MAWI ISWAB MICROBIOME-EL ENABLES PRIME DISCOVERIES' DEVELOPMENT OF COVIDDETECT™

KUALA LUMPUR, April 26 (Bernama) -- Mawi DNA Technologies (Mawi), a biotechnology company focusing on the development of innovative technologies for biosampling, announced that Prime Discoveries has successfully developed CovidDetect™, a rapid isothermal amplification diagnostic assay for detecting SARS-CoV-2.

Without the need for RNA extraction and purification, the sample result occurs in less than 30 minutes, according to a statement.

The assay uses Mawi’s new iSWAB Microbiome-EL (Extraction-Less) sample collection technology. This allows RNA release from the sample and maintains stability, protecting it from degradation and allowing room temperature storage and transport.

Chief Science Officer at Prime Discoveries, Arun Manoharan, Ph.D. said: “Our work with COVID has shown stable performance of the Mawi iSWAB Microbiome-EL for hundreds of clinical samples with similar or superior performance to RT-PCR solutions.

“Our partnership with Mawi enables Prime Discoveries to develop room temperature sampling with Extraction-Less capabilities for our rapid diagnostic solutions in many areas. These include influenza, chlamydia, gonorrhea, trichomonas, HBV, HCV, HPV, TB, herpes, syphilis, etc. 

Prime Discoveries recently received CE IVD marking for CovidDetect™ and plans to pursue FDA 510K approval soon.

Clinical results from Prime CovidDetect™ have been peer reviewed and recently published in PLOS ONE under ‘A Rapid, Specific, Extraction-Less, and Cost-Effective RT-LAMP Test for the Detection of SARS-CoV-2 in Clinical Specimens’.

The CE marking allows deployment of a solution to countries in Africa and Asia where rapid, inexpensive diagnostics for various infections with minimal technical expertise and equipment infrastructure is highly required.

Prime CovidDetect™ leverages Mawi’s unique iSWAB Microbiome-EL sample collection buffer with Prime Discoveries’ patented Loop AMPlification (LAMP) technology. This allows isothermal nucleic acid amplification removing the need for expensive thermal cycling equipment required for PCR. 

Founded in 2013, Mawi DNA Technologies has developed and commercialised the iSWAB technology, an innovative system for collection of biosamples.

More details at http://www.mawidna.com.

-- BERNAMA

DIGITAL WALLETS TRANSACTION VALUE EXCEEDS US$12 TRILLION IN 2026 - JUNIPER RESEARCH

KUALA LUMPUR, April 26 (Bernama) -- A new study from Juniper Research has found the value of digital wallet transactions will exceed US$12 trillion in 2026, from US$7.5 trillion in 2022. (US$1 = RM4.350)

To capitalise on this substantial growth, the research predicts leading digital payment vendors will diversify their payment products to include new solutions, such as buy-now-pay-later and cryptocurrencies.

Digital wallets are software-based systems that securely store users’ payment information for many payment methods in one location.

The new research, Digital Wallets: Key Opportunities, Vendor Analysis and Market Forecasts 2022-2026, found increasing merchant acceptance of digital wallet methods at eCommerce checkouts has been a driving force behind enabling further digital wallets use.

It predicts APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) that connect financial institutions to local retailers will be key to the international growth of digital wallets usage for large, cross-border eCommerce merchants.

According to a statement, the research also recommends that digital wallet vendors look to offer value-added services, such as loyalty rewards and credit, to diversify their revenue streams; capitalising on a highly active user base.

Juniper Research’s Competitor Leaderboard for the digital wallets market has identified the five leading market vendors as follows: 1.PayPal; 2.Alipay; 3.WeChat Pay; 4.Apple Pay; 5.Google Pay.

Juniper Research’s Competitor Leaderboard provides an independent assessment of the market standing of the leading digital wallets players. It includes a robust and transparent assessment methodology, including heatmap analysis and a thorough explanation of each company’s market position.

The Leaderboard tool assesses each vendor’s capacity, capability, and products. This analysis includes assessing the size of their operations, financial performance and the sophistication of their digital wallets offerings.

-- BERNAMA

Juniper Research: Global regtech spend exceeds US$204 billion by 2026

KUALA LUMPUR, April 21 (Bernama) -- A new study from Juniper Research has found that global regtech spend will exceed US$204 billion by 2026; accounting for over 50 per cent of all regulatory compliance spend for the first time. (US$1 = RM4.283)

According to a statement, this spend will grow from US$68 billion in 2022; representing growth of over 200 per cent over the next four years.

The report identified the integration of regtech services with BaaS (Banking-as-a-Service) models as key to realising this future market growth.

The new research, Regtech: Emerging Trends, Regulatory Impact & Market Forecasts 2022‑2026, predicts that BaaS models, which include outsourcing regtech services such as digital onboarding, will be key in accelerating AI-based automation for online document verification and KYC (Know Your Customer) processes.

AI-powered onboarding enables financial institutions to benefit from real-time progress reporting and automation, which help meet rising client expectations and reduce compliance cost.

According to the research, 26 per cent of digital onboarding processes in the banking market will use AI systems by 2026, compared to just eight per cent in 2022.

Beyond digital onboarding, the report suggests that regtech will leverage BaaS models to swiftly expand the use of AI in banking for more comprehensive tasks, including fraud detection and mitigation.

Research author Harshada Thok explains: “Whilst the current benefits of AI are clear to regtech vendors, the immediate focus must be on ensuring the algorithms are fed the most relevant data to maximise their efficiency in verifying digital identities and future use cases. 

“In turn, this will provide a differentiation point for regtech vendors in an increasingly competitive market.”

Juniper Research provides research and analytical services to the global hi-tech communications sector; providing consultancy, analyst reports, and industry commentary.

-- BERNAMA

ZOOM WHITEBOARD, THE COLLABORATION CANVAS FOR HYBRID TEAMS, NOW AVAILABLE

New Solution Enables Real-time and Asynchronous Dispersed Collaboration

SAN JOSE, Calif., April 20 (Bernama-GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Today, Zoom Video Communications, Inc. announced the general availability of Zoom Whiteboard, a modern digital canvas that provides a unified solution for collaboration and creation within the Zoom platform. Users can interact with the Zoom Whiteboard similar to an in-person experience, creating more visually engaging and efficient collaboration. With the global workforce embracing hybrid work environments across industries, there is an increased need for solutions that seamlessly foster ideation and teamwork among co-located and distributed colleagues. Zoom Whiteboard further broadens the capabilities of the Zoom platform for today’s hybrid workforce, including unified communications, Zoom Developer Platform, Zoom Events, Zoom Contact Center, and Zoom IQ for Sales.

“Collaboration tools are in high demand, and Zoom Whiteboard is sure to be a staple in the modern workforce,” said Dan Root, Senior Analyst of Visual Collaboration, Wainhouse Research. “Zoom brings over a decade’s worth of experience in exceptional video communications to this new solution, which businesses need to keep information flowing in a secure and easily-managed fashion.”

“Not only are we supporting customers as they adapt to this new phase of work, but we’re anticipating what comes next, and building platform solutions, like Zoom Whiteboard, to address it,” said Oded Gal, Chief Product Officer of Zoom. “Zoom Whiteboard is arming teams with the power of continuous communication in an easy-to-use solution that provides a virtual space to collaborate before, during, and after a meeting.” 

http://mrem.bernama.com/viewsm.php?idm=42969

Delphix to accelerate growth with new executives' appointments

KUALA LUMPUR, April 8 (Bernama) -- Delphix, the industry leader in DevOps Test Data Management (TDM), has announced the appointments of Tammi Warfield to Chief Customer Officer and Alex Hesterberg to Chief Strategy Officer.

“We are excited about the leadership scale that both Tammi and Alex will bring to our customers, partners, and team,” said President at Delphix, Steven Chung, in a statement.

“They have excellent track records of accelerating growth by hiring great talent, improving performance, and creating a culture of customer value. Tammi and Alex also bring public company experience to our executive team as we expand our operations globally.”

As the Chief Customer Officer, Warfield leads onboarding, professional services, customer success, and support for Delphix worldwide with a focus on building and delivering a world class Customer Experience through all stages of the customer lifecycle.

Warfield joined Delphix from Microsoft, where she served as VP, Worldwide Customer Success for the Business Applications Group, a multi-billion dollar division. Prior to Microsoft, she served in numerous customer success and services leadership roles at BMC Software.

Meanwhile, as Delphix’s new Chief Strategy Officer, Hesterberg leads strategic partnerships, OEMs, channels, solutions and systems engineering teams supporting the company’s technology innovation, corporate development and go-to-market efforts.

Prior to joining Delphix, he served as Chief Customer Officer at Turbonomic. Prior to Turbonomic, Hesterberg served in executive customer success, presales, and services roles at Pure Storage (IPO in 2015), Sailthru (acquired by CM Group) and Riverbed Technology (IPO in 2006).

More details at www.delphix.com.

-- BERNAMA

STACK INFRASTRUCTURE UNVEILS SENIOR LEADERSHIP APPOINTMENTS FOR EMEA REGION

KUALA LUMPUR, April 4 (Bernama) -- STACK Infrastructure (STACK), the digital infrastructure partner to the world’s most innovative companies, announced the appointments of two experienced data centre industry professionals to its EMEA leadership team.

According to a statement, John Eland has joined as Chief Executive Officer, STACK EMEA and Adam Tamburini assumes the post of Chief Hyperscale Officer, STACK EMEA.

“We’re thrilled to welcome John to the STACK team to drive our strategy and operations in the EMEA region,” said Chairman of the Board of STACK, Phil Koen.

“We are also excited to welcome Adam, another proven leader in the data centre industry. We are confident he will be successful in supporting John and the EMEA leadership team on growing and enhancing relationships with key hyperscalers.”

Eland joins STACK with over 22 years of experience across the data centre, telecom and investment sectors. Most recently, he served as Chief Strategy Officer of the Global Data Centers division at NTT Ltd, a London-based global technology services company.

Meanwhile, Tamburini has decades of experience in the data centre industry in sales and development and construction. Most recently, he served as SVP Hyperscale Sales at NTT where he was responsible for sales and customer relationships globally with the hyperscale accounts. 

With robust existing and flexible expansion capacity in the leading availability zones, STACK offers the scale and geographic reach that rapidly growing hyperscale and enterprise companies need.

-- BERNAMA

Adagio: 1st monoclonal antibody adintrevimab meets primary endpoints with statistical significance

KUALA LUMPUR, March 31 (Bernama) -- Adagio Therapeutics Inc, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, reported that the primary endpoints were met with statistical significance for all three indications in the company’s ongoing global Phase 2/3 clinical trials evaluating its investigational drug adintrevimab (ADG20) as a pre-and-post-exposure prophylaxis (EVADE) and treatment (STAMP) for COVID-19.

According to a statement, EVADE and STAMP were primarily conducted during a time when pre-Omicron SARS-CoV-2 variants were dominant.

Following the emergence of the Omicron variant, in a pre-specified exploratory analysis in a subset of the pre-exposure cohort, a clinically meaningful reduction in cases of symptomatic COVID-19 was observed with adintrevimab compared to placebo.

Across both trials, a single intramuscular (IM) administration of adintrevimab at the 300mg dose had a similar safety profile to that of placebo.

Based on these data, Adagio plans to engage with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and to submit an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) application in the second quarter of 2022 for adintrevimab for both the prevention and treatment of COVID-19.

In addition, Adagio provided an update on its ongoing Phase 1 study evaluating adintrevimab at higher doses and on research activities related to adintrevimab re-engineering and the identification of new antibodies to potentially address COVID-19 and other viruses.

“Based on the data from both EVADE and STAMP, including the impacts observed in preliminary analyses from participants enrolled after the emergence of the Omicron variant, our team is initiating discussions with the FDA and preparing an EUA submission for adintrevimab,” said David Hering, MBA, interim chief executive officer and chief operating officer of Adagio.

“With more than one million doses of adintrevimab secured for 2022 and a solid financial position expected to take us into the second half of 2024, we are optimistic about the road ahead and the impact adintrevimab could have for the many people around the globe, particularly those at high risk with co-morbidities, who continue to need options.”

In the same statement, the company also reported Full Year and Fourth Quarter 2021 Financial Results. Cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities were US$591.4 million as of Dec 31, 2021. (US$1 = RM4.201)

Based on current operating plans, Adagio expects its existing cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities will enable the company to fund its operating expenses and capital expenditure requirements into the second half of 2024.

Research and development (R&D) expenses, including in-process research and development expenses, were US$68.4 million for the quarter ended Dec 31, 2021, and US$190.4 million for the year ended Dec 31, 2021.

In addition, selling, general and administrative (SG&A) expenses were US$14.7 million for the quarter ended Dec 31, 2021, and US$36.5 million for the year ended Dec 31, 2021.

More details at www.adagiotx.com.

-- BERNAMA