A former top healthcare executive in North Carolina was awarded $10 million in a 'reverse' discrimination lawsuit over his claim that he was unfairly fired because he is a white male, according to Winston-Salem Journal.
David Duvall, a former senior vice president of marketing and communication at Novant Health, sued the North Carolina-based company in 2019 after losing his job in July 2018 due to its campaign to diversify top execs. He said he was fired without warning or explanation (just days before reaching his five year work anniversary, a milestone that would have awarded him a higher severance payout than what he was given).
The federal jury found Novant Health failed to prove that it would have terminated Duvall regardless of his race.
"We are pleased that the jury agreed that Duvall's race and gender were unlawful factors in his termination — that he was fired to make room for more diverse leaders at Novant," Duvall's attorney, S. Luke Largess, said in a statement.
In court papers, Novant Health tried to argue that Duvall was fired based for poor performance. Two women replaced him - Kate Everett, a white woman in the company who was promoted to Chief PR and Communications Officer, and Vicky Free, a black woman who gained the position of Chief Marketing Officer.
Duvall, in his complaint, said both women were qualified for the job but no more than he was. However, being fired without notice so the hospital could fulfill its five-year plan to boost diversity was wrong.
"Duvall was a strong advocate of diversity at Novant," Largess said.
"We believe the punitive damages award is a message that an employer cannot terminate and replace employees in order to achieve greater diversity in the workforce."
Novant Health, whose headquarters is in Winston-Salem, was "extremely disappointed with the verdict" as the jury sided with Duvall. There was no indication of whether Novant Health would appeal the verdict.
The lesson to be learned is that employers are at risk of 'reverse' discrimination lawsuits if they unfairly terminate white men, as seen in Duvall's case. The hospital's rush to boost diversity will cost them $10 million.
Today, investors learned that the lead candidate for Rafael Pharmaceuticals, CPI-613, failed to provide a survival benefit in not one but two clinical trials.
The data monitoring committee watching a phase 3 trial with CPI-613 and leukemia patients recommended the study end due to lack of efficacy.
Overall survival results in a phase 3 trial with pancreatic cancer patients were actually longer for trial participants who received standard care without CPI-613.
Shares of Rafael Holdings(NYSE:RFL) are tanking after its subsidiary Rafael Pharmaceuticals reported disastrous news for its experimental new cancer therapy. Investors caught off guard by a pair of clinical trial failures have hammered the stock 80% lower as of 10:45 a.m. EDT on Thursday.
Rafael Holdings' collection of subsidiaries isn't nearly as impressive as the name implies. The holding company's mostly a run-of-the-mill clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company with a large preclinical operation. It also owns a modest collection of commercial real estate that generated $4 million in top-line revenue during the fiscal year ended July 31.
Revenue fromcommercial real estatewasn't enough to cover the research and development of Rafael Pharmaceuticals' lead candidate, CPI-613, as a potential new treatment for patients with leukemia and pancreatic cancer. After watching Rafael Holdings lose $24.5 million last year, investors were counting on a win from at least one of two phase 3 clinical trials that wrapped up recently.
The bottom fell out from under the stock this morning because CPI-613 didn't do anything to improve pancreatic cancer patients' chance of long-term survival. Rafael Holdings also told investors the data monitoring committee watching a phase 3 trial with leukemia patients recommended stopping early due to lack of efficacy.
Heavy losses associated with drug development left the company with just $12.9 million in cash, cash equivalents, and restricted cash at the end of July. Today's stock market beatdown would put Rafael Holdings in a tight spot if not for a share offering the company completed after reporting fiscal 2021 results. In August, the company was able to capitalize on its previously inflated stock price with a secondary share offering that raised about $99 million.
Rafael Holdings and Rafael Pharmaceuticals will work together to evaluate the data even though the CPI-613 program should probably end immediately. Overall survival among pancreatic cancer patients randomized to receive CPI-613 was 11.1 months compared with 11.7 months in the control arm.
German biopharma InflaRx, which focuses on developing therapies for autoimmune and inflammatory diseases,announced positive data Wednesday from the third cohort of patients in the Phase 2a study of vilobelimab in Pyoderma Gangraenosum.
PG is a rare and debilitating neutrophil-driven, autoinflammatory skin disease, characterized by an acute, destructive ulcerating process of the skin, primarily occurring on the legs but also other regions of the body. It can lead to chronic, painful and difficult-to-treat wounds with long healing times.
In the third dosing cohort at the highest dose level of 2,400 mg biweekly, six of the seven patients achieved clinical remission with a PGA score of less than or equal to 1, which reflects a closure of the target ulcer. Overall, vilobelimab was also well tolerated.
Sell-Side Review Of Data Reason Behind Upside? The stock reaction was muted following the Wednesday morning data release.
After opening Wednesday's session up 1.8% at $2.91, the stock traded in a $2.78-$3 range before ending unchanged at $2.86.
Following the release of the data, SVB Leerink analyst Joseph Schwartz reiterated an Outperform rating on the shares.
Terming the data as compelling, HC Wainwright analyst Edward White reiterated a Buy rating and increased the price target from $10 to $11.
Raymond James analyst Steven Seedhouse upgraded the stock from Outperform to a Strong Buy and also upped the price target from $10 to $14, suggesting roughly 400% upside from current levels.
Recently listed HCW Biologics Inc (NASDAQ: HCWB) shares almost doubled during premarket Thursday, after FDA signed off Phase 1b trial of its lead candidate in pancreatic cancer.
The drug candidate, HCW9218, is an injectable, fusion protein complex designed to drive bifunctional, anti-tumor activity while simultaneously blocking unwanted immunosuppressive activities.
In preclinical studies, HCW9218 enhanced the anti-tumor efficacy of chemotherapy docetaxel and gemcitabine plus nab-paclitaxel against melanoma and pancreatic cancer, respectively, and simultaneously alleviated the off-target, unwanted effects of chemotherapies on normal tissues.
In animal models, HCW9218 also augmented anti-tumor activities of therapeutic and checkpoint antibodies.
U.S. health officials have changed their definition of lead poisoning in young children — a move expected to more than double the number of kids with worrisome levels of the toxic metal in their blood.
The more stringent standard announced Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention means the number of children ages 1 to 5 considered to have high blood lead levels will grow from about 200,000 to about 500,000.
Some experts think the change was overdue. The CDC last changed the definition nine years ago and pledged to consider an update every four years. But work on a revision hit obstacles during the Trump administration, said Patrick Breysse, who heads the CDC’s National Center for Environmental Health.
Children can be exposed to lead through bits of old paint, contaminated dust, and — in some cities — drinking water that passes through lead pipes. The metal accumulates in the body, and at very high levels it can damage organs and cause seizures.
But it can have insidious effects at lower levels, too — especially in young children. Kids can absorb four to five times as much lead as adults exposed to the same source, harming children’s brain development and leading to attention and behavior problems.
“There is no safe lead level,” Dr. Marissa Hauptman, a pediatrician at Boston Children’s Hospital who sees children exposed to lead.
Kids can absorb four to five times as much lead as adults exposed to the same sourceThe Washington Post via Getty Im
When a child is found to have elevated blood lead levels, public health officials are supposed to try to find the source and take steps to clean it up. Hauptman said she hoped the standard change would come with additional funding for that work, but CDC officials said there was now new funding accompanying Thursday’s announcement.
Lead poisoning is assessed using a measurement of micrograms of lead per deciliter of blood. In the late 1970s, the average blood lead level in U.S. children ages 1 to 5 was 15 micrograms per deciliter. The most recently reported measure, covering the years 2011-2016, was 0.83 micrograms.
Children can be exposed to lead through bits of old paint, contaminated dust, and drinking waterGetty Images
That drop among U.S. kids was attributed to laws that phased out the use of lead in paints and gasoline and other prevention and clean-up efforts. But as overall lead levels dropped, scientists accumulated evidence that even small amounts of lead can affect intellectual development.
In 1991, the standard for children was set at 10 micrograms per deciliter. In 2012, it was reduced to 5 micrograms. The new standard announced Thursday is 3.5 micrograms.
The change has been in the works for years. Health officials concluded in the waning days of the Obama administration that the standard should be lowered. But during the Trump administration it failed to achieve the necessary signoffs from entities like the White House Office of Management and Budget, Breysse said.
“This administration is more supportive,” he said.
David Rosner, a Columbia University public health historian, said the CDC is “vulnerable to the political winds.”
Children ages 1 to 5 with high blood lead levels will grow from about 200,000 to about 500,000The Washington Post via Getty Im
“The fact that they are doing it now is an indication they feel a little freed up,” said Rosner, who has co-authored books about lead poisoning and other forms of pollution.
Lead exposure can be a problem anywhere, but research shows it’s a larger problem in poor communities and is concentrated in cities in the Northeast and Midwest with older housing.
Hauptman said the standard change is complicated by the recent recall of a test kit.
Earlier this year, Magellan Diagnostics Inc. recalled some of its blood lead testing kits because some of them were giving falsely low blood lead levels. This month, the CDC notified doctors that the recall had been expanded to most of the kits distributed in the last year.
“When you are talking about a level of 3.5, that precision matters,” Hauptman said.
Health officials have stressed that other types of blood lead testing have remained available. But some also noted the standard change comes at a time they are dealing with other challenges.
For example, the Baltimore City Health Department’s lead screening programs were paused last year, as staff and resources were shifted to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic. The department plans to resume its lead testing program in January, a spokesman said in an email.
Democratic mayoral candidate Eric Adams, who’s all but guaranteed to win the election, is refusing to say whether the fast-approaching vaccine mandate deadline for city workers should be delayed despite predictions that20 percent of fire companiesand ambulances will go dark.
“The mayor’s the mayor now and I think the worst thing we could do is have two mayors making decisions,” Adams, who would inherit the fallout from the mandate, said at a campaign stop in the Bronx on Thursday.
“I’m not going to supersede someone who’s in office. I wouldn’t want them to do that to me. If it should be delayed or not, that’s a question Mayor de Blasio needs to answer,” Adams added.
The outgoing Brooklyn borough president declined to answer a follow-up question by a Post reporter about how the city would fill the likely gap in services caused by the mandate.
The FDNY is preparing to shutter a fifth of Big Apple fire companies and take an equal number of ambulances offline when the mandate goes into effect Monday.
Only about 65 percent of NYC sanitation staff and firefighters have received a COVID-19 vaccine.Lev Radin/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty ImagesThe FDNY is preparing to shutter a fifth of fire companies when the mandate goes into effect Monday.Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis via Getty Images
Trash is piling up on Staten Island and in parts of Brooklyn as part of a planned work slowdown by Department of Sanitation employees protesting the requirement.
About 65 percent of sanitation staff and firefighters have gotten the shot. Just over 60 percent of beat cops are inoculated against the coronavirus. The essential workers face suspension without play starting next week if they don’t get the jab.
De Blasio has downplayed concerns about labor shortages, insisting the gaps will be filled with overtime and redeployments.
Trash is piling up on Staten Island and in parts of Brooklyn as Sanitation Department employees protest the mandate.Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis via Getty Images
While Adams punted on the mandate deadline, he’s been quick to contradict de Blasio on other major City Hall policies including the Gifted and Talented program and requiring COVID-19 vaccinations for school children.
He faces GOP opponent Curtis Sliwa in the general election Nov. 2. Early voting is already underway and a recent poll gave Adams a massive, 40-point lead over the Guardian Angels founder, who is against vaccination mandates.
During a virtual press briefing, Hizzoner stood by his order that city workers get at least one jab or else be placed on unpaid leave starting Monday, predicting more holdouts would cave in once they experience the “profound” consequences of missing paychecks.
“No, there’s no discussion of changing the deadline,” de Blasio said. “The bottom line is, can we do the things we need to do first of all to keep this city safe for the long run? Well, that means get people vaccinated. Yes, we can do that, yes we have a plan to do that.
“Then can we keep all the other services moving in a way that protects New Yorkers? Yes. The answer is yes, yes, yes there’s confidence we can make it work and we’re moving forward.”
City workers who refuse to begin their vaccine series will be terminated at some unspecified point in the future, according to the mayor, who said, “Our goal is not to fire people.”
To fill in service gaps left by unvaccinated sanitation workers, de Blasio announced the Department of Sanitation would be nixing days off, adding Sunday tours and lengthening eight-hour shifts by four hours.
Mayor Bill de Blasio is predicting city workers who don’t want the vaccine will cave in once they experience the “profound” consequences of missing paychecks.Getty Images for Global CitizenSanitation workers outraged over the order to get vaccinated against COVID-19 are letting trash pile up across Staten Island and in parts of Brooklyn.Steve White
“To create additional capacity, the Sanitation Department has canceled days off for sanitation workers, as needed we’ll be requiring Sunday shifts and is moving to a 12-hour schedule for its workers,” he said, adding his administration is “very confident of the contingency plans.”
Asked about disgruntled sanitation workers opting to not pick up garbage on Staten Island and in pockets of Brooklyn, de Blasio called the slowdown “unacceptable.”
“We’re definitely seeing that problem in some parts of the city, and it’s unacceptable. I just want to make it really, really clear it’s unacceptable,” he said. “People may not agree with the decision, but this decision is about the health and safety of all New Yorkers.”
“We see a problem in certain parts of the city. I’m assuming it is related to people expressing their views on this new mandate, and I’m saying again that’s not fair to your fellow workers, that’s not fair to your neighbors,” he added. “There’s one way to do things, and that’s to abide by the law. If you’re a city worker, you have to abide by the law. … So the bottom line is, the Sanitation Department has been very clear that it’s not acceptable, that there will be consequences.”
As of Thursday morning, 67 percent of sanitation workers, 74 percent of the NYPD and 68 percent of the FDNY have been vaccinated, according to data provided by the mayor’s office.
De Blasio expects municipal services to continue unabated once the vaccine mandate for city workers goes into effect.Steve White
Police Commissioner Dermot Shea on Wednesday night, however, said 75 percent of the NYPD — including civilian members and police officers — had gotten the jab.
“We are very confident those numbers are going to go up a lot,” said de Blasio.
Members of the municipal workforce will be taken off the payroll on Monday if they have not received a shot. Workers have until 5 p.m. Friday to collect a $500 incentive for getting the jab.
