Day: January 18, 2022

Boulder, Colo., Jan. 18, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — AGC Biologics, a leading global Biopharmaceutical Contract Development and Manufacturing Organization (CDMO), today announced Regina Choi-Rivera as the new General Manager of the company’s large-scale biopharmaceutical mammalian production facility in Boulder. In this role, she assumes executive oversight and leadership and will manage strategic development and facility operations.

“We’re incredibly excited that Ms. Choi-Rivera is joining AGC Biologics as the General Manager at our Boulder facility. She brings tremendous experience in both GMP manufacturing and project management,” said AGC Biologics Executive Vice President of U.S. Operations, J.D. Mowery. “Her breadth of knowledge and proven leadership give me great confidence that she is the right leader for our team, as well as our customers.”

Ms. Choi-Rivera brings more than 25 years of experience in the biotech industry to this role and joins AGC Biologics after working for Samsung Biologics for more than eight years. While at Samsung Biologics she most recently served as Vice President, Head of Drug Product Business Unit. Prior to that Ms. Choi-Rivera was Vice President, Head of the Drug Substance Contract Manufacturing Business unit. Before her time at Samsung, she spent nearly a decade with Janssen Pharmaceutical’s research and development division, supporting pilot plant operations and managing outsourcing activities. Her background, expertise and education make her an ideal leader for this important facility in AGC Biologics’ expansive global network.

“I am delighted to join AGC Biologics at such an exciting time of growth for the company and at such a transformational time for our industry,” said Choi-Rivera. “The strong track record of biopharmaceutical innovation and technical capabilities at this facility, coupled with world-class talent, puts the Boulder site in position to help deliver important treatments that can truly change the lives of patients for years to come.”

AGC Biologics acquired the Boulder Facility in June 2020, giving the company additional capacity and a significantly larger production scale for mammalian-based projects in the U.S. The Boulder site houses two 20,000-liter stainless steel cell bioreactors and has more than twenty acres of undeveloped land, creating opportunities for future expansion, including space for up to four more 20,000-liter bioreactors. The facility’s automation and cost-effective capabilities make it well-suited for high volume commercial production and high titer antibody processes.

About AGC Biologics
AGC Biologics is a leading global biopharmaceutical Contract Development and Manufacturing Organization (CDMO) with a strong commitment to delivering the highest standard of service as we work side-by-side with our clients and partners, every step of the way. We provide world-class development and manufacture of mammalian and microbial-based therapeutic proteins, plasmid DNA (pDNA), messenger RNA (mRNA), viral vectors, and genetically engineered cells. Our global network spans the U.S., Europe, and Asia, with cGMP-compliant facilities in Seattle, Washington; Boulder and Longmont, Colorado; Copenhagen, Denmark; Heidelberg, Germany; Milan, Italy; and Chiba, Japan and we currently employ more than 2,000 employees worldwide. Our commitment to continuous innovation fosters the technical creativity to solve our clients’ most complex challenges, including specialization in fast-track projects and rare diseases. AGC Biologics is the partner of choice. To learn more, visit www.agcbio.com.

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• Regina Choi-Rivera, AGC Biologics

Nick McDonald
AGC Biologics
(425) 419-3555
nmcdonald@agc.com

BlueSpace.ai enhances safety and performance in Autonomous Driving/ADAS with industry leading motion accuracy

EMERYVILLE, Calif., Jan. 18, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — BlueSpace.ai showcased its breakthrough 4D Predictive Perception technology at CES 2022. This perception software works with next generation 4D sensors – imaging radar or frequency modulated continuous wave (FMCW) LiDAR .  Key industry players such as Waymo, Mobileye and Aurora are already aggressively adopting next-gen 4D sensors. Given the price competitiveness and improving performance, CES 2022 highlighted the significant interest in imaging radar from across the AV industry. With abundance of hardware from leading Tier 1 suppliers and various start-ups, it’s timely that BlueSpace is showing its proprietary algorithm to accurately detect and predict the motion of all objects in a generalizable way – all on a single CPU, with no prior training and no dependence on HD mapping.

BlueSpace’s scalable solution is immediately deployable in any location.  It is also extremely flexible – working with any 4D sensor or a combination of imaging radar and FMCW LiDARs, and operates standalone or fits seamlessly into existing AV stacks.

Despite years of research and billions of dollars invested, current AV/ADAS systems still cannot handle some safety critical situations and endless edge cases. A recent report by McKinsey notes two key factors needed to accelerate autonomy:

• Lower the validation hurdle (cost and time):
  • Makes up 30-50% of AV development costs.  Culprits of driving up the cost include data collection and storage, simulation, testing, etc.
• Perception and prediction will need to be robust enough to handle endless edge cases in diverse ODDs to enable trucking, robotaxi, logistics autonomy

BlueSpace’s 4D Predictive Perception software addresses both effectively. If you weren’t able to make it to CES, here’s the link to their 4D Predictive Perception software.

While the industry still struggles chasing the long tail of edge cases, BlueSpace’s next-gen 4D perception is the missing piece that delivers the performance needed for safe commercialization of autonomy.

BlueSpace’s software enables perception accuracy and latency performance in a scalable way that wasn’t possible before:

• Provides full motion state of any object, with no prior training, in a single frame
• 10-100x improvements in motion accuracy compared to existing solutions
• Latency is only a fraction of other autonomy software
• Deployable on low cost general purpose embedded CPUs 

Experience BlueSpace’s 4D Predictive Perception – email partners@bluespace.ai for a demo. 

Read more about BlueSpace’s innovative technology in this blog post – Why BlueSpace? Why Now?

Listen to the founders via recent podcast: The Autonomous Vehicles Podcast

About BlueSpace.ai

BlueSpace.ai was founded in 2019 to solve the “black box” problem of perception and prediction in autonomous driving. The company is led by industry veterans who’ve launched autonomous vehicle services in Texas, California, and Florida. Joel Pazhayampallil (CEO), was previously a Co-founder of Drive.ai (now part of Apple self driving program), key contributor to General Motors’ SuperCruise highway autonomy technology, and graduate of the Stanford AI Lab.  Christine Moon, Co-founder, and President, has over 15 years of experience in Silicon Valley, formerly Head of Android Partnerships for the Google branded Nexus program, and has held various leadership roles at tech companies, including Dropbox and Color Genomics.

Reena Solomon

Director, Marketing and Strategy

contact@bluespace.ai

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• logo

January 18, 2021

• New capabilities on Philips Image Guided Therapy Mobile C-arm System – Zenition – and collaboration with Cydar offer the latest advances in endovascular treatment
• Partnership adds new innovations to the Zenition platform to elevate the clinical experience, enhance workflow efficiency and help improve patient outcomes

Amsterdam, the Netherlands – Royal Philips (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHIA), a global leader in health technology, today announced physicians will now have access to advanced new 3D image guidance capabilities through its Image-Guided Therapy Mobile C-arm System – Zenition, delivering enhanced clinical accuracy and efficiency, and aiming to improve the outcomes for patients undergoing endovascular treatment. The company has signed a strategic partnership agreement with Cydar, a UK-based provider of cloud-based procedure maps software to plan and guide surgery in real time.

As patient numbers rise and procedures become more complex and time-consuming, patient-specific real-time procedure planning and guidance, optimization of equipment utilization, and usability have become ever more important. To help overcome these challenges, Philips Image-Guided Therapy Mobile C-arm System – Zenition – brings together innovations in image capture and processing, ease-of-use, and versatility, many of which were pioneered on Philips’ highly successful image guided therapy platform Azurion. Like Azurion, the Zenition mobile C-arm system allows hospitals to maximize operating room performance, enhance their clinical capabilities, and provide staff with a seamless user experience. The integration of Cydar EV Maps software into the Zenition platform now adds extended procedure planning and real-time 3D guidance capabilities.

Cloud-based AI and computer vision
Cydar EV Maps assists in the planning, real-time guidance, and post procedure review of endovascular surgery. It brings cloud-based AI and computer vision to mobile surgery, enabling reductions in radiation exposure, fluoroscopy time, and procedure time together with improved ease of use [1,2]. It enables surgeons to create a detailed patient-specific 3D map of the target vasculature to help plan surgery, and then uses these maps to augment intraoperative live image-guidance, updating the maps in real time to account for deformations during surgery, such as guidewires and instruments deforming the patient’s blood vessels. Cydar EV also facilitates post procedure outcome analysis. The combined result of this integration of procedure planning, guidance and review is that surgeons can work more accurately and efficiently – enabling an approximate 50% reduction in radiation exposure [1], a significant reduction in fluoroscopy time and a reduction of procedure times by more than 20% [2], while helping achieve better outcomes for patients.

“With Philips’ integrated portfolio, using validated AI and cloud technologies, we can facilitate collaborative care to optimize surgical pathways,” said Karim Boussebaa, General Manager Image Guided Therapy Systems at Philips. “Philips has a strong global network of mobile surgery systems and recognizes that Cydar’s EV Maps solution can play a key role in further improving our integrated offering for endovascular procedures.”

“By partnering with Philips to bring our Cydar EV Maps solution to Philips’ user-friendly Zenition platform of mobile C-arms, we are a step closer to achieving our mission to ensure every image-guided minimally-invasive surgical procedure goes exactly as planned,” said Paul Mussenden, CEO of Cydar. “The benefits of this combined solution, with integrated and enhanced procedure planning and visualization, include shorter and more predictable procedure times, reduced X-ray exposure to patients and staff, and fewer injections of iodine dye – the leading cause of in-hospital kidney failure.”

Cydar EV Maps is currently in use across the EU, UK and US. It is certified Software-as-a-Medical Device with EU CE mark and U.S. FDA 510(k) clearances.

[1] Southerland K, Nag U, Turner M, Gilmore B, McCann R, Long C, Cox M, Shortell C. IF09. Image-Based Three-Dimensional Fusion Computed Tomography Decreases Radiation Exposure, Fluoroscopy Time, and Procedure Time During Endovascular Aortic Aneurysm Repair. J Vasc Surg. 2018;67: e61-e61
[2] Shortell C., Veith Symposium New York, 2017

For further information, please contact:

Joost Maltha
Philips Global Press Office
Tel: +31 6 10 55 8116
Email: joost.maltha@philips.com

Fabienne van der Feer
Philips Image Guided Therapy
Tel: + 31 622 698 001
E-mail: fabienne.van.der.feer@philips.com

About Royal Philips
Royal Philips (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHIA) is a leading health technology company focused on improving people’s health and well-being, and enabling better outcomes across the health continuum – from healthy living and prevention, to diagnosis, treatment and home care. Philips leverages advanced technology and deep clinical and consumer insights to deliver integrated solutions. Headquartered in the Netherlands, the company is a leader in diagnostic imaging, image-guided therapy, patient monitoring and health informatics, as well as in consumer health and home care. Philips generated 2020 sales of EUR 17.3 billion and employs approximately 78,000 employees with sales and services in more than 100 countries. News about Philips can be found at www.philips.com/newscenter.

About Cydar
Cydar Limited specializes in medical computer vision, machine learning and cloud high-performance computing.  Cydar EV is a cloud-based software platform that generates patient specific 3D Maps of soft tissue vasculature to support more effective image guided, minimally invasive endovascular surgery. The system comprises pre-operative procedure planning functionality and real time, AI enabled 3D intra-operative imaging and procedure guidance, with procedure video capture and post procedure review functions.
Cydar EV Maps harnesses the latest in cloud GPU computing, computer vision and machine learning technology to advance surgical visualization and decision-making in theatre and across the surgical pathway. Cydar’s Surgical Intelligence system is learning from every case to develop a deeper understanding of surgery.
Headquartered in Cambridge, UK, Cydar’s focus is to build a future where all patients benefit from augmented surgical intelligence.  Cydar EV Maps is the first product from Cydar’s Intelligent Maps system.

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• Philips Zention mobile C-arm platform vascular application
• Cydar EV Maps

The acquisition creates the largest multimodal carrier network in Europe and accelerates adoption of software solutions specifically designed for carriers and logistics service providers

CHICAGO, Jan. 18, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — FourKites, provider of the world’s #1 real-time supply chain visibility platform, announced that it has acquired leading European supply chain visibility provider NIC GmbH (NIC-place). The combined over-the-road, rail and ocean carrier networks of FourKites and NIC-place will create the largest multimodal carrier network in Europe, ready to serve global shippers with the most comprehensive end-to-end global supply chain visibility platform. The acquisition will also accelerate the adoption of secure real-time visibility solutions specifically designed for carriers, while shortening the time to value for shippers with complex, multimodal carrier networks.

NIC-place is the market leader in supply chain visibility software solutions specifically designed for transport companies, carriers and logistics service providers. With its proprietary Data Control Center (DCC), NIC-place provides a flexible and secure way for carriers to share supply chain data with customers, while giving them complete control of their business, their network and their data. Founded in 2016 and headquartered in Germany, thousands of companies such as Kuehne+Nagel, H.Essers, Unterer, Quehenberger and Frigotrans rely on NIC-place to track and monitor millions of shipments every year.

“We are thrilled to join forces with FourKites, the pioneer and market leader in real-time supply chain transport visibility, and the pace-setter for innovation and end-to-end multimodal coverage,” said Pete Jendras, Founder and Managing Director of NIC-place. “FourKites shares our vision for prioritizing data security and integrity, and empowering carriers to collaborate easily with their supply chain partners. We look forward to extending the combined benefit of NIC-place’s leading carrier solutions with the largest global real-time visibility network in the world.”

As a FourKites company, NIC-place will remain focused on carrier-specific solutions, while leveraging FourKites’ leading shipper network, global scale and R&D engine to accelerate the pace of innovation. The companies will maintain the NIC-place name and will maintain the NIC-place offices in Germany from which to expand its team and operations.

“NIC-place boasts the only carrier-focused visibility solution on the market; the most advanced rail tracking features in Europe; and unmatched expertise in high-value and temperature-controlled shipments,” said FourKites founder and CEO Mathew Elenjickal. “This acquisition creates a powerhouse of carrier- and shipper-focused expertise that accelerates end-to-end visibility and the delivery of new solutions tailor-made for our customers’ unique requirements.”

The acquisition will help accelerate much-needed supply chain visibility across Europe. According to a recent research report on the state of European supply chains by Reuters and FourKites, 78% of European companies indicated that end-to-end freight traceability was their biggest supply chain pain point.

NIC-place’s advanced capabilities:

• Data privacy and security. NIC-place’s Data Control Center (DCC) is subject to some of the most stringent data privacy regulations regarding GDPR. These laws allow carriers to have complete control over their data and with whom they share it.
• Easy integration with any real-time visibility provider. NIC-place’s DCC is the only solution with standardized interfaces to all open real-time visibility platforms, unifying all data types from multiple telematics systems across different manufacturers and transport modes. Carriers who onboard with DCC have a simple, single hub for all of their visibility data.
• Temperature-controlled and high-value shipments. NIC-place is the market-leader for tracking temperature-controlled and high-value transports such as pharmaceuticals, fresh and frozen products, and electronic equipment. The largest group of European refrigerated logistics companies leverage the NIC-place platform to better serve customers and ensure that critical goods are delivered with the highest quality.
• Comprehensive and optimized rail coverage. NIC-place tracks the largest European rail network — an increasingly critical capability as many companies shift more shipments to rail in the face of ongoing ocean challenges. The company’s advanced monitoring tracks wagons, train compositions, points of interest and transports for effective use, smooth processes and better planning.

“We are excited to see these two market leaders joining forces,” said European Carrier Rainer Linke, Unterer Logistics. “With their shared commitment to secure, carrier-controlled data sharing, collaboration and ongoing innovation, we are excited about the value this union will bring to the broader European logistics community.”

FourKites’ acquisition of NIC-place comes on the heels of record growth for both companies as they address the challenges fueled by the ongoing global supply chain crisis. In 2021, FourKites saw 148% growth in European shipment volume, doubled the number of new European customers, grew its carrier network 35% and saw 110% growth in European carriers on FourKites’ Premier Carrier List.

FourKites will be showcasing the NIC-place solution and the value it brings to both carriers and shippers in a live webinar taking place on Wednesday, February 16. Register here.

About FourKites
FourKites^® is the #1 supply chain visibility platform in the world, extending visibility beyond transportation into yards, warehouses, stores and beyond. Tracking more than 2.5 million shipments daily across road, rail, ocean, air, parcel and courier, and reaching 176 countries, FourKites combines real-time data and powerful machine learning to help companies digitize their end-to-end supply chains. More than 1,000 of the world’s most recognized brands — including 9 of the top-10 CPG and 18 of the top-20 food and beverage companies — trust FourKites to transform their business and create more agile, efficient and sustainable supply chains. To learn more, visit https://www.fourkites.com/.

Media Contact:
Marianna Vyridi
Big Valley Marketing for FourKites
(650) 468-3263
mvyridi@bigvalley.co

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/a4419401-4eba-4337-84ff-9b407f30a20f