Assertio Scoops Up Spectrum Pharma In $248M Stock Deal

 

• Assertio Holdings Inc 
  ASRT-16.1%+ Free Alerts
   will acquire Spectrum Pharmaceuticals Inc 
  SPPI+32.7%+ Free Alerts
   in an all-stock and contingent value rights (CVR) transaction.
• Under the terms of the agreement, each Spectrum share will be exchanged for a fixed exchange ratio of 0.1783 shares of Assertio common, implying an upfront value of $1.14 per Spectrum share.
• Additionally, Spectrum stockholders will receive one CVR per Spectrum share, entitling them to receive up to an additional $0.20 per share (approximately $43 million), payable in cash or stock at Assertio's election, for $1.34 (approximately $291 million), by the end of 2024 and 2025..
• Following the close of the transaction, Assertio stockholders will own approximately 65% of the combined company, and Spectrum stockholders will own approximately 35% on a fully diluted basis.
• "The addition of Spectrum's commercial capabilities and Rolvedon, a novel long-acting G-CSF product recently launched into a blockbuster market in October 2022, exemplifies Assertio's attractiveness as an acquirer of new, accretive assets across diverse therapeutic categories," Assertio's president and CEO Dan Peisert said.
• The transaction is expected to be accretive to Assertio's adjusted EPS and operating cash flow in 2024.
• Assertio intends to add operating costs of approximately $60 million annually.

https://www.benzinga.com/general/biotech/23/04/31989866/assertio-scoops-up-spectrum-pharma-in-248m-stock-deal

Why Nanobiotix Shares Plummeted

 

• Nanobiotix 
  NBTX-40.0%+ Free Alerts
   shares are trading lower after the company raised going concerns in its Q4 earnings release.
• The company noted net losses of €57.0 million in 2022 and a net decrease in cash and cash equivalents of €42.5 million in 2022. 
• On December 31, 2022, the accumulated deficit was €227.3 million, and the negative working capital was €22.7 million. 
• Nanobiotix expects to continue to incur significant expenses related to developing and manufacturing nanotechnology product candidates such as NBTXR3 and conducting clinical studies. 
• The company also noted that the EIB loan contains covenants that require maintenance of minimum cash & cash equivalent balances, sufficient to fund till Q3 FY23, that limit the availability of cash resources to pursue operational needs.
• Reported €41.4 million in cash and cash equivalents as of December 31, 2022.
• Nanobiotix has obtained a €15 million temporary waiver until July 31, 2023, and has agreed with the EIB to automatically extend it until January 31, 2024, should a business development partnership, collaborative or strategic alliance have become effective before July 31, 2023.
• The company is also pursuing additional funding through one or more possible new partnerships, collaborative or strategic alliances.

https://www.benzinga.com/general/biotech/23/04/31991839/why-are-nanobiotix-shares-plummeting-today

GOP sound alarm about national security threats posed by Chinese cloud computing

 A group of Republican senators wrote a letter to top Biden administration officials Tuesday, urging them to take action against cloud computing firms with links to China over national security concerns. 

Sen. Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn., led the push with eight of his Republican colleagues, specifically naming Huawei Cloud and Alibaba Cloud as firms that "pose a threat to U.S. national security" and are engaged with foreign entities already sanctioned by the U.S. 

"We urge you to use all available tools to engage in decisive action against these firms, through sanctions, export restrictions, and investment bans, and to further investigate [People's Republican of China] cloud computing service companies," the senators wrote to heads of the Treasury, Commerce, and State Departments. 

The Commerce Department added Huawei and its subsidiaries to the Entity List in 2020, which restricts the company's ability to trade with the U.S. 

The senators, citing a Wall Street Journal report from December 2021, accused Huawei Cloud of using its technologies to help China "identify individuals by voice, monitor political dissidents, manage ideological reeducation and labor schedules for prisoners, and help retailers use facial recognition to track shoppers."

Alibaba Cloud should also be added to the Entity List, the senators wrote, noting that the company is "widely known to provide services" to the Chinese military. 

"We are deeply concerned about this growing trend of PRC-based cloud computing services engaging with entities that directly impact the national security interests of the United States," the letter reads. 

Huawei and Alibaba did not return requests for comment on Tuesday. 

Roughly 600 Chinese businesses, individuals, and organizations have been added to the Commerce Department's Entity List, many of them for supporting the Chinese military's modernization efforts. 

The senators' concerns about foreign cloud computing come amid rising tensions between the U.S. and China. 

Two New York City residents were arrested earlier this month and accused of running secret police stations on behalf of Beijing. 

Lawmakers have also been pushing for months to ban China-owned social media giant TikTok, while also warning about Chinese telecommunications firms like ZTE. 

https://www.foxbusiness.com/politics/republican-senators-sound-alarm-national-security-threats-posed-chinese-cloud-computing-firms

WHO Cites "Huge Biological Risk" As Sudan Fighters Seize Lab Containing Deadly Pathogens

 The World Health Organization (WHO) says there's a "huge biological risk" after Sudanese rebels of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) seized the country's National Public Health Laboratory in the capital Khartoum on Tuesday. 

A US-brokered 72-hour truce deal appears to have already collapsed, given war correspondents widely reported hearing gunfire persist into the evening. The top-ranking WHO official in Sudan, Nima Saeed Abid, called the development "extremely dangerous because we have polio isolates in the lab, we have measles isolates in the lab, we have cholera isolates in the lab."

CNN is reporting that the RSF is now in control of the lab, citing a a high-ranking medical source, who told the outlet: "There is a huge biological risk associated with the occupation of the central public health lab in Khartoum by one of the fighting parties."

The WHO additionally confirmed that "trained laboratory technicians no longer have access to the laboratory." This is a serious crisis given the persisting power outages across the capital area throughout the more than week of fighting, which has killed around 500 people and injured thousands more.

The WHO is warning that there's a risk of spoilage and potential for leaks of deadly pathogens, given "it is not possible to properly manage the biological materials that are stored in the laboratory for medical purposes."

In the most alarming part of the report, the CNN medical source said: 

The medical source told CNN that "the danger lies in the outbreak of any armed confrontation in the laboratory because that will turn the laboratory into a germ bomb."

"An urgent and rapid international intervention is required to restore electricity and secure the laboratory from any armed confrontation because we are facing a real biological danger," the source added.

Sudan now stands once again on the brink of full-blown civil war after already having been in a state civil war on and off again for the better part of a half century.

One wonders what sensitive bio-labs with highly dangerous samples including deadly diseases are doing there in the first place...

Recently, the safety of biological labs has been a serious question also when it comes to the Ukraine conflict. Thus far, there have been no known disasters relatedly to germs or diseases amid the Russia-Ukraine war.

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/who-cites-huge-biological-risk-sudan-fighters-seize-lab-containing-deadly-pathogens

Mother Of 7 Denied Kidney Transplant For Refusing COVID Shot In Georgia

 by Steven Kovac via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

On dialysis and potentially facing death, a 41-year-old homeschooling mother of seven young children has been rejected as a candidate for a life-saving kidney transplant by Emory Healthcare Inc. of Atlanta.

The reason? The woman, who has already had COVID-19, refused to receive the COVID-19 vaccine on religious and medical grounds.

To protect her privacy, the patient will be referred to in this article as Jane Doe.

Emory Healthcare did not respond to a request for comment.

Affiliated with Emory University, Emory Healthcare is one of the leading organ transplant centers in the South.

According to Liberty Counsel (LC), a national non-profit legal organization helping Doe, she was referred to Emory by her nephrologist after suddenly coming down with end-stage kidney disease.

The seriousness of Doe’s condition necessitates her undergoing dialysis three times a week to keep her alive.

Following an evaluation by one of the transplant center’s nurse practitioners, Doe was initially found to be an acceptable candidate for a new kidney, even though Doe reported she had not been vaccinated against COVID-19.

Life or Death Decision

Doe’s hopes were soon dashed when, after another consultation with Emory staffers, a social worker informed her that she could not move forward to the transplant program’s “active waiting list” until she took the shot.

Emory Healthcare is one of 35 percent of the nation’s transplant centers that are still requiring their patients to be vaccinated for COVID-19, according to a Liberty Counsel analysis.

This is despite the fact that on April 11, President Joe Biden declared the national emergency caused by the COVID-19 pandemic officially over.

On April 17, LC sent a letter to Emory Healthcare requesting that no later than April 30, Doe be granted religious and medical exemptions from its COVID-19 vaccination mandate and asked that she be reactivated and placed on the kidney transplant active waiting list.

Religious Convictions

The nine-page letter alleges that every available COVID-19 vaccine is associated with aborted “fetal cell lines.”

It cites evidence from the public health departments of North Dakota and Louisiana as proof.

Doe, a devout Roman Catholic, is opposed to ingesting or being injected with such vaccines based on her religious beliefs.

The Liberty Counsel also informed Emory Healthcare that there were strong medical reasons for Doe’s refusal to get the jab.

Standing on Natural Immunity

The demand letter stated that Doe had already recovered from a bout with COVID and that her antibody numbers were actually stronger than those found in many people who were fully vaccinated for 90 days.

https://www.zerohedge.com/covid-19/mother-7-denied-kidney-transplant-refusing-covid-shot-georgia