DATASTAX SHOWS STRONG MOMENTUM WITH NEW CUSTOMERS, PARTNERS AND PRODUCTS

Touts recent funding, new Astra serverless cloud database, and brand name customers including ESL Gaming, Overstock.com, T-Mobile, US Bank, and Verizon

SANTA CLARA, Calif., May 28 (Bernama-BUSINESS WIRE) -- DataStax today revealed that it is seeing strong adoption of its open, multi-cloud data stack among leading brands as enterprises increasingly embrace DataStax’s offerings—including the DataStax Astra serverless cloud database and DataStax Enterprise—to build and run modern data apps.

On the heels of new funding from Goldman Sachs, the company announced that in recent months it has signed new or expanded contracts with leading enterprises across industries and across the globe, including CGi Global Technologies, Energisme, ESL Gaming, Innovapost, Koddi, Overstock.com, Payment Approved, Titanium Intelligent Solutions, T-Mobile, Trading Technologies International, UBIRCH, US Bank, and Verizon.

“We are humbled by the innovative businesses that we have the opportunity to partner with,” said Chet Kapoor, DataStax chairman and chief executive officer. “Enterprises are drowning in data volume, complexity, and escalating costs. We help them deliver an open data stack that is built for today’s modern apps that require massive scale, zero downtime, and sustainable TCO.”

DataStax Recent Highlights

• Launched Astra serverless, the industry’s first and only open, serverless, multi-cloud database-as-a-service (DBaaS). Astra builds on Apache Cassandra and introduces a modern, microservices-based architecture for “pay-as-you-go” data consumption. The cost optimization and operational benefits of Astra serverless can deliver total cost of ownership (TCO) savings of up to 75 percent over non-serverless database workloads, according to a recent study by GigaOm.
• Joined forces with IBM to provide customers with a hybrid cloud solution that can be deployed on private or multiple public clouds for applications requiring open source Apache Cassandra-based technology.
• Delivered scale-out streaming based on Apache Pulsar with the acquisition of Kesque.
• Secured a new investment from Goldman Sachs to continue aggressively growing sales and marketing teams, scale globally, and double down on product development.

What enterprises and partners are saying about DataStax

• ESL Gaming is the world’s largest esports company leading the industry across the most popular video games with numerous online and offline competitions. “We’re excited with the ease of migration and the fact we won’t have to incur any downtime. Thanks to DataStax’s expertise in Cassandra, we will be able to easily migrate to Astra without inconveniencing our team or our customers.”

— Ben Burns, vice president, technology, ESL Gaming

• Google Cloud is widely recognized as a global leader in delivering a secure, open, intelligent, and transformative enterprise cloud platform. “We’re delighted to deliver DataStax’s Astra service and DataStax Enterprise natively on Google Cloud and proud of the value that our partnership is providing customers as they become more data-driven organizations. We’re committed to making it incredibly easy to deploy and manage Astra on Google Cloud, and to helping customers run DataStax across hybrid and multi-cloud environments with Anthos.”

— Nirav Sheth, director, ISV and partner sales, Google Cloud

• Overstock.com is an online retailer and technology company based in Salt Lake City, Utah. “As a billion-dollar online retailer, our growth is tied to delivering personalized customer experiences. I’m excited about the ‘art of the possible’ with the combination of Pulsar and DataStax including reducing our overall database costs and challenging our revenue-generating applications to take advantage of this scalable architecture."

— George Trujillo, vice president of data engineering at Overstock.com

• Payment Approved connects payment sources worldwide through a unified channel. “With its reliability and velocity, on top of supporting our cost-effective, scalable cloud architecture, DataStax Astra is helping us usher in the future of fast, safe, and secure global money movement.”

— Bump Verde, chief technology officer, Payment Approved

• T-Mobile redefines the way consumers and businesses buy wireless services through leading product and service innovation. “As we look ahead and evaluate how data can enrich our customer interactions and overall operations, we are finding that DataStax provides us the scale performance and architectural flexibility we need to allow us to speed the modernization of our data ecosystem. For this reason, DataStax will play a key role in our overall data strategy going forward and they've been a great and valued partner.”

— Venkata Donthireddy, director, autonomous platforms, T-Mobile

• Titanium Intelligent Solutions is an advisory-based solutions platform. “DataStax Astra provides optimal flexibility and performance for our Internet of Things (IoT) solutions. The cost efficiencies help us provide better value to our environmental quality control, energy savings, and safety/operational control clients, while capitalizing on accelerated, real-time data analysis to produce smarter results.”

— Ara Bederjikian, president, Titanium Intelligent Solutions

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UAE CALLS ON THE GLOBAL COMMUNITY TO JOIN EFFORTS TO INSTILL AND MAINTAIN HUMAN DIGNITY THROUGH STORYTELLING

 

• Dignified Storytelling, an initiative led by Dubai Cares, Expo 2020 Dubai and UAE MOFAIC, upholds the UAE’s vision of furthering human dignity around the world
• Dignified Storytelling Forum to take place on 10 December 2021 at Expo 2020 Dubai, the first World Expo to be held in the MEASA region

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, May 27 (Bernama-GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Dubai Cares, Expo 2020 Dubai and the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs & International Cooperation (MoFAIC) have come together to launch Dignified Storytelling, an initiative with an aim of creating an ecosystem that fosters a shared understanding and practice of storytelling that maintains and upholds the dignity of all persons and contributes to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Today, thousands of stories are being told regardless of who tells them and how they are told. Many of these stories lack authenticity, transparency, or are driven by ulterior motives which serve a predetermined narrative. These are just some of the few obstacles that get in the way of honest, wholesome and dignified storytelling within development and humanitarian contexts. In order for a piece - be it visual, written or spoken - to reach an audience, it goes through a long process of filtration, revising and editing that sometimes alters the original content and makes it almost fictional. This in turn, ends up painting the wrong picture of the contributors who oftentimes are not aware of where their stories, visual or written, will be displayed and to what purpose will they be used.

Dignified Storytelling was born out of the need to unite the voices of content makers, editors, journalists, photographers, filmmakers, storytellers, and contributors and equip them with the awareness and hands-on knowledge that will enable them to capture moments and tell stories without compromising human dignity. In order to fulfill this need, Dignified Storytelling kickstarted global consultations a year ago, to solicit cross-sectoral perspectives on storytelling within development and humanitarian contexts, as well as set and agree on the Dignified Storytelling Principles that today serve as guidance and an advocacy tool for bringing together various stakeholders from around the world to form a global movement that will be a game changer in maintaining and promoting human dignity through storytelling.

These foundational principles are also guiding the consultative development of an accessible and practical Dignified Storytelling Handbook which provides ‘how-to’ guidance and concrete best practice case studies. Cross-sectoral perspectives and insights from a diverse group of storytellers and experienced stakeholders from governments, UN agencies, international and local NGOs, and civil society are currently informing this valuable framework and resource.

To truly embed Dignified Storytelling in the day-to-day policies and practices among international development agencies and various storytellers within the development and humanitarian sectors, Dubai Cares, Expo 2020 Dubai and UAE MoFAIC have established a Dignified Storytelling Alliance. The Alliance is a network of champions that provides advocacy, in-kind support, and input on program deliverables. Representation in the Alliance includes a deliberately diverse range of viewpoints from organizations, individuals and governments who are able to share best practices from their on-the-ground experiences within a range of development contexts.

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Wasabi additional US$25 million funding to fuel data centre, new market expansion

KUALA LUMPUR, May 21 -- Wasabi, the hot cloud storage company, has announced US$25 million in additional funding led by Prosperity7 Ventures, the diversified growth fund of Aramco Ventures. (US$1 = RM4.139)

Western Digital Capital, the investment arm of storage device manufacturer Western Digital, also participated in the round, according to a statement.

This round is an extension of Wasabi’s Series C financing announced in April, expanding the total funding raised for the round to US$137 million and the company’s total equity financing to US$244 million.

This latest round of funding comes as Wasabi reported 3x year-over-year growth, reaching 23,000 customers worldwide and over 5,000 Channel Partners and 350 Technology Alliance Partners.

The additional capital will be used to further accelerate Wasabi’s worldwide roll-out of data centres and grow its distribution channels and partner network while continuing to build a team to support this rapid expansion.

Wasabi’s low-cost, high-performance cloud storage enables companies to cut their data storage costs by 75 per cent or more. Data-intensive industries, such as energy and exploration, are making extensive use of AI to extract value from their data.

But the cost of storing large amounts can make some of these AI-based applications difficult to justify. Reducing the cost of cloud data storage by 75 per cent or more changes the equation and facilitates more rapid development of data-rich AI applications.

Wasabi’s storage is 1/5th the cost and faster than the competition with no fees for egress or API requests. For those currently using a private cloud, the availability of a public cloud through Wasabi extends data resources for greater overall capacity without the hefty price tag.

-- BERNAMA

SIGHTCALL CLOSES $42M SERIES B ROUND TO SIGNIFICANTLY EXPAND VISUAL ASSISTANCE MARKET WITH AUGMENTED REALITY AND ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

 SightCall forges ahead as a market innovator and leader with increased R&D investment to expand AI and AR capabilities


SAN FRANCISCO, May 20 (Bernama-BUSINESS WIRE) -- SightCall, the world’s leading augmented reality (AR)-powered visual assistance platform, today announced the closing of $42 million in Series B funding led by InfraVia Capital Partners, along with co-investor Bpifrance, through its Large Venture fund. The company intends to use the funds to double its research and development efforts and increase its platform’s AI and AR capabilities.

As the world’s largest companies across verticals including insurance, healthcare, consumer goods and industrial have significantly increased the rate and investment in digital transformation, the need for comprehensive solutions that offer the capabilities of remote live-video collaboration combined with augmented reality innovation has transformed the way enterprises provide customer service.

“We created this market, we built and operate our own proprietary platform, and we partner with some of the most innovative companies around the world,” said SightCall CEO and Co-Founder Thomas Cottereau. “This investment is in perfect alignment with our objectives to scale the company and extend our lead in technology to help our customers realize lasting digital transformation within their service organizations.”

SightCall is poised for global growth and selected this particular set of investors to help them achieve the goal of scaling to $100M in annual recurring revenue. With technology integrations set up with some of the world’s leading companies, including Microsoft, SAP, Salesforce and ServiceNow, the proprietary technology platform enables remote experts to see a problem through video and deliver guidance using AR and AI technology. By blending the digital and physical worlds into a real-time collaborative environment, SightCall empowers technicians, reduces unnecessary spend and improves the customer experience.

More than 200 of the Fortune 2000 use SightCall, which has seen 100% year-over-year growth in annual recurring revenue in 2019 and 2020 and is on track to reach that mark again in 2021. SightCall has invested heavily in compliance and cybersecurity initiatives, completing SOC-2 certification and HIPAA compliance certifications along with annual security audits to meet the stringent requirements of global Fortune 2000 companies.

Investor Perspectives on $42M Series B Funding Round

“SightCall pioneered the market for AR-powered visual assistance, and they’re in the best position to drive the digital transformation of remote service,” said Alban Wyniecki, partner at InfraVia Capital Partners. “As a global leader, they can now expand their capabilities, making their interactions more intelligent and also bringing more automation to help humans work at their best.”

“SightCall’s $42M Series B marks the largest funding round yet in this sector, and SightCall emerges as the undisputed leader in capital, R&D resources and partnerships with leading technology companies enabling its solutions to be embedded into complex enterprise IT,” said Antoine Izsak of Bpifrance. “Businesses are looking for solutions like SightCall to enable customer-centricity at a greater scale while augmenting technicians with knowledge and expertise that unlocks efficiencies and drives continuous performance and profit.”

About SightCall

SightCall is the world’s leading augmented-reality powered video cloud platform, delivering live, remote interactions between businesses and customers on every continent around the globe. In a connected, mobile-first world, businesses leveraging SightCall have the ability to see what their customers see and guide them remotely. The company has offices in San Francisco (HQ), Boston, Austin, Paris, London, Frankfurt, Melbourne and Singapore. Visit sightcall.com to learn more.

About InfraVia Capital Partners

InfraVia is a leading independent private equity firm, specialized in infrastructure and technology investments. InfraVia supports entrepreneurs and industrial players in their growth and digital strategy, accelerating their transformation in sizeable platforms. Since 2008, InfraVia has raised EUR 5 billion of capital and invested in 30+ companies across 13 European countries.

www.infraviacapital.com

About Bpifrance

Bpifrance's equity investments are carried out by Bpifrance Investissement. Bpifrance finances companies - at every stage of their development - in credit, collateral and equity. Bpifrance supports them in their innovation projects and internationally. Bpifrance also ensures their export activity through a wide range of products. www.Bpifrance.fr


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Contact

Treble
Ethan Parker
sightcall@treblepr.com

Source : SightCall

HKTB STEPS UP VARIOUS PROMOTIONS TO DRIVE TOURISM RECOVERY

 

^{HKTB Chairman Dr YK Pang (left) and Executive Director Mr Dane Cheng (right) shared their analysis of recent tourism trends and HKTB’s latest strategic planning. (Photo: Business Wire)}


HONG KONG, May 19 (Bernama-BUSINESS WIRE) -- The Hong Kong Tourism Board (HKTB) held its annual Tourism Update event online on 18 May, discussing tourism trends and sharing details of the HKTB’s latest strategic plans with around 2,700 trade representatives from HK, mainland and overseas travel agencies, attractions, hotels, airlines, retailers, restaurants, meeting and exhibition operators, cruise lines, and other travel sectors. HKTB Executive Director Mr Dane Cheng told the representatives the HKTB was preparing to step up promotions and would launch a new round of the Hong Kong Neighbourhoods campaign. In addition, the HKTB also hopes to relaunch mega events in physical formats to prepare for tourism recovery.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210519005407/en/

 

Mr Cheng said: “As well as driving local tourism through the Holiday at Home platform, the HKTB has maintained HK’s international profile with a succession of promotional campaigns throughout the pandemic.

“The global economy has started to rebound with Asia predicted to recover sooner and the Mainland expected to outperform other markets in economic growth. Combined with the gradual easing of the pandemic situation in HK, this makes it a good time for HK to further raise its profile. As cross-border travel gradually resumes, the HKTB will launch the Open House Hong Kong platform to conduct large-scale promotions in our source markets.”

The HKTB has in recent years launched two promotions, Old Town Central and Sham Shui Po, under its Hong Kong Neighbourhoods campaign. Both were warmly welcomed by visitors who appreciated the in-depth experience they offered. To tie in with the opening of M+ visual culture venue in late 2021, the HKTB will focus its next promotion on the West Kowloon Cultural District and its surrounding area in the next quarter by revamping the promotions on the authentic local cultural aspects of the neighbourhood to help boost interest from visitors as travel resumption draws closer.

If the pandemic situation in the city remains under control, the HKTB also hopes to relaunch mega events that HK people can initially take part in. The first event to return in a physical format will be the Hong Kong Cyclothon, and the HKTB is studying the feasibility of extending its route to the HK Section of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge to add to the event’s appeal. For other mega events to be conducted in an “Online+Offline” format, new elements of interests will be added to maintain HK’s global visibility. The HKTB will also continue to lobby for international large-scale business events and meetings to be hosted in HK.

However, the pace of global tourism recovery will be determined by the situation surrounding the pandemic and the vaccination rate worldwide. The HKTB therefore appeals to everyone in tourism-related industries to take part in the vaccination programme and help HK achieve herd immunity as soon as possible.

At the event, the HKTB invited representatives from leading Mainland and HK brands to share their insights:

Forum 1: Seize the Business Development Opportunities in the Mainland and Greater Bay Area

Mr Yanxiang Liu, GM of Tickets & Travel BU, Meituan: “In the wake of the epidemic, the travel industry has accelerated its online transformation, and consumer behaviour and demand have changed. Meituan will leverage the strengths of technology and e-commerce to provide a diverse consumer experience and help HK's tourism industry better grasp market trends, allowing us to work together to build a vision for a better life.”

Mr Liwei Yang, Head of Volcengine Culture & Tourism Industry, ByteDance: “The idea that ‘content is king’ has become the key to success in digital marketing. Data analysis plays a very important role in the widespread communication of content. ByteDance will continue to maximise its capabilities in big data analysis, cloud computing and artificial intelligence to move forward with our industry partners.”

Mr Frank Huang, VP, Fliggy: “The convenience brought by the Hong Kong- Zhuhai-Macao Bridge will further increased the demand for travel within the Greater Bay Area. Fliggy will continue to work with the HK tourism trade to attract visitors from the Greater Bay Area through a variety of promotional platforms and drive tourism development.”

Forum 2: Global Hong Kong Brands Gear Up for the Recovery

Dr Jennifer Cronin, President, Wharf Hotels and Chair, Heritage Tourism Brands: “Hong Kong’s hotels are renowned for offering the world’s best service. Not only has the quality been enhanced during the pandemic, but we have also committed to be ahead of the curve in guest expectations under the new travel paradigms. I believe the HK tourism industry is more than ready and geared up for a swift recovery.”

Mr Simon Large, Director Customer, Cathay Pacific Airways: “To meet travellers' expectation throughout their consumer journey, we believe that digitalization, such as digital travel passes in the aviation industry, will play an important role in facilitating the safe, progressive return of international travel. Moreover, we also believe that vaccination is the key of tourism recovery.”

Mr Eric Gnock Fah, COO & Co-founder, KLOOK: “We are witnessing a permanent shift in consumer behaviours and digital adoption will only accelerate further. While the pandemic has brought many challenges to the travel industry, it also presents an opportunity to rethink and reinvent to address evolving customer expectations or risk being left behind.”

Mr Syed Asim Hussain, Founder, Black Sheep Restaurants: “I believe in the magic of Black Sheep Restaurants and I believe in our city. HK is going to come back in a big way, and we will be a part of the city’s comeback story. For the last two years, we have focused on survival. Now it is time for us to get back to doing what we love, which is running great restaurants, building dynamic teams and looking after our guests.”

View source version on businesswire.com:
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Contact

Ms Alice Li
Email: alice.li@hktb.com

Ms Chanda Cheung
Email: chanda.cheung@hktb.com

Source : Hong Kong Tourism Board

NEW RESEARCH SHOWS 75% OF APAC ORGANISATIONS BELIEVE ZERO TRUST FRAMEWORKS ARE VERY IMPORTANT FOLLOWING COVID-19

 

Study uncovers C-level attitudes on secure access as enterprises embrace the Everywhere Workplace


SYDNEY, May 18 (Bernama-BUSINESS WIRE) -- Ivanti Inc., the automation platform that makes every IT connection smarter and more secure, today unveiled the findings of a Frost & Sullivan study it commissioned, entitled “Embracing Secure Access in a World of Rapidly Expanding Virtual Borders” – which investigates the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on cybersecurity and compliance attitudes and behaviors in Singapore, Australia and New Zealand.

Examining the impact of COVID-19 on business demand and cybersecurity strategies

The pandemic has negatively impacted business for enterprises in the Asia Pacific region. Most respondents experienced a moderate 1-9 percent reduction in business demand, with Australia having the highest percentage of respondents reported (80 percent), compared to those in New Zealand (73 percent) and Singapore (59 percent).

Overall, 38 percent of respondents said that their main strategy was to focus on IT operations to maintain business operations for their remote workforce during COVID-19. However, more than 40 percent of the respondents in Australia and New Zealand stated that they focused more on cybersecurity to better protect their organisation from attacks.

When it comes to cloud adoption during COVID-19, most respondents indicated their organisation adopted cloud more during the pandemic, especially those in Australia and New Zealand, with 64 percent and 57 percent of respondents agreeing that their organisation adopted cloud more during the pandemic respectively.

Devising the right security formula for today’s hybrid, adaptive modern enterprise

Consolidation and integration of solutions was ‘very important’ to 71 percent of respondents across Singapore, Australia, and New Zealand.

At the same time, the importance of zero trust frameworks increased across the board with 75 percent of all enterprises surveyed during the pandemic stating that this was very important, compared to the 64 percent that stated the same before the pandemic.

With cybercriminals now targeting the underlying technologies that support a growing remote workforce, manual, disparate security tools are not going to be sustainable for IT teams.

Enterprises are therefore recommended to adopt a strategic approach that focuses on:

• Complete visibility and centralised control by deploying solutions that provide a single view of threats, technology management, vulnerabilities and perceived risks across an organisation’s entire environment. When enterprises enter the market for new security vendors, the key features they need to look for include threat detection and response, penetration testing, vulnerability testing and scanning and security technology management.

• Support for multi-cloud and diverse environments - In order to address the mounting challenge of protecting globally dispersed data and compute environments, it is critical that the modern enterprise’s security stance encompasses assets in all environments, whether on-premises, public clouds, private clouds, or a mixed setup.

Kenny Yeo, Associate Director and Head of Asia Pacific Cyber Security Practice at Frost & Sullivan, said, “To secure digital assets in the new Everywhere Workplace, security leaders need complete visibility into all endpoints that connect to their networks. They also need to ensure that only trusted users, devices, and applications can access corporate resources. Deploying an integrated security platform that features best-in-class contextual automation and zero trust capabilities is the best way to reduce the risk of breaches and future-proof businesses.”

Michael Waring, VP Asia Pacific & Japan, Ivanti Security Solutions Group (SSG), said, “In changing the way we work, COVID-19 has also created new security challenges for organizations. As employees, we are increasingly mobile and remote, and we use an ever-changing combination of networks and devices – some of which could be vulnerable or even compromised – to access sensitive corporate IT applications. Businesses today need to adopt a zero trust approach, which enables highly secure yet more fluid ‘anytime, anywhere’ access to applications and information in the data center or in the cloud.”

The study surveyed C-Suite respondents at large enterprises with over 500 employees, across the banking and financial services industry (BFSI), as well as retail, manufacturing and healthcare verticals.

To learn more, download the Australia and New Zealand report and the Singapore report.

About Ivanti

Ivanti makes the Everywhere Workplace possible. In the Everywhere Workplace, employees use myriad devices to access IT applications and data over various networks to stay productive as they work from anywhere. The Ivanti Neurons automation platform connects the company’s industry-leading unified endpoint management, zero trust security and enterprise service management solutions, providing a unified IT platform that enables devices to self-heal and self-secure and empowers users to self-service. Over 40,000 customers, including 78 of the Fortune 100, have chosen Ivanti to discover, manage, secure, and service their IT assets from cloud to edge, and deliver excellent end user experiences for employees, wherever and however they work. For more information, visit www.ivanti.com and follow @GoIvanti.

View source version on businesswire.com: 
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Contact

Lara Johnstone
Hotwire
lara.johnstone@hotwireglobal.com
+61 433 692 366

Source : Ivanti Inc.

BHSI NAMES DANIEL THIEVIASINGHAM SENIOR UNDERWRITER, TRANSACTIONAL LIABILITY, ASIA MIDDLE EAST

 

KUALA LUMPUR, May 17 (Bernama) -- Berkshire Hathaway Specialty Insurance (BHSI) has appointed Daniel Thieviasingham as Senior Underwriter, Transactional Liability, Asia Middle East.

“We are pleased to welcome Daniel to BHSI as we continue to expand our transactional liability capabilities across the Asia Middle East region,” said BHSI Head of Asia Middle East, Marc Breuil in a statement.

“His presence in Singapore enhances our ability to move quickly and skillfully to address the evolving transactional liability needs of customers across ASEAN and the wider region.”

Based in the Singapore office, Thieviasingham comes to BHSI with nearly a decade of experience spanning corporate finance, Mergers & Acquisitions and transactional liability insurance.

Holding Bachelor of Business and Bachelor of Law degrees from the University of Technology in Sydney, Thieviasingham was most recently at Lockton London. Prior to that, he underwrote transactional risks at Ironshore Australia.

In the Transactional Liability space, BHSI currently offers Representations & Warranties Insurance, Tax Insurance, Contingent Liability Insurance and Class Action Settlement Insurance on a global basis.

Berkshire Hathaway Specialty Insurance Company provides commercial property, casualty, healthcare professional liability, executive and professional lines, transactional liability, surety, marine, travel, programmes, accident and health, medical stop loss, homeowners, and multinational insurance.

-- BERNAMA

TESSA THERAPEUTICS ANNOUNCES POSITIVE, TOPLINE DATA FROM ONGOING PHASE 1 TRIAL OF ALLOGENEIC, "OFF-THE-SHELF" CELL THERAPY, IN PATIENTS WITH RELAPSED OR REFRACTORY CD30-POSITIVE LYMPHOMA

 

Data to be Presented Today at the ASGCT 24th Annual Meeting Demonstrated No Dose-Limiting Toxicity with Encouraging Clinical Activity in First 5 Patients Treated; Final Data Readout Expected by End of 2021


BEDMINSTER, N.J. and SINGAPORE, May 17 (Bernama-GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Tessa Therapeutics Ltd. (Tessa), a clinical-stage cell therapy company developing next-generation cancer treatments for hematological malignancies and solid tumors, today announced early clinical results for an allogeneic CD30-CAR EBVST therapy (TT11X), being co-developed by Baylor College Medicine and Tessa. The data is from an ongoing Phase 1 dose-escalation study (NCT04288726) testing TT11X in patients with CD30+ lymphomas. The results will be presented today at the 24^th Annual Meeting of American Society of Gene and Cell Therapy (ASGCT 2021).

The presentation at ASGCT 2021 will highlight data from six patients treated with the therapy. The results demonstrated a favorable safety profile with encouraging clinical activity even at lower dose levels in heavily pre-treated relapsed / refractory (R/R) CD30+ lymphoma patients. The dataset includes three patients dosed at the lowest dosing level (4 × 10⁷ CD30.CAR EBVSTs) and three at the second level (1 × 10⁸ CD30.CAR EBVSTs). Key findings summarized below:

• No serious adverse events or dose-limiting toxicities, including no evidence of graft-versus-host disease (GVHD), cytokine release syndrome or neurotoxicity syndrome
• Of the 5 patients evaluable for efficacy, disease control was observed in 3 patients, who had partial responses

The Phase 1 study aims to enroll 12-18 patients at three escalating dose levels - 4 × 10⁷ CD30.CAR EBVSTs, 1 × 10⁸ CD30.CAR EBVSTs and 4 × 10⁸ CD30.CAR EBVSTs (with this last cohort being broadly equivalent to the dose level utilized in Tessa’s autologous CD30 program). Full findings from the trial are expected to be reported by end of 2021.

“We are encouraged by the early data generated on the study. The therapy has been well tolerated with no evidence of GVHD or any severe adverse events, with encouraging clinical activity,” stated Dr. Carlos Ramos, Lead Principal Investigator, Professor at the Center for Cell and Gene Therapy and member of the Dan L Duncan Comprehensive Cancer Center at Baylor College of Medicine. “While these are preliminary results, the data gleaned from the first five patients suggest that allogeneic CD30-CAR EBVSTs may be able to overcome the safety and tolerability challenges that are common to allogenic cell therapies. We look forward to completing enrollment on the trial and further developing our understanding of this potential new therapy platform for oncology.”

Tessa is developing a proprietary allogeneic cell therapy platform based on decades-long research and development on unique properties of Virus Specific T-cells (VSTs) by Tessa’s Scientific Co-Founder, Dr. Malcolm Brenner, and the team at Baylor College of Medicine. VSTs are highly specialized T cells with the ability to recognize and kill infected cells while activating other parts of the immune system for a coordinated response. Allogeneic VSTs without any form of genetic modification have demonstrated a strong safety profile and efficacy in early trials with minimal risk of GVHD. Preclinical studies have further demonstrated that CD30 targeting potentially helps improve allogeneic cell expansion and persistence. With this platform approach, Tessa aims to overcome the current challenges faced by allogeneic cell therapies and create more efficacious, reliable, and scalable therapies capable of targeting a broad range of cancers.

“This is early but significant data supporting development of Tessa’s ‘off-the-shelf,’ allogeneic cell therapy,” stated Jeffrey H. Buchalter, President and CEO of Tessa Therapeutics. “We believe there is an enormous potential for our allogeneic CD30-CAR EBVST platform, and we remain committed to our longer-term plan to develop this platform to tackle both hematologic malignancies and solid tumors where there is significant patient need.”

About Tessa Therapeutics

Tessa Therapeutics is a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing next-generation cell therapies for the treatment of hematological cancers and solid tumors. Tessa’s lead clinical asset, TT11, is an autologous CD30 targeting CAR-T therapy currently being investigated as a potential treatment for relapsed or refractory classical Hodgkin lymphoma (Phase 2) and CD30-positive non-Hodgkin lymphoma (Phase 1). TT11 has been granted RMAT designation by the FDA and PRIME designation by European Medicine Agency. Tessa is also advancing an allogeneic “off-the shelf” cell therapy platform targeting a broad range of cancers in which Epstein Barr Virus Specific T Cells (EBVSTs) are augmented with CD30-CAR technology to prevent graft rejection. A therapy using this platform is currently the subject of a Phase 1 clinical trial in CD30-positive lymphoma. A third clinical asset evaluates novel combination therapy of HER2-CAR-T cells and binary oncolytic virus in an ongoing Phase 1 study targeting HER2 positive solid tumors. Tessa has its global headquarters in Singapore, where the company has built a state of the art, commercial cell therapy manufacturing facility. Tessa’s United States headquarters are in New Jersey. For more information on Tessa, please visit www.tessacell.com.

Cautionary Note on Forward Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements (within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, to the fullest extent applicable) including, without limitation, with respect to various regulatory filings or clinical study developments of the Company. You can identify these statements by the fact that they use words such as “anticipate”, “estimate”, “expect”, “project”, “intend”, “plan”, “believe”, “target”, “may”, “assume” or similar expressions. Any forward-looking statements in this press release are based on management’s current expectations and beliefs and are subject to a number of risks, uncertainties and important factors that may cause actual events or results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by any forward-looking statements contained in this press release, including, without limitation, those related to the Company’s financial results, the ability to raise capital, dependence on strategic partnerships and licensees, the applicability of patents and proprietary technology, the timing for completion of the clinical trials of its product candidates, whether and when, if at all, the Company’s product candidates will receive marketing approval, and competition from other biopharmaceutical companies. The Company cautions you not to place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date they are made, and disclaims any obligation to publicly update or revise any such statements to reflect any change in expectations or in events, conditions or circumstances on which any such statements may be based, or that may affect the likelihood that actual results will differ from those set forth in the forward-looking statements. Any forward-looking statements contained in this press release represent the Company’s views only as of the date hereof and should not be relied upon as representing its views as of any subsequent date. The Company’s products are expressly for investigational use pursuant to a relevant investigational device exemption granted by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration, or equivalent competent body.

Tessa Therapeutics Media Contact
Tiberend Strategic Advisors, Inc.
Johanna Bennett
+1-212-375-2686
jbennett@tiberend.com

Dave Schemelia
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Ingrid Mezo 
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SOURCE : Tessa Therapeutics Ltd

BLUESTAR GENOMICS SECURES US$70 MILLION FUNDING, EXPANDS SCIENTIFIC ADVISORY BOARD

 

KUALA LUMPUR, May 17 (Bernama) -- Bluestar Genomics, an innovative company leading the development of next-generation epigenomic approaches to early cancer detection has raised US$70 million in new equity funding. (US$1 = RM4.134)

Led with the increased funding by the current investor, Mattias Westman, founding partner of Prosperity Capital Management, the oversubscribed Series C round includes several existing investors and multiple new investors.

This includes Pathology Asia Holdings Pte Ltd (Pathology Asia), the largest independent medical diagnostics group in Southeast Asia, as well as a venture fund based in San Francisco, CA, and a large, diversified asset manager on the west coast.

According to a statement, VAHOCA Pte Ltd acted as financial adviser to Bluestar Genomics.

Separately, the company announced its Scientific Advisory Board expansion with the appointment of Drs. Felix Feng, professor of radiation oncology, urology, and medicine, University of California San Francisco, and Craig Venter, Ph.D., chairman and chief executive officer of the J. Craig Venter Institute.

With the new appointment, Feng and Venter are joining Alan Ashworth, Ph.D., FRS, president, Helen Diller Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of California, San Francisco.

Series C investments and scientific advisory board membership expansion are largely inspired by Bluestar Genomics’ groundbreaking technology platform that employs state-of-the-art machine learning coupled with the 5-hydroxymethylcytosine as a screening method to detect cancer in multiple organs in men and women.

The company’s novel approach has recently demonstrated positive results in two studies published in Nature Communications and earned the FDA’s breakthrough device designation for the company’s proprietary non-invasive pancreatic cancer detection test.

More details at www.bluestargenomics.com.

-- BERNAMA