November 29, 2021

UnionPay International partners with M2M to drive digital transformation in Africa

CASABLANCA, Morocco, Nov. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — UnionPay International (UPI) and M2M jointly announced a partnership to accelerate digital financial transformation in Africa, creating new frontiers by leveraging two entities’ strong core capabilities and footprints.

This partnership sets an ambitious product roadmap that allows M2M to provide innovative and customer-centric payment solutions to support issuers, acquirers, fintechs, processors and aggregators across more than 40 countries worldwide.

“Becoming UPI’s certified Third Party Service Provider (TPSP) is a major milestone underscoring our drive to be a one-stop shop and a service payment platform that truly offer clients solutions covering the entire value chain of payments including issuing, acquiring and processing of expanding UPI’s transactions worldwide”, said Mr Rachid SAIHI, CEO of M2M Group. “Thanks to this partnership, M2M Group will be among the first payments actors in Africa to provide end to end processing solutions for UPI’s transactions”.

“We are delighted to collaborate with M2M to facilitate the digital financial transformation in Africa”, said Mr Luping Zhang, General Manager of Africa Branch, UnionPay International. ” UnionPay International continues to offer high quality, cost-effective, innovative payment services through shared growth in the region and contribute value towards the global payment ecosystem”.

At the forefront of the digital era, M2M Group leverages more than 30 years of worldwide innovation and expertise. M2M Group is a leading software company that provides multichannel electronic payments and eGov solutions and services that enable convenience and trust for anyone, anywhere, anytime, and any device. M2M Group’s solutions address a wide range of applications accelerating digital convergence, enhancing user experience and boosting business agility and profitability. M2M Group is listed on Casablanca’s Stock Exchange.

With over 160 million UnionPay cards issued outside of mainland China, UnionPay has expanded its acceptance network to 180 countries and regions in recent years. At present, UnionPay cards are widely accepted in Africa across all sectors, effectively meeting the diverse purchasing needs of UnionPay cardholders visiting and living on the continent. Over 10 African countries have issued UnionPay cards, including Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Ghana, South Africa, eSwatini, Madagascar and Mauritius. The Nilson Report (Issue 1154) shows that UnionPay ranks first among all card schemes in card issuance and transaction volume. UnionPay has launched various innovative payment products in Africa in response to the worldwide digital transformation and financial inclusion.

November 29, 2021

Adagio Therapeutics Reports That None of the Mutations Present in SARS-CoV-2 Variant, Omicron, Are Associated with Escape from ADG20 Neutralization In Vitro

Additional in vitro studies to determine neutralization activity of ADG20 against Omicron are ongoing

ADG20 EUA submissions planned for prevention and treatment of COVID-19 in mid-2022

Inventory build continues in anticipation of EUA in second half of 2022, with 4 million doses available for distribution over the next two years

WALTHAM, Mass., Nov. 29, 2021 (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 provided information related to the potential of its lead SARS-CoV-2 antibody, ADG20, to address the Omicron SARS-CoV-2 variant, and other known variants of concern. ADG20 is an investigational monoclonal antibody (mAb) product candidate designed to provide broad and potent neutralizing activity against SARS-CoV-2, including variants of concern, for the prevention and treatment of COVID-19 with potential duration of protection for up to one year in a single injection.

“The continued global scale of the COVID-19 pandemic has led to increased levels of immune pressure on the virus, which is driving the emergence of variants containing mutations associated with escape from common classes of neutralizing antibodies induced by natural infection or vaccination. Unlike most antibodies currently available under EUA, ADG20 has been shown to target an epitope that is highly conserved among clade I sarbecoviruses and that is not readily targeted by the endogenous neutralizing antibody response,” said Laura Walker, Ph.D., co-founder and chief scientific officer of Adagio. “Due to the highly conserved and immunorecessive nature of the epitope recognized by ADG20, we expect that ADG20 will retain activity against Omicron, as we have observed in in vitro models with all other variants of concern identified previously. Further, none of the mutations present in the spike protein of the Omicron variant have been associated with escape from ADG20 neutralization. ADG20 was engineered for potent and broadly neutralizing activity in anticipation of both the rapid antigenic evolution of SARS-CoV-2 and the emergence of future SARS-like viruses with pandemic potential.”

“ADG20 was uniquely designed to combine breadth, potency and duration of protection against SARS-CoV-2 for up to one year in a single injection. We did this anticipating that SARS-CoV-2 would continue to evolve and potentially render some early therapies and vaccines obsolete,” said Tillman Gerngross, Ph.D., co-founder and chief executive officer of Adagio. “Our global clinical trials are advancing with potential EUA submissions in mid-2022 for both prevention and treatment of COVID-19. We continue to engage with the FDA and other regulatory bodies and governmental agencies to discuss potential acceleration of development plans and the need for a portfolio of therapeutic solutions to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Given the significant potential health crisis resulting from the emergence of Omicron, Adagio is undertaking a number of activities to support ADG20’s utility in addressing this newly emerged variant of concern, including:

Conducting in vitro studies to evaluate the expected binding and neutralizing activity of ADG20 against Omicron. Initial data from these studies is anticipated by the end of the year; and
Recruiting patients in Adagio’s Phase 2/3 COVID-19 treatment trial, known as STAMP, across several clinical sites in South Africa (along with ongoing clinical trial efforts globally) in an effort to generate clinical data for ADG20 against infections due to the Omicron variant.

Based on the data being generated, Adagio plans to engage with health authorities and government agencies to accelerate development and supply of ADG20 to combat SARS-CoV-2 and its variants of concern.

ADG20 and Variants of Concern
The neutralizing antibody response induced by SARS-CoV-2 infection and vaccination is dominated by three classes of receptor binding domain (RBD)-directed antibodies (Class 1, Class 2 and Class 3), which often share common escape mutations. The newly emerged Omicron (B.1.1.529) variant identified in South Africa contains mutations associated with resistance to a large proportion of these commonly elicited antibodies, which may be due to immune pressure on these antigenic sites. Data for most antibodies available under EUA or in late-stage clinical development show they target one of these three dominant antigenic regions within the RBD.

In vitro studies have shown that ADG20 binds to a highly conserved epitope within the RBD that is not targeted by any of the common classes of neutralizing antibodies induced by SARS-CoV-2 infection and vaccination. Thus, unlike many other clinical-stage antibodies, which were isolated from COVID-19 patients and recognize epitopes that are also targeted by endogenous neutralizing antibodies, there is limited immune pressure on the ADG20 binding site. The ADG20 epitope has remained conserved in 99.99% of the nearly 4 million full length SARS-CoV-2 viral sequences deposited in the GISAID database as of October 15, 2021, and, as shown in in vitro studies, ADG20 retains activity against prior variants of concern including Alpha, Beta, Delta, and Gamma. For the Omicron variant, none of the mutations present in the spike protein are associated with escape from ADG20 neutralization. Based on published epitope mapping and structural studies, Adagio anticipates that ADG20 will retain neutralizing activity against the Omicron variant whereas other mAb products may lose substantial activity against this variant.

Previously disclosed in vitro data demonstrated retained neutralizing activity of ADG20 against a diverse panel of circulating SARS-CoV-2 variants, including the recently emerged Lambda, Mu and Delta plus variants. Notably, findings from these in vitro studies showed that ADG20 demonstrated potent neutralizing activity against all SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern tested, including those with reduced susceptibility to mAb products currently available under EUA or in late-stage development.

About ADG20
ADG20, an investigational monoclonal antibody targeting the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2 and related coronaviruses, is advancing through global clinical trials for the prevention and treatment of COVID-19, the disease caused by SARS-CoV-2. ADG20 was designed and engineered 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. ADG20 has demonstrated potent neutralizing activity against the original SARS-CoV-2 virus, SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern Alpha, Beta, Delta, and Gamma, other SARS-CoV-2 variants to date, and additional SARS-like viruses in preclinical studies. ADG20 is administered in clinical trials by a single intramuscular injection. To date, ADG20 has been well-tolerated in a Phase 1 trial 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. 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 timing of our planned EUA submissions, initiation, modification and completion of studies or trials and related preparatory work, the period during which the results of the trials will become available and our research and development programs; the expected neutralizing activity of ADG20 against the Omicron variant; our ability to obtain and maintain regulatory approvals for, our product candidates; our ability to identify patients, including in specific populations, with the diseases treated by our product candidates and to enroll these patients in our clinical trials; our expectations regarding the scope of any approved indication for ADG20; and the risk/benefit profile of our product candidates to patients; our manufacturing capabilities and strategy, including plans for doses available in the near future; and our ability to successfully commercialize our product candidates. 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, 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. 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 June 30, 2021 and in Adagio’s future reports to be filed with the SEC, including Adagio’s Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2021. 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

November 29, 2021

FAB reiterates basketball relaunching

Benguela – Basketball in Angola is being re-launched and needs the support of the whole society, the head of Angolan Basketball Federation (FAB) Moniz Silva said Saturday.

Speaking at the end of the first phase of the FIBA World Basketball Cup qualification Asia held in Angola’s coastal Benguela province, Moniz Silva underscored the new stage the Angolan basketball is going through that requires time and patience from the fans for the national team to return to conquer trophies in Africa again.

“The renewal process is gradual, there is a group of forty players with possibilities of being selected” he said.

The FAB official said he considers as normal the solo defeat the national team had in the qualifier since Angola had faced a much stronger team.

“Here we had only half of those who were in Rwanda and we knew the risk we were taking. In the next window we will be stronger”, Mr. Silva said, adding that besides the supply of material the training component is also one of the priorities of the federation for basketball to be widespread nationwide.

Source: Angola Press News Agency

November 29, 2021

National team finish sixth in FIBA World Cup qualifying point’s average

Benguela – Angola national basketball team ended the first phase of the FIBA World Cup in the sixth position with 209 points corresponding to an average 69.7 points per game.

Angolans just finished above Guinea (7th place) with 204 points, equivalent to 68.0 points average and Central Africa Republic in the 8th position with 183 points and 61.0 points average.

Nigeria finished at the top among the countries in the two groups (A and C) that competed in Angola southern Benguela province after reaching 238 points an average of 79.3, followed by Côte d’ Ivoire with 229 an average 76.3 per match and Uganda in third position with 212, average 70.2 points per match.

In Group A, Nigeria is in first position with 5 points, the same as Mali in second, Uganda is third with 4, while Cape Verde is fourth with 4 points.

In group C, Cote d`Ivoire was first with 6 points, followed by Angola with 5, Guinea with 4 and Central African Republic with 3.

Source: Angola Press News Agency

November 29, 2021

Government holds public consultation for projects to combat drought

Ondjiva – The Ministry of Energy and Water on Wednesday (01), in Cunene province, held the public consultation act of the structuring projects to combat drought in Curoca and Cahama municipalities.

The referred study is part of the Emergency Programme to Fight Drought in Cunene province, described in lots 7, 8 and 9.

The act will take place in Oncócua commune, Curoca municipal headquarters, 340 kilometres from Ondjiva city, under the guidance of the Minister of Energy and Water, João Baptista Borges.

It aims to make public and private entities, local civil society organisations, as well as people interested in the referred municipalities, aware of the projects under development and collect their impressions and recommendations in order to ensure the best solutions for the region.

The solutions to be presented include the construction of a dam on the Caculuvar River in the Cova do Leão section, 17 metres high with capacity to store 25 million m³ of water.

Also part of the programme is the construction of water supply systems for the Cahama and Otchinjau Communes from the Cova do Leão catchment.

Source: Angola Press News Agency

November 29, 2021

New Twitter CEO Steps From Behind the Scenes to High Profile

Newly named Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal has emerged from behind the scenes to take over one of Silicon Valley’s highest-profile and politically volatile jobs.

But his prior lack of name recognition, coupled with a solid technical background, appears to be what some big company backers were looking for to lead Twitter out of its current morass.

A 37-year-old immigrant from India, Agrawal comes from outside the ranks of celebrity CEOs, which include the man he’s replacing, Jack Dorsey, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg or SpaceX and Tesla’s Elon Musk. Those brand-name company founders and leaders have often been in the news — and on Twitter — for exploits beyond the day-to-day running of their companies.

Having served as Twitter’s chief technology officer for the past four years, Agrawal’s appointment was seen by Wall Street as a choice of someone who will focus on ushering Twitter into what’s widely seen as the internet’s next era — the metaverse.

Agrawal is a “‘safe’ pick who should be looked upon as favorably by investors,” wrote CFRA Research analyst Angelo Zino, who noted that Twitter shareholder Elliott Management Corp. had pressured Dorsey to step down.

Elliott released a statement Monday saying Agrawal and new board chairman Bret Taylor were the “right leaders for Twitter at this pivotal moment for the company.” Taylor is president and chief operating officer of the business software company Salesforce.

Agrawal joins a growing cadre of Indian American CEOs of large tech companies, including Sundar Pichai of Google parent Alphabet, Microsoft’s Satya Nadella and IBM’s Arvind Krishna.

He joined San Francisco-based Twitter in 2011, when it had just 1,000 employees, and has been its chief technical officer since 2017. At the end of last year, the company had a workforce of 5,500.

Agrawal previously worked at Microsoft, Yahoo and AT&T in research roles. At Twitter, he’s worked on machine learning, revenue and consumer engineering and helping with audience growth. He studied at Stanford and the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay.

While Twitter has high-profile users like politicians and celebrities and is a favorite of journalists, its user base lags far behind old rivals like Facebook and YouTube and newer ones like TikTok. It has just over 200 million daily active users, a common industry metric.

As CEO, Agrawal will have to step beyond the technical details and deal with the social and political issues Twitter and social media are struggling with. Those include misinformation, abuse and effects on mental health.

Agrawal got a fast introduction to life as CEO of a high-profile company that’s one of the central platforms for political speech online. Conservatives quickly unearthed a tweet he sent in 2010 that read “If they are not gonna make a distinction between muslims and extremists, then why should I distinguish between white people and racists.”

As some Twitter users pointed out, the 11-year-old tweet was quoting a segment on “The Daily Show,” which was referencing the firing of Juan Williams, who made a comment about being nervous about Muslims on an airplane.

Twitter did not immediately respond to a message for comment on the tweet.

Source: Voice of America

November 29, 2021

UN: Pandemic to Cost Global Tourism $2.0 Trillion in 2021

The coronavirus pandemic will cost the global tourism sector $2.0 trillion in lost revenue in 2021, the U.N.’s tourism body said Monday, calling the sector’s recovery “fragile” and “slow.”

The forecast from the Madrid-based World Tourism Organization comes as Europe is grappling with a surge in infections and as a new heavily mutated COVID-19 variant, dubbed Omicron, spreads across the globe.

International tourist arrivals will this year remain 70-75% below the 1.5 billion arrivals recorded in 2019 before the pandemic hit, a similar decline as in 2020, according to the body.

The global tourism sector already lost $2.0 trillion (1.78 trillion euros) in revenues last year due to the pandemic, according to the UNWTO, making it one of sectors hit hardest by the health crisis.

While the U.N. body charged with promoting tourism does not have an estimate for how the sector will perform next year, its medium-term outlook is not encouraging.

“Despite the recent improvements, uneven vaccination rates around the world and new Covid-19 strains” such as the Delta variant and Omicron “could impact the already slow and fragile recovery,” it said in a statement.

The introduction of fresh virus restrictions and lockdowns in several nations in recent weeks shows how “it’s a very unpredictable situation,” UNWTO head Zurab Pololikashvili told AFP.

“It’s a historical crisis in the tourism industry but again tourism has the power to recover quite fast,” he added ahead of the start of the WTO’s annual general assembly in Madrid on Tuesday.

“I really hope that 2022 will be much better than 2021.”

While international tourism has taken a hit from the outbreak of disease in the past, the coronavirus is unprecedented in its geographical spread.

In addition to virus-related travel restrictions, the sector is also grappling with the economic strain caused by the pandemic, the spike in oils prices and the disruption of supply chains, the UNWTO said.

Pololikashvili urged nations to harmonize their virus protocols and restrictions because tourists “are confused and they don’t know how to travel.”

International tourist arrivals “rebounded” during the summer season in the Northern Hemisphere thanks to increased travel confidence, rapid vaccination and the easing of entry restrictions in many nations, the UNWTO said.

“Despite the improvement in the third quarter, the pace of recovery remains uneven across world regions due to varying degrees of mobility restrictions, vaccination rates and traveller confidence,” it added.

Arrivals in some islands in the Caribbean and South Asia, and well as some destinations in southern Europe, came close to, or sometimes exceeded pre-pandemic levels in the third quarter.

Other countries, however, hardly saw any tourists at all, particularly in Asia and the Pacific, where arrivals were down 95% compared to 2019 as many destinations remained closed to non-essential travel.

A total of 46 destinations — 21% of all destinations worldwide — currently have their borders completely closed to tourists, according to the UNWTO.

A further 55 have their borders partially closed to foreign visitors, while just four nations have lifted all virus-related restrictions — Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic and Mexico.

The future of the travel sector will be in focus at the WTO annual general assembly, which will run until Friday.

The event — which brings together representatives from 159 members states of the U.N. body — was original scheduled to be held in Marrakesh.

But Morocco in late October decided not to host the event due to the rise in COVID-19 cases in many countries.

Before the pandemic, the tourism sector accounted for about 10% of the world’s gross domestic product and jobs.

Source: Voice of America

November 29, 2021

Ministry of Health, WHO, UNICEF and partners discuss advancing the nutrition agenda in Uganda

The World Health Organization (WHO), UNICEF and the country’s stakeholders on nutrition discussed advancing the nutrition agenda in Uganda in a one-day symposium, convened by the Ministry of Health, under the theme Strengthening Information System for Nutrition.

The symposium aimed to provide a platform for sharing experiences on the successes and challenges of processing and disseminating nutrition information. It focused on efforts by government and nutrition partners to strengthen the collection and management of nutrition data from the health system, both at community and facility levels, and to showcase innovations to support the digitalization of reports, analysis and use of nutrition information systems in Uganda and share experiences in linking nutrition information systems across various sectors.

Ms. Samalie Namukose, Assistant Commissioner for Nutrition at the Ugandan Ministry of Health said, “This year’s symposium comes at a time when the world stands reminded of the importance of collecting, analysing, and using data for decision making, as seen in the current COVID19 pandemic.” And Uganda, with the support of its partners and stakeholders, is working to ensure that nutrition data reflects the situation in the country and that actions are taken to close the identified gaps, she continued.

“Improved nutrition data management, dissemination, and use at national, regional, and district levels will ensure a huge push in the right direction to strengthen nutrition actions and monitor global nutrition targets,” said Dr Bodo Bongomin on behalf of WHO. He later recalled WHO continued support in this regard.

“Well-nourished children stand better chances of achieving robust physical, mental and cognitive development. They tend to have better immunity against illnesses, and are likely to be more productive throughout adulthood.” –Mr Paul Mbaka, Assistant Commissioner- Division of Health Information at the Ministry of Health.

Uganda committed to track and report on specific nutrition indicators identified by the World Health Assembly and the United Nations in the sustainable development goals. These include childhood wasting, Underweight in women of reproductive age, anaemia in women of reproductive age, low birth weight, childhood overweight, exclusive breastfeeding, overweight and obesity in women, adolescents, and children, iron supplementation, counselling on breastfeeding.

The symposium was held as part of the findings of the Uganda Nutrition Action Plan II, launched in September 2020. It aimed at one side, to increase access to and utilization of nutrition-specific services by children under 5 years, adolescent girls, pregnant and lactating women, and other vulnerable groups; on the other side to strengthen the enabling environment for scaling up nutrition-specific interventions.

The UNAPII reports that only 65.5% of infants under 6 months are exclusively breastfed, 10% of newborns are born with low birth weight, and 29% of children under five are stunted. These figures show the burden of malnutrition is still high among this group. Routine data from the ministry of health showed that the proportion of children under five found malnourished increased to 22.4% in July 2021 from 6.4% in June 2021 with the highest rise noticed in Karamoja, Kitgum, Ntoroko, Kampala, Kibale, and Mityana districts. Such increases call for further investigation to identify the underlying cause for the rise in cases to initiate an appropriate response.

Uganda’s adult population also faces a malnutrition burden. According to UDHS 2016, 28.5% of women of reproductive age have anaemia, and 4.7% of adult women have diabetes, compared to 4.4% of men. Meanwhile, 8.6% of women and 1.8% of men have obesity.

To address this gap, The Ministry of Health is implementing several nutrition interventions. One such intervention is improving the tracking of nutrition indicators. WHO and UNICEF through the Ministry of Health are implementing a 4 years project on strengthening national nutrition information systems. With financial support from the European Commission, the NIS project aims to increase the uptake of nutrition information to generate evidence that supports the development of policies and programmes and the implementation and monitoring of nutrition programmes.

This project is expected to revise national Nutrition Monitoring Frameworks by filling key nutrition data gaps; refined data collection system for existing HMIS; enhanced human resource capacity for the collection, analysis, interpretation, communication and quality control of nutrition data; improved It data management system; and improved dissemination of NIS information.

The symposium further discussed recommendations to advance the nutrition agenda in the country in other to ensure good health of Ugandans, especially children under five years and pregnant women.

“There is a need to improve management of acute malnutrition service delivery through routine coaching, mentorship, and supportive supervision on integrated management of acute malnutrition as well as mortality audits.”– Ms. Nabunya Phoebe, Nutrition consultant at WHO.

The provision of close supports by the MoH and Nutrition partners including WHO to districts during planning and implementation to increase ownership and governance oversight of the nutrition services offered within the health system.

Source: World Health Organization. Africa