Portage Biotech Inc. (NASDAQ:PRTG), a clinical-stage immuno-oncology company with a market capitalization of $7.65 million, announced new preclinical data for its therapeutic candidate PORT-7 at the European Lung Cancer Congress in Paris. The data revealed that PORT-7, when used alone and in combination with an anti-PD1 antibody, significantly inhibited tumor growth in a mesothelioma murine model. The company maintains a strong liquidity position with a current ratio of 3.08, indicating sufficient resources to fund its research initiatives.
The company’s presentation highlighted that PORT-7, a selective Adenosine A2B receptor inhibitor, demonstrated a single-agent activity and achieved more than 90% tumor growth inhibition when combined with an anti-PD1 antibody. Immunohistochemistry tests showed substantial infiltration of CD3 and CD45 positive immune cells within the tumors.
Mesothelioma, a type of aggressive cancer commonly linked to asbestos exposure, currently has limited treatment options. According to Portage, this is the first instance of a selective A2B receptor inhibitor showing anti-tumor activity against mesothelioma.
Portage is preparing to initiate a first-in-human clinical trial with PORT-7. Moreover, the company is advancing the dose escalation of PORT-6, another selective inhibitor targeting the A2A adenosine receptor. The strategic plan includes co-administering PORT-6 with PORT-7 in the ongoing ADPORT-601 trial, marking the first combination of A2A and A2B antagonists in patients. This approach aims to counteract adenosine-induced immunosuppression in the tumor microenvironment, potentially enhancing the efficacy of immunotherapy for solid tumors.
These initiatives are designed to reduce the costs of the company through a new servicer entity, deleverage the company by converting certain debt of significant creditors into equity and releasing $1.2B of debt guaranteed by the company, provide access to $9.75M bridge funding and up to $25M working capital for a new servicer, and focus the company’s operations.
The execution of definitive agreements and closing of the restructuring are expected no later than April 30, 2025.
The stock price skyrocketed, up 169% to $3.45 per share on Friday during pre-market hours of trading.
ScottsMiracle-Gro (NYSE: SMG) has announced the transfer of its wholly-owned subsidiary, The Hawthorne Collective, to an independent strategic partner. This move marks the first step in separating its cannabis-related businesses from its core lawn and garden operations.
The company plans to separate The Hawthorne Gardening Company from ScottsMiracle-Gro by the end of fiscal 2025. The transfer was executed in exchange for an interest-bearing promissory note, with SMG retaining an option to reacquire The Hawthorne Collective if federal cannabis legalization occurs.
CEO Jim Hagedorn cited the cannabis sector's volatility and federal-level inaction as key reasons for the separation. The company aims to reduce cannabis-related impact on its stock and focus on value creation through its consumer business. The Hawthorne Collective's holdings include investments in Fluent, a cannabis company operating in Florida, Pennsylvania, Texas, and New York.
Thenation’s top health agency willundertake a “massive testing and research effort” to determine the cause of autism, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced Thursday.
Kennedy, a longtime vaccine critic who has pushed a discredited theory that routine childhood shots cause the developmental disability, said the effort will be completed by September and involve hundreds of scientists. He shared the plans with President Donald Trump during a televised Cabinet meeting.
Kennedy looks on during a press conference about Utah’s new fluoride ban, food additives and SNAP funds legislation.AP
Trump suggested that vaccines could be to blame for autism rates, although decades of research have concluded there is no link between the two.
“There’s got to be something artificial out there that’s doing this,” Trump told Kennedy. “If you can come up with that answer, where you stop taking something, eating something, or maybe it’s a shot. But something’s causing it.”
Autism is a developmental disability caused by differences in the brain. It presents with a wide range of symptoms that can include delays in language, learning, and social or emotional skills.
There’s a scientific consensus that childhood vaccines don’t cause autism. Leading autism advocacy groups, including Autism Speaks, agree.
Research, including studies of twins, shows genes play a large role. No single environmental factor has been deemed a culprit. The National Institutes of Health, which already spends more than $300 million yearly researching autism, lists some possible risk factors such as prenatal exposure to pesticides or air pollution, extreme prematurity or low birth weight, certain maternal health problems or parents conceiving at an older age.
Some of that increase is due to increased awareness and a change in how the disability is diagnosed. For decades, the diagnosis was given only to kids with severe problems communicating or socializing and those with unusual, repetitive behaviors. But around 30 years ago, the term became shorthand for a group of milder, related conditions known as ″autism spectrum disorders.” Milder autism cases are far more common than severe ones.
With improved screening and autism services, diagnosis is increasingly happening at younger ages, too. And there’s been more awareness and advocacy for Black and Hispanic families, leading to an increase in autism diagnosed among those groups.
Still, anti-vaccine advocates, including Kennedy, have claimed that vaccines are to blame. The theory largely stems from a 1998 paper that was later retracted.
President Trump, Marco Rubio, Doug Burgum and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., attend a cabinet meeting at the White House.AP
Scientists have since ruled out a link between vaccines and autism, finding no evidence of increased rates of autism among those who are vaccinated compared to those who are not.
Kennedy has hired David Geier, a man who has repeatedly claimed a link between vaccines and autism, to lead the autism research effort. The hiring of Geier, who the state of Maryland found was practicing medicine on a child without a doctor’s license, was first reported by The Washington Post.
HHS did not immediately response to a request for comment.
Bain Capital is looking to raise billions of dollars for its next Asia fund and a special situation fund in the region, as it moves to back private equity and credit deals in countries from Japan to India, according to people familiar with the matter.
The investment firm plans to raise at least $7 billion for its Bain Capital Asia Fund VI, targeting more than the amount obtained for its previous fund, the people said, asking not to be identified because the matter is private. The company will start the move at the end of April, the people added.
Chinese President Xi Jinping will embark on a three-nation Southeast Asia tour next week in his first overseas trip this year to consolidate ties with some of China's closest neighbours as trade tensions with the United States escalate.
Xi will visit Vietnam from April 14-15, and Malaysia and Cambodia from April 15-18, state-run Xinhua news agency reported on Friday.
China, slapped with 145% U.S. tariffs since President Donald Trump took office this year, is quickly moving to reinforce relations with other countries similarly lying in the shadow of Washington's damaging trade levies.
Some of the countries hit by Trump's reciprocal tariffs - Cambodia by 49%, Vietnam by 46% and Malaysia by 24% - have already begun reaching out to the United States for a reprieve, leaving China an outlier among the bilateral negotiations as tensions between Beijing and Washington continue to flare.
The rare bilateral visits to Southeast Asian nations mark a high-profile personal diplomatic outreach for Xi. Earlier this week, the Chinese president pledged to deepen "all-round cooperation" with China's neighbouring countries.
Xinhua news agency said it was set to run feature articles on Xi's visit to Southeast Asia, including pieces on how "flowing water cannot be severed" between China and Malaysia, and Xi and his "ironclad friends" from Cambodia.
In the days before and after Trump's reciprocal tariffs took effect on April 9 - most of which have since been paused except for China - Beijing had already started to persuade regional blocs around the world to hold a common line against the punitive U.S. levies.
Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao held video calls with his counterparts from the European Union and Malaysia, as well as Saudi Arabia and South Africa.
Earlier this week, Premier Li Qiang spoke with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on the phone, during which they emphasised Europe and China's responsibility to support a "strong reformed trading system, free, fair and founded on a level playing field".
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered the termination of IT services contracts, totally valued at $5.1 billion, with companies such as Accenture and Deloitte, a memo showed on Thursday.
The pacts "represent non-essential spending on third party consultants" for services Pentagon employees can peform, Hegseth said in the April 10 memo released by the Pentagon.
"These terminations represent $5.1 billion in wasteful spending ... and nearly $4 billion in estimated savings," Hegseth added.
