announced the publication of a preclinical study online in bioRxiv and explored Capricor's proprietary StealthX exosome platform's therapeutic potential, generating two vaccine candidates (STX-S and STX-N).
The vaccines independently and in combination (STX-S+N) induced a strong immune response against two SARS-CoV-2 proteins, spike and nucleocapsid.
Results showed that this multivalent, protein-based vaccine candidate has the potential to achieve potent, longer-lasting immunization, broaden reactivity and improve T-cell response with only nanograms of protein without any adjuvant.
The data from this study suggests that StealthX could deliver a more potent vaccine with broader immunity than is currently available by combining the advantages of both mRNA and recombinant protein vaccines into a potentially superior, low-dose vaccine.
Capricor said it had halted work on the exosome-based jab in March due to the "current availability of vaccines for" COVID-19. Instead, the Company will focus its resources on CAP-1002 for Duchenne muscular dystrophy.
Capricor also tested CAP-1002 in patients hospitalized with severe COVID-19 who are on supplemental oxygen. Overall mortality in the study was 20%, with six deaths in the placebo group and five in the CAP-1002 group.
As many New York City grocery storesstart to take unprecedented precautions to prevent theft, billionaire and CEO of New York City supermarket chain Gristedes John Catsimatidis issued a warning to Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell Thursday.
"Don't you dare raise interest rates more than a quarter point because you're going to destroy the rest of the country," the CEO stressed on "Varney & Co.,"Thursday. "We don't want to destroy the rest of the country to fix one problem."
Gristedes CEO John Catsimatidis joing FOX Business' "Varney & Co." Thursday to discuss inflation and oil prices. (Fox News)
Rising food prices have been one of the most visceral reminders of red-hot inflation, which has created severe financial pressures for most Americans. The burden is disproportionately borne by low-income Americans, whose already-stretched paychecks are heavily impacted by price fluctuations, particularly for necessities like food and gasoline.
"Price increases are hurting the poor and the middle class. The rich don't care, but it's hurting the middle class for sure," he said while also noting that gas and core inflation prices are going down.
Stew Leonard's CEO Stew Leonard Jr. says the grocery store brand is navigating 'all these anomalies' in the market right now.
In addition to the burden of inflation, the cost of oil has taken a toll on grocery store prices. Catsimatidis argues that oil and grocery store prices are "directly related," and that the cost of oil is so high because of President Biden's war on American energy.
"It's diesel fuel that runs all our factories. It's diesel fuel that delivers all the trucks deliver to all the stores nationwide. So oil is directly related. It's fertilizer, that's made from crude oil… And when President Biden closed down the pipeline and made the fossil fuel industry the enemy of the people, it forced the price to go from $55 a barrel to $125. But now it's been retreating. It's retreated to $75. I predicted it could retreat as low as $65, if it goes down to $65, if we opened up the spigots in America, it would be down," he continued.
John Catsimatidis, the CEO of Manhattan grocery chain Gristedes, says New York City's mayor needs to 'straighten out' the city's criminal system.
"It's simple, but he won't do it. He won't do it… He'd rather beg Venezuela, rather beg Saudi Arabia than open up America. I can't believe it," he concluded.
The leader of the US Navy has admitted that the question of dwindling US arms stockpiles in the rush to arm Ukraine, which now stands at over $100 billion in defense aid and counting, is dire enough that some tough unprecedented decisions are coming, which shocked a group of reporters this week.
Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro acknowledged before a naval warfare conference in Arlington, Virginia on Wednesday that the US within the next six months could face a decision of whether toarm itself or Ukraine, due to rapidly depleting stockpiles due to supplying Ukraine
The comments were first revealed by Defense One editor Marcus Weisberger on Twitter, and subsequently reported in the publication, and in Newsweek and others. Earlier in the conference the US Navy's Adm. Daryl Caudle put things in stark terms by saying the decision will eventually come down to 'arm ourselves or arm Ukraine'.
Weisberger wrote of the comments: "An admiral alluded to the US needing to choose between itself and Ukraine during a panel at the conference."
Below are the rare, very revealing words of the exchange heard by reporters:
The secretary was asked to respond to comments made at the conference by Adm. Daryl Caudle, commander of U.S. Fleet Forces Command. Caudle, the reporter said, worried that "the Navy might get to the point where it has to make the decision whether it needs to arm itself or arm Ukraine, and has the Navy gotten to that point yet?"
Del Toro replied, "With regards to deliveries of weapons systems for the fight in Ukraine…Yeah, that's always a concern for us. And we monitor that very, very closely. I wouldn't say we're quite there yet, but if the conflict does go on for another six months, for another year, it certainly continues to stress the supply chain in ways that are challenging.”
While most weapons going to Ukraine are from Army stockpiles, it remains that the US recently pledged Sea Sparrow missiles to Ukraine. Additionally US-made Harpoons have long been transferred to Kiev via Denmark.
Navy Secretary Del Toro went on to explain that Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks has been working "very closely with [the defense] industry, to motivate them to find out what their challenges or obstacles are to be able to increase their own production rates," as quoted in the Defense One report.
"It's obvious that you know, these companies have a substantial pipeline for the future," Del Toro added. "They now need to invest in their workforce, as well as the capital investments that they have to make within their own companies to get their production rates up."
Department of Defense stockpiles have been a concern in relation to steadily ramped up arms supplies to Ukraine from within the opening months of the Russian invasion. Additionally other NATO allies are facing this same problem and worry, especially 'neutral' Germany which due to the war dramatically shifted its historic stance on not sending weapons into foreign conflict zones. Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock admitted as early as the summer that "Unfortunately, the situation here is such that we have an absolute deficit in our own stocks."
Eyenovia Inc (NASDAQ: EYEN) announced results from a research study that evaluated the gene and protein expression of cytokines and chemokines after latanoprost+benzalkonium chloride (BAK) treatment administered via Optejet versus latanoprost+BAK administered via standard eye drops.
Preservatives are used to support product sterility and prolong shelf-life. But patients treated with BAK preserved glaucoma medications often suffer inflammatory side effects.
The study found that the expression of proinflammatory cytokines and chemokines was decreased in two out of three cytokines with the latanoprost+BAK treatment administered via Optejet technology compared to latanoprost+BAK administered via standard drops.
In these early findings, the Optejet technology appears better than latanoprost+BAK administered via standard drops in reducing inflammatory processes and pathways.
Eyenovia's Optejet microdose formulation and delivery platform for ocular therapeutics use high-precision piezo-print technology to deliver 6-8 μL of a drug, consistent with the capacity of the tear film of the eye.
Eyenovia estimates the volume of ophthalmic solution administered with the Optejet is less than 20% of that delivered using conventional eyedroppers, thus reducing overdosing and exposure to drugs and preservatives.
The Times is writing this now only because Republicans took the House, and Joe Biden needs a pre-emptive defense. Investigations loom and must be discredited, and possible charges against Hunter Biden from the US attorney for Delaware need soft pedaling (he’s “closing in on a decision,” the story claims, something that has been promised for two years).
The upshot: Yes, drug addict Hunter profited off his father’s name and made deals in places the vice president had influence, like China and Ukraine. But Joe knew nothing about it! Trust us, we asked him. And if you can’t trust a Biden . . .
“The real Hunter Biden story is complex and very different in important ways from the narrative promoted by Republicans — but troubling in its own way,” The Times writes in the most Timesian sentence we’ve read so far this year.
The Times article comes after Republicans officially took control of the House.Getty Images
Actually, it’s not that complicated. In fact, The Times lays it out in the next paragraph: “Hunter . . . forged business relationships that brought him millions of dollars, raised questions about whether he was cashing in on his family name [and] set off alarms among government officials about potential conflicts of interest.”
Ah, “raises questions.” How circumspect.
What comes next will be familiar to anyone who read The Post in October 2020, when we published information from Hunter Biden’s abandoned laptop. For this story, The Times says it used a “selection” of the emails “that The Times has verified as authentic, out of the thousands attributed to him that were disseminated by allies of Mr. Trump ahead of the 2020 election to try to undercut the Biden campaign.” The Post’s stories were based on the exact same emails The Times uses, as they are the ones related to Hunter’s business deals.
The New York Post reported on Biden’s deal with China in October 2020.
Information damaging to Republicans, like the Trump tax documents The Times published before the election, is apparently given by sources to reporters. When the story is about a Democrat, it’s “disseminated . . . to undercut.”
Ukrainian oligarch Mykola Zlochevsky offers Hunter a seat on the board of the gas giant Burisma after learning he’s the vice president’s son. “Despite criticism,” Hunter doesn’t want to give up the gig, “which was not particularly demanding of his time and continued to pay him handsomely — about $600,000 a year — even after he started smoking crack and stopped responding to emails.”
Hmm, sounds fishy. Were Burisma officials asking Hunter to help them with US government issues? They were! But no fear, “to insulate Hunter Biden from the requests, a lawyer in private practice who had previously served as a top immigration official in the Obama administration was brought in to handle the matter.” That sounds . . . unpersuasive. How does The Times know this? It doesn’t say. Was this always how it worked? We don’t know.
Frequently in the story, The Times “debunks” a claim simply by accepting Biden denials. On a trip to China, Hunter “briefly introduced” some of his business partners to his father. Nothing untoward! Yes, some of Joe Biden’s bills were paid out of Hunter BIden’s bank account, “But according to Biden family members and business associates, Hunter and his father never had joint bank accounts or direct access to each others’ money.” Oh, well, case closed.
The Times brings up Tony Bobulinski, Hunter’s former business partner, who says he directly met Joe Biden to talk about forming a Chinese investment fund after he left office. The Times say this is “claimed” but then answers a question not asked, “Family members . . . say the elder Mr. Biden never met with Mr. Ye [a Chinese business leader] or other company executives.” That’s not the accusation! He met with Bobulinski, who was supposed to work directly with Ye.
Clocking in at nearly 6,000 words, The Times opus adds little to the debate, painting the same portrait of a lovable scamp who just can’t help profiting off his political family. How could Joe Biden possibly know what he was up to?
But the case is not closed. The Times has been dragged kicking and screaming, more than two years after the laptop was revealed, into looking into the nexus of Hunter and his father. But the “narrative” is not contradicted just because Joe Biden’s allies say it is.
The Republicans will now investigate (not “pounce”) and compel witnesses — including possibly Hunter Biden — to answer questions under oath. They will try to reach conclusions, rather than jumping to them as The Times has. It is a “tangled tale.” Let’s untangle it.
