Aligns with Company’s strategic focus on bringing to market BXCL501 for potential acute treatment of agitation for Alzheimer’s patients
IGALMI™ market exclusivity further strengthened with receipt of issue notification for additional method of use patent (total of 8 U.S. patents, including 4 method of use patents)
Lefty-leaning New York laws that ban cooperation with federal immigration officials are partly to blame for ICE being powerless to stop the migrants accused of jumping two NYPD cops from skipping town, officials griped Monday.
Kenneth Genalo, the director of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Big Apple field office, ripped the sanctuary policy that prevents the city from adhering to “detainers” — a system that calls for the feds to be notified by local law enforcement when non-citizens are arrested on criminal charges.
“We want to help. The problem is, due to city policies and state law, cooperation is no longer afforded between NYPD and ICE,” Genalo said at a press conference alongside a bipartisan group of local pols.
“There’s hundreds of people a week that are being arrested throughout the city and we can’t determine which are the most violent.”
Genalo spoke out as the local lawmakers — led by US Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-Staten Island) — urged Mayor Eric Adams and the City Council to reverse the current laws and policies so migrants accused of crimes can be easily deported.
Their appeal comes off the back of six migrants being charged over the beatdown of two NYPD officers near Times Square on Jan. 27. Five of them were slapped with assault and obstructing governmental administration charges last week and released without bail — with at least four of them allegedly then high-tailing it out of the city.
Genalo said the current laws that limit the NYPD’s cooperation with the feds — including adhering to the detainer system — meant he and other immigration officials only found out about the recent ordeal through media reports.
“Unfortunately, a lot of the way that we have to do our intelligence at ICE is the same way that you find out about cases — it’s through the media. We’re no longer called [by the NYPD],” the ICE official said.
Then-Mayor Bill de Blasio signed a bill into law in 2014 that barred the NYPD from working with federal immigration officials when they are seeking to boot dangerous migrants from the US.
Then, in 2018, he took it a step further by issuing citywide guidance and new NYPD protocols to codify the Big Apple’s policy of not cooperating with the feds’ immigration enforcement activities.
“We used to have a unit that sat in Riker’s Island that worked hand-in-hand with NYPD. The prior administration at the time kicked the unit out of Riker’s Island so we no longer have a presence there,” Genalo said.
“Basically anyone that was foreign-born was vetted by my staff, the immigration officers, to determine whether or not they were amenable to removal proceedings. If they were, we took custody of them and we placed them in removal proceedings.”
With cops not having to honor the detainers’ system due to the local laws — coupled with the Big Apple’s bail reform legislation — Genalo said immigration officials often have to waste time hunting down arrested asylum-seekers to weigh if they should be booted out.
“Once they’re back in the community, we have to then go look for them,” he said of the migrants released without bail in the Times Square cop-beatdown.
“Instead of being able to take custody of these individuals in the confines of a jail or in the confines of a precinct, we now have to go out into the community and the streets where unfortunately the criminals have the upper hand,” he said.
Malliotakis, too, ripped the city for not honoring ICE’s detainer requests.
“This past fiscal year, ICE issued 109 detainer requests for individuals who are dangerous, that committed crimes in our city, and zero have been honored by the City of New York. The previous fiscal year, ’22, 157 detainer requests, and again, zero were honored by the City of New York,” the congresswoman said.
“And the number of detainer requests have gone down significantly under the Biden administration. At the end of the Trump administration, in the fiscal year ’21, there were 1485 detainer requests. And again, zero were honored by the City of New York.”
Gov. Kathy Hochul, has called on the alleged cop-beating migrants to be rounded up and deported.
Mayor Eric Adams, meanwhile, insisted Monday his hands were tied under the current legislation.
“I cannot use city resources based on the existing law. It is a question that should be presented to the council how do they want to move forward on this issue,” Hizzoner said at an unrelated press conference.
“This bill was passed by the city council. I know my role and I share with the office what my views are and use my power either to veto or whatever actions are to support bills, but this is a city council bill that was passed.”
Atlantic City's casinos have no legal obligation to stop compulsive gamblers from betting, a judge ruled, dismissing a lawsuit from a self-described problem gambler who accused the Borgata and its parent company, MGM Resorts International, of plying him with offers to gamble despite knowing about his addiction.
U.S. District Court Judge Madeline Cox Arleo dismissed a lawsuit on Jan. 31 by Sam Antar against the gambling companies, saying the voluminous rules and regulations governing gambling in New Jersey do not impose a legal duty upon casinos to cut off compulsive gamblers.
New Jersey casino law “pervasively regulates the responsibilities of casinos as they relate to compulsive gamblers, but is notably silent on whether casinos or online gambling platforms may induce people who present with compulsive gambling behavior to patronize their businesses,” the judge wrote in her decision.
She also cited two previous New Jersey cases in which a compulsive gambler and a patron who claimed to have lost money gambling while drunk sued unsuccessfully.
Similar lawsuits have been dismissed in other states, including Indiana.
“The New Jersey Legislature ... has not yet seen fit to require casinos to prevent or stop inducing gambling from those that exhibit problem gambling behavior," Arleo wrote. “As a matter of law, (the) defendants do not owe a negligence common law duty of care to plaintiffs.”
Antar said the law needs to be changed, adding he plans to appeal the dismissal of the case.
“This is not just about me; this is about all the people across this country who have this addiction,” he said. “When are we as a country going to address this?”
Antar, who has homes in New York and in Long Branch, New Jersey, gambled $30 million over 100,000 bets during nine months in 2019, according to his lawsuit, which does not specify how much he actually lost. Antar said he is not certain of the amount, and his lawyer, Matthew Litt, said it was “at least in the six figures.”
His lawsuit made some of the same claims that were raised — and rejected by a judge — in another person’s lawsuit targeting Atlantic City casinos. In 2008, a federal judge ruled against New York gambler Arelia Taveras who sued seven Atlantic City casinos that she said had a duty to stop her from gambling. She lost nearly $1 million over two years, including dayslong gambling binges.
“She spent money on the bona fide chance that she might win more money,” U.S. District Court Judge Renée Bumb wrote in a 2008 ruling. “In short, she gambled. The mere fact that defendants profited from her misfortune, while lamentable, does not establish a cognizable claim in the law.”
MGM cites that case among its numerous defenses to Antar’s litigation, and said it did not create or worsen a gambling problem in Antar or anyone else.
The company declined comment Monday.
Litt said his appeal will center on his contention that New Jersey's Consumer Fraud Act, designed to protest customers from “unconscionable” acts by companies, should apply in this case.
Antar is the nephew of Eddie Antar, who founded the Crazy Eddie electronics stores in the 1970s and 1980s. Eddie Antar defrauded investors out of more than $74 million, and died in 2016.
In 2013, Sam Antar was sentenced to 21 months in federal prison for taking $225,000 in a fraudulent investment scheme. He was convicted and jailed in 2022 on theft by deception charges involving nearly $350,000.
In 2023, he admitted committing federal securities fraud for bilking investors, including friends stemming from that same case, served four months in jail and was ordered to pay restitution.
He is currently free under an intensive supervision program, and says he has been informally counseling young people with gambling problems.
“Who better than me to show them what this can become?” he said.
Johnson & Johnson
announced topline results from the pivotal Phase 3 VIVACITY study of nipocalimab in adults living with generalized myasthenia gravis (gMG) as well as the Phase 2 DAHLIAS study of nipocalimab in adults with Sjögren’s disease (SjD).
Nipocalimab has demonstrated clinical effects in four autoantibody-driven diseases within the past year, including hemolytic disease of the fetus and newborn and rheumatoid arthritis, in addition to gMG and SjD.
In the Phase 3 VIVACITY study in gMG, nipocalimab met the primary endpoint, achieving a statistically significant reduction in MG-ADL score from baseline over weeks 22 to 24 compared with placebo.
gMG is an autoantibody-driven neuromuscular disease characterized by fluctuating muscle weakness.
The primary endpoint was also met in the Phase 2 DAHLIAS dose-ranging study in SjD with a statistically significant reduction in clinESSDAIb score from baseline at week 24 compared with placebo.
Sjögren’s disease is an immune system disorder in which the body attacks its healthy cells that produce saliva and tears.
Nipocalimab was well-tolerated by participants in both studies.
In June 2023, the FDA approved Argenx SE’s
subcutaneous (under-the-skin) injection, Vyvgart Hytrulo (efgartigimod alfa and hyaluronidase-qvfc), for treating gMG.
Nipocalimab and Vyvgart Hytrulo block a receptor called FcRn and help reduce overall levels of IgG, a type of antibody responsible for gMG.
Vyvgart Hytrulo is available in the U.S. at a list price of $15,773 and is expected to generate about $2.5 billion in revenue for the treatment of gMG alone, Reuters noted.
William Blair states that the recent findings validate the emergence of a new contender within the FcRn antagonist category, posing competition to argenx’s Vyvgart in generalized myasthenia gravis.
This development was largely anticipated. Furthermore, these results have implications for the ongoing Phase 2 trial of efgartigimod in Sjogren’s syndrome, with data anticipated in the first half of the current year.
Following Cytokinetics’ (CYTK) CFO’s resignation, Truist caught up with the CEO of the company, who noted that this was related to personal health reasons that require immediate attention and said the news was not surprising to the team. The firm came away with its talks with management feeling that the stock reaction to this news is “not warranted” and sees the weakness as a buying opportunity, though it also acknowledges that some of the pressure on the stock this morning could be due to a Reuters article indicating Novartis’ (NVS) interest in MorphoSys (MOR) as a potential M&A target given that there were news articles earlier in the year indicating that Cytokinetics was an M&A target for interested parties that included Novartis. The firm, which continue to view Cytokinetics as a potential M&A target, keeps a Buy rating.
https://www.tipranks.com/news/the-fly/cytokinetics-weakness-a-buying-opportunity-says-truist
Vertex Pharmaceuticals experimental triple combination cystic fibrosis (CF) treatment met all late-stage study goals when tested in patients aged 12 years and older, the company said on Monday.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/vertexs-triple-combination-cf-drug-211325860.html
