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HTL Announces Its Incubator’s Equity Investment In GelMEDIX, An Early-Stage Biotech Aiming At Revolutionizing Ocular And Regenerative Therapies -…

Posted: March 11, 2022 at 12:16 pm

JAVEN, France, March 10, 2022 /PRNewswire/ --HTL Biotechnology, a pioneer and world leader in the development and production of innovative pharmaceutical grade biopolymers, today announced its incubator's first equity investment in GelMEDIX Inc., an early-stage biotechnology company committed to developing the next generation of ocular and regenerative therapies.

This investment supports continued development of the GelMEDIX platform, which enables the delivery of therapeutics from small molecules to cell and gene therapies. Initial research focuses on ophthalmology with lead programs in vision restoring cornea and retina cell therapies and sustained release small molecule therapies.

GelMEDIX's most advanced program is focused on developing a sustained release corticosteroid subconjunctival implant which aims to improve patient care in ocular surface inflammation (postoperative pain and inflammation, dry eye disease, allergic conjunctivitis). One drug-loaded implant replaces 70 patient administered eye drops over the course of one month.

"Instead of using drops, one easy treatment will be administered in the operating theater or in the clinic without any loss of efficacy. In addition to anti-inflammatories, the platform technology can be used for delivery of pro-regenerative therapies that restore ocular health" said Reza Dana, M.D., M.P.H., M.Sc., Scientific Co-founder of GelMEDIX. "As such, this product represents one of the most promising innovations deriving from our proprietary hydrogel platform."

This initial implant constitutes only one of the several research opportunities deriving from GelMEDIX's proprietary photocrosslinkable hydrogel platform, which uniquely enables tunable bioadhesion, tissue regeneration, and biodegradation. HTL's partnership with GelMEDIX also facilitates the development of new applications in regenerative medicine both in ophthalmology and other therapeutic areas.

HTL's incubator will support GelMEDIX through a direct investment and industrial and scientific support throughout its development thanks to its expertise in biopolymers and ophthalmology sectors. HTL will also produce methacrylate hyaluronic acid, a key component for tailoring application specific parameters across the GelMEDIX pipeline including viscosity, bioadhesion, and therapeutic release profiles. Additionally, HTL will help GelMEDIX in the industrialization of its hydrogel production.

"It is an honor to have the support of such a renowned company as HTL. Beyond the financial aspect, its keen understanding of ophthalmology issues, its industrial know-how and the high quality of its products are all crucial assets to accelerate GelMEDIX's development," said Arthur Driscoll, President and Chief Development Officer of GelMEDIX.

HTL's participation will be joined by another equity investment from the venture fund Safar Partners. "The pioneering advancements GelMEDIX is making in the development of ocular and regenerative therapies will lead to dramatic improvements in how these treatments are administered to patients," said Nader Motamedy, a Safar Managing Partner. "The GelMEDIX hydrogel platform is the kind of transformative healthcare technology that Safar Partners highly values as both a long-term position for our portfolio as well as a development that will improve global health."

HTL's incubator is a financial vehicle allowing HTL to take minority investments in innovative biotechs in the biopolymer sector, either as seed funds or as series A investments. The incubator also aims to support these biotechs thanks to HTL's unique knowledge and expertise in the production of biopolymers.

"Innovation is the core of HTL's DNA, which is why we aim at supporting tomorrow's medicine by investing in biotechs that are pushing away the limits of biopolymer use in the medical sector," said Charles Ruban, Deputy CEO of HTL. "We are really excited about this partnership with GelMEDIX, which is a perfect example of the type of biotechs to which we wish to provide strategic and financial support".

This incubator represents one of the strategic axes of HTL's ambitious R&D strategy which positions the French company as the global driver of innovation in the biopolymer sector, developing new markets and applications for biopolymers to address unmet medical needs. The company also relies on its state-of-the-art research facility and numerous partnerships with entities at the forefront of world research to nurture its biopolymer platform for the healthcare industry.

About biopolymers and hyaluronic acidBiopolymers include several types of substances which are naturally produced by the cells of living organisms. Among them, glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) are known for their lubricating and shock-absorbing characteristics, as well as their natural biodegradability within the human body. This is the case, for example, of hyaluronic acid (hyaluronan or HA), a natural substance present in the human body with many biological functions such as skin hydration or lubrication of joints and eye tissue.

HTL produces GAGs by biofermentation, an alternative to animal extraction that maintains the quality required for pharmaceutical grade, allowing the biopolymers to be injectable into patients and used as ingredients for the development of medical treatments. The chemical properties of biopolymers can also be customized by HTL's R&D teams in order to precisely meet the needs of customers and their patients.

Today, the biopolymers which are developed and produced by HTL are used to produce treatments that improve the lives of millions of patients in many fields, such as ophthalmology (cataract surgery, treatment of glaucoma, treatment of dry eye ...), rheumatology (treatment of osteoarthritis), urology (treatment of vesico-ureteral reflux, a rare pediatric congenital disease), or in aesthetic medicine (dermal fillers). Biopolymers are also at the heart of several research programs focused on disruptive innovations in medicine such as bioprinting and regenerative medicine, tissue engineering as well as drug and stem cell delivery.

About GelMEDIXGelMEDIX Inc. is an early-stage biotechnology company committed to innovating the next generation of ocular and regenerative therapies through its proprietary hydrogel platform. GelMEDIX's programs are based upon its photo crosslinked hydrogels, originally developed by Prof. Nasim Annabi (UCLA) and Prof. Reza Dana (Mass Eye and Ear, Harvard Medical School). These hydrogels uniquely enable bioadhesion, tissue regeneration, tunable mechanics, and therapeutic loading across modalities from small molecules to cell and gene therapies.GelMEDIX is developing drug products for indications across the eye focused on cell-based therapies for vision restoration, intraocular sustained release of small molecules and peptides, and in situ forming bioadhesives.GelMEDIX is backed by Safar Partners and HTL Biotechnology along with leading angel investors and is currently raising a Series-A financing. GelMEDIX is based in Cambridge, MA., USA For additional information please inquire with info@gelmedix.com or visit https://gelmedix.com

About HTLHTL is a leading biotech and industrial player in the development and production of innovative, pharmaceutical-grade biopolymers that are used by leading pharmaceutical and medical device companies to transform the lives of millions of patients in multiple therapeutic areas such as ophthalmology, dermatology, medical aesthetics, rheumatology, and urology.

HTL is at the forefront of innovation in the biopolymer industry to meet tomorrow's medical needs by creating new types of biopolymers and chemical modifications, while exploring the untapped potential of biopolymers in innovative applications such as bioprinting or drug delivery.

HTL has a long history in France and in Javen (Ille-et-Vilaine, Brittany) where its production and R&D activities are located. Nearly 180 employees work at this site.

To learn more about HTL: https://htlbiotech.com/

About Safar PartnersSafar Partners is a seed- to growth-stage venture fund investing primarily in technology companies out of MIT, Harvard, and the University of Rochester. Safar takes advantage of the principles of private equity to create value as our companies scale beyond initial prototypes. We accelerate the scaling of our portfolio companies through the formation of spinouts or joint ventures to address additional markets, industries, or geographies. For more about Safar Partners, visit https://www.safar.partners

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HTL Announces Its Incubator's Equity Investment In GelMEDIX, An Early-Stage Biotech Aiming At Revolutionizing Ocular And Regenerative Therapies -...

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Precision Genomics Moves Toward Increased Granularity in Molecular Sequencing – OncLive

Posted: at 12:16 pm

Precision medicine involves more than molecularly sequencing a tumor and matching it with a targeted therapy, according to Kelvin P. Lee, MD, who argued that bulk sequencing may become an antiquated approach when single-cell RNA sequencing technology becomes available because it can provide a clearer picture of the complexity and heterogeneity of tumors.

Once we move away from bulk sequencing, which essentially says, This whole tumor is all the same and get down to a much finer specificity that [enables us to identify] tumor cells that have this mutation and look like this vs tumor cells that have that mutation and look like that, we will get more and more sophisticated in how we treat patients. The more heterogeneous the tumorand they become more heterogeneous as they are later in treatmentthe harder they are to treat, and the less helpful our current precision genomics technology is in that setting, Lee said in an interview with OncLive following an Institutional Perspectives in Cancer webinar on Precision Medicine.

In the interview, Lee, director of the Indiana University (IU) Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center, the H.H. Gregg Professor of Oncology, professor, Department of Medicine,

Division of Hematology/Oncology, associate dean for cancer research, IU School of Medicine, discussed the nuances of an effective molecular tumor board, explained the practical application of precision oncology genomics, and highlighted the pathways that have the potential to change the treatment landscape for precision oncology.

Lee: The take-home message is that every tumor should be sequenced. If you dont do it now, you may not be able to do it later. The information can be useful in designing a treatment plan, but it also helps us understand that cancer. The more information we have on lung cancers from patients, the better we can design new therapies and move that field forward. If a patient has a tumor specimen that you can send to precision genomics, send it because maybe we dont have an answer today, but maybe in 2 weeks we will have an answer, and that becomes important for that patient.

At IU there is a precision medicine team, and our patients are referred to them. That precision medicine team sets up the testing and the [molecular] sequencing and then does tumor boards, where they go through the results, they talk about what abnormalities and what mutations were found and then they go through what [mutations] are potentially actionable and how we want to utilize [treatment for] those [alterations]. The nice thing about tumor boards is that all the experts are in the room, and now that we have extended [ours] to be virtual, not only can we do precision medicine downtown at University Hospital, but now we have clinics that are in our suburban and metropolitan regions. Were moving those facilities out farther, so we can do precision medicine, hopefully, out in the community. Hopefully, with the expansion, primary care physicians and community oncologists can also utilize this [opportunity to] get the referrals and then sit in virtual tumor boards and get answers for their patients.

The key piece is not only doing the [molecular] sequencing and understanding what the mutations are, but also what youre doing with that information. For many of the mutations, the therapeutic that might be applicable to that patient or that mutation are in clinical trials. An effective precision medicine program has to not only have the expertise as to what these mutations are, what these established targets or established therapeutics are that we might be able to use, but also has to have an ongoing real-time knowledge of all the clinical trials that are available and in the literature.

Not only are there new compounds that a patient might be eligible for in a clinical trial, but there are also drugs that have been used for other things that are being repurposed for targeting mutations that we had not previously expected those drugs to be able to do. The precision medicine team must be aware of the literature, not only published literature but abstracts and journal or meeting work that says, Maybe you can use this malaria drug to target this mutation, which may be something that had not been previously understood. That is, overall, a key piece of what makes precision medicine so effective and so important, but so difficult to do. Its not just sequencing stuff, and then saying, There it is and then figuring out how to manage that [patient].

Next-generation sequencing is now allowing us to get at whole genomes, instead of just testing for BRCAmutations or [other single-gene mutations]. We are identifying other mutations, and now instead of having to re-sequence somebodys tumor, we have all that data thats there. If something pops up that later becomes this polymorphism or this mutation that is important in this cancer, we have that data; we can go back and look at those aspects. What it allows us to do is really what I would consider the next generation of precision medicine: to understand how mutations work together.

For immunotherapy, [tumor] mutational burden has been a key driver of whether checkpoint inhibitors are important. Now as we understand more of what a persons cancer has, in terms of mutations, our informatics, our artificial intelligence, and our machine learning technology is poised to take that data and say, if you have these 2 mutations: Are they compensating for each other, and do you have to target both? Now, if a patient has 1 mutation, they get this 1 drug, but biology is much more complicated. There are mutations that may work in concert with each other that may develop other additional vulnerabilities that we didnt anticipate because one mutation is causing the cell to do something and another mutation is stressing the cells, so maybe there is a target thats not either one of those 2 mutations but that is in the pathways that those mutations are driving that can be gone after. The exciting thing for me is understanding that. Im an immunologist, so understanding the complexity of cells, because immune systems see lots of things simultaneously, is really what we are looking forward to.

Its a very active process; patients are identified at the beginning of the week, and then the team asks: What are the mutations? What are the [alterations] that are actionable? Then they begin to sort through what treatment options are available and what the adverse effects [AEs] are. PharmDs have to ask: What are the AEs, particularly for experimental agents? What are the interactions with other drugs? How do we get these things and what literature supports the use of this agent? Then, are there odd things that we have to understand? Are there subsets of patients who have particularly bad responses that had been reported in the literature? All that gets pulled together.

Our tumor board is later in the week where all that information is presented: the patient case is presented, the genomic description or the description of the genetic changes are reviewed, and then the treatment options are also reviewed if theyre available, and the strength of each [drug] in terms of the data that says that this drug would be particularly good in this patient, or this drug would not be something that wed be looking for in this patient. A lot of what makes tumor boards effective is that research. Its not just, I have a piece of paper says I can give this drug and then you are done. It really is a lot of thoughtful research that goes into understanding the options that a patient might have.

The case study showed what the right process is to analyze the data you get to reach a meaningful action plan. As the technology goes forward, and as our ability to detect things gets more sophisticated, as we start to move toward single-cell sequencing, for example, RNA sequencing, when we start to look at the epigenome, we will have substantially more data than we have now. Then well start looking at what the patients immune system looks like when we start [molecularly] sequencing that. The amount of data that will be collected and the kinds of data that will be collected will grow exponentially.

The key piece of molecular tumor boards and the key piece of precision medicine is: How do you analyze that data? The analytical pipeline is going to be the same, the structure is going to be the same. How do you act? How do you take that data in? How do you analyze it, and then how do you use that analysis to come to specific treatment recommendations for that patient? That framework, that pipeline is going to be the same regardless of what the data coming in is. The key thing that was important in that whole process of going through these case studies is to recognize what the steps were that were taken from the very beginning, from the actual case itself where the patient comes in with their history. How were those data put together and analyzed? How was that used to make decisions for the treatment plan for that patient? Its the structure of the analytical process that was the most important aspect of going through those case studies.

The data suggests that with early genomic testing, when you apply it to precision medicine to identify therapeutics, the anti-cancer effect, or the ability to impact a persons cancer is greater on early diagnosis than late diagnosis. There probably are a variety of biologies that are implicated by that. When a tumor has been exposed to lots of things, it probably not only has its initial mutations, but probably has a lot of adaptations that have happened because of chemotherapy that has been given that we dont necessarily pick up; it may not be a genomic abnormality, but it may be overexpression of a particular gene that confers resistance. As those tumors become more resistant to therapy, the initial driver mutations may become less important as things go forward.

It speaks to biology also, because in the beginning, probably, in tumors that have not been treated or not been heavily pretreated at the time of diagnosis, theyre probably less genetically complicated, so maybe they have just one mutation. Maybe all of them have that one mutation, you treat them with a drug, and they all die. As tumors go along, they become much more heterogeneous, so instead of one population of cancer cells, now you have 75 different populations or tribes, for example, that are living, and some of them are sensitive, some of them are different. Some of them have different mutations, and precision genomics is moving towards being able to understand complex tumors, such that some of the cells have one mutation and some of them have a completely different set of mutations. We dont pick that up right now, simply because we dont have the single-cell RNA sequencing technology yet, although thats coming.

We are beginning to see precision medicine in the context of immunotherapy. In that sense, the change in framework is its not the cancer alone thats important because not only do you have to sequence the cancer, and understand its genetic makeup, you also have to sequence the immune systemthe normal part of the patient that is essentially the effector part. Instead of giving chemotherapy, where youre saying, I have a drug, I know everything about that drug, and all I need to do is figure out whats going on in the cancer, if I can find that this drug will hit this piece of the cancer, then lets put those two together.

For immunotherapy, you have the cancer, which is doing stuff and its dynamic, and its activating the immune system and suppressing the immune system. We have to understand that, and some of the suppression that it does is not because it is suppressing the immune system, its making the normal tissue around it suppress the immune system.

People say that cancer is a non-healing wound, so essentially, for wound healing, you dont want your immune system to fire up and start destroying all the tissue around a healing wound. Otherwise, youll never heal. The normal body has perfectly good mechanisms to shut off your immune response and cancers take advantage of that, but that phenomenon is not in the cancer. Its in the surrounding tissue. You have to look in the surrounding tissue to see whats going on there.

Then, you have to look at the immune system because the immune system is the thing thats going to kill the cancer cell, and people have different immune systems. Its very clear that there are lots of genetic variabilities in that. Maybe that genotype within somebodys immune system is not good at getting activated by this immunotherapy. Maybe we should try something different. Its another level of complexity that precision medicine has a tremendous role in, but it becomes that much more complicated because now youre not just looking at the cancer, were now looking at the cancer, the cancers effect on its surrounding microenvironment, and the immune systems ability to target that cancer and perhaps live in that environment that surrounds the tumor. Its an additional level of analysis and complexity. Thats coming though. With the expansion of immunotherapy that will be a much bigger piece of what we do in terms of therapy. Those kinds of analyses and guidance by precision medicine will be a key component of how we deploy immunotherapy in patients with cancer.

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Precision Genomics Moves Toward Increased Granularity in Molecular Sequencing - OncLive

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Global Gene Therapy Market to Reach US$3.4 Billion by the Year 2027 – Yahoo Finance

Posted: at 12:16 pm

ReportLinker

Abstract: What`s New for 2022? -Global competitiveness and key competitor percentage market shares. -Market presence across multiple geographies - Strong/Active/Niche/Trivial.

New York, March 11, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Reportlinker.com announces the release of the report "Global Gene Therapy Industry" - https://www.reportlinker.com/p05817594/?utm_source=GNW -Online interactive peer-to-peer collaborative bespoke updates -Access to our digital archives and MarketGlass Research Platform -Complimentary updates for one year

Global Gene Therapy Market to Reach US$3.4 Billion by the Year 2027

Amid the COVID-19 crisis, the global market for Gene Therapy estimated at US$970.5 Million in the year 2020, is projected to reach a revised size of US$3.4 Billion by 2027, growing at a CAGR of 19.5% over the period 2020-2027.Viral, one of the segments analyzed in the report, is projected to grow at a 19.7% CAGR to reach US$3 Billion by the end of the analysis period. After an early analysis of the business implications of the pandemic and its induced economic crisis, growth in the Non-Viral segment is readjusted to a revised 17.6% CAGR for the next 7-year period. This segment currently accounts for a 11.1% share of the global Gene Therapy market.

The U.S. Accounts for Over 53.7% of Global Market Size in 2020, While China is Forecast to Grow at a 25.1% CAGR for the Period of 2020-2027

The Gene Therapy market in the U.S. is estimated at US$521.3 Million in the year 2020. The country currently accounts for a 53.71% share in the global market. China, the world second largest economy, is forecast to reach an estimated market size of US$107.9 Million in the year 2027 trailing a CAGR of 25.1% through 2027. Among the other noteworthy geographic markets are Japan and Canada, each forecast to grow at 17.3% and 18.9% respectively over the 2020-2027 period. Within Europe, Germany is forecast to grow at approximately 18.6% CAGR while Rest of European market (as defined in the study) will reach US$107.9 Million by the year 2027.Select Competitors (Total 154 Featured) -

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Abeona Therapeutics Inc.

Adaptimmune Therapeutics Plc

Advantagene, Inc.

Adverum Biotechnologies, Inc

Akcea Therapeutics

Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Amgen Inc

Anchiano Therapeutics, Inc.

AnGes, Inc.

Applied Genetic Technologies Corporation

Audentes Therapeutics, Inc.

Biogen

bluebird bio, Inc.

Chiesi Farmaceutici S.p.A

CRISPR Therapeutics AG

Editas Medicine, Inc.

Gilead Sciences, Inc.

Intellia Therapeutics, Inc.

Jazz Pharmaceuticals, plc.

Juno Therapeutics, Inc

Merck KGaA

MolMed S.p.A.

Novartis Gene Therapies

Orchard Therapeutics plc

REGENXBIO Inc.

Sangamo Therapeutics, Inc.

Sarepta Therapeutics, Inc.

Sibiono GeneTech Co. Ltd.

Spark Therapeutics, Inc.

uniQure N.V.

Voyager Therapeutics

Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05817594/?utm_source=GNW

I. METHODOLOGY

II. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

1. MARKET OVERVIEW Influencer Market Insights World Market Trajectories Impact of Covid-19 and a Looming Global Recession A Prelude to Gene Therapy Classification of Gene Therapies COVID-19 Causes Gene Therapy Market to Buckle & Collapse COVID-19 Impact on Different Aspects of Gene Therapy Manufacturing & Delivery Research & Clinical Development Commercial Operations & Access Managing Derailed Operations Focus on Clinical Development Programs Targeting Manufacturing & Delivery Strategies Securing Supplies Remote Working Gene Therapy Set to Witness Rapid Growth Post COVID-19 Gene Therapy - Global Key Competitors Percentage Market Share in 2022 (E) Competitive Market Presence - Strong/Active/Niche/Trivial for Players Worldwide in 2022 (E) By Vector Type VIRAL VECTORS ACCOUNT FOR A MAJOR SHARE OF THE MARKET Adeno-Associated Virus Vectors Lentivirus NON-VIRAL VECTORS TO WITNESS FASTER GROWTH US and Europe Dominate the Gene Therapy Market Oncology Represents the Largest Indication for Gene Therapy Market Outlook WORLD BRANDS

2. FOCUS ON SELECT PLAYERS Recent Market Activity Select Innovations

3. MARKET TRENDS & DRIVERS Availability of Novel Therapies Drive Market Growth Select Approved Gene Therapy Products Adeno-associated Virus Vectors - A Leading Platform for Gene Therapy Lentiviral Vectors Witness Increasing Interest Rising Cancer Incidence Worldwide Spurs Demand for Gene Therapy Global Cancer Incidence: Number of New Cancer Cases in Million for the Years 2018, 2020, 2025, 2030, 2035 and 2040 Global Number of New Cancer Cases and Cancer-related Deaths by Cancer Site for 2018 Number of New Cancer Cases and Deaths (in Million) by Region for 2018 Compelling Level of Technology & Innovation to Ignite Gene Therapy Promising Gene Therapy Innovations for Treatment of Inherited Retinal Diseases Gene Therapy Pivots M&A Activity in Dynamic Domain of Genomic Medicine M&As Rampant in Gene Therapy Space Gene Therapy Deals: 2018 and 2019 Emphasis on Formulating Robust Regulatory Framework Strong Gene Therapy Pipeline Gene Therapy: Phase III Clinical Trials OHSU Implements First-Ever LCA10 Gene Therapy Clinical Trial with CRISPR Growing Funding for Gene Therapy Research Market Issues & Challenges

4. GLOBAL MARKET PERSPECTIVE Table 1: World Recent Past, Current & Future Analysis for Gene Therapy by Geographic Region - USA, Canada, Japan, China, Europe, Asia-Pacific and Rest of World Markets - Independent Analysis of Annual Sales in US$ Thousand for Years 2020 through 2027 and % CAGR

Table 2: World Historic Review for Gene Therapy by Geographic Region - USA, Canada, Japan, China, Europe, Asia-Pacific and Rest of World Markets - Independent Analysis of Annual Sales in US$ Thousand for Years 2017 through 2019 and % CAGR

Table 3: World 10-Year Perspective for Gene Therapy by Geographic Region - Percentage Breakdown of Value Sales for USA, Canada, Japan, China, Europe, Asia-Pacific and Rest of World Markets for Years 2017, 2021 & 2027

Table 4: World Recent Past, Current & Future Analysis for Viral by Geographic Region - USA, Canada, Japan, China, Europe, Asia-Pacific and Rest of World Markets - Independent Analysis of Annual Sales in US$ Thousand for Years 2020 through 2027 and % CAGR

Table 5: World Historic Review for Viral by Geographic Region - USA, Canada, Japan, China, Europe, Asia-Pacific and Rest of World Markets - Independent Analysis of Annual Sales in US$ Thousand for Years 2017 through 2019 and % CAGR

Table 6: World 10-Year Perspective for Viral by Geographic Region - Percentage Breakdown of Value Sales for USA, Canada, Japan, China, Europe, Asia-Pacific and Rest of World for Years 2017, 2021 & 2027

Table 7: World Recent Past, Current & Future Analysis for Non-Viral by Geographic Region - USA, Canada, Japan, China, Europe, Asia-Pacific and Rest of World Markets - Independent Analysis of Annual Sales in US$ Thousand for Years 2020 through 2027 and % CAGR

Table 8: World Historic Review for Non-Viral by Geographic Region - USA, Canada, Japan, China, Europe, Asia-Pacific and Rest of World Markets - Independent Analysis of Annual Sales in US$ Thousand for Years 2017 through 2019 and % CAGR

Table 9: World 10-Year Perspective for Non-Viral by Geographic Region - Percentage Breakdown of Value Sales for USA, Canada, Japan, China, Europe, Asia-Pacific and Rest of World for Years 2017, 2021 & 2027

Table 10: World Recent Past, Current & Future Analysis for Oncological Disorders by Geographic Region - USA, Canada, Japan, China, Europe, Asia-Pacific and Rest of World Markets - Independent Analysis of Annual Sales in US$ Thousand for Years 2020 through 2027 and % CAGR

Table 11: World Historic Review for Oncological Disorders by Geographic Region - USA, Canada, Japan, China, Europe, Asia-Pacific and Rest of World Markets - Independent Analysis of Annual Sales in US$ Thousand for Years 2017 through 2019 and % CAGR

Table 12: World 10-Year Perspective for Oncological Disorders by Geographic Region - Percentage Breakdown of Value Sales for USA, Canada, Japan, China, Europe, Asia-Pacific and Rest of World for Years 2017, 2021 & 2027

Table 13: World Recent Past, Current & Future Analysis for Rare Diseases by Geographic Region - USA, Canada, Japan, China, Europe, Asia-Pacific and Rest of World Markets - Independent Analysis of Annual Sales in US$ Thousand for Years 2020 through 2027 and % CAGR

Table 14: World Historic Review for Rare Diseases by Geographic Region - USA, Canada, Japan, China, Europe, Asia-Pacific and Rest of World Markets - Independent Analysis of Annual Sales in US$ Thousand for Years 2017 through 2019 and % CAGR

Table 15: World 10-Year Perspective for Rare Diseases by Geographic Region - Percentage Breakdown of Value Sales for USA, Canada, Japan, China, Europe, Asia-Pacific and Rest of World for Years 2017, 2021 & 2027

Table 16: World Recent Past, Current & Future Analysis for Neurological Disorders by Geographic Region - USA, Canada, Japan, China, Europe, Asia-Pacific and Rest of World Markets - Independent Analysis of Annual Sales in US$ Thousand for Years 2020 through 2027 and % CAGR

Table 17: World Historic Review for Neurological Disorders by Geographic Region - USA, Canada, Japan, China, Europe, Asia-Pacific and Rest of World Markets - Independent Analysis of Annual Sales in US$ Thousand for Years 2017 through 2019 and % CAGR

Table 18: World 10-Year Perspective for Neurological Disorders by Geographic Region - Percentage Breakdown of Value Sales for USA, Canada, Japan, China, Europe, Asia-Pacific and Rest of World for Years 2017, 2021 & 2027

Table 19: World Recent Past, Current & Future Analysis for Other Applications by Geographic Region - USA, Canada, Japan, China, Europe, Asia-Pacific and Rest of World Markets - Independent Analysis of Annual Sales in US$ Thousand for Years 2020 through 2027 and % CAGR

Table 20: World Historic Review for Other Applications by Geographic Region - USA, Canada, Japan, China, Europe, Asia-Pacific and Rest of World Markets - Independent Analysis of Annual Sales in US$ Thousand for Years 2017 through 2019 and % CAGR

Table 21: World 10-Year Perspective for Other Applications by Geographic Region - Percentage Breakdown of Value Sales for USA, Canada, Japan, China, Europe, Asia-Pacific and Rest of World for Years 2017, 2021 & 2027

III. MARKET ANALYSIS

UNITED STATES Gene Therapy Market Presence - Strong/Active/Niche/Trivial - Key Competitors in the United States for 2022 (E) Table 22: USA Recent Past, Current & Future Analysis for Gene Therapy by Vector Type - Viral and Non-Viral - Independent Analysis of Annual Sales in US$ Thousand for the Years 2020 through 2027 and % CAGR

Table 23: USA Historic Review for Gene Therapy by Vector Type - Viral and Non-Viral Markets - Independent Analysis of Annual Sales in US$ Thousand for Years 2017 through 2019 and % CAGR

Table 24: USA 10-Year Perspective for Gene Therapy by Vector Type - Percentage Breakdown of Value Sales for Viral and Non-Viral for the Years 2017, 2021 & 2027

Table 25: USA Recent Past, Current & Future Analysis for Gene Therapy by Application - Oncological Disorders, Rare Diseases, Neurological Disorders and Other Applications - Independent Analysis of Annual Sales in US$ Thousand for the Years 2020 through 2027 and % CAGR

Table 26: USA Historic Review for Gene Therapy by Application - Oncological Disorders, Rare Diseases, Neurological Disorders and Other Applications Markets - Independent Analysis of Annual Sales in US$ Thousand for Years 2017 through 2019 and % CAGR

Table 27: USA 10-Year Perspective for Gene Therapy by Application - Percentage Breakdown of Value Sales for Oncological Disorders, Rare Diseases, Neurological Disorders and Other Applications for the Years 2017, 2021 & 2027

CANADA Table 28: Canada Recent Past, Current & Future Analysis for Gene Therapy by Vector Type - Viral and Non-Viral - Independent Analysis of Annual Sales in US$ Thousand for the Years 2020 through 2027 and % CAGR

Table 29: Canada Historic Review for Gene Therapy by Vector Type - Viral and Non-Viral Markets - Independent Analysis of Annual Sales in US$ Thousand for Years 2017 through 2019 and % CAGR

Table 30: Canada 10-Year Perspective for Gene Therapy by Vector Type - Percentage Breakdown of Value Sales for Viral and Non-Viral for the Years 2017, 2021 & 2027

Table 31: Canada Recent Past, Current & Future Analysis for Gene Therapy by Application - Oncological Disorders, Rare Diseases, Neurological Disorders and Other Applications - Independent Analysis of Annual Sales in US$ Thousand for the Years 2020 through 2027 and % CAGR

Table 32: Canada Historic Review for Gene Therapy by Application - Oncological Disorders, Rare Diseases, Neurological Disorders and Other Applications Markets - Independent Analysis of Annual Sales in US$ Thousand for Years 2017 through 2019 and % CAGR

Table 33: Canada 10-Year Perspective for Gene Therapy by Application - Percentage Breakdown of Value Sales for Oncological Disorders, Rare Diseases, Neurological Disorders and Other Applications for the Years 2017, 2021 & 2027

JAPAN Gene Therapy Market Presence - Strong/Active/Niche/Trivial - Key Competitors in Japan for 2022 (E) Table 34: Japan Recent Past, Current & Future Analysis for Gene Therapy by Vector Type - Viral and Non-Viral - Independent Analysis of Annual Sales in US$ Thousand for the Years 2020 through 2027 and % CAGR

Table 35: Japan Historic Review for Gene Therapy by Vector Type - Viral and Non-Viral Markets - Independent Analysis of Annual Sales in US$ Thousand for Years 2017 through 2019 and % CAGR

Table 36: Japan 10-Year Perspective for Gene Therapy by Vector Type - Percentage Breakdown of Value Sales for Viral and Non-Viral for the Years 2017, 2021 & 2027

Table 37: Japan Recent Past, Current & Future Analysis for Gene Therapy by Application - Oncological Disorders, Rare Diseases, Neurological Disorders and Other Applications - Independent Analysis of Annual Sales in US$ Thousand for the Years 2020 through 2027 and % CAGR

Table 38: Japan Historic Review for Gene Therapy by Application - Oncological Disorders, Rare Diseases, Neurological Disorders and Other Applications Markets - Independent Analysis of Annual Sales in US$ Thousand for Years 2017 through 2019 and % CAGR

Table 39: Japan 10-Year Perspective for Gene Therapy by Application - Percentage Breakdown of Value Sales for Oncological Disorders, Rare Diseases, Neurological Disorders and Other Applications for the Years 2017, 2021 & 2027

CHINA Gene Therapy Market Presence - Strong/Active/Niche/Trivial - Key Competitors in China for 2022 (E) Table 40: China Recent Past, Current & Future Analysis for Gene Therapy by Vector Type - Viral and Non-Viral - Independent Analysis of Annual Sales in US$ Thousand for the Years 2020 through 2027 and % CAGR

Table 41: China Historic Review for Gene Therapy by Vector Type - Viral and Non-Viral Markets - Independent Analysis of Annual Sales in US$ Thousand for Years 2017 through 2019 and % CAGR

Table 42: China 10-Year Perspective for Gene Therapy by Vector Type - Percentage Breakdown of Value Sales for Viral and Non-Viral for the Years 2017, 2021 & 2027

Table 43: China Recent Past, Current & Future Analysis for Gene Therapy by Application - Oncological Disorders, Rare Diseases, Neurological Disorders and Other Applications - Independent Analysis of Annual Sales in US$ Thousand for the Years 2020 through 2027 and % CAGR

Table 44: China Historic Review for Gene Therapy by Application - Oncological Disorders, Rare Diseases, Neurological Disorders and Other Applications Markets - Independent Analysis of Annual Sales in US$ Thousand for Years 2017 through 2019 and % CAGR

Table 45: China 10-Year Perspective for Gene Therapy by Application - Percentage Breakdown of Value Sales for Oncological Disorders, Rare Diseases, Neurological Disorders and Other Applications for the Years 2017, 2021 & 2027

EUROPE Gene Therapy Market Presence - Strong/Active/Niche/Trivial - Key Competitors in Europe for 2022 (E) Table 46: Europe Recent Past, Current & Future Analysis for Gene Therapy by Geographic Region - France, Germany, Italy, UK and Rest of Europe Markets - Independent Analysis of Annual Sales in US$ Thousand for Years 2020 through 2027 and % CAGR

Table 47: Europe Historic Review for Gene Therapy by Geographic Region - France, Germany, Italy, UK and Rest of Europe Markets - Independent Analysis of Annual Sales in US$ Thousand for Years 2017 through 2019 and % CAGR

Table 48: Europe 10-Year Perspective for Gene Therapy by Geographic Region - Percentage Breakdown of Value Sales for France, Germany, Italy, UK and Rest of Europe Markets for Years 2017, 2021 & 2027

Table 49: Europe Recent Past, Current & Future Analysis for Gene Therapy by Vector Type - Viral and Non-Viral - Independent Analysis of Annual Sales in US$ Thousand for the Years 2020 through 2027 and % CAGR

Table 50: Europe Historic Review for Gene Therapy by Vector Type - Viral and Non-Viral Markets - Independent Analysis of Annual Sales in US$ Thousand for Years 2017 through 2019 and % CAGR

Table 51: Europe 10-Year Perspective for Gene Therapy by Vector Type - Percentage Breakdown of Value Sales for Viral and Non-Viral for the Years 2017, 2021 & 2027

Table 52: Europe Recent Past, Current & Future Analysis for Gene Therapy by Application - Oncological Disorders, Rare Diseases, Neurological Disorders and Other Applications - Independent Analysis of Annual Sales in US$ Thousand for the Years 2020 through 2027 and % CAGR

Table 53: Europe Historic Review for Gene Therapy by Application - Oncological Disorders, Rare Diseases, Neurological Disorders and Other Applications Markets - Independent Analysis of Annual Sales in US$ Thousand for Years 2017 through 2019 and % CAGR

Table 54: Europe 10-Year Perspective for Gene Therapy by Application - Percentage Breakdown of Value Sales for Oncological Disorders, Rare Diseases, Neurological Disorders and Other Applications for the Years 2017, 2021 & 2027

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How pigs will save thousands of human lives through organ transplants – New York Post

Posted: at 12:08 pm

Dr. Robert Montgomery made history last September when he became the first surgeon to successfully transplant a pig kidney into a living person. Its a victory thats especially sweet for the 62-year-old doctor, whos only alive today because of a transplant.

Montgomery was born with a heart condition that killed both his father and older brother, both of whom died young (his brother at 35, his dad at 52). He finally got a heart transplant in 2018, after years of waiting because he wasnt sick enough to make the organ donor list.

So he knows all too well what the waiting is like as a patient, Montgomery, head of the NYU Langone Transplant Institute, told The Post. The uncertainty of not knowing if youre going to get an organ. Im very aware of the people who dont make it across the finish line.

Although his patient was clinically brain-dead before the operation, the transplanted kidney remained functional for 54 hours, long enough to detect any immediate rejection. Its a promising sign that xenotransplantation the medical term for implanting other species organs and tissues into humans may soon become the norm.

Montgomerys groundbreaking surgery was just the beginning of the huge strides in xenotransplantation over recent months. On Jan. 7, David Bennett, a 57-year-old man with end-stage heart disease, received a genetically modified pig heart at the University of Maryland Medical Center.

Though he wasnt considered an ideal candidate he had a criminal history, as well as a history of ignoring advice from his doctors Bennett, who remains (as of this writing) alive with his pig heart, became the public face of the thousands of patients who need an organ and are out of options.

I want to live, he said in an interview prior to the surgery. I know its a shot in the dark, but its my last choice.

In the US alone, there are over 106,000 people on the transplant waiting list, and around 17 die every day without getting a desperately needed kidney, heart or lung, according to the American Transplant Foundation. Human organ donors are on the rise 12,588 in 2020, up by almost a thousand from the previous year but its not nearly enough to meet the demand. In many cases, the best hope for a transplant is somebody elses tragedy. For a patient to live, somebody else must die.

This continues to be the single greatest unmet need in transplantation, said Montgomery. Its a supply and demand problem. And its only getting worse every year.

But that may change thanks to xenotransplantations recent watershed moments. Just a few decades ago, pig organ transplants were still the stuff of science fiction, the kind of technology that only existed in Margaret Atwood novels.

From the outside, I can see why itd look like this happened out of nowhere, said Montgomery. But weve been laying the groundwork for these innovations for years.

The pig organs used in both surgeries came from Revivicor, a Virginia-based biotechnology firm thats been working to produce genetically modified pigs since 2003. (Theyre a spin-off from another company, PPL Therapeutics, that cloned Dolly the sheep in the 90s.)

And theyre far from alone. The biotech eGenesis, another startup looking to harvest pig organs for transplants, raised $100 million in 2019 to clinically test their xenotransplant organs.(The companys staff wears t-shirts bearing the company slogan This pig might save your bacon.)

Even Smithfield Foods, which packages and sells pork products like bacon, hot dogs, and sausages, opened a bioscience branch in 2017 with an $80 million grant from the US Department of Defense to start raising hogs specifically for organ transplants.

Its become a bit of a race to see who can get there first, says Montgomery.

Its not just the advances in science determining if xenotransplants become commonplace. It also matters if the public is ready for this type of thing, Montgomery said.

In a 1998 survey, just 42 percent of people said theyd be OK with a pig organ transplant, while 96 percent preferred a human organ. That number has slightly increased in recent years, according to a 2018 Pew survey. Now 57 percent, or six-in-ten Americans, think genetically engineering animals for transplant organs is acceptable, while 41 percent still arent convinced.

We shouldnt be dependent on this paradigm that another human being has to die for somebody else to live.

It doesnt help that the history of xenotransplantation is filled with surreal and even macabre tales. Jean-Baptiste Denis, a 17th-century physician to the French king Louis XIV, preferred the blood of animals in transfusions because he believed they were less inclined towards debauchery. During the 1920s, a doctor named John Brinkley became briefly infamous for transplanting goat testicles into human scrotums to cure impotence. (Unsurprisingly, many of his patients died from infection.)

Human-to-human organ transplants became a reality in the mid-20th century beginning in 1954 with the first successful kidney transplant and almost immediately, organ shortage was an issue. Monkeys and chimpanzees were the first animals considered for transplants, if only because theyre genetically closest to humans.

During the 60s, several transplant surgeries were attempted using chimp kidneys, but only one patient survived for nine months which was enough for Thomas Starzl, the pioneering transplant surgeon, to call it a real beacon of hope.

The most famous xenotransplant of the last century was Baby Fae, an infant born with a lethal heart defect who received a baboon heart in 1984. She died just days after the transplant, and public reaction was more shock than awe. The Washington Post warned of medical adventurism, and the Journal of Medical Ethics dismissed it as a beastly business.

At first, pig organs seemed more promising. Pig organs are anatomically similar to human organs, says Michael K. Gusmano, a professor of health policy at Lehigh University. Humans and pigs also share 98 percent of the same genes. But pig organs were still attacked by human immune systems as foreign invaders. In 1997, two Indian surgeons attempted a pig heart and lung transplant on a 32-year-old patient, and when he died, the surgeons were jailed for homicide, with the media describing it as the plot of a horror movie.

But then something changed. Researchers learned how to humanize pig hearts, said Bruno Reichart, a retired transplant surgeon and CEO of XTransplant, a company attempting to commercialize pig-to-human heart transplants. More scientifically, they found a way to cut out the alpha-gal, a sugar molecule in pig cells that triggers the human immune system.

The gene-editing tool CRISPR developed in 2012, which went on to win a Nobel Prize in chemistry in 2020 was used to alter genes that caused a pigs heart to grow too large, enough to sustain a 600-pound pig.

We introduced enzymes that would find and cut specific points in a pigs DNA and then change it to DNA that we prefer, said Harvard geneticist and eGenesis co-founder George Church. We edited pig genes to make them more like human genes.

In 2015, a baboon was kept alive with a pig heart for 945 days, still a record. Reichart, who was involved in many of the baboon experiments, also helped develop an experimental nutrient solution that successfully preserved porcine hearts out of the body for hours, he told The Post. That is more difficult when compared to human organs: you must perfuse porcine hearts with a cold solution containing nutrients, hormones and oxygen.

Everything changed in late 2020, when the FDA approved the one-time emergency use of an organ from a genetically modified GalSafe pig, produced by Revivicor. It opened the floodgates for what The Atlantic described in 2017 as Big Pork the companies looking to cash in on the pig organ transplant boom.

As companies now race to be the first with a medical breakthrough that will save lives and also generate billions in profits, theres concern about whether some will cut corners to get there quicker.

Thats always a worry, says Gusmano. Thats why it is important for the industry to be carefully regulated, including surprise inspections. As with all medical drugs and devices, we cannot have a market with goods that people trust and are willing to use without appropriate regulation and oversight.

Not everybody believes the burgeoning pig organ industry will have the best interests of the public in mind. Wired magazine recently called xenotransplantation a capatalist myth, adding that our medical systems will always serve the most privileged at the expense of the least.

Not so, said Church, who points out that the cost of a heart transplant in the US is around $1.66 million, according to the most recent estimates, while pig transplants, judging solely on the cost of the pig heart transplants for baboons, are a comparative steal at just $500,000.

Engineered organs could reduce costs in all sorts of ways, he said.

The future of xenotransplantation is either cause for eager anticipation or cautious optimism, depending on who you ask.

Martine Rothblatt, the CEO of United Therapeutics the company that owns Revivicor, which provided organs for all the recent xenotransplant breakthroughs didnt mince words in a 2015 TED Talk. Just like we keep cars and planes and buildings going forever with an unlimited supply of building and machine parts, why cant we create an unlimited supply of transplantable organs to keep people living indefinitely?

Others arent as fast to claim that pig organs will become the new standard.

Hearts will be possible, says Reichart. Kidneys will need more consistent preclinical results. Lungs and livers are more difficult.

Church, however, thinks the sky is the limit. Blood cells, stem cells, eyes, skin, thymus, pancreas, bones, tendons, nerves, veins, gastrointestinal components, he said, listing all the human parts that are or may soon be replaceable with pig tissue.

While heart and kidney transplants get all the attention, less flashy surgeries are happening every year, moving us closer to a world where pigs are becoming a one-stop-shop for human replacements. Genetically engineered pigs have already been used for everything from skin replacements for burn wounds to corneas to restore sight.

Montgomery tries to be pragmatic when discussing the future of pig organ transplants, but his enthusiasm and optimism are apparent. I think its going to be in our lifetime, he said. And I say that as somebody in his early 60s. As long as there arent any major setbacks, I think Ill be doing routine xenotransplants in the next ten years.

For Montgomery, it isnt enough that deserving patients get access to organ transplants. We can have an unlimited supply, he says. The goal is to transplant people who previously werent thought of as good transplant candidates. There are 800,000 people with end-stage kidney disease, and only around 90,000 of them are on the list to get an organ transplant.

All sorts of factors determine who does and doesnt qualify for a donor organ, like age, medical history, and survivability odds. Some recent studies have even found that Black, Hispanic and low-income patients are less likely to get on a transplant list than white and wealthy patients.

But with an on-demand reserve of pig organs, waiting lists would become obsolete. We shouldnt be dependent on this paradigm that another human being has to die for somebody else to live, Montgomery said. We have to have something thats more sustainable.

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Businesses driven by empathy will lead the post-pandemic world – Media Update

Posted: at 12:08 pm

The human race is a resilient one. Comprising equal parts scepticism and optimism dependent on the day or situation we always manage to see ourselves through trying times despite the obstacles that lie ahead.

It's what has carried us through a modern pandemic and, despite all manner of losses, we have generally emerged more resilient than before, with lessons learned and a reframed sense of normality set to thrive once more.

One of those learnings is that human interaction is essential to our survival because it causes a spark that can't be replicated during a Teams call held over an intermittent internet connection.

Great ideas are often sparked by casual interactions or as a result of people gathering around a challenge or opportunity in person. This human energy, which can't be digitised, is the catalyst.

Historian and author Theodore Zeldin understood this in the last century, saying that "all invention and progress comes from finding a link between two ideas that have never met". It's in that meeting of ideas that we make progress as humanity.

Seeing people facing the challenges of working from home or struggling with isolation or loss has made us understand each other as human beings in far more profound ways not just as employees or clients.

If we can maintain that level of empathy as we come together again, it can only be better for all our relationships; and it will reflect in our work.

There was a flurry of creativity (as there always is in a moment of crisis or where there's a tension) when the pandemic struck. Then, as the days blurred into one and we wandered through the fog of uncertainty, a certain monotony crept in because we were denied new experiences and the creative spirit suffered.

In the creative industry, there was initially a lot of extremely relevant work that held up a mirror to society. But as we all experienced this 'Groundhog Day', all the work started to look the same because it reflected an experience that was so universally shared.

Whether it was for a car brand, bank or retailer, if you removed the branding, it would be difficult to determine which brand or sector it was for. That's why we need to shift to work that is resonant, rather than relevant, by returning to that human insight around empathy. And to do that, we need to come together again.

M&C Saatchi Abel was one of the first agencies to get its teams back on our campuses full-time. It actually opened campuses as early as April 2020 under Level 4 of lockdown, because it understood that many members of the team needed the campus environment.

Whether home wasn't a workspace conducive to concentration and creativity, or they struggled with poor Internet connectivity and load shedding, the campuses became a refuge for many of its team members. It was important to re-introduce that human connection.

Building a relationship with and between employees is a core business strategy and the right thing to do. Those organisations that have invested the time, care and commitement needed to building a strong relationship with their teams will continue to succeed and reap the benefits of an engaged and supportive workforce.

If you, as an organisation, are experiencing resistance or hesitation, look back at the fundamental values and trust within your culture and organisation because you may have a bit of work to do.

The last two years have definitely shown the benefit of flexibility and need for agility. With teams now having experienced both remote and on-campus working, teams need to be given the choice to work from wherever they feel they can do their best work.

This is while also allowing for the other demands on their time. But it's all about a mutually beneficial relationship underpinned by shared values, respect and accountability. Establishing employee buy-in, instilling trust in the roles they each play and clearly and consistently communicating the underpinning policies are all key.

Embracing this sense of freedom and flexibility is born from the understanding that we're in the ideas business and ideas don't come from machines, but from people. People with empathy.

For more information, visit http://www.mcsaatchiabel.co.za. You can also follow M&C Saatchi Abel on Facebook or on Twitter.

Empathy in marketing empathy in the creative industry customer engagements human experience marketing trends creative work creative industry

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Human gets a huge surprise when she comes home to take cat to vets appointment – Hindustan Times

Posted: at 12:08 pm

The human got a huge surprise when she got home to take her cat to a vet's appointment and it is really heartwarming.

Cats are such secretive animals that can sometimes really surprise their humans. Like this post shared on Reddit by a user about her cat that will leave you smiling. In the post, the person explained that she had last week posted a photo about her cat and asked if people thought she was pregnant. After an overwhelming majority of people said yes, the person booked an appointment with a vet. But, when the person got home today, a surprise was waiting for her and it was really heartwarming.

There were six kittens waiting for her when she got home to take the cat to her appointment. The post was uploaded by a user named Careful-Impress6596 and it has got over 4,000 upvotes till now.

The person in a subsequent post said, Thank you to everyone for all of your advice and wisdom!!! I will be getting her spayed ASAP. Was not anticipating being a grandmother already and really looking forward to helping her in any way I can!!

She posted three photos in the post. In the first one, the cat is lying alone as she looks pregnant. In the other photos, the cat is nursing her kittens.

See the photos below:

People who commented on her post wanted to know what she planned to do with them. Replying to a user, the original poser commented, I have cleared my closet out completely to give her own little nook for the next few weeks. Im hoping to have 5 happy owners lined up (for free) by the time they are ready to be separated. I plan on keeping one!

Many people also suggested her not to give away the kittens for free as one cant be sure if they would end up in the right hands.

What do you think about this heartwarming story?

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Bipartisan Bill Aims To Stamp Out Human Rights Abuses At Conservation Projects – BuzzFeed News

Posted: at 12:08 pm

Key Democrats and Republicans in the House of Representatives have signed onto a bill that would bar the US government from funding international conservation groups that finance or support human rights violations.

The proposed law would require federal agencies to monitor international projects they support for abuses and, if any are discovered, to stop sending money. And every year, agencies would have to submit to Congress a report on human rights abuses that have occurred at US-funded projects.

The House Committee on Natural Resources has been looking into the issue in response to a 2019 BuzzFeed News investigation that found that the World Wide Fund for Nature, a beloved wildlife conservation charity and a longtime partner of the US government, had closely backed anti-poaching forces who tortured and killed people in national parks in Asia and Africa.

Villagers living near the parks had been whipped with belts, attacked with machetes, beaten unconscious with bamboo sticks, sexually assaulted, and shot, according to reports and documents obtained by BuzzFeed News. Rangers at WWF-supported parks committed several alleged unlawful killings.

In 2019, now-retired Republican member of Congress Rob Bishop of Utah, then the committees ranking member, proposed a law covering similar ground. Bishops bill stalled, but since then lawmakers in both parties have picked the issue back up.

This years bill has bipartisan support. Its sponsors are committee chair Rep. Ral M. Grijalva, Democrat of Arizona, and ranking member Rep. Bruce Westerman, Republican of Arkansas. The rest of the committee will now debate the legislation, and if they approve it, it will be sent to the House floor for a full vote.

With this bill, we are sending a signal to the world that the United States demands the highest standards of respect for every human life; we will not tolerate human rights abuses in the name of conservation, Grijalva said. I hope that the renewed focus on human rights, accountability, and oversight in this bill will be a model for conservation programs both in the U.S. and abroad.

Westerman said the common sense legislation would increase government accountability. This bill is the culmination of bipartisan efforts, including an investigation and oversight hearing that exposed misuse of grant money, human rights violations, and a stunning lack of federal agency awareness.

The bill would introduce sweeping changes to how US agencies deal with human rights abuses at conservation projects. Conservation groups receiving government cash would have to provide human rights policies detailing what procedures they would follow if abuses occurred. They would also have to name anyone they partner with abroad, such as local police forces or park rangers who would then be vetted by the Fish and Wildlife Service and State Department.

The legislation would also increase the extent to which Indigenous peoples are protected in conservation projects that affect them. Donor recipients would have to show that they have a process for meaningful consultation with Indigenous people before their historic lands are used for conservation, and that they offer a grievance redress mechanism for Indigenous people to raise concerns.

When abuses are discovered, they would have to be reported to the federal government, and the group receiving taxpayer money would have 60 days to design a plan to resolve the issue. The US government would be able to halt funding for the project until the director of the Fish and Wildlife Service and the Secretary of State confirm that those involved have taken effective steps to bring perpetrators to justice and prevent human rights violations.

Serious human rights abuses would also be referred to the Department of Interior inspector general, and the Fish and Wildlife Service would send to Congress each year a report summarizing investigations carried out under the act, including remedial actions taken.

John Knox, a former UN Special Rapporteur for human rights and the environment, called the bill a huge step forward in an area that really needs greater attention, and a potential model for other governments and international funders." After the WWF scandal broke, it became clear that many of the major sources of international conservation funding, including the United Nations and the United States, did not have effective standards in place to ensure that their funds wouldn't be used for human rights abuses, Knox said.

In a statement, WWF said it was in favor of the legislation. "Safeguarding the rights of communities is fundamental to the success of conservation. We support the goals of this bill to strengthen programs that conserve nature and wildlife by ensuring they also protect and promote the rights, wellbeing, and safety of local and Indigenous communities in the landscapes where the programs operate."

The charity conducted its own internal review into the allegations, and in 2020 expressed deep and unreserved sorrow for those who have suffered, saying that abuses by park rangers horrify us and go against all the values for which we stand.

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Human Rights Campaign rejects former president’s accusations of racism | TheHill – The Hill

Posted: at 12:08 pm

The Human Rights Campaign, the largest LGBTQ advocacy group in the U.S., has rejected racism accusations presented by its former president Alphonso David, The Washington Post reported.

In a court filing on Monday, HRC attorneys argued that Davids claims are mostly false including an allegation from a senior HRC executive that Davids support for racial justice was viewed as a risk; which could alienate white donors, specifically White gay men.

The advocacy group also denied Davids claims that he was paid less than his predecessor and an HRC chairman told him that he received a low paycheck due to his race, adding an accusation that the organization wasnt ready to be led by a Black person.

David was fired by HRC last September after an internal investigation found that David aided former New York Gov. Andrew CuomoAndrew CuomoHochul, Cuomo neck and neck in hypothetical governor primary: poll Jeff Zucker paid million bonus in CNN exit deal: report Human Rights Campaign rejects former president's accusations of racism MORE (D) during his sexual harassment scandal, according to the Post.

New York State Attorney General Letitia James' (D) report last August found that David helped Cuomo by seeking signatures for a letter that attempted to undermine Cuomo's accuser Lindsey Boylan.

The organization asked David to resign from his position at first, but he refused to do so, the Post reported.

Any employment actions taken by HRC with respect to Plaintiffs employment were based solely on legitimate, non-discriminatory reasons, and were in no way based on Plaintiffs race or any other protected characteristic, HRCs attorneys wrote in their court filing.

In a statement, David told the newspaper his former employer's response is yet another sign that HRCs leadership is out of touch with its organizational reality and woefully blind to the systemic inequities that continue to run rampant within it.

At least four former employees within the past month, including me, have highlighted issues of systemic racism within the organization, David told The Post. Rather than address the problem, HRC once again attempts to erase it but they cannot run away from evidence that shows their true colors and I look forward to unveiling it.

In an email to employees, HRC co-chairs restated its commitment to diversity, The Post noted.

It is extremely disappointing to have a former president of HRC attack our work, values and commitment to diversity, equity inclusion and belonging, of which he was a critical part for two years, the co-chairs wrote in their message.

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Grimes Reveals Y, Her New Baby Daughter With Elon Musk, in Cover Interview – Vanity Fair

Posted: at 12:08 pm

Grimess first record was a Dune-inspired concept album called Geidi Primes, a reference to the militaristic planet ruled in the recent movie by an enormous Stellan Skarsgrd. (She dubbed herself Grimes because MySpace allowed her to associate herself with three musical genres, and she liked the name grime, then a nascent British music scene.) Her father read Frank Herberts book to her when she was four. She loved it. At one Met gala, she cornered Sting, who starred in David Lynchs much-derided adaptation, and freaked him out with a heavy dose of Dune fangirling.

For years Grimes harbored a dream of directing her own adaptation of Dune, with the more problematic colonialist elements scrubbed out, but when she heard about Denis Villeneuves two-part blockbuster, she fangirled all over again and signed on to help with the rollout, originally scheduled for November 2020. (I was basically an influencer.) And then, she adds, she got canceled from Dune because of the Communist Manifesto thing. She was crestfallen, but she understood. There are things that are deeply not woke in the Dune universe, she says, so the studio had to be extra-cautious, and she was far from indispensable.

When she finally saw the movie, she realized to her astonishment that this story shed adored since she was far too young for it, that she knew almost by heart, that inspired her first albumthis story was now her story. Specifically Lady Jessicas story. This goes by fast onscreen, but Jessica (played by Rebecca Ferguson) is not a wife but a concubine. Grimes saw herself in Jessica, and she saw X in Jessicas son, Paul Atreides (Timothe Chalamet). Paul is more than a dukes son. Hes a chosen one, tasked with becoming a great leader. When I see X, she says, like, I just know X is going to have to go through all this really fucked-up shit that sort of mirrors Paul-type stuff. Watching it wrecked her. I was just crying my eyes out the whole movie.

She knows this might sound absurd. Grandiose. She wishes it felt that way to her too.

I feel like theres very few people in the world who could have similar sentiments about their son than Claire with X, Mac says when I relay this to him. I ask if its surreal to watch his sister live this life. Yes, he says, laughing. But Im also not really surprised? Because she somehow always gets into the most insane possible scenarios.

By the summer of 2019, Grimes was in the early days of her romance with Musk and getting canceled online for it, and she was also finishing Miss Anthropocene, her long (long) awaited follow-up to Art Angels, all while her longtime manager and closest daily confidant was dying of cancer. Her life, she says, has always been level-10 chaos. This was level 11. Shed been making everything by herself for a decade, and she was sick of it.

She needed to figure out a new way to be an artist, which meant figuring out a new way to make money being an artist. I hate touring, and I hate selling merch, she told her new manager, Daouda Leonard, during their first FaceTime call. He laughs at the memory. If you know anything about being a manager in the music industry. At this point most managers would have hung up. Instead he said, Cool, youre going to tour in the metaverse and youre gonna sell digital assets, digital goods. Okay. Problem solved.

They got to work creating an avatar of her body, dubbed WarNymph, and in February 2021 Grimes became among the first musicians to sell an NFT collection of digital artwork, some with accompanying music. Macs idea. She generated $6 million from that one dropmore than shes ever made from any of her albums. They engineered a deepfake of her voice that she plans to release with other IP inside metaverse experiences and gaming platforms like The Sandbox, a sort of open-source creative experiment. Look at fan fic, she says. So much inventive stuff is happening there if you know where to look. She has similar plans for an A.I. girl group shes designing named NPC, which is gamer speak for nonplayer character. She puts the A.I. girl group out into the world, you go make something with it.

Personally, I dont think manic pixie dream girl is an insult. I exactly identify with all of those terms. I understand its supposed to be a critique of certain things, but then I challenge that critique.

The NFT project was so lucrative that if it had happened two weeks earlier, Grimes says, she might not have signed her first major-label deal with Columbia Records. No shots at Columbia, she addstheyve been greatbut she only did it to pay for the ambitious videos she had in mind. The one for Shinigami Eyes, a futuristic dance-pop phantasmagoria, was among the first music videos filmed on an extended reality (xR) stage similar to what was used to make The Mandalorian.

Of course, signing with a major label was considered yet another betrayal by the Grimes purists, but where they see a sellout, she sees creative liberation. You sign with a labelany label, of any sizefor money, which you can either put into your pocket or plow back into the mission.

The foot traffic is heavier the next afternoon when I return to Grimess house, including little X. He arrives about 30 minutes after his mom and I have settled back into the anime nook, and as he charges through the door she leaps to her feet with a delighted yelp. He says a friendly hi to me and later makes a bid for her laptop so he can watch My Neighbor Totoro, Miyazakis classic with the giant Catbus.

In solidarity with all the new moms out there, Grimes is wearing the same outfit as yesterday. She hasnt touched her makeup. Respect. While she gets X on his way for a playdate, I take in the view of the Colorado River from the living room. I look down and see a neat pile of picture books, and at the bottom, Times Person of the Year issue with Xs father on the cover. The room is dominated by a massive red couch shaped like a giant Tootsie Roll, and it looks amazingly comfortable, but the kids have done a number on it, possibly both numbers, so Grimes sits cross-legged on the floor instead, and we discuss the Elephant of the Year in the room.

We live in this society right now where people expect everyone to behave right, and talk right, she begins. You have these manifestations of genius, but then you want them to behave normallybut the reason theyre like that is because theyre so disconnected from correct behavior. Humans are beautiful and toxic in equal supply, she says. Like, we fuck up. Were all gonna do bad things in our life. Were all gonna do stupid things. Shes talking about Musk, but once again she could be talking about herself. Theyre both such deeply original thinkers, says Liv Boeree, whom Grimes drafted to costar as her black swan in the video for a Book 1 track called 100% Tragedy. The lines blur with them about whether its even art versus engineering or science, because really were talking about creating something that does not exist.

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Opinion | The internet should be more than just social media – The News Record

Posted: at 12:08 pm

What was the internet created for? If you asked this question to a random person on the street, they might say something about the exchange of information, or the sharing of ideas.

This has more or less been true for the entire history of the internet. Its first users American researchers in the Department of Defense wanted a reliable way to share intelligence during the Cold War. Since then, this selective network of spies, soldiers and contracted academics has evolved into a tangled web of more than3.4 billion people.

Of course, these days people arent just using the internet to plan missile strikes or overthrow South American governments. Somehow, the world wide web has become something even more insidious.

You might think that expanding internet access to billions of people would diversify how people spend their time online. Instead, most interactions on the internet happen within just a handful of platforms like Facebook and TikTok.

Adding up the users from each of these companies,the message is clear: if you are on the internet, you are on social media. Almosthalf the people on Earthuse one of these platforms, and at this point, many of us wouldnt know how to live without them.

These days, social media is synonymous with the internet. But half of the entire world didnt get siloed onto a few websites by accident. These sites are gathering places for a reason: they knowinglyexploit human behaviorto drive engagement.

Even behind the scenes, corporations like Amazon Web Services havedominated the infrastructure for an internet of any kind. Without a doubt, online experiences have become monopolized by just a handful of company logos from the ground up.

What are we losing by inherently restricting the ways people can exist online?

Our limited channels for interacting with the internet push us to accept that our free time is being monetized. Content creators and communications experts are forced to emotionally invest in psychologically iffy platforms just to keep up with their jobs.

Our attention, opinions, identities, and entire social lives are inherently tied to cycles of dopamine and self-comparison. We are continuously polarized by increasingly inflammatory content, and most of our social movements have been hi-jacked and propelled exclusively by hot air from Twitter.

Why are we settling for an online lifestyle diversified by how many characters or seconds of video youre allowed to post? Human communication is the most nuanced thing in the universe, and were boiling down a chance to connect with every living person on earth to a bunch of rules accidentally made up by Mark Zuckerberg.

This will take some serious thinking outside-of-the-box, and a huge waste of time and money reversing the stifling patterns of monopolization already written into law. But we are still in the budding days of one of the weirdest, coolest things humanity has ever done, and it would be a pity to think well be stuck the way we are forever.

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