Day: January 13, 2022

The first XR Research Awards received great interest with 319 applications and 89 proposals. The XRRA provided a new opportunity for researchers and content creators to apply to a €50,000 fund to study behaviour in VR and promote the use of objective data to understand human behavioural responses in VR.

UNITED NATIONS, Jan. 13, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — The XR Research Awards targeted worldwide researchers, content creators or individuals affiliated with academic, research, clinical, rehabilitation, or commercial organizations. The proposals had to integrate biosensors to provide for objective outcome measures to be eligible. The awards from Emteq Labs, Cognitive3D, Pico and Plux Wireless Biosignals provide cash, equipment and support for projects.

Of the 319 applications and 89 proposals, 12 solutions stood out. The finalists were judged by leaders in the fields of scientific research, biosignals, safety and business. The proposals were judged on the following criteria: focus on validating the effectiveness of VR, team collaboration, working with partners in two or more organizations and having clear defined outputs.

The winners are:

1st prize: “The impact of social reciprocity on attitudes and behaviour in virtual social interactions” by Dr. Leon Kroczek, Dipl.-Psych.

“Face-to-face interactions are a fundamental part of our life and Virtual Reality is a promising tool to study social behaviour. The XRRA award allows us to take VR research on social interactions to the next level by implementing an ecologically valid, real-time interaction paradigm based on eye gaze and facial expressions. This project will advance our understanding of social behaviour during real-time social interactions,” commented Dr. Leon Kroczek, winner of first prize

In addition to the two runner-up awards, an additional runner-up prize was given this year due to the number of quality submissions.

1st runner-up prize: “Development of a framework for emotional audio research (EAR) that uses biofeedback to deepen the immersive experience through the real-time integration of data from various biosensor inputs, which adaptively modify and enhance auditory content” by Richard Warp, Producer at Pollen VR, London

2nd runner-up prize: “Investigating the Effectiveness of Treating Pain and Anxiety with Virtual Reality Using Physiological Data” by Omer Liran, Co-director of Virtual Medicine at Cedars-Sinai, Los Angeles

3rd additional runner-up prize award went to the proposal for “Augmented Interoception: Parameters of Pain” by Hamid Ghaednia, Research Scientist at Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston

“The judges were very impressed by the number and caliber of submissions to this first XR Research Awards. There’s tremendous excitement in the metaverse, but clearly, more research is needed to ensure that XR is rolled out safely and with a strong evidence base. We are delighted to announce that the XR Research Awards will continue in 2022, and we invite entrants to register for the new competition at www.xrra.net,” commented Dr. Charles Nduka, CEO and Scientist of Emteq Labs.

Discover more about the XR Research Awards from the article published at Emteq Labs or contact us at info@emteqlabs.com

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Entrants Can Submit Nominations in the Top Sales and Customer Service Awards Through February 2

FAIRFAX, Va., Jan. 13, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — By popular demand, the Stevie® Awards have extended the final entry deadline in the 16th annual Stevie® Awards for Sales & Customer Service to Wednesday, February 2. The original entry deadline was January 12. These are the world’s premier awards for sales and customer service professionals, teams, and organizations.

Entry kits and complete details on the competition are available at http://www.StevieAwards.com/Sales.

Eligible nominees include departments, teams, and professionals from around the world who work in customer service, contact center, business development, and sales. New products and services and solution providers used by those professionals are also eligible. The 2022 awards will recognize achievements since July 1, 2019.

Winners will be announced on February 28, 2022. Gold, Silver, and Bronze Stevie Award winners will be celebrated at a virtual awards ceremony on May 11.

The Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service feature more than 150 sales awards, customer service awards, business development awards, new product awards, and solution provider awards categories. Entrants may submit any number of nominations to any number of categories.

New this year, for all categories the submission requirements have been extended to allow nominations to include accomplishments for the past two years instead of one.

There are many new categories for 2022 including Sales Engineer of the Year, Sales Support Professional of the Year, Virtual and Pre-Sales Professional of the Year, Remote Sales Innovation of the Year, Sales Employer of the Year, and an entirely new section of categories to recognize Thought Leadership achievements in business development, customer service, and sales.  Explore all of the categories here.

The Stevie Awards is also pleased to present the Ethics in Sales Award, sponsored by Sales Partnerships. This category has no entry fee. This award recognizes organizations for best practices and achievements in demonstrating the highest ethical standards in the sales industry. Entrants can submit specific examples, case studies, practices, etc. that illustrates why the organization being nominated should be considered an excellent example of best practices in sales. This award is based on activities in 2021.

Stevie Awards President Maggie Miller states, “Every year our judges grow more and more impressed with the submissions in the Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service. We encourage any organization who wants to be recognized for their achievements since July 2019 to request an entry kit to see which categories would best highlight those successes.”

Winners of the 2021 edition of the Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service included American Red Cross, Blackbaud, Inc., Carbonite, Cisco Systems Inc., ClassicCars.com, DHL Express, ElectronicArts, GoDaddy, IBM, John Hancock Financial Solutions, Land O’Lakes, Mailchimp, Modern Campus, Nasdaq Governance Solutions, Nutrisystem, Paylocity, SoftPro, Travelzoo, ValueSelling Associates, VIZIO, Inc., Vodafone Turkey, and more.

The 2022 competition will be judged by more than 150 professionals around the world.

About the Stevie Awards
Stevie Awards are conferred in eight programs: the Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards, the German Stevie Awards, The American Business Awards®, The International Business Awards®, the Stevie Awards for Great Employers, the Stevie Awards for Women in Business, the Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service, and the Middle East & North Africa Stevie Awards. Stevie Awards competitions receive more than 12,000 entries each year from organizations in more than 70 nations. Honoring organizations of all types and sizes and the people behind them, the Stevies recognize outstanding performances in the workplace worldwide. Learn more about the Stevie Awards at http://www.StevieAwards.com.

Marketing Contact:
Nina Moore
Nina@StevieAwards.com
+1 (703) 547-8389

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Manchester United Head of Academy Highlights Importance of Individuality and Confidence for Young Players

MANCHESTER, England, Jan. 13, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Spectrum Brands Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: SPB) and Manchester United (NYSE: MANU) jointly announced today the extension of their global partnership, which will see Spectrum Brands’ iconic Remington personal care brand continuing its successful partnership as Manchester United Official Electrical Styling Partner.

As part of the announcement, Manchester United Head of Academy, Nick Cox, has spoken about the importance of instilling confidence in young players coming through the ranks.

As the head of one of the most famous and successful Academies in football, Nick says: “Our aim is to help instil confidence across the club’s Academy players as soon as they step through the door. These young players are looking to follow in the footsteps of regular first-teamers like Marcus Rashford, Mason Greenwood and Scott McTominay, and from experience, having confidence to be themselves is just as important as their footballing abilities within our youngest age groups.

“Our role in The Academy is not only to develop the boys as footballers, but also into well-rounded human beings who are comfortable and confident in who they are as individuals.

“We encourage all of them to showcase their own style and flair on the training pitch, which helps bring out the best of their abilities but also makes sure they enjoy the experience, too.

“I’m confident that over the coming years, we’ll continue to see exciting young players come through the Academy and into the first team.”

The partnership, which includes both the men’s and women’s teams, will see Remington and the club continue working together to deliver high-impact marketing campaigns and exceptional Remington Manchester United Collection styling products to Manchester United and Remington fans alike. The ongoing, multi-channel activation between Remington and Manchester United aims to celebrate the power of having the confidence to be yourself.

Since the launch of the partnership in 2019, Remington has created over 800 different consumer activations which have featured in over 50 different countries to a reach of over 1.1 billion Manchester United fans and followers globally. Remington’s pitch side advertising is also visible to a matchday TV audience of 3.5 billion football fans per annum.

The two global names have worked on many engaging and creative campaigns. Throughout the pandemic the Club and Remington, with the help of first team players, created useful ‘how to’ home haircut videos and fun style challenges. The latest collaboration promotes the ‘Give the Gift of Style’ a campaign featuring players Paul Pogba, David DeGea, Jadon Sancho and Edinson Cavani helping out busy fans by wrapping Remington products for well deserving recipients.

A range of Remington co-branded products are now available in over 39 markets through Remington’s outlets and globally through the online club store, with two new products added to the collection earlier this year.

Manchester United Director of Partnerships, Sean Jefferson, comments:

“As a global household name, Remington products are synonymous with style and the success of its Manchester United Collection products is testament to this. However, our partnership extends beyond the amazing product range on offer, to creating interesting and exclusive content to engage with our fans, and promoting positive messaging around finding confidence in being you.

“We are very proud to extend our relationship with Remington and look forward to continuing to build on our successful partnership.”

Tim Wright, Vice President for Appliances at Spectrum Brands Holdings comments:

“The first three years of our partnership with Manchester United have been incredibly positive and enabled us to engage with fans of the club in exciting and creative ways.

“Extending the partnership is a fantastic opportunity to continue showcasing the quality and versatility of Remington products to passionate fans of the world’s biggest and most revered sports club.”

To watch the full interview with Nick Cox, visit https://youtu.be/Q1WpfL4ElI8.

– ENDS –

Notes to Editors

For more information, please contact remington.mufc@hatchpr.co.uk. Hi-res images are available here: https://we.tl/t-PDlBjiOYOw.

About Manchester United

Manchester United plc (NYSE: MANU) is one of the most popular and successful sports teams in the world, playing one of the most popular spectator sports on earth. Through our 144-year heritage we have won 66 trophies, enabling us to develop the world’s leading sports brand and a global community of 1.1 billion followers. Our large, passionate community provides Manchester United with a worldwide platform to generate significant revenue from multiple sources, including sponsorship, merchandising, product licensing, new media and mobile, broadcasting and match day.

About Remington

As a leading and widely recognized global brand of Spectrum Brands Holdings, Remington has been helping the world get ready for more than 80 years.  Powered by decades of industry-leading innovation, Remington takes pride in being at the very cutting edge of technology. Remington works with top salon professionals from around the world to produce electrical personal care products that really work, care for you, and deliver superior results every single time. For more information about Remington, visit http://www.remingtonproducts.com/ (US) or https://eu.remington-europe.com/ (EU).

About Spectrum Brands Holdings

Spectrum Brands Holdings is a home-essentials company with a mission to make living better at home. We focus on delivering innovative products and solutions to consumers for use in and around the home through our trusted brands. We are a leading supplier of residential locksets, residential builders’ hardware, plumbing, shaving and grooming products, personal care products, small household appliances, specialty pet supplies, lawn and garden and home pest control products, and personal insect repellents. Helping to meet the needs of consumers worldwide, Spectrum Brands offers a broad portfolio of market-leading, well-known and widely trusted brands including Kwikset®, Weiser®, Baldwin®, National Hardware®, Pfister®, Remington®, George Foreman®, Russell Hobbs®, Black+Decker®, Tetra®, DreamBone®, SmartBones®, Nature’s Miracle®, 8-in-1®, FURminator®, Healthy-Hide®, Good Boy®, Meowee!® , OmegaOne®, OmegaSea®, Spectracide®, Cutter®, Repel®, Hot Shot®, Rejuvenate®, Black Flag®, and Liquid Fence®. Spectrum Brands, a member of the Russell 1000 index, generated fiscal 2020 net sales of approximately $4.0 billion. For more information visit www.spectrumbrands.com

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Wes Brown, Man Utd Academy graduate and Club Legend (L), chats with Nick Cox (R), Head of Academy as part of the REmington global contract extension video content

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Recent Publications by Several Independent Laboratories Show ADG20 Has Neutralizing Activity with Potency Comparable to Other Antibodies that Retain Activity Against Omicron

Multiple Efforts Underway to Address Omicron and Potential Future SARS-CoV-2 Variants

WALTHAM, Mass., Jan. 12, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Adagio Therapeutics, Inc., (Nasdaq: ADGI), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery, development and commercialization of antibody-based solutions for infectious diseases with pandemic potential, today summarized recent findings reported in three separate publications that show ADG20, its lead monoclonal antibody (mAb), has neutralization activity against the Omicron (B.1.1.529) variant of SARS-CoV-2, and outlined initiatives to address current and future SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern. Adagio is evaluating ADG20 in its global Phase 2/3 clinical trials for both the prevention and treatment of COVID-19. Adagio is engaging with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regarding potential protocol updates to its global Phase 2/3 clinical trials, including an increased dose of ADG20 for the potential prevention and treatment of COVID-19 resulting from the Omicron variant.

ADG20 Neutralizing Activity Against Omicron
Recently published in vitro studies examined the neutralization potencies of large panels of mAbs against the Omicron variant in both authentic and pseudovirus assays. Findings across all three studies show that among mAbs in late-stage clinical development or with Emergency Use Authorization (EUA), ADG20 is one of only a few mAbs that demonstrated neutralizing activity against Omicron. Across two distinct authentic neutralization assays against Omicron, the data show that ADG20 had an IC₅₀, a measurement of neutralization potency, of approximately 0.4 to 1.1 µg/mL, which is comparable with the two other active mAbs, sotrovimab and AZD7742.

“What is critical to assessing potential clinical effectiveness of SARS-CoV-2 mAbs is the neutralization potency by the mAb against a specific variant. While findings may show that ADG20 has reduced potency against Omicron when compared to its high potency against all other variants of concern, including Delta, the data support that ADG20 is among the few mAbs to demonstrate neutralizing activity against the Omicron variant and warrants its continued development,” said Laura Walker, Ph.D., chief scientific officer and co-founder of Adagio.

These data add to previously reported in vitro data from a variety of preclinical studies that showed that ADG20 retains activity against other variants of concern including Alpha, Beta, Delta and Gamma, and that ADG20 retains neutralizing activity against a diverse panel of circulating SARS-CoV-2 variants, including the Lambda, Mu and Delta plus variants.

Clinical Trial Update to Address Omicron
Adagio is continuing evaluation of ADG20 in its EVADE and STAMP clinical trials. Adagio is engaging with the FDA on dosing strategy, including an increased dose of ADG20 and other protocol updates in light of the spread of the Omicron variant. Adagio is pausing the enrollment of new patients in the 300 mg dose arm in both clinical trials as the company updates its protocols. Follow-up and monitoring of patients previously administered ADG20 are continuing per the original protocols.

Additional Efforts to Address Omicron and Future Variants
In addition to its clinical trial updates, Adagio is pursuing multiple strategies to address both Omicron and potential future variants that may emerge. Leveraging its exclusive partnership with Adimab LLC, a global leader in antibody engineering, Adagio is exploring the potential to engineer ADG20 to further improve binding to the Omicron variant to enhance its neutralization potency against Omicron while retaining its broad neutralization against other SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern. In parallel, Adagio is assessing several hundred mAbs from its proprietary library of previously isolated SARS-CoV-2 antibodies for their neutralization potency against Omicron. Such an additional neutralizing mAb could be developed as a stand-alone product or as part of a combination approach. These efforts are underway, and the company anticipates preliminary findings from its research in the first quarter of 2022.

“SARS-CoV-2 is a quickly evolving virus, and at Adagio, we are committed to adapting just as quickly. It is abundantly clear that no single product will fully address the evolving nature of the COVID-19 pandemic, and that multiple preventative and therapeutic solutions are needed. Based on both in-house data and third-party findings, we are confident that ADG20 can be an important tool in the fight against this virus,” added Tillman Gerngross, Ph.D., co-founder and chief executive officer of Adagio.

About ADG20
ADG20, an investigational monoclonal antibody targeting the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2 and related coronaviruses, is being evaluated in global clinical trials for the prevention and treatment of COVID-19, the disease caused by SARS-CoV-2. ADG20 was designed to possess high potency and broad neutralization activity against SARS-CoV-2 and additional clade 1 sarbecoviruses by targeting a highly conserved epitope in the receptor binding domain. ADG20 was further engineered to provide an extended half-life for durable protection. In vitro data from a variety of preclinical studies have shown that ADG20 retains neutralizing activity against all known SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern. In a Phase 1 trial, ADG20 was well-tolerated with no safety signals identified through a minimum of three months follow-up across all cohorts. ADG20 has not been approved for use in any country, and safety and efficacy have not yet been established.

About Adagio Therapeutics
Adagio (Nasdaq: ADGI) is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery, development and commercialization of antibody-based solutions for infectious diseases with pandemic potential, including COVID-19 and influenza. The company’s portfolio of antibodies has been optimized using Adimab’s industry-leading antibody engineering capabilities and is designed to provide patients and clinicians with the potential for a powerful combination of potency, breadth, durable protection (via half-life extension), manufacturability and affordability. Adagio’s portfolio of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies includes multiple non-competing, broadly neutralizing antibodies with distinct binding epitopes, led by ADG20. Adagio has secured manufacturing capacity for the production of ADG20 with third-party contract manufacturers to support the completion of clinical trials and initial commercial launch, ensuring the potential for broad accessibility to people around the world, if authorized or approved for use. For more information, please visit www.adagiotx.com.

Forward Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words such as “anticipates,” “believes,” “expects,” “intends,” “projects,” and “future” or similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements include statements concerning, among other things, the timing, progress and results of our preclinical studies and clinical trials of ADG20, including the initiation, modification and completion of studies or trials and related preparatory work, including our plans to evaluate dosing regimens and other protocol updates in our clinical trials, the period during which the results of our clinical trials and other studies and research activities will become available, and our research and development programs; our ability to obtain and maintain regulatory approvals for our product candidates; our pursuit of other strategies to address the Omicron variant, including modification of clinical trial protocols; and other statements that are not historical fact. We may not actually achieve the plans, intentions or expectations disclosed in our forward-looking statements and you should not place undue reliance on our forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause our actual results to differ materially from the results described in or implied by the forward-looking statements, including, without limitation, the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on our business, clinical trials and financial position, unexpected safety or efficacy data observed during preclinical studies or clinical trials, the predictability of clinical success of ADG20 based on neutralizing activity in pre-clinical studies, variability of results in models used to predict activity against SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern, clinical trial site activation or enrollment rates that are lower than expected, changes in expected or existing competition, changes in the regulatory environment, and the uncertainties and timing of the regulatory approval process, including the outcome of our discussions with regulatory authorities concerning our Phase 2/3 clinical trials. Other factors that may cause our actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in the forward-looking statements in this press release are described under the heading “Risk Factors” in Adagio’s Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2021 and in Adagio’s future reports to be filed with the SEC. Such risks may be amplified by the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.  Forward-looking statements contained in this press release are made as of this date, and Adagio undertakes no duty to update such information except as required under applicable law.

Contacts:
Media Contact:
Dan Budwick, 1AB
Dan@1abmedia.com

Investor Contact:
Monique Allaire, THRUST Strategic Communications
monique@thrustsc.com