brilliant world’, aimed to create an internationally influential platform for the exchange and display of Hainan’s brocade and embroidery products worldwide.

Brocade and embroidery works from various countries as well as from the local Li ethnic group will be displayed during the event to present different traditional cultures.

Born from the skillful handcrafts of the Li people on Hainan Island in southern China, the intricate art of Li Brocade boasts a long history and was designated as a UNESCO intangible cultural heritage item in 2009.

These handmade brocades are now world-renowned for their delicate, romantic, and mysterious patterns.

— BERNAMA

· New Humanigen entity in Australia creates focused opportunity for partnering, regional clinical trials and market access
· Structure allows for attractive financial incentives supported by the Australian government

BURLINGAME, Calif., Nov 24 (Bernama-BUSINESS WIRE) — Humanigen, Inc. (NASDAQ: HGEN) (“Humanigen”), a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company focused on preventing and treating an immune hyper-response called ‘cytokine storm’ with its lead drug candidate, lenzilumab^™,today announced the establishment of Humanigen Australia Proprietary Limited (“Humanigen Australia Pty Ltd”), through which Humanigen intends to assess potential partnering opportunities, facilitate clinical development programs, and conduct other corporate and business development activities in the Asia-Pacific region. The first of these was announced on November 3, with the execution of a licensing agreement for lenzilumab for South Korea and the Philippines.

The clinical trials that are ongoing, or in advanced planning in Australia are:

Lenzilumab in cancer patients who are COVID-19 positive and have pneumonia as part of the C-SMART (COVID-19 Prevention and Treatment in Cancer; a Sequential Multiple Assignment Randomized Trial)

The C-SMART study is led by the National Centre for Infections in Cancer at Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre and will be conducted at five Australian sites in Melbourne and Sydney. This study will include over 1,000 cancer patients at risk of, or known positive for, COVID-19 infection, with a subset of patients in the lenzilumab arm. The study is supported by a grant from the Australian Government’s Medical Research Future Fund.

Lenzilumab in refractory chronic myelomonocytic leukemia (CMML) as part of the PREcision Approach to CHronic Myelomonocytic Leukaemia (PREACH-M) trial

Humanigen is in advanced planning for a Phase 2 study of lenzilumab in combination with azacitidine in newly-diagnosed CMML patients who express NRAS/KRAS/CBL mutations, which are known to be hypersensitive to granulocyte macrophage-colony stimulating factor (GM-CSF) and therefore may lend themselves to responsiveness to lenzilumab treatment. CMML is a rare form of hematologic cancer with no FDA-approved treatment options and a three-year overall survival rate of 20% and median overall survival of 20 months.^¹,² The study is funded by grant from the Australian Government’s Medical Research Future Fund and is expected to commence in 2021.

Ifabotuzumab in glioblastoma multiforme (GBM)

This Phase 1 trial has enrolled 11 of the 12 patients targeted for full enrollment. Results are expected to be available in the first half of 2021.

Professor Andrew Scott, Head, Tumour Targeting Laboratory, Olivia Newton-John Cancer Research Institute, and Professor, School of Cancer Medicine, La Trobe University, who has been instrumental in the research and development of both lenzilumab and ifabotuzumab, said, “The establishment of Humanigen Australia Pty Ltd speaks to the importance and culmination of 20 years of research for these two novel antibodies, which we helped discover and develop in Australia. We hope that lenzilumab will have a major impact in the treatment of COVID-19 patients. Ifabotuzumab holds promise as a novel approach to target the tumour microenvironment in a range of solid tumors.”

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KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 24 — OMRON Healthcare Co Ltd has announced additional investment into AliveCor by its parent company, OMRON Corporation, as part of US$65 million series E funding for the leader in AI-based personal electrocardiogram (ECG) technology. (US$1 = RM4.09)

According to a statement, OMRON led this round of investment, reinforcing the cross-company collaboration that began in 2017.

The companies continue to build on their global alliance to accelerate development of solutions for cardiovascular disease management and remote patient monitoring utilising ECG technology.

“OMRON is committed to developing life-saving cardiovascular health technologies in pursuit of our ‘Going for Zero’ vision to eliminate heart attacks and strokes,” said OMRON Healthcare president and chief executive officer, Isao Ogino.

“Over one billion adults are hypertensive worldwide, and their risk of stroke is nearly five times greater if they also suffer from Afib (atrial fibrillation).

“The ability to monitor both blood pressure and heart rhythm at home is essential for early detection, treatment and management of these cardiovascular health conditions.

“We continue to explore and develop new technologies to enhance the accessibility of home monitoring that help people to manage their condition, and will engage partners like AliveCor to ensure this technology is best-in-market, further accelerating our remote patient monitoring business to achieve our goal.”

OMRON’s expanded investment into AliveCor builds upon the companies’ ongoing collaboration.

OMRON Healthcare is a global leader in the field of clinically proven, innovative medical equipment for health monitoring and therapy.

— BERNAMA

CHONGQING, China, Nov. 19, 2020 /Xinhua-AsiaNet/–

From November 21 to 22, the Chongqing Talents Conference 2020 will be held in West China’s Chongqing Liangjiang New Area. Heavyweight domestic and foreign guests from political, business, science and technology, education, medicine and health, and financial circles will attend the event. More than 30,000 domestic and foreign high-end talents, university graduates, project team representatives and other talents will join online to discuss development plans and share cooperation opportunities.

As the permanent host place and one of the main organizers of the conference, Liangjiang New Area is pushing forward inland opening-up and Chongqing smart city construction. A number of innovation platforms, such as Liangjiang Collaborative Innovation Zone, Lijia Smart Park, Yuelai International Exhibition City and Liangjiang Digital Economy Industrial Park, are gaining spotlight. In the first three quarters of this year, the district’s GDP increased by 6.7%; its industrial added value increased by 12.1%; its actual utilization of foreign capital reached 2.1 billion US dollars, and the contracted value in attracting investment exceeded 100 billion yuan. At the first press conference of Chongqing Talents Conference 2020, Tao Shixiang, deputy secretary of the CPC Committee of Liangjiang New Area, said that these indicators show that the area is becoming a hot land for global and national investment, a fertile land for entrepreneurship and a happy land for life.

In order to recruit talents, in November last year, Liangjiang New Area issued guidelines to leverage the power of talents to boost the area’s high-quality development. Four supporting policy documents for the introduction and training of high-level talents, education talents, health talents and high-skilled talents were rolled out, with ten related articles to form a sound talent policy system. The ten articles have achieved full coverage of policies to serve talents from academicians and experts to craftsmen. High-level talents and project teams can receive a maximum of 30 million yuan of subsidy, first-class scientists and teams can receive a maximum of 100 million yuan, while outstanding graduates with bachelor’s degree or above recognized by enterprises can also enjoy a resettlement subsidy of 10,000 yuan.

In May this year, the offline platform of “Liangjiang Yingcai Hub”, an important carrier to serve talents, innovation and entrepreneurship in the New Area, was officially put into operation. The platform is led by the government, participated by enterprises and operated jointly. It integrates one-stop services, talent introduction and education and innovation and entrepreneurship incubation, so that talents can enjoy convenient access to handle affairs, seek development and address concerns.

In the next two years, the demand for talents in key industries such as automobiles, electronic information, high-end equipment and bio-medicine in Liangjiang New Area will exceed 90,000. At the press conference, Tao said that in order to build an inland open portal and a smart city in Chongqing, Liangjiang New Area is more eager for talents than ever before. The area will stay magnetic to attract talents from all over the world to pool their wisdom in Liangjiang to share a rosy future.

For more details, please visit: http://www.liangjiang.gov.cn.


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