Day: January 13, 2022

Posted on

Kashmiris in UK, worldwide will observe Jan 26 as Black Day: Kayani 

London, January 13, 2022 (PPI-OT):Tehreek-e-Kashmir, UK, on Thursday announced its anti-occupation programme to coincide with India’s Republic Day on January 26.

The President of TeK, UK, Fahim Kayani, addressing a news conference in London said that Kashmiris in UK and worldwide would observe India’s Republic Day as Black Day to register a strong protest against India’s illegal occupation of Jammu and Kashmir through its one million troops.

He said, on January 26 when India celebrates its Republic Day, the Kashmiris in Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) and across the world will observe the day as Black Day as a protest against India’s illegal military occupation of the territory.

He said that Kashmiris in the UK would hold demonstrations outside the Indian embassy and consulates to remind the Indian fascist authorities to prepare for the UN-promised plebiscite in Jammu and Kashmir.

On the day, the people of Kashmir will remind the international community that India has no right to celebrate its Republic Day as it is the biggest violator of international law, Kayani added. He said, Tehreek-e-Kashmir will hold several programmes in the UK and Europe to press the host governments to ask India to respect the UN resolutions and prepare for the plebiscite.

For more information, contact:
Kashmir Media Service
Phone: +92-51-4435548, +92-51-4435549
Fax: +92-51-4861736
Email: info@kmsnews.org
Website: www.kmsnews.org

Posted on

Adagio Therapeutics Summarizes ADG20 Neutralizing Activity Against SARS-CoV-2 Variants and Outlines Initiatives to Address Omicron

Recent Publications by Several Independent Laboratories Show ADG20 Has Neutralizing Activity with Potency Comparable to Other Antibodies that Retain Activity Against Omicron

Multiple Efforts Underway to Address Omicron and Potential Future SARS-CoV-2 Variants

WALTHAM, Mass., Jan. 12, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Adagio Therapeutics, Inc., (Nasdaq: ADGI), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery, development and commercialization of antibody-based solutions for infectious diseases with pandemic potential, today summarized recent findings reported in three separate publications that show ADG20, its lead monoclonal antibody (mAb), has neutralization activity against the Omicron (B.1.1.529) variant of SARS-CoV-2, and outlined initiatives to address current and future SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern. Adagio is evaluating ADG20 in its global Phase 2/3 clinical trials for both the prevention and treatment of COVID-19. Adagio is engaging with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regarding potential protocol updates to its global Phase 2/3 clinical trials, including an increased dose of ADG20 for the potential prevention and treatment of COVID-19 resulting from the Omicron variant.

ADG20 Neutralizing Activity Against Omicron
Recently published in vitro studies examined the neutralization potencies of large panels of mAbs against the Omicron variant in both authentic and pseudovirus assays. Findings across all three studies show that among mAbs in late-stage clinical development or with Emergency Use Authorization (EUA), ADG20 is one of only a few mAbs that demonstrated neutralizing activity against Omicron. Across two distinct authentic neutralization assays against Omicron, the data show that ADG20 had an IC50, a measurement of neutralization potency, of approximately 0.4 to 1.1 µg/mL, which is comparable with the two other active mAbs, sotrovimab and AZD7742.

“What is critical to assessing potential clinical effectiveness of SARS-CoV-2 mAbs is the neutralization potency by the mAb against a specific variant. While findings may show that ADG20 has reduced potency against Omicron when compared to its high potency against all other variants of concern, including Delta, the data support that ADG20 is among the few mAbs to demonstrate neutralizing activity against the Omicron variant and warrants its continued development,” said Laura Walker, Ph.D., chief scientific officer and co-founder of Adagio.

These data add to previously reported in vitro data from a variety of preclinical studies that showed that ADG20 retains activity against other variants of concern including Alpha, Beta, Delta and Gamma, and that ADG20 retains neutralizing activity against a diverse panel of circulating SARS-CoV-2 variants, including the Lambda, Mu and Delta plus variants.

Clinical Trial Update to Address Omicron
Adagio is continuing evaluation of ADG20 in its EVADE and STAMP clinical trials. Adagio is engaging with the FDA on dosing strategy, including an increased dose of ADG20 and other protocol updates in light of the spread of the Omicron variant. Adagio is pausing the enrollment of new patients in the 300 mg dose arm in both clinical trials as the company updates its protocols. Follow-up and monitoring of patients previously administered ADG20 are continuing per the original protocols.

Additional Efforts to Address Omicron and Future Variants
In addition to its clinical trial updates, Adagio is pursuing multiple strategies to address both Omicron and potential future variants that may emerge. Leveraging its exclusive partnership with Adimab LLC, a global leader in antibody engineering, Adagio is exploring the potential to engineer ADG20 to further improve binding to the Omicron variant to enhance its neutralization potency against Omicron while retaining its broad neutralization against other SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern. In parallel, Adagio is assessing several hundred mAbs from its proprietary library of previously isolated SARS-CoV-2 antibodies for their neutralization potency against Omicron. Such an additional neutralizing mAb could be developed as a stand-alone product or as part of a combination approach. These efforts are underway, and the company anticipates preliminary findings from its research in the first quarter of 2022.

“SARS-CoV-2 is a quickly evolving virus, and at Adagio, we are committed to adapting just as quickly. It is abundantly clear that no single product will fully address the evolving nature of the COVID-19 pandemic, and that multiple preventative and therapeutic solutions are needed. Based on both in-house data and third-party findings, we are confident that ADG20 can be an important tool in the fight against this virus,” added Tillman Gerngross, Ph.D., co-founder and chief executive officer of Adagio.

About ADG20
ADG20, an investigational monoclonal antibody targeting the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2 and related coronaviruses, is being evaluated in global clinical trials for the prevention and treatment of COVID-19, the disease caused by SARS-CoV-2. ADG20 was designed to possess high potency and broad neutralization activity against SARS-CoV-2 and additional clade 1 sarbecoviruses by targeting a highly conserved epitope in the receptor binding domain. ADG20 was further engineered to provide an extended half-life for durable protection. In vitro data from a variety of preclinical studies have shown that ADG20 retains neutralizing activity against all known SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern. In a Phase 1 trial, ADG20 was well-tolerated with no safety signals identified through a minimum of three months follow-up across all cohorts. ADG20 has not been approved for use in any country, and safety and efficacy have not yet been established.

About Adagio Therapeutics
Adagio (Nasdaq: ADGI) is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery, development and commercialization of antibody-based solutions for infectious diseases with pandemic potential, including COVID-19 and influenza. The company’s portfolio of antibodies has been optimized using Adimab’s industry-leading antibody engineering capabilities and is designed to provide patients and clinicians with the potential for a powerful combination of potency, breadth, durable protection (via half-life extension), manufacturability and affordability. Adagio’s portfolio of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies includes multiple non-competing, broadly neutralizing antibodies with distinct binding epitopes, led by ADG20. Adagio has secured manufacturing capacity for the production of ADG20 with third-party contract manufacturers to support the completion of clinical trials and initial commercial launch, ensuring the potential for broad accessibility to people around the world, if authorized or approved for use. For more information, please visit www.adagiotx.com.

Forward Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words such as “anticipates,” “believes,” “expects,” “intends,” “projects,” and “future” or similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements include statements concerning, among other things, the timing, progress and results of our preclinical studies and clinical trials of ADG20, including the initiation, modification and completion of studies or trials and related preparatory work, including our plans to evaluate dosing regimens and other protocol updates in our clinical trials, the period during which the results of our clinical trials and other studies and research activities will become available, and our research and development programs; our ability to obtain and maintain regulatory approvals for our product candidates; our pursuit of other strategies to address the Omicron variant, including modification of clinical trial protocols; and other statements that are not historical fact. We may not actually achieve the plans, intentions or expectations disclosed in our forward-looking statements and you should not place undue reliance on our forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause our actual results to differ materially from the results described in or implied by the forward-looking statements, including, without limitation, the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on our business, clinical trials and financial position, unexpected safety or efficacy data observed during preclinical studies or clinical trials, the predictability of clinical success of ADG20 based on neutralizing activity in pre-clinical studies, variability of results in models used to predict activity against SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern, clinical trial site activation or enrollment rates that are lower than expected, changes in expected or existing competition, changes in the regulatory environment, and the uncertainties and timing of the regulatory approval process, including the outcome of our discussions with regulatory authorities concerning our Phase 2/3 clinical trials. Other factors that may cause our actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in the forward-looking statements in this press release are described under the heading “Risk Factors” in Adagio’s Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2021 and in Adagio’s future reports to be filed with the SEC. Such risks may be amplified by the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.  Forward-looking statements contained in this press release are made as of this date, and Adagio undertakes no duty to update such information except as required under applicable law.

Contacts:
Media Contact:
Dan Budwick, 1AB
Dan@1abmedia.com

Investor Contact:
Monique Allaire, THRUST Strategic Communications
monique@thrustsc.com

Posted on

US High Court OKs Vaccine Mandate for Health Care Workers, Not Businesses

The U.S. Supreme Court delivered a blow to President Joe Biden on Thursday, blocking his mandate that employees of large businesses be vaccinated against COVID-19 or face weekly testing.

At the same time, the nation’s highest court allowed a vaccination mandate for health care workers at facilities receiving federal funding.

“I am disappointed that the Supreme Court has chosen to block common-sense life-saving requirements for employees at large businesses that were grounded squarely in both science and the law,” Biden said in a statement.

The president welcomed the requirement that health care workers be vaccinated, saying it would affect some 10 million people working at facilities receiving federal funds and will “save lives.”

But Republican Senator Rick Scott of Florida said the court’s ruling “sends a clear message: Biden is not a king & his gross overreaches of federal power will not be tolerated.”

“I had COVID & got the vaccine, but I will NEVER support a vaccine mandate that bullies hardworking Americans & kills jobs,” Scott said via Twitter.

After months of public appeals to Americans to get vaccinated against the virus that causes COVID-19, which has killed more than 845,000 people in the United States, Biden announced in September that he was making vaccinations compulsory at large private companies.

Under the mandate, unvaccinated employees would have to present weekly negative tests and wear face masks at work.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), a federal agency, gave businesses until February 9 to be in compliance with the rules or face the possibility of fines.

But the Supreme Court’s six conservative justices ruled the mandate would represent a “significant encroachment into the lives — and health — of a vast number of employees.”

“Although Congress has indisputably given OSHA the power to regulate occupational dangers, it has not given that agency the power to regulate public health more broadly,” they said.

“Requiring the vaccination of 84 million Americans, selected simply because they work for employers with more than 100 employees, certainly falls in the latter category,” they added.

The three liberal justices dissented, saying the ruling “stymies the federal government’s ability to counter the unparalleled threat that COVID-19 poses to our nation’s workers.”

The vaccination mandate for health care workers at facilities receiving federal funding was approved in a 5-4 vote, with two conservatives, Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Brett Kavanaugh, joining the liberals.

“Ensuring that providers take steps to avoid transmitting a dangerous virus to their patients is consistent with the fundamental principle of the medical profession: first, do no harm,” they said in the majority opinion.

Vaccination has become a politically polarizing issue in the United States, where about 63% of the population is fully vaccinated.

A coalition of 26 business associations had filed suit against the OSHA regulations and several Republican-led states had challenged the mandate for health care workers.

In his statement, Biden said it is now up to states and individual employers to determine whether they should be requiring employees “to take the simple and effective step of getting vaccinated.”

He said the Supreme Court ruling “does not stop me from using my voice as president to advocate for employers to do the right thing to protect Americans’ health and economy.”

“We have to keep working together if we want to save lives, keep people working, and put this pandemic behind us,” he said.

Source: Voice of America

Posted on

Study Nixes Mars Life in Meteorite Found in Antarctica

A 4-billion-year-old meteorite from Mars that caused a splash here on Earth decades ago contains no evidence of ancient, primitive Martian life after all, scientists reported Thursday.

In 1996, a NASA-led team announced that organic compounds in the rock appeared to have been left by living creatures. Other scientists were skeptical, and researchers chipped away at that premise over the decades, most recently by a team led by the Carnegie Institution for Science’s Andrew Steele.

Tiny samples from the meteorite show the carbon-rich compounds are actually the result of water — most likely salty, or briny, water — flowing over the rock for a prolonged period, Steele said. The findings appear in the journal Science.

During Mars’ wet and early past, at least two impacts occurred near the rock, heating the planet’s surrounding surface, before a third impact bounced it off the red planet and into space millions of years ago. The 2-kilogram (4-pound) rock was found in Antarctica in 1984.

Groundwater moving through the cracks in the rock, while it was still on Mars, formed the tiny globs of carbon that are present, according to the researchers. The same thing can happen on Earth and could help explain the presence of methane in Mars’ atmosphere, they said.

But two scientists who took part in the original study took issue with these latest findings, calling them disappointing. In a shared email, they said they stand by their 1996 observations.

“While the data presented incrementally adds to our knowledge of (the meteorite), the interpretation is hardly novel, nor is it supported by the research,” wrote Kathie Thomas-Keprta and Simon Clemett, astromaterial researchers at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.

“Unsupported speculation does nothing to resolve the conundrum surrounding the origin of organic matter” in the meteorite, they added.

According to Steele, advances in technology made his team’s new findings possible.

He commended the measurements by the original researchers and noted that their life-claiming hypothesis “was a reasonable interpretation” at the time. He said he and his team, which includes NASA, German and British scientists, took care to present their results “for what they are, which is a very exciting discovery about Mars and not a study to disprove” the original premise.

This finding “is huge for our understanding of how life started on this planet and helps refine the techniques we need to find life elsewhere on Mars, or Enceladus and Europa,” Steele said in an email, referring to Saturn and Jupiter’s moons with subsurface oceans.

The only way to prove whether Mars ever had or still has microbial life, according to Steele, is to bring samples to Earth for analysis. NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover has collected six samples for return to Earth in a decade or so; three dozen samples are desired.

Millions of years after drifting through space, the meteorite landed on an icefield in Antarctica thousands of years ago. The small gray-green fragment got its name — Allan Hills 84001 — from the hills where it was found.

Source: Voice of America

Posted on

Mali Accuses French Military of Breaching Airspace, Violating Sanctions

Mali has accused France of breaching its airspace and threatened unspecified consequences if it happens again.

Mali’s military government Wednesday condemned France for flying a military plane into the country from Ivory Coast this week.

In a statement, government spokesman Colonel Abdoulaye Maiga called the flight Tuesday from Abidjan to Mali’s city of Gao a “clear breach” of its airspace.

Maiga also accused the French military plane of switching off its communication with Mali’s aviation authorities.

He threatened consequences if the incident is repeated, saying Mali’s government would “refuse any liability relating to the risks to which the perpetrators of these practices could expose themselves.”

A French military official, who refused to be named, denied the claims to Agence France-Presse, saying all procedures were respected and that Malian authorities had approved the flight.

The French military maintains a base in Gao, to help Mali fight Islamist insurgents, after gradually withdrawing troops from other bases in northern Mali.

The statement came just hours after a West African aviation authority accused the French military plane of violating regional sanctions against Mali.

The Dakar, Senegal-based Agency for Aerial Navigation Safety in Africa and Madagascar also told Mali’s National Civil Aviation Agency it was not notified of the flight in advance.

The Economic Community of West African States Sunday banned transport and trade between member states and Mali after the military leaders delayed elections.

Leaders of Mali’s August 2020 coup promised elections in February but last week announced a plan to hold the polls in 2026.

France is supporting the ECOWAS sanctions against Mali and its national airline, Air France, Wednesday suspended all flights to Mali until further notice.

Source: Voice Of America