Nigerian Lawyer Zannah Bukar Mustapha Receives Prestigious Global Citizen Award

Nigerian Lawyer Zannah Bukar Mustapha Receives Prestigious Global Citizen Award

Internationally recognized humanitarian, philanthropist, and Founder of the Future Prowess Foundation School in Nigeria, Zannah Bukar Mustapha, has been named as the 2023 recipient of the Global Citizen Award at the 17th Global Citizenship Conference in Dubai, UAE.

LONDON, Nov. 09, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Internationally recognized humanitarian, philanthropist, and Founder of the Future Prowess Foundation School for orphans and less privileged children Zannah Bukar Mustapha has been named as the 2023 recipient of the Global Citizen Award, an annual tribute presented by leading international residence and citizenship advisory firm Henley & Partners, in partnership with the Swiss non-profit humanitarian organization Andan Foundation.

The prestigious award, which honors an individual who shows exceptional courage and commitment towards improving and supporting the global community, was presented at a gala reception during the 17th annual Global Citizenship Conference at the Shangri-La Hotel DIFC in Dubai, UAE, attended by heads of government, policymakers, leading academics, private client advisors, family offices, as well as many wealthy entrepreneurs and investors.

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Mr. Mustapha played a critical role in mediating the release of over 100 of the Chibok school girls who were kidnapped by Islamic insurgency group Boko Haram in a remote part of Nigeria in April 2014, giving rise to the international #BringBackOurGirls campaign. The school he founded in 2007 in Maiduguri — the capital of Borno State and the epicenter of the Boko Haram rebellion — provides free education, meals, uniforms, and healthcare to children on both sides of the conflict as a sign of the reconciliation he hopes to achieve in the region.

Chairman of Henley & Partners and Founder of the Andan Foundation Dr. Christian H. Kaelin says Mr. Mustapha is a most worthy and inspiring recipient of the award. “As a champion for the safety and education rights of all displaced and orphaned children afflicted by the brutal violence in Northern Nigeria, Mr. Mustapha has demonstrated vision, exceptional courage, and innovation in driving change, and his actions and outlook are a valuable contribution towards a more just, peaceful, and tolerant world. He is a true ‘game changer,’ bridging gender, political, and religious divides by helping children on both sides of the conflict come together and learn under the same roof. We need more Zannah Mustaphas in the world.”

The Global Citizen Award selection process is based on a majority decision of the Global Citizen Award Committee. The award itself consists of a bespoke sculptural medal designed by leading Italian artist Antonio Nocera, an award certificate signed by the Chairman of the Global Citizen Award Committee, and a monetary prize of USD 25,000, which goes towards supporting the awardee’s humanitarian efforts. In addition, Henley & Partners commits to working closely with the awardee for a period of one year, raising awareness of their work and supporting the selected project through the firm’s network of more than 40 offices worldwide.

Since its inception, the Global Citizen Award has honored many remarkable individuals. The first laureate was German entrepreneur Harald Höppner, who set up the refugee humanitarian aid project Sea-Watch. Other previous recipients are Dr. Imtiaz Sooliman, Founder of the Gift of the Givers Foundation, Africa’s largest disaster relief organization, and Monique Morrow, Co-Founder of The Humanized Internet, a digital identity project that aims to bring hope to the estimated 1.1 billion individuals in the world who cannot prove their legal identity. Diep Vuong, Co-Founder and President of the Pacific Links Foundation, was awarded for her work in Southeast Asia, campaigning for the rights of those enslaved by human trafficking, and Prof. Dr. Padraig O’Malley received his Global Citizen Award in recognition of his work on conflict resolution and reconciliation in Iraq, Northern Ireland, and South Africa.

Thanking Henley & Partners and the Andan Foundation for their recognition of his work, Mr. Mustapha said, “Humanity’s interconnectedness in the global data sphere is now undeniable, constituting an expansive realm with limitless possibilities. In contrast, the unity among races, ethnicities, and citizens has grown increasingly delicate. Only global citizenship can heal.”

Media Contact:

Sarah Nicklin

Group Head of Public Relations

sarah.nicklin@henleyglobal.com

Mobile: +27 72 464 8965

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OPEN Health Presenting Innovative Research on Capitalizing Data for Patient Access at ISPOR Europe

London, Nov. 09, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) —
London, UK – November 9, 2023 – OPEN Health, a preeminent global provider of consultingHEOR and market accesspatient engagement, and scientific and creative communications services, will be presenting innovative research at the upcoming ISPOR Europe conference in Copenhagen, Denmark. OPEN Health experts will contribute to the event through workshops, panel discussions, and 24 posters. Key themes of OPEN Health’s research presented this year are patient preference, advanced modeling methodologies, and HTA policy changes. The majority of OPEN Health’s Scientific Office will be onsite to discuss the role of HEOR science in shaping policy, including Dr. Elisabeth Fenwick, Chief Scientific Officer; Professor Ben van Hout, Scientific Founder; Dr. Marco Boeri, Director of Preference Research and scientific lead for Patient-Centered Outcomes; Emanuele Arcà, MSc, Senior Research Consultant in Strategic Market Access; and Maarten Treur, MSc, Vice President and Global Head of Modeling & Meta-Analysis.

Dr. Elisabeth Fenwick, Chief Scientific Officer at OPEN Health, said: “I am extremely proud to see the research we do at OPEN Health being presented by our scientific experts at the ISPOR EU conference in Copenhagen. The range of research topics covered this year shows the extent of our expertise in advanced techniques as well as key therapeutic areas.”

Dr. Marco Boeri, Director of Preference Research and scientific lead for Patient-Centered Outcomes at OPEN Health, said: “The importance of patient preference information is that it brings a systematic approach to implement the idea of patient-focused drug development promoted by the FDA, the EMA, and various HTA bodies around the world. Indeed, the patient voice is key to patient adherence, and by helping to understand unmet needs, it is key to the success of a pharmaceutical product.”

Emanuele Arcà, MSc, Senior Research Consultant in Strategic Market Access, said: “We are in a dynamic period of policy changes for access and HTA across regional, national, and international settings. HTA is taking a more prominent role in ensuring sustainable access to health innovations, while health innovations become exponentially more complex and expensive. We at OPEN Health are committed to understanding and shaping such changes through research and stakeholder engagement.”

OPEN Health will be presenting a virtual panel on November 10, ahead of ISPOR, on: EU HTA Joint Clinical Assessments: Navigating Potential Challenges Ahead of 2025.” The panel is set to discuss several policy aspects regarding the current challenges and implications of the EU HTA regulation, covering topics such as the current position of EU HTA implementation, the major challenges expected across the industry, the stance of member states and various stakeholders, and strategies for the industry to prepare for joint clinical assessments. Register now to save your seat.

To learn more about our presence at ISPOR Europe, visit our website or meet the OPEN Health team at booth #C2-012 in Copenhagen.

 

About OPEN Health

OPEN Health unites deep scientific knowledge with wide-ranging specialist expertise to unlock possibilities that improve health outcomes and patient well-being. Working in partnership with our clients, we embrace our different perspectives and strengths to deliver fresh thinking and solutions that make a difference. OPEN Health is a flexible global organization that solves complex healthcare challenges across consulting, HEOR and market access, scientific communications, patient engagement, and creative omnichannel communications. For more information on OPEN Health, visit www.openhealthgroup.com.

 

Press contact:

OPEN Health

Candice Subero, Vice President, Global Marketing

candicesubero@openhealthgroup.com

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Candice Subero
OPEN Health
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Recursion Announces Data Collaboration Deal with Tempus, Top 50 Supercomputer Ambition Powered by NVIDIA, and Updated Focus of Collaboration with Bayer to Precision Oncology

With additional patient-centric data, compute power, and an exciting new focus for its Bayer collaboration, the company is accelerating the shift of biotech to techbio

SALT LAKE CITY, Nov. 09, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) —  Recursion (NASDAQ: RXRX), a leading clinical stage TechBio company decoding biology to industrialize drug discovery, today announced two significant updates with their collaborators NVIDIA and Bayer, and a new collaboration with Tempus Labs as it creates infrastructure and expands its ambitions and scope in the precision oncology space.

“Since our founding we have believed that the next generation of biopharma leaders would operate at the intersection of scaled datasets and accelerated computing,” said Chris Gibson, Ph.D., Co-founder and CEO of Recursion. “Today, we are thrilled to share three major initiatives that support this belief and our mission to bring better medicines to patients at speed and scale. With Tempus’s 20 petabytes of fit-for-purpose precision oncology data, NVIDIA’s support in quadrupling our supercomputing power to rapidly and reliably advance the exploration and construction of large AI models, and updating our collaboration with Bayer to rapidly pursue a set of precision oncology programs, we will continue to drive the transformation from BioTech to TechBio together.”

Tempus Collaboration Provides Recursion with Access to Data Containing More Than 20 Petabytes of Proprietary Patient-Centric Oncology Data

Recursion has come to an agreement with Tempus for preferred access to one of the world’s largest proprietary, de-identified, patient-centric oncology datasets, spanning DNA, RNA, health records and more to support the discovery of potential biomarker-enriched therapeutics at scale through the training of causal AI models. By combining the forward genetics approach of Tempus with the reverse genetics approach at Recursion, the company believes it has an opportunity to improve the speed, precision and scale of therapeutic development in oncology. As part of the agreement, Recursion will pay Tempus up to $160M in cash or equity over the next five years in exchange for continued and updated data access and use rights for therapeutic development purposes.

“We share Recursion’s commitment to a data-first approach to precision medicine,” said Eric Lefkofsky, Founder and CEO of Tempus. “We look forward to working in tandem to leverage our multi-modal data to uncover insights that have the potential to advance personalized therapeutics for patients around the world.”

In aggregate, Recursion will now have access to approximately 50 petabytes of proprietary data across biology and chemistry as well as real-world, patient-centric data that is relatable and fit for the purpose of training large-scale AI/ML models, which it plans to use to drive novel therapeutic hypotheses, biomarker strategies, and patient cohort selection.

Top 50 Supercomputer Powered by NVIDIA

To accelerate the impact of the proprietary data Recursion has accumulated, the company has committed to substantially expanding BioHive-1, its on-premise NVIDIA DGX SuperPOD-based supercomputer, adding over 500 NVIDIA H100 Tensor Core GPUs to the more than 300 NVIDIA A100 Tensor Core GPUs already in place to increase its computational capacity 4X. This greatly expanded compute power will support the company’s pipeline, partnerships, and the construction of one of the largest foundation models of its kind across multiple modalities of biology and chemistry.

Based on the June 2023 TOP500 list, Recursion projects that upon completion and benchmarking, BioHive-1 will likely be in the top 50 most powerful supercomputers in the world across any industry and would be the most powerful supercomputer owned and operated by any biopharma company. The company anticipates the enhancement of BioHive-1 to be operational in the first half of 2024.

“A new era in drug discovery is here, and life science and drug discovery companies are leading the way,” said Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of NVIDIA. “Our ongoing collaboration with Recursion will bring scaled biological data together with one of the most powerful supercomputers to decode biology and get to better medicines faster.”

Collaboration with Bayer in Precision Oncology Programs

Recursion announced an updated collaboration with its established partner, Bayer, for a select set of precision oncology programs. This decision allows Bayer to leverage Recursion’s state-of-the-art capabilities to identify novel targets and chemistry applicable to oncology indications. Under the terms of the agreement, the companies may initiate up to seven oncology programs and Recursion is eligible to receive potential, success-based, future payments of up to $1.5 billion plus royalties on net sales.

“Our collaboration with Recursion is a testament to our commitment to shape the future of healthcare, using advancements in AI and drug discovery to push the boundaries of medicine with the aim of providing innovative cancer therapies for patients whose medical needs are not yet met by today’s treatment options,” said Stefan Oelrich, Member of the Board of Bayer AG and President, Pharmaceuticals.

About Recursion
Recursion is a clinical stage TechBio company leading the space by decoding biology to industrialize drug discovery. Enabling its mission is the Recursion OS, a platform built across diverse technologies that continuously expands one of the world’s largest proprietary biological and chemical datasets. Recursion leverages sophisticated machine-learning algorithms to distill from its dataset a collection of trillions of searchable relationships across biology and chemistry unconstrained by human bias. By commanding massive experimental scale — up to millions of wet lab experiments weekly — and massive computational scale — owning and operating one of the most powerful supercomputers in the world, Recursion is uniting technology, biology and chemistry to advance the future of medicine.

Recursion is headquartered in Salt Lake City, where it is a founding member of BioHive, the Utah life sciences industry collective. Recursion also has offices in Toronto, Montréal and the San Francisco Bay Area. Learn more at www.Recursion.com, or connect on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Forward-Looking Statements
This document contains information that includes or is based upon “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including, without limitation, those regarding the outcomes and benefits expected from access to the real-world multimodal data held at Tempus; outcomes and benefits of deriving therapeutic hypotheses by linking molecular data and outcomes data; outcomes and benefits of expanding our supercomputer; early and late stage discovery, preclinical, and clinical programs, including timelines for data readouts; licenses and collaborations, including option exercises by partners and additional partnerships; prospective products and their potential future indications and market opportunities; Recursion OS and other technologies; business and financial plans and performance, including cash runway; and all other statements that are not historical facts. Forward-looking statements may or may not include identifying words such as “plan,” “will,” “expect,” “anticipate,” “intend,” “believe,” “potential,” “could,” “continue,” and similar terms. These statements are subject to known or unknown risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in such statements, including but not limited to: challenges inherent in pharmaceutical research and development, including the timing and results of preclinical and clinical programs, where the risk of failure is high and failure can occur at any stage prior to or after regulatory approval due to lack of sufficient efficacy, safety considerations, or other factors; our ability to leverage and enhance our drug discovery platform; our ability to obtain financing for development activities and other corporate purposes; the success of our collaboration activities; our ability to obtain regulatory approval of, and ultimately commercialize, drug candidates; our ability to obtain, maintain, and enforce intellectual property protections; cyberattacks or other disruptions to our technology systems; our ability to attract, motivate, and retain key employees and manage our growth; inflation and other macroeconomic issues; and other risks and uncertainties such as those described under the heading “Risk Factors” in our filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, including our most recent Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q and our Annual Report on Form 10-K. All forward-looking statements are based on management’s current estimates, projections, and assumptions, and Recursion undertakes no obligation to correct or update any such statements, whether as a result of new information, future developments, or otherwise, except to the extent required by applicable law.

Media Contact
Media@Recursion.com

Investor Contact
Investor@Recursion.com

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SMEs benefit from training on branding and sales techniques

The SNV Ghana project on supporting GrEEn Businesses, has trained 23 Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs) in the areas of branding and sales strategies in the Western Region. The training came after six months of intensive incubation processes of the businesses, mentorship sessions as well as Business to Business trips, to build strong marketing linkages that will last the test of time. Mr Erasmus Mensah Ackon, the Executive Director of the Duapa Werkspace, an Enterprise Development Centre and organisers of the training, said the overall goal was to promote more market penetration methodologies, ensure access to diverse market and build the wealth base of the SMEs. Mr Ackon said, ‘already, some of these SMEs have received funding to improve their businesses and looking at them being connected to other industries to promote their business, we thought it wise to give them this sales and branding training.’ He said producing products and ensuring they did well on the market were different activities all together, saying ‘If you can’t sell, you can’t survive, so we’ve connected them to industries and it’s time for them to learn more about branding and sales, to be able to sell more of their products and be able to reach out to more customers.’ Ms Lydia Owusu Diko, a facilitator from EK Brand Consult, said Africa had competitive markets and the training was to give them guidelines on how to sell whatever they produced. She entreated the beneficiaries to use feedback to build solid brands to grow their businesses. Ms Millicent Lambog, the Chief Executive Officer of Eggs and More, one of the participating SMEs, noted how beneficial the course had been to her in terms of providing quality customer service. The class later pitched sales ideas in a role play, to show their level of understanding and absorption of the three-day workshop.

Source: Ghana News Agency

Street Academy gets health post

The Street Academy, a non-governmental organisation has inaugurated a GH?100,000 health post on the premises of the Academy located behind the Arts Centre in Accra to ensure easy and quality access to health care for the children. The facility will also provide treatment for mental health challenges to the children and offer nutritional counselling not only for the children but the residents of the Art Centre community. Mrs. Diana Hopeson, Deputy Director at the Centre for Peace and Reconciliation, said the Academy had received and would continue to receive the support of the Peace and Reconciliation Centre to take care of deprived and vulnerable children. She said streetism retarded the growth of children and expressed the hope that the Academy would continue to receive support to take poor children off the streets. She expressed confidence that the facility would go a long way and be a ‘huge’ blessing to the children and the public. Ms Jane Lepori, President of Zenzero Association said the construction of the health post had come to fill a major vacuum at the Academy, adding that the health post would go a long way to improve healthcare of the children and the community at large. Nii Tetteh Obroni, Kokomlemle Mantse said the new health post signified a new era of healthcare accessibility for the students and the community, saying ‘we firmly believe that every individual deserves quality healthcare, and this health post is a step towards realizing that vision.’ He appealed to the school Authorities, students, and the Art Centre community to maintain the facility to provide a proper healthcare system for the community and the betterment of all. ‘Together, we can ensure that this health post becomes a hub of hope, healing, and health education for all,’ he added. He called on corporate entities to continue supporting the Street Academy, to be able to help vulnerable children on the streets. Ms Felicia Owusu, Nurse of Street Academy thanked the Authorities for the new health post for the school and community. She appealed to the government and stakeholders to support them in terms of drugs and other equipment to ensure smooth healthcare delivery. Mr Ataa Lartey, Chief Executive Officer expressed gratitude to the supported organisations for putting up the health post for the community.

He said the new facility would help reduce health issues in the community and appealed to other stakeholders to come to their aid and put a smile on the faces of the children by improving their healthcare system.

Source: Ghana News Agency

Four million cedis approved to settle Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital’s debt

The Finance Minister, Mr Ken Ofori-Atta, has approved the disbursement of four million Ghana cedis to settle the indebtedness of the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital. This was disclosed on the floor of Parliament by Mr Kwaku Agyemang-Manu, the Minister of Health, when he briefed the House on the closure of the Renal Unit’s Out-Patients Department (OPD) at the Hospital. ‘Mr Speaker, in the meantime the RDU (Renal Dialysis Unit) has been opened to the public since Monday, November 6, 2023, to Out-Patients as directed by the Ministry,’ Mr Agyemang-Manu said. The Health Minister’s invitation to Parliament follows a statement on the floor of the House by Mr Kwabena Mintah Akandoh, the NDC Member of Parliament (MP) for Juaboso and Ranking Member of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Health, on November 2, on the prolonged closure of the Renal Unit’s OPD at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital. The OPD of the Renal Unit was closed on May 22, which the Hospital’s authorities attributed to the removal of tax exemptions on medical consumables. Since then, 19 patients have lost their lives. Mr Agyemang-Manu said the debt accrual was due to a delay in payment to South African consumable suppliers, Sky Group of Companies, over the past two years. Another factor was the increase in numbers of patients with dialysis issues, which had led to an increase in cost of care. He said as part of efforts to avoid future debts, the Ministry of Health, in collaboration with the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, was considering the possible inclusion of dialysis on the National Health Insurance benefit package. Mr Mohammed Mubarak Muntaka, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) MP for Asawase, urged the Health Minister to ensure that all Renal Units in government hospitals were functioning properly. Mr Carlos Kingsley Ahenkorah, NPP MP for Tema West, said it was his wish that there was a Renal Dialysis Unit in his Constituency to save his constituents the cost of travelling to seek medical services. He appealed to the Government to give tax exemptions for renal machines and consumable suppliers.

Source: Ghana News Agency