In a recent development, Talis Biomedical Corp (NASDAQ:TLIS) has entered into a settlement agreement to conclude a securities class action litigation. The settlement, dated August 29, 2024, stipulates that the company will contribute $32.5 million to a fund intended to resolve claims related to its February 2021 initial public offering (IPO).
The lawsuit alleged that Talis Biomedical's registration statement and prospectus were misleading, failing to disclose material adverse facts concerning its product manufacturing and the reliability of its COVID-19 test. The settlement will cover all claims against the company and its co-defendants, which include certain current and former officers and directors, as well as the IPO underwriters.
According to the terms outlined, Talis Biomedical's insurance carriers are expected to fund approximately $5 million of the settlement, with the remaining $27.5 million to be paid from the company's cash reserves. A third-party administrator will manage the settlement fund, ensuring that class members are notified and compensated.
Athira Pharma, Inc.(NASDAQ:ATHA) stock is trading lower after the company released topline results from its Phase 2/3 LIFT-AD clinical trial of fosgonimeton for mild-to-moderateAlzheimer’s disease (AD).
A -0.08 change in GST (the Global Statistical Test, a combination of results from measures of cognition (ADAS-Cog11) and function (ADCS-ADL23) favoring fosgonimeton that did not reach statistical significance (p=0.70)
The change in cognition from baseline, for which a decrease from baseline represents an improvement, was -0.39 for the placebo group and -1.09 for the fosgonimeton-treated group, a difference of -0.70 (p=0.35) favoring fosgonimeton.
In the fosgonimeton-treated group, function increased (improved) by 0.65 versus a decline of -0.02 in placebo, although this difference did not meet statistical significance (p=0.61).
In addition, data across protein pathology, inflammation, and neurodegeneration biomarkers showed directional improvements with fosgonimeton treatment.
“These are not the results we hoped for, as the lack of clinical decline in the placebo group, combined with the short duration of the study, may have impacted the trial’s ability to translate the effect of fosgonimeton treatment into meaningful clinical benefit,” said Javier San Martin, Chief Medical Officer of Athira.
In a subgroup of patients with more advanced disease, the analyses showed a greater numerical treatment effect in clinical outcomes in the fosgonimeton treatment group compared to placebo:
The change in cognition showed the fosgonimeton treatment group (n=61) improved compared to placebo (n=70), with a delta of -1.16 (p=0.39).
For AD patients who are carriers of the APOE4 gene, the placebo group (n=74) declined in cognition as assessed by ADAS-Cog11 over the 26 weeks, whereas the fosgonimeton treatment group (n=74) remained stable, with a delta of -1.07 (p=0.33)
In post hoc analysis by disease severity, fosgonimeton showed a larger effect size mainly driven by improved cognition at week 26.
Patients with the highest baseline ADAS-Cog11 (>30) who were treated with fosgonimeton (n=42) compared to placebo (n=52) showed a -2.51 improvement in cognition (p=0.16), for which a lower number represents an improvement.
A small subset of patients with moderate dementia who were treated with fosgonimeton (n=20) compared to placebo (n=19) showed a -3.74 improvement in cognition (p=0.21).
Trump campaign officialsslammed AmazonTuesday after the company claimed that an “error” in its popular Alexa devices resulted in the gadget providing vastly different responses to the same question about Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump.
In one instance, highlighted by Fox Business, Alexa refused to answer a woman’s question about why she should “vote for Trump” while offering a more compelling case for why she should vote for Harris.
“I cannot provide responses that endorse any political party or its leader,” the device’s female voice stated, in response to the Trump question.
When the same question was posed to Alexa seconds later, replacing Trump’s name with Harris’, Amazon’s virtual assistant argued, “While there are many reasons to vote for Kamala Harris, the most significant may be that she is a female of color with a comprehensive plan to address racial injustice and inequality throughout the country.”
Amazon’s Alexa virtual assistant appeared to be biased in favor of Kamala Harris, several videos posted on social media Tuesday showed.Getty Images
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On social media, several users shared video clips on X Tuesday showing the device providing biased responses to similarly phrased questions about the Democratic and Republican presidential nominees.
Amazon claims the bias was the result of an “error” that has been patched.
“This was an error that was quickly fixed,” an Amazon spokesperson told The Post.
Members of Trump’s presidential campaign slammed the tech company over the blunder.
“BIG TECH ELECTION INTERFERENCE!” fumed Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung on X, sharing a post showing Alexa giving a man “several reasons for why you may not want to vote for Donald Trump.”
When the same device was asked for reasons to not vote for Harris, Alexa responded, “I cannot provide content that insults another human being.”
One Trump campaign official charged that the bias was tantamount to “election interference.”Getty Images
Senior Trump campaign adviser Jason Miller likened Amazon’s response to the bias to Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg’s recent admission that it was mistake for his social media company to suppress The Post’s bombshell Hunter Biden laptop story in 2020.
“‘Error’…just like Big Tech’s censorship of the Hunter Biden laptop story was an ‘error,’” Millerwrote on X.
The Amazon spokesperson told The Post that Alexa doesn’t hold a set of political beliefs and that the company has resources in place focused on preventing similar errors in the future.
