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Release – Tonix Pharmaceuticals Announces Presentation of Licensed Antiviral Drug Technology at the 4th Symposium of the Canadian Society for Virology

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Tonix Pharmaceuticals Announces Presentation of Licensed Antiviral Drug Technology at the 4th Symposium of the Canadian Society for Virology

Research, News, and Market Data on Tonix Pharmaceuticals

Oral Presentation Describes Activity of Wnt/?-Catenin Signaling Pathway Inhibitors Against SARS-CoV-2 in Cell
Culture and in an Animal Model

CHATHAM, N.J., June 08, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Tonix Pharmaceuticals Holding Corp. (Nasdaq: TNXP) (Tonix or the Company), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, today announced that Tom Hobman, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Cell Biology, University of Alberta, presented data from his laboratory at The University of Alberta as a keynote presentation at the 4th Symposium of the Canadian Society for Virology held in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada on June 5, 2022. The oral presentation titled, “The
virus-host Interface: A treasure trove of novel antiviral targets,” includes research sponsored by Tonix Pharmaceuticals focused on the development and testing of Wnt/?-Catenin signaling pathway inhibitors as broad-spectrum antivirals against SARS-CoV-2 and other emerging viruses. Tonix has previously announced that it exercised an option to license the antiviral technology platform A copy of the presentation is available on the Tonix Pharmaceuticals corporate website at www.tonixpharma.com.

“We are excited by the progress of Professor Hobman and his colleagues at The University of Alberta on the further testing of Wnt/?-Catenin signaling pathway inhibitors as broad-spectrum antivirals,” said Seth Lederman, M.D., President and Chief Executive Officer of Tonix. “Professor Hobman presented data showing that three different Wnt/?-Catenin inhibitor drug candidates decreased lung infection in an animal model of SARS-CoV-2 infection. The set of Wnt/?-Catenin inhibitors tested by Professor Hobman include drugs that have been previously studied in humans for other indications including one drug that is FDA approved. Professor Hobman believes that reducing ?-Catenin levels with Wnt-inhibitor drugs induces peroxisome proliferation and enhances the interferon response. Previously, SARS-CoV-2 was shown to be sensitive to inhibition by interferon2. Professor Hobman reported that Wnt/?-Catenin inhibitor and peroxisome inducing drugs also inhibit Zika virus (ZIKV) and Mayaro (MAYV) virus in cell culture. Tonix is excited to have sponsored Professor Hobman’s research involving Wnt/?-Catenin signaling pathway inhibitors as broad-spectrum antivirals and to have licensed the technology. We look forward to working with Professor Hobman to try to bring one or more of these candidate drugs to clinical testing.”

About Tonix
Pharmaceuticals Holding Corp.1

Tonix is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering, licensing, acquiring and developing therapeutics to treat and prevent human disease and alleviate suffering. Tonix’s portfolio is composed of central nervous system (CNS), rare disease, immunology and infectious disease product candidates. Tonix’s CNS portfolio includes both small molecules and biologics to treat pain, neurologic, psychiatric and addiction conditions. Tonix’s lead CNS candidate, TNX-102 SL (cyclobenzaprine HCl sublingual tablet), is in mid-Phase 3 development for the management of fibromyalgia with a new Phase 3 study launched in the second quarter of 2022 and interim data expected in the first quarter of 2023. TNX-102 SL is also being developed to treat Long COVID, a chronic post-acute COVID-19 condition. Tonix expects to initiate a Phase 2 study in Long COVID in the second quarter of 2022. TNX-1300 (cocaine esterase) is a biologic designed to treat cocaine intoxication that is expected to start a Phase 2 trial in the second quarter of 2022. TNX-1300 has been granted Breakthrough Therapy Designation by the FDA. Finally, TNX-1900 (intranasal potentiated oxytocin), a small molecule in development for chronic migraine, is expected to enter the clinic with a Phase 2 study in the second half of 2022. Tonix’s rare disease portfolio includes TNX-2900 (intranasal potentiated oxytocin) for the treatment of Prader-Willi syndrome. TNX-2900 has been granted Orphan-Drug Designation by the FDA. Tonix’s immunology portfolio includes biologics to address organ transplant rejection, autoimmunity and cancer, including TNX-1500 which is a humanized monoclonal antibody targeting CD40-ligand being developed for the prevention of allograft and xenograft rejection and for the treatment of autoimmune diseases. A Phase 1 study of TNX-1500 is expected to be initiated in the second half of 2022. Tonix’s infectious disease pipeline consists of a vaccine in development to prevent smallpox and monkeypox called TNX-801, next-generation vaccines to prevent COVID-19, and a platform to make fully human monoclonal antibodies to treat COVID-19. Tonix’s lead vaccine candidates for COVID-19 are TNX-1840 and TNX-1850, which are live virus vaccines based on Tonix’s recombinant pox live virus vector vaccine platform.

1All of Tonix’s
product candidates are investigational new drugs or biologics and have not been approved
for any indication.
2Lokugamage, K. G. et al., (2020). Journal of
virology, 94 (23), [e01410]. https://doi.org/10.1128/JVI.01410-20

This press release and further information about Tonix can be found at www.tonixpharma.com.

Forward
Looking Statements

Certain statements in this press release are forward-looking within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements may be identified by the use of forward-looking words such as “anticipate,” “believe,” “forecast,” “estimate,” “expect,” and “intend,” among others. These forward-looking statements are based on Tonix’s current expectations and actual results could differ materially. There are a number of factors that could cause actual events to differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements. These factors include, but are not limited to, risks related to the failure to obtain FDA clearances or approvals and noncompliance with FDA regulations; delays and uncertainties caused by the global COVID-19 pandemic; risks related to the timing and progress of clinical development of our product candidates; our need for additional financing; uncertainties of patent protection and litigation; uncertainties of government or third party payor reimbursement; limited research and development efforts and dependence upon third parties; and substantial competition. As with any pharmaceutical under development, there are significant risks in the development, regulatory approval and commercialization of new products. Tonix does not undertake an obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statement. Investors should read the risk factors set forth in the Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2021, as filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) on March 14, 2022, and periodic reports filed with the SEC on or after the date thereof. All of Tonix’s forward-looking statements are expressly qualified by all such risk factors and other cautionary statements. The information set forth herein speaks only as of the date thereof.

Contacts

Jessica Morris
(corporate)
Tonix Pharmaceuticals
investor.relations@tonixpharma.com

(862) 799-8599

Olipriya Das,
Ph.D. (media)
Russo Partners
Olipriya.Das@russopartnersllc.com

(646) 942-5588

Peter Vozzo
(investors)
ICR Westwicke
peter.vozzo@westwicke.com

(443) 213-0505

 

Source: Tonix Pharmaceuticals Holding Corp.


Artificial Intelligence Language Translation Involves Machines First Hallucinating

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Image Credit: Lauren Hinkel (MIT)


Machine Hallucinating to Better Translate Languages

Lauren Hinkel | MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab

As babies, we babble and imitate our way of learning languages. We don’t start off reading raw text, which requires fundamental knowledge and understanding about the world, as well as the advanced ability to interpret and infer descriptions and relationships. Rather, humans begin our language journey slowly, by pointing and interacting with our environment, basing our words and perceiving their meaning through the context of the physical and social world. Eventually, we can craft full sentences to communicate complex ideas.

Similarly, when humans begin learning and translating into another language, the incorporation of other sensory information, like multimedia, paired with the new and unfamiliar words, like flashcards with images, improves language acquisition and retention. Then, with enough practice, humans can accurately translate new, unseen sentences in context without the accompanying media; however, imagining a picture based on the original text helps.

This is the basis of a new machine learning model, called VALHALLA, by researchers from MIT, IBM, and the University of California at San Diego, in which a trained neural network sees a source sentence in one language, hallucinates an image of what it looks like, and then uses both to translate into a target language. The team found that their method demonstrates improved accuracy of machine translation over text-only translation. Further, it provided an additional boost for cases with long sentences, under-resourced languages, and instances where part of the source sentence is inaccessible to the machine translator.

As a core task within the AI field of natural language processing (NLP), machine translation is an “eminently practical technology that’s being used by millions of people every day,” says study co-author Yoon Kim, assistant professor in MIT’s Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science with affiliations in the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) and the MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab. With recent, significant advances in deep learning, “there’s been an interesting development in how one might use non-text information — for example, images, audio, or other grounding information — to tackle practical tasks involving language” says Kim, because “when humans are performing language processing tasks, we’re doing so within a grounded, situated world.” The pairing of hallucinated images and text during inference, the team postulated, imitates that process, providing context for improved performance over current state-of-the-art techniques, which utilize text-only data.

This research will be presented at the IEEE / CVF Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition Conference this month. Kim’s co-authors are UC San Diego graduate student Yi Li and Professor Nuno Vasconcelos, along with research staff members Rameswar Panda, Chun-fu “Richard” Chen, Rogerio Feris, and IBM Director David Cox of IBM Research and the MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab.

 

Learning to Hallucinate
from Images

When we learn new languages and to translate, we’re often provided with examples and practice before venturing out on our own. The same is true for machine-translation systems; however, if images are used during training, these AI methods also require visual aids for testing, limiting their applicability, says Panda.

“In real-world scenarios, you might not have an image with respect to the source sentence. So, our motivation was basically: Instead of using an external image during inference as input, can we use visual hallucination — the ability to imagine visual scenes — to improve machine translation systems?” says Panda.

To do this, the team used an encoder-decoder architecture with two transformers, a type of neural network model that’s suited for sequence-dependent data, like language, that can pay attention key words and semantics of a sentence. One transformer generates a visual hallucination, and the other performs multimodal translation using outputs from the first transformer.

During training, there are two streams of translation: a source sentence and a ground-truth image that is paired with it, and the same source sentence that is visually hallucinated to make a text-image pair. First the ground-truth image and sentence are tokenized into representations that can be handled by transformers; for the case of the sentence, each word is a token. The source sentence is tokenized again, but this time passed through the visual hallucination transformer, outputting a hallucination, a discrete image representation of the sentence. The researchers incorporated an autoregression that compares the ground-truth and hallucinated representations for congruency — e.g., homonyms: a reference to an animal “bat” isn’t hallucinated as a baseball bat. The hallucination transformer then uses the difference between them to optimize its predictions and visual output, making sure the context is consistent.

The two sets of tokens are then simultaneously passed through the multimodal translation transformer, each containing the sentence representation and either the hallucinated or ground-truth image. The tokenized text translation outputs are compared with the goal of being similar to each other and to the target sentence in another language. Any differences are then relayed back to the translation transformer for further optimization.

For testing, the ground-truth image stream drops off, since images likely wouldn’t be available in everyday scenarios.

“To the best of our knowledge, we haven’t seen any work which actually uses a hallucination transformer jointly with a multimodal translation system to improve machine translation performance,” says Panda.

 

Visualizing the
Target Text

To test their method, the team put VALHALLA up against other state-of-the-art multimodal and text-only translation methods. They used public benchmark datasets containing ground-truth images with source sentences, and a dataset for translating text-only news articles. The researchers measured its performance over 13 tasks, ranging from translation on well-resourced languages (like English, German, and French), under-resourced languages (like English to Romanian) and non-English (like Spanish to French). The group also tested varying transformer model sizes, how accuracy changes with the sentence length, and translation under limited textual context, where portions of the text were hidden from the machine translators.

The team observed significant improvements over text-only translation methods, improving data efficiency, and that smaller models performed better than the larger base model. As sentences became longer, VALHALLA’s performance over other methods grew, which the researchers attributed to the addition of more ambiguous words. In cases where part of the sentence was masked, VALHALLA could recover and translate the original text, which the team found surprising.

Further unexpected findings arose: “Where there weren’t as many training [image and] text pairs, [like for under-resourced languages], improvements were more significant, which indicates that grounding in images helps in low-data regimes,” says Kim. “Another thing that was quite surprising to me was this improved performance, even on types of text that aren’t necessarily easily connectable to images. For example, maybe it’s not so surprising if this helps in translating visually salient sentences, like the ‘there is a red car in front of the house.’ [However], even in text-only [news article] domains, the approach was able to improve upon text-only systems.”

While VALHALLA performs well, the researchers note that it does have limitations, requiring pairs of sentences to be annotated with an image, which could make it more expensive to obtain. It also performs better in its ground domain and not the text-only news articles. Moreover, Kim and Panda note, a technique like VALHALLA is still a black box, with the assumption that hallucinated images are providing helpful information, and the team plans to investigate what and how the model is learning in order to validate their methods.

In the future, the team plans to explore other means of improving translation. “Here, we only focus on images, but there are other types of a multimodal information — for example, speech, video or touch, or other sensory modalities,” says Panda. “We believe such multimodal grounding can lead to even more efficient machine translation models, potentially benefiting translation across many low-resource languages spoken in the world.”


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Release – Stream Hatchet Launches Stream Hatchet Brands – to Track Earned Media Value from Brand Advertisements In Streaming

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Stream Hatchet Launches Stream Hatchet Brands – to Track Earned Media Value from Brand Advertisements In Streaming

Research, News, and Market Data on Engine Gaming & Media

Stream Hatchet Brands enables
the targeted performance measurement of over 2,300 major brands via logo
recognition models and chat analysis on video game streaming platforms

Barcelona, SPAIN – 8 June 2022 – Stream Hatchet, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Engine Gaming and Media, Inc. (“Engine” or the “Company”) (NASDAQ:GAME)(TSXV:GAME), today announced that it has launched Stream Hatchet Brands, a tool and comprehensive database that allows marketers to track earned media value from over 2,300 major brands on video game streaming platforms

Stream Hatchet Brands provides detailed information and curated data sets on the prominence of brand appearances within the top video game streamers, as well as the earned media value generated in each individual frame. This allows marketers to track brand logo impressions related to viewership and brand affinity and present them in dashboards

These dashboards can be filtered into specific categories and industry segments to enhance comparative analysis, and the final data can be processed into a variety of visuals and reports.

Stream Hatchet Brands features three advanced data curation methods:

  • Logo detection with frame by frame
    methodology     – A bespoke model allows the tracking of brand logos by observing the stream frame by frame. Using this data, internal algorithms generate an earned media value providing a micro-level and highly accurate performance measurement.
  • Logo detection by logo presence
    methodology     – In addition to tracking brand logos in streaming videos, Stream Hatchet Brands also tracks brand presence on a larger level, allowing brands to benchmark their presence against a broader quantity of live streaming platforms.
  • Chat analysis – Brand mentions are detected by analyzing the complete chat history of all channels, and Stream Hatchet Brands’ advanced methodology tracks specific brand mentions by analyzing the context of the chat to avoid tracking keywords that share the brand name.

More than ever, brands are leveraging gaming influencers and esports events to reach the core gaming audience, which is full of lucrative consumers for various brands,” said Eduard Monsterrat, CEO at Stream Hatchet. “Tracking earned media value on live streams has never been easy, but now with the launch of Stream Hatchet Brands, brand marketers have a simple way of accurately determining the level of brand lift they are generating through sponsorship activations. They can see where their logos appear on stream and how prominent they are compared to competitors, while also tracking brand affinity through audience mentions in chat.

“What makes our products unique”, Montserrat continued, “is our taxonomy and classification methodology. Our data experts spend a copious amount of time properly labelling each individual data point that flows through our reporting offerings, and we never sacrifice quality”.

About Stream Hatchet

Stream Hatchet is the market leader in live-streaming viewership data analytics for the world’s leading video game streaming platforms. Stream Hatchet provides deep insights to leading brands, creator networks, esports leagues, game publishers and other businesses measuring the impact of video game live streaming. Stream Hatchet is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Engine Gaming and Media. For more information, please visit www.streamhatchet.com.

About Engine Gaming and Media,
Inc.

Engine Gaming and Media, Inc. is traded publicly under the ticker symbol (NASDAQ: GAME) (TSX-V: GAME). Engine provides premium social sports and esports gaming experiences, as well as unparalleled data analytics, marketing, advertising, and intellectual property to support its owned and operated direct-to-consumer properties while also providing these services to enable its clients and partners. The company’s subsidiaries include Stream Hatchet, Sideqik, WinView, UMG Gaming, and Frankly Media. For more information, please visit www.enginegaming.com/

Press Kit: 
Media Kit

For further press information, please contact
Amy Ballantyne
Big Games Machine
Email: 
amy@biggamesmachine.com


Michael Burry Uses Burgernomic’s logic to Evaluate the US Dollar

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Image Credit: Marc Buehler (Flickr)


Michael Burry Tweets About the Weak Dollar While Mainstream News Discusses Dollar Strength

The US Dollar ($USD) has been strengthening against most major currencies of late. But, it can be argued, the currency strength directly against other currencies may not be a useful test for investors or consumers. Michael Burry, the fund manager of “The Big Short” fame, took to Twitter Tuesday to transform this talk of a stronger dollar. His tweet argues that those thinking the $USD is strong are using the wrong yardstick. US currency, he suggests, is only strong on a relative basis to other weakening currencies, and rampant inflation is actually eroding its purchasing power and its value.

Cheeseburger in Pandemonium

Burry’s words are reminiscent of The Big Mac Index. This is a measure lightheartedly created in 1986 by The Economist magazine to show currency misalignment between nations using a Macdonald’s menu item as the control. Over 36 years, it has devolved into a more simplified version called Burgernomics. Burgernomics shows the change in a currency’s direct purchasing power and, therefore, value change based on the cost of a cheeseburger.

Burry tweeted on June 7th, “When you see mention of
the strong dollar, the almighty dollar, please remember this is only in
relation to other fiat currencies,” he said. “The dollar is not at all
strong, and it is not getting stronger. We all see it every single day in
prices of everything.” Burry has been very vocal since early 2020 about his concerns about the economic impact of steps taken at all levels in Washington.

Through May and continuing into June, the US dollar, measured against other currencies, hit 20-year highs. Its accelerated strength against other currencies is said to demonstrate its appeal as a haven in a volatile world. It also has gained natural strength from rising interest rates available in dollar-denominated assets.


Source: Koyfin

Burry’s point is that a dollar may be worth more in euros or yen than before, but it buys far less due to the soaring prices of food, gas, housing, and many other goods and services. The expression “picking the cleanest dirty shirt” was used by many economists after 2008 to explain why foreign assets were invested in the US despite US troubles. The expression doesn’t suggest the US economy was at all good, it instead emphasizes that it was just best.


Source: Twitter

This thinking is not out of line with another widely followed investor, Warren Buffett. At the Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting, the Oracle of Omaha was quoted as saying. “Inflation swindles the bond investor … it swindles the person who keeps their cash under their mattress, it swindles almost everybody.”

Further Warnings from Burry

Burry, who is known to go on a tweeting frenzy only to delete them by day’s end, has left the above tweet available on his account. He recently highlighted that Americans are saving less, borrowing more, and could virtually exhaust their savings before the end of this year. He explained, that trend threatens to slash consumer spending and pile more pressure on corporate earnings.

Take Away

The well-followed hedge fund manager and founder of Scion Asset Management, LLC took to Twitter to give a different view than most often shown in financial news. Burry had frequently called out the economic cheerleaders and irrational speculation in the markets during the pandemic. He once discussed at length with Bloomberg how the reaction to coronavirus would eventually be worse
than the disease. He has compared
index funds to the real estate crisis. And he also bemoaned the “greatest speculative bubble of all time in all things” last summer, and warned owners of meme stocks and cryptocurrencies that they were headed towards the “mother of all crashes.”

He is never on CNBC or FOX Business News, but his thoughts and tweets are worth paying attention to. Channelchek will selectively highlight those thoughts when they seem relevant to our subscribers.

Paul Hoffman

Managing Editor, Channelchek

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Sources

https://www.economist.com/big-mac-index

https://www.reuters.com/business/buffett-says-inflation-an-issue-berkshire-it-swindles-almost-everybody-2022-04-30/

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Release – Tonix Pharmaceuticals Announces Presentation on TNX-801 Vaccine Protection Against Monkeypox at the 4th Symposium of the Canadian Society for Virology

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Tonix Pharmaceuticals Announces Presentation on TNX-801 Vaccine Protection Against Monkeypox at the 4th Symposium of the Canadian Society for Virology

Research, News, and Market Data on Tonix Pharmaceuticals


Poster Presentation Includes Preclinical Data from Tonix’s Program to Develop a Vaccine for Monkeypox and Smallpox

CHATHAM, N.J., June 08, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Tonix Pharmaceuticals Holding Corp. (Nasdaq: TNXP) (Tonix or the Company), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, today announced that Ryan Noyce, Ph.D., and David Evans, Professor, Department of Cell Biology, University of Alberta, together with scientists from Tonix presented data from a research collaboration between Tonix Pharmaceuticals and The University of Alberta in a poster presentation at the 4th Symposium of the Canadian Society for Virology held in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada on June 5, 2022. Copies of the poster are available on the Tonix Pharmaceuticals corporate website at www.tonixpharma.com.

The poster titled, “Synthetic
Chimeric Horsepox Virus (scHPXV) Vaccination Protects Macaques from Monkeypox,” describes data from animals vaccinated with TNX-8011 to protect against monkeypox. The poster presentation reports that all animals (eight of eight) vaccinated with TNX-801 were fully protected with sterilizing immunity from a challenge with intra-tracheal monkeypox. The vaccinations with TNX-801 were well tolerated. Synthetic horsepox virus is the basis for the Company’s TNX-801 vaccine in development to protect against monkeypox and smallpox and for the Company’s Recombinant Pox Virus (RPV) platform to protect against other pathogens, including SARS-CoV-2.

“Our research work, in collaboration with Dr. Noyce and Professor Evans at The University of Alberta, shows that vaccination with TNX-801 has the ability to protect against monkeypox infection,” said Seth Lederman, M.D., President and Chief Executive Officer. “Monkeypox infection of humans was rare during the time people were vaccinated to protect against smallpox. After the eradication of smallpox, vaccination with live-virus vaccinia was stopped in most of the world. Monkeypox cases have been rising in Africa for several years. Very recently a strain of monkeypox from West Africa has caused clusters of monkeypox cases in many countries outside of Africa. We believe that vaccination with live-virus vaccines like TNX-801 has the potential to control monkeypox again.”

About TNX-801,
TNX-1840 and TNX-1850

TNX-801 is a live virus vaccine based on synthesized horsepox2,3. Tonix is developing TNX-801 for percutaneous administration as a vaccine to protect against monkeypox and smallpox. Tonix has previously reported positive data from a monkeypox challenge study in non-human primates4. Tonix is also developing TNX-1840 and TNX-1850 (horsepox-based live virus vaccines) for the prevention of COVID-19. TNX-1840 and TNX-1850 are designed to express the spike protein from the omicron and BA.2 variants of SARS-CoV-2, respectively. Tonix has previously reported positive data from a SARS-CoV-2 challenge study in non-human primates in which animals were vaccinated with TNX-1800, a horsepox-based vaccine expressing spike protein from the Wuhan strain5. Tonix’s TNX-801 was synthesized2 based on the sequence of the 1976 natural isolate Mongolian horsepox clone MNR-763. Molecular analysis of DNA sequences suggests that TNX-801 is closer than modern smallpox vaccines to the vaccine discovered and disseminated by Dr. Edward Jenner in 17986-8. For example, recent studies9,10 have shown approximately 99.7% colinear identity between TNX-801 and the circa 1860 U.S. smallpox vaccine VK05.11 The small plaque size in culture of TNX-801 appears identical to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control publication of the natural isolate12. Relative to vaccinia, horsepox has substantially decreased virulence in mice2. Dr. Edward Jenner invented vaccination in 1798 and the procedure was called “vaccination” because ‘cow’ is ‘vacca’ in Latin and the inoculum material was initially obtained from lesions on the udders of cows affected by a mild disease known as cowpox. However, Dr. Jenner suspected that cowpox originated from horses8. Subsequently, Dr. Jenner and others immunized against smallpox using material directly obtained from horses. The use of vaccines from horses was sometimes called ‘equination’ from the Latin ‘equus’ which means ‘horse’13. Equination and vaccination were practiced side-by-side in Europe
13,14.

About the
Recombinant Pox Virus (RPV) Platform

Horsepox virus and vaccines based on its use as a vector are live replicating viruses that elicit strong immune responses. Live replicating orthopoxviruses, like vaccinia or horsepox, can be engineered to express foreign genes and have been exploited as platforms for vaccine development because they possess; (1) large packaging capacity for exogenous DNA inserts, (2) precise virus-specific control of exogenous gene insert expression, (3) lack of persistence or genomic integration in the host, (4) strong immunogenicity as a vaccine, (5) ability to rapidly generate vector/insert constructs, (6) manufacturable at scale, and (7) ability to provide direct antigen presentation. Relative to vaccinia, horsepox has substantially decreased virulence in mice2. Horsepox-based vaccines are designed to be single dose, vial-sparing vaccines, that can be manufactured using conventional cell culture systems, with the potential for mass scale production and packaging in multi-dose vials. Tonix’s TNX-801 and RPV vaccine candidates are administered percutaneously using a two-pronged, or “bifurcated” needle. The major cutaneous reaction or “take” to vaccinia vaccine was described by Dr. Edward Jenner in 1796 and has been used since then as a biomarker for protective immunity to smallpox, including in the World Health Organization’s (WHO) accelerated smallpox eradication program that successfully eradicated smallpox in the 1960’s. The “take” is a measure of functional T cell immunity validated by the eradication of smallpox, a respiratory-transmitted disease caused by variola.

About
Monkeypox and Smallpox

Monkeypox15 and smallpox
16 are diseases in humans called by the monkeypox and smallpox (or variola) viruses, respectively. Monkeypox and variola are closely related orthopox viruses. Vaccination against smallpox with live virus vaccines based on horsepox or vaccinia protects against monkeypox. After routine smallpox vaccination was stopped in about 1970, monkeypox has become a growing problem in Africa. Recently approximately 300 cases have been identified outside of Africa.17 Smallpox is considered eradicated, but there are concerns about malicious reintroduction.

About Tonix
Pharmaceuticals Holding Corp.1

Tonix is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering, licensing, acquiring and developing therapeutics to treat and prevent human disease and alleviate suffering. Tonix’s portfolio is composed of central nervous system (CNS), rare disease, immunology and infectious disease product candidates. Tonix’s CNS portfolio includes both small molecules and biologics to treat pain, neurologic, psychiatric and addiction conditions. Tonix’s lead CNS candidate, TNX-102 SL (cyclobenzaprine HCl sublingual tablet), is in mid-Phase 3 development for the management of fibromyalgia with a new Phase 3 study launched in the second quarter of 2022 and interim data expected in the first quarter of 2023. TNX-102 SL is also being developed to treat Long COVID, a chronic post-acute COVID-19 condition. Tonix expects to initiate a Phase 2 study in Long COVID in the second quarter of 2022. TNX-1300 (cocaine esterase) is a biologic designed to treat cocaine intoxication that is expected to start a Phase 2 trial in the second quarter of 2022. TNX-1300 has been granted Breakthrough Therapy Designation by the FDA. Finally, TNX-1900 (intranasal potentiated oxytocin), a small molecule in development for chronic migraine, is expected to enter the clinic with a Phase 2 study in the second half of 2022. Tonix’s rare disease portfolio includes TNX-2900 (intranasal potentiated oxytocin) for the treatment of Prader-Willi syndrome. TNX-2900 has been granted Orphan-Drug Designation by the FDA. Tonix’s immunology portfolio includes biologics to address organ transplant rejection, autoimmunity and cancer, including TNX-1500 which is a humanized monoclonal antibody targeting CD40-ligand being developed for the prevention of allograft and xenograft rejection and for the treatment of autoimmune diseases. A Phase 1 study of TNX-1500 is expected to be initiated in the second half of 2022. Tonix’s infectious disease pipeline consists of a vaccine in development to prevent smallpox and monkeypox called TNX-801, next-generation vaccines to prevent COVID-19, and a platform to make fully human monoclonal antibodies to treat COVID-19. Tonix’s lead vaccine candidates for COVID-19 are TNX-1840 and TNX-1850, which are live virus vaccines based on Tonix’s recombinant pox live virus vector vaccine platform.

1All of Tonix’s
product candidates are investigational new drugs or biologics and have not been
approved for any indication.
2Noyce RS, et
al. (2018) PLoS One. 13(1):e0188453
3Tulman ER, et
al. (2006) J Virol. 80(18):9244-58.PMID:16940536
4Noyce, RS, et
al. Synthetic Chimeric Horsepox Virus (scHPXV) Vaccination Protects
Macaques from Monkeypox* Presented as a poster at the American Society of
Microbiology BioThreats Conference – January 29, 2020, Arlington, VA.
(https://content.equisolve.net/tonixpharma/media/10929ac27f4fb5f5204f5cf41d59a121.pdf)
5Tonix Press
Release March 16, 202a
https://ir.tonixpharma.com/news-events/press-releases/detail/1255/tonix-pharmaceuticals-reports-positive-covid-19-vaccine
6Schrick L et
al. N Engl J Med. (2017) 377:1491.
7Qin et al. J. Virol. 89:1809
(2015).
8Jenner E. “An
Inquiry Into the Causes and Effects of the Variolae Vaccinae:
A Disease Discovered in Some of the Western Counties of England, Particularly
Gloucestershire, and Known by the Name of the Cow Pox.” London: Sampson Low,
1798.
9Brinkmann A et
al, Genome Biology (2020) 21:286 https://doi.org/10.1186/s13059-020-02202-0
10Duggan A et
al. Genome Biology (2020) 21:175 https://doi.org/10.1186/s13059-020-02079-z
11Tonix press
release. Dec 4, 2020
https://ir.tonixpharma.com/news-events/press-releases/detail/1236/vaccine-genome-researchers-report-99-7-colinear-identity
12Trindale GS et
al. Viruses (2016) (12). Pii: E328. PMID:27973399
13Esparza E, et
al Vaccine. (2017) 35(52):7222-7230.
14Esparza J et
al. Vaccine. (2020); 38(30):4773-4779.
15www.cdc.gov/poxvirus/monkeypox/about.html
16www.cdc.gov/smallpox/research/
17Mandavilli, A.
The New York Times. May 26, 2020. “Who is protected against monkeypox”

This press release and further information about Tonix can be found at www.tonixpharma.com.

Forward
Looking Statements

Certain statements in this press release are forward-looking within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements may be identified by the use of forward-looking words such as “anticipate,” “believe,” “forecast,” “estimate,” “expect,” and “intend,” among others. These forward-looking statements are based on Tonix’s current expectations and actual results could differ materially. There are a number of factors that could cause actual events to differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements. These factors include, but are not limited to, risks related to the failure to obtain FDA clearances or approvals and noncompliance with FDA regulations; delays and uncertainties caused by the global COVID-19 pandemic; risks related to the timing and progress of clinical development of our product candidates; our need for additional financing; uncertainties of patent protection and litigation; uncertainties of government or third party payor reimbursement; limited research and development efforts and dependence upon third parties; and substantial competition. As with any pharmaceutical under development, there are significant risks in the development, regulatory approval and commercialization of new products. Tonix does not undertake an obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statement. Investors should read the risk factors set forth in the Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2021, as filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) on March 14, 2022, and periodic reports filed with the SEC on or after the date thereof. All of Tonix’s forward-looking statements are expressly qualified by all such risk factors and other cautionary statements. The information set forth herein speaks only as of the date thereof.

Contacts

Jessica Morris
(corporate)
Tonix Pharmaceuticals
investor.relations@tonixpharma.com

(862) 799-8599

Olipriya Das,
Ph.D. (media)
Russo Partners
Olipriya.Das@russopartnersllc.com

(646) 942-5588

Peter Vozzo
(investors)
ICR Westwicke
peter.vozzo@westwicke.com

(443) 213-0505

 

Source: Tonix Pharmaceuticals Holding Corp.


PDS Biotechnology Corp (PDSB) – Conference Call Clarifies Data and Mechanism of PDS0101

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Wednesday, June 08, 2022

PDS Biotechnology Corp (PDSB)
Conference Call Clarifies Data and Mechanism of PDS0101

PDS Biotech is a clinical-stage immunotherapy company developing a growing pipeline of molecularly targeted cancer and infectious disease immunotherapies based on the Company’s proprietary Versamune® and Infectimune™ T-cell activating technology platforms. Our Versamune®-based products have demonstrated the potential to overcome the limitations of current immunotherapy by inducing in vivo, large quantities of high-quality, highly potent polyfunctional tumor specific CD4+ helper and CD8+ killer T-cells. PDS Biotech has developed multiple therapies, based on combinations of Versamune® and disease-specific antigens, designed to train the immune system to better recognize diseased cells and effectively attack and destroy them. The Company’s pipeline products address various cancers including HPV16-associated cancers (anal, cervical, head and neck, penile, vaginal, vulvar) and breast, colon, lung, prostate and ovarian cancers.

Robert LeBoyer, Vice President, Research Analyst, Life Sciences , Noble Capital Markets, Inc.

Refer to the full report for the price target, fundamental analysis, and rating.

PDS Held A Conference Call Following ASCO Data Presentations.  On June 7, PDS management held a conference call to discuss the full data from its presentations at the American Society for Clinical Oncology (ASCO) meeting on June 5 and 6.  The presentations were from the Phase 2 VERSATILE-002 trial testing PDS0101 in head and neck cancer and the Phase 2 Triple Combination trial testing PDS0101 with two immune modulating drugs in multiple tumor types.

Two Trials Presented Data At ASCO.  PDS0101 was developed using the PDS Versamune technology to stimulate an immune response to HPV16, an immune marker found on human papilloma virus (HPV) related cancers.  The VERSATILE-002 trial tested PDS0101 the combination with Merck’s pembrolizumab (Keytruda), using the checkpoint inhibitor to make the tumor recognizable to the immune system along with PDS0101 to improve the immune response and kill the tumor cells….

This Company Sponsored Research is provided by Noble Capital Markets, Inc., a FINRA and S.E.C. registered broker-dealer (B/D).

*Analyst certification and important disclosures included in the full report. NOTE: investment decisions should not be based upon the content of this research summary. Proper due diligence is required before making any investment decision. 

Entravision Communications (EVC) – Favorable Fundamental Tailwinds Powered By Digital

Posted on by Admin

Wednesday, June 08, 2022

Entravision Communications (EVC)
Favorable Fundamental Tailwinds Powered By Digital

Entravision Communications Corporation is a diversified Spanish-language media company utilizing a combination of television and radio operations to reach Hispanic consumers across the United States, as well as the border markets of Mexico. Entravision owns and/or operates 53 primary television stations and is the largest affiliate group of both the top-ranked Univision television network and Univision’s TeleFutura network, with television stations in 20 of the nation’s top 50 Hispanic markets. The Company also operates one of the nation’s largest groups of primarily Spanish-language radio stations, consisting of 48 owned and operated radio stations.

Michael Kupinski, Director of Research, Noble Capital Markets, Inc.

Patrick McCann, Research Associate, Noble Capital Markets, Inc.

Refer to the full report for the price target, fundamental analysis, and rating.

Non-deal road show highlights: Last week, EVC hosted meetings for investors in St. Louis. Chris Young, CFO, highlighted the company’s international growth prospects, which are driven by its digital businesses. Management indicated favorable fundamental tailwinds, on track to exceed our 2023 Adj. EBITDA estimate this year.

Competitive advantage in LatinAm: The company has an advantage of being the exclusive ad rep for Facebook. Advertisers must either buy Facebook ads through EVC’s Cisneros, or buy directly from Facebook. With no price difference by buying through Facebook, Cisneros provides value add with customer support. 

…

This Company Sponsored Research is provided by Noble Capital Markets, Inc., a FINRA and S.E.C. registered broker-dealer (B/D).

*Analyst certification and important disclosures included in the full report. NOTE: investment decisions should not be based upon the content of this research summary. Proper due diligence is required before making any investment decision. 

Defense Metals Corp. (DFMTF) – 2022 Diamond Drilling Program in Full Swing

Posted on by Admin

Wednesday, June 08, 2022

Defense Metals Corp. (DFMTF)
2022 Diamond Drilling Program in Full Swing

Defense Metals Corp. is a mineral exploration and development company focused on the acquisition, exploration and development of mineral deposits containing metals and elements commonly used in the electric power market, defense industry, national security sector and in the production of green energy technologies, such as, rare earths magnets used in wind turbines and in permanent magnet motors for electric vehicles. Defense Metals owns 100% of the Wicheeda Rare Earth Element Property located near Prince George, British Columbia, Canada. Defense Metals Corp. trades in Canada under the symbol “DEFN” on the TSX Venture Exchange, in the United States, under “DFMTF” on the OTCQB and in Germany on the Frankfurt Exchange under “35D”.

Mark Reichman, Senior Research Analyst, Natural Resources, Noble Capital Markets, Inc.

Refer to the full report for the price target, fundamental analysis, and rating.

Drills are turning. Defense Metals has commenced diamond drilling at its Wicheeda Rare Earth Element (REE) deposit and expects to complete up to 5,000 meters of drilling to delineate existing resources and test near deposit exploration targets. Geotechnical and hydrogeological drilling will help optimize the open pit design and collect additional material for metallurgical test work. The 2022 drilling may include up to 1,500 meters of pit geotechnical and hydrogeological drilling, 1,500 meters of resource delineation and near resource exploration drilling, and up to 2,000 meters of PQ core for metallurgical testing. Results will be incorporated, along with results from the 2021 drill program, into a preliminary feasibility study (PFS) to be released during the first half of 2023.

Expanding and upgrading resources. The current NI 43-101 Preliminary Economic Assessment highlights 5.0 million tonnes of indicated resources averaging 2.95% total rare earth oxides (TREO) and 29.5 million tonnes of inferred resources averaging 1.83% TREO within a conceptual pit shell. The 2022 drill program has started from existing drill pads prepared during 2021 in the northern area of the Wicheeda REE deposit that returned some of the highest grade and width intercepts of the 2021 drilling program….

This Company Sponsored Research is provided by Noble Capital Markets, Inc., a FINRA and S.E.C. registered broker-dealer (B/D).

*Analyst certification and important disclosures included in the full report. NOTE: investment decisions should not be based upon the content of this research summary. Proper due diligence is required before making any investment decision. 

Release – Great Lakes Announces Exercise of Option to Build Second 6,500 cubic yard Trailing Suction Hopper Dredge

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Great Lakes Announces Exercise of Option to Build Second 6,500 cubic yard Trailing Suction Hopper Dredge

Research, News, and Market Data on Great Lakes Dredge & Dock


HOUSTON, June 07, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Corporation (“Great Lakes” or the “Company”) (NASDAQ:GLDD), the largest provider of dredging services in the United States announced today the exercise of the contract option to build a second 6,500-cubic-yard-capacity Trailing Suction Hopper Dredge with Conrad Shipyard (“Conrad”) in Amelia, Louisiana. With expected delivery in the first quarter of 2025, the new vessel will be a sister ship to the Galveston Island, presently under construction with delivery in early 2023.

Great Lakes’ hopper dredge fleet including the ATB Tug Douglas B. Mackie and 15,000-cubic-yard-capacity barge Ellis Island and the Galveston,
Liberty, Terrapin, Dodge and Padre Islands, comprise the largest hopper fleet in the U.S. dredging industry.

Lasse Petterson, President and Chief Executive Officer commented, “As the leader in the U.S. Dredging industry, Great Lakes continues to strategically invest in its dredging fleet. This highly automated new build vessel will be well-suited to multi-use applications on various project types. It will be deployed for channel deepening, maintenance dredging, beach nourishment, and coastal restoration projects to meet our nations’ maritime infrastructure needs. This vessel reinforces our commitment to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the robust U.S. dredging market.

Construction of the Galveston Island at Conrad has progressed on schedule and on budget. We are very pleased with the quality of construction and our strong partnership with Conrad.”

This new build supports the continued modernization and diversification of Great Lakes’ fleet. The dredge is identical to the Galveston Island and will feature two 800mm suction pipes and will be able to dredge at depths of up to 100 feet, with principal dimensions of approximately 346 feet in length, 69 feet in breadth, 23 feet in depth and 16,500 total installed horsepower.

The dredge will be equipped with a direct high-power pump-ashore installation, dredging system automation, dynamic positioning and tracking, U.S. EPA Tier IV compliant engines, and additional features designed to minimize the impact of its dredging process on the environment. The Tier 4-compliant engines significantly reduce the vessel’s climate footprint, while other incorporated features minimize turbidity and marine species entrainment. Best-in-class accommodations feature single-occupancy staterooms, a workout room, and an innovative movie theater with raised seating that doubles as a training facility.

The
Company

Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Corporation is the largest provider of dredging services in the United States. In addition, Great Lakes is fully engaged in expanding its core business into the rapidly developing offshore wind energy industry. The Company has a long history of performing significant international projects. The Company employs experienced civil, ocean and mechanical engineering staff in its estimating, production and project management functions. In its over 132-year history, the Company has never failed to complete a marine project. Great Lakes owns and operates the largest and most diverse fleet in the U.S. dredging industry, comprised of approximately 200 specialized vessels. Great Lakes has a disciplined training program for engineers that ensures experienced-based performance as they advance through Company operations. The Company’s Incident-and Injury-Free® (IIF®) safety management program is integrated into all aspects of the Company’s culture. The Company’s commitment to the IIF® culture promotes a work environment where employee safety is paramount.

For further
information contact:
Tina Baginskis
Director, Investor Relations
630-574-3024


Help Understanding if Gevo’s Tank is Half Full or Half Empty

Posted on by Admin 

Image Credit: The Noun Project (Flickr)


Investors are Not Alone Interpreting Surprise Stock Moves and Future Direction

During periods of rising stock market prices, investors often overreact to positive news on a company while ignoring negative. Similarly, when markets are faced with an ongoing negative mood, investors are quicker to hit the sell button. When Investors all try to rush through the gate at the same time, either buying or selling, creates a sharp move that typically shows it was overdone and reverses at least somewhat. There is no guarantee of a reversal or so-called bounce, but anyone involved in the market has seen it often enough to know it happens; knowing where the high or low will be before any turnaround is what makes investing or trading tricky.

On Monday (June 6), investors observed that Gevo (GEVO), which is popular among renewable liquid hydrocarbon fuel investors and ESG rated stocks, reacted negatively to an announced capital raise. The raise involved issuing shares rather than non-equity or other non-dilutive alternatives.

The specifics of the agreement with various institutions is to sell 33,333,336 shares of common stock at a $4.50 per share, the approximate previous closing price. The shares would also have warrants exercisable at $4.37 per share. The offering is expected to provide $150 million in proceeds to the company. The bulk of the raise can be considered for investment as projects, including the Net Zero-1 Plant that will break ground this year are expected to cost $900 million.

On the day of the announcement, the company stock dropped over 30%, and despite newer news items related to Gevo, including Japanese Airlines entering into a contract to purchase fuel, or the collaboration with Google Cloud to enhance Gevo’s bio-fuel analysis by helping to measure and verify the efficacy of its biofuels via full lifecycle sustainability data tracking, investors are not yet showing that they are impressed.


Source: Koyfin

There are more companies that are not mentioned by the primary news outlets than those that are. When one of these companies makes an announcement and the discussion is sparse, it may be time to evaluate your own thoughts, maybe crunch your own numbers, and peruse research reports from those that know the company extremely well and are experts in the industry. This is how value can, at times, be uncovered. While everyone else is reading the same rehashed headline, digging into an expertly written research note by an analyst that covers the company can help shed light on what others may be missing. Or to validate or invalidate one’s own understanding of pros and cons.

Gevo is a company with equity research coverage by analysts at Noble Capital Markets, this research is published and downloaded by institutions via expensive subscription services such as Bloomberg terminals and Factset, these services aren’t practical for the average individual investor. But the same research is also available at no cost to subscribers of Channelchek.

A research report on Gevo was published and emailed this morning to Channelchek subscribers. 

Time will tell if the sell-off was and is an overreaction. But the stock is currently trading at $3.03, down another half percentage point from yesterday’s close after falling over 30%. In the research note titled: Stock
Hit Hard on Equity Offering, Michael Heim, CFA, Senior Research Analyst wrote, “The shares of Gevo will most likely be volatile over the next few years until plants have been constructed and are generating cash.” He continued, “Investors should maintain a long-term perspective and focus on construction progress and not short-term stock price volatility. As such, we see recent weakness as a buying opportunity and maintain our Outperform rating and $16 price target.”

Get the
Report

The research note contained other information and thoughts not found in traditional media and not permitted in an SEC-registered company press release. Further, previous research reports on the company are also available for deeper insight.

Take Away

Once again, time will tell where Gevo, or any other stock that has made a sharp move, is trading in a month, a year, or even five years, but having another set of expert eyes and knowledgeable insight helps an investor sort through any big reaction to news that is sparsely reported on by financial outlets that tend to focus on the same dozen companies. They simply don’t dig into smaller stocks that are moving.

Paul Hoffman

Managing Editor, Channelchek

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https://www.channelchek.com/company/GEVO/research-report/3699

www.koyfin.com

https://investors.gevo.com/news-releases/news-release-details/collaboration-googlecloud-gevo-measure-and-verify-carbon

https://investorplace.com/2022/06/gevo-stock-plunges-on-150m-securities-offering-news/

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Release – Harte Hanks set to join Russell Microcap Index

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Harte Hanks set to join Russell Microcap® Index

Research, News, and Market Data on Harte Hanks

CHELMSFORD, Mass. , June 7, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — Harte Hanks,
Inc. (NASDAQ: HHS), a global customer experience company, is set to join the Russell Microcap® Index at the conclusion of the 2022 Russell indexes annual reconstitution, effective after the US market opens on June 27 , according to a preliminary list of additions posted June 3 .

Membership in the Russell Microcap® Index, which remains in place for one year, means automatic inclusion in the appropriate growth and value style indexes. FTSE Russell determines membership for its Russell indexes primarily by objective, market-capitalization rankings and style attributes.

Harte Hanks CEO, Brian Linscott , commented: “Being added to the Russell Microcap index, just a few months after returning to a national exchange with our NASDAQ uplisting, represents the culmination of our turnaround. This achievement should expand our visibility and liquidity, exposing Harte Hanks to index-focused investors.”

Russell indexes are widely used by investment managers and institutional investors for index funds and as benchmarks for active investment strategies. Approximately $12 trillion in assets are benchmarked against Russell’s US indexes. Russell indexes are part of FTSE Russell, a leading global index provider.

For more information on the Russell Microcap® Index and the Russell indexes reconstitution, go to the “Russell Reconstitution” section on the FTSE Russell website.

About Harte
Hanks:

Harte Hanks (NASDAQ: HHS) is a leading global customer experience company whose mission is to partner with clients to provide them with CX strategy, data-driven analytics and actionable insights combined with seamless program execution to better understand, attract, and engage their customers.

Using its unparalleled resources and award-winning talent in the areas of Customer Care, Fulfillment and Logistics, and Marketing Services, Harte Hanks has a proven track record of driving results for some of the world’s premier brands including Bank of America, GlaxoSmithKline, Unilever, Pfizer, HBOMax, Volvo, Ford, FedEx, Midea, Sony, and IBM among others. Headquartered in Chelmsford, Massachusetts , Harte Hanks has over 2,500 employees in offices across the Americas, Europe and Asia Pacific .

For more information visit 
hartehanks.com

About FTSE Russell:

FTSE Russell is a global index leader that provides innovative benchmarking, analytics and data solutions for investors worldwide. FTSE Russell calculates thousands of indexes that measure and benchmark markets and asset classes in more than 70 countries, covering 98% of the investable market globally.

FTSE Russell index expertise and products are used extensively by institutional and retail investors globally. Approximately $20 trillion is currently benchmarked to FTSE Russell indexes. For over 30 years, leading asset owners, asset managers, ETF providers and investment banks have chosen FTSE Russell indexes to benchmark their investment performance and create ETFs, structured products and index-based derivatives.

A core set of universal principles guides FTSE Russell index design and management: a transparent rules-based methodology is informed by independent committees of leading market participants. FTSE Russell is focused on applying the highest industry standards in index design and governance and embraces the IOSCO Principles. FTSE Russell is also focused on index innovation and customer partnerships as it seeks to enhance the breadth, depth and reach of its offering.

FTSE Russell is wholly owned by London Stock Exchange Group.

For more information, visit www.ftserussell.com .

As used herein, “Harte Hanks” or “the Company” refers to Harte Hanks, Inc. and/or its applicable operating subsidiaries, as the context may require. Harte Hanks’ logo and name are trademarks of Harte Hanks.

Cautionary Note
Regarding Forward-Looking Statements:

Our press release and related earnings conference call contain “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of U.S. federal securities laws. All such statements are qualified by this cautionary note, provided pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.  Statements other than historical facts are forward-looking and may be identified by words such as “may,” “will,” “expects,” “believes,” “anticipates,” “plans,” “estimates,” “seeks,” “could,” “intends,” or words of similar meaning. These forward-looking statements are based on current information, expectations and estimates and involve risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other factors that are difficult to predict and that could cause actual results to vary materially from what is expressed in or indicated by the forward-looking statements. In that event, our business, financial condition, results of operations or liquidity could be materially adversely affected and investors in our securities could lose part or all of their investments. These risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other factors include: (a) local, national and international economic and business conditions, including (i) the outbreak of diseases, such as the COVID-19 coronavirus, which has curtailed travel to and from certain countries and geographic regions, created supply chain disruption and shortages, disrupted business operations and reduced consumer spending, (ii) market conditions that may adversely impact marketing expenditures, (iii) the impact of the Russia / Ukraine conflict on the global economy and our business, including impacts from related sanctions and export controls and (iv) the impact of economic environments and competitive pressures on the financial condition, marketing expenditures and activities of our clients and prospects; (b) the demand for our products and services by clients and prospective clients, including (i) the willingness of existing clients to maintain or increase their spending on products and services that are or remain profitable for us, and (ii) our ability to predict changes in client needs and preferences; (c) economic and other business factors that impact the industry verticals we serve, including competition and consolidation of current and prospective clients, vendors and partners in these verticals; (d) our ability to manage and timely adjust our facilities, capacity, workforce and cost structure to effectively serve our clients; (e) our ability to improve our processes and to provide new products and services in a timely and cost-effective manner though development, license, partnership or acquisition; (f) our ability to protect our facilities against security breaches and other interruptions and to protect sensitive personal information of our clients and their customers; (g) our ability to respond to increasing concern, regulation and legal action over consumer privacy issues, including changing requirements for collection, processing and use of information; (h) the impact of privacy and other regulations, including restrictions on unsolicited marketing communications and other consumer protection laws; (i) fluctuations in fuel prices, paper prices, postal rates and postal delivery schedules; (j) the number of shares, if any, that we may repurchase in connection with our repurchase program; (k) unanticipated developments regarding litigation or other contingent liabilities; (l) our ability to complete anticipated divestitures and reorganizations, including cost-saving initiatives; (m) our ability to realize the expected tax refunds; and (n) other factors discussed from time to time in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including under “Item 1A. Risk Factors” in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2021 which was filed on March 21, 2022. The forward-looking statements in this press release and our related earnings conference call are made only as of the date hereof, and we undertake no obligation to update publicly any forward-looking statement, even if new information becomes available or other events occur in the future.

Investor Relations
Contact:

Rob Fink
FNK IR
HHS@fnkir.com
646-809-4048

SOURCE Harte Hanks, Inc.

SEC Pokes Fun at Investors, Draws Controversy

Posted on by Admin 

Source: U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (YouTube)


SEC’s Controversial Game Show Themed Education Campaign

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is accustomed to upsetting issuers and investors alike. The Commission, of course, exists to benefit both with its stated mission: Protect investors and maintain fair orderly, and efficient markets. Does this include making fun of investors or even what some view as shaming? Some self-directed investors are lashing back.

The office of Investor Education and Advocacy has unveiled a game show-themed campaign to help investors make informed investment decisions and avoid fraud. The campaign has been met by market watchers and self-directed investors at all levels, criticizing the SEC’s approach and insensitivity.

The campaign titled Investomania features a 30-second TV spot and 15-second informational videos on crypto assets, margin calls, guaranteed returns, and interactive quizzes. Its stated intent is to reach existing, new, and future investors of all ages. Believing that, at times, investing may look and feel like a game, the creators of the campaign chose a game show theme. The videos are to remind investors to do their research when making investment decisions.


Source: U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (YouTube)

The campaign encourages investors to know what they are investing in, and get information from trustworthy sources to understand the risks before investing. This is age-old advice. The campaign also reminds investors to take advantage of the free financial planning tools and information on Investor.gov, the SEC’s resource for investor education.

It would seem from reactions on Twitter that the video campaign is viewed as derogatory. This is reflected in tweets from accounts like @ApesTogetherStrongDoc, which tweeted a nine post string which began: “Memestocks”
is a term we, along with so many of us, are guilty of using. It’s fun, calls
attention to the subversive side of all of this, but as we’ve seen with the
@SECGov’s video today, the term has entered the collective lexicon as a catcall…”


Image: Second of 9 in string of tweets by @ApesTogetherDoc

And it isn’t just the r/wallstreetbets, Stocktwits, and Reddit investment communities that are crying foul. A former Branch Chief of the SEC expressed her disappointment and even challenged the SEC chairman to clean up and educate investors in areas where she feels the Commission is lacking.


Image: Tweets by @LisaBraganca

From the SEC’s standpoint, taken from a press release dated June 2, Chair Gary Gensler is quoted as saying, “With the growing access to markets, it’s as important as ever for investors to take time to educate themselves. I encourage investors to go to Investor.gov for accurate and unbiased investment information.” In the same release, Lori Schock, Director of the SEC’s Office of Investor Education and Advocacy said about the campaign, “We continue to look for creative and memorable ways to reach and educate investors, and we hope this year’s public service campaign, with its lighthearted approach, will attract the attention of all kinds of investors.”

 

More On the SEC’s Videos

The campaign has been made available on YouTube. In one 30-second “TV” spot a game show host asks two contestants to pick a square on a video game board with investment options including internet rumors, celebrity endorsements, stock tips from your uncle, crypto to the moon, FOMO, meme stocks, tulip bulbs, guaranteed returns, and timing the market. The video is intended to show investors the consequences of their investment decisions and to help investors understand the importance of protecting themselves when making investment decisions. After the contestants make their choice, the video pokes fun at the contestant’s choice if it doesn’t involve solid due diligence.

The 15-second videos contain three categories. In the video covering cryptocurrency speculation, a celebrity encourages investors to take their advice and buy crypto-assets. The video is intended to remind investors not to be tempted by celebrity endorsements, and instead do their own independent research. There is another video related to investing on margin; its intent seems to be to tell investors that borrowing money to invest can be very risky. Another video is titled Easy Money.  This video reminds investors that there are no guaranteed financial returns on investments and that every investment, no matter how good it may sound, has a risk.

Take-Away

A well-intentioned education campaign by the SEC seems to have turned off a large population it had intended to help. While prudence, research, and understanding of risk are basic tenets of investing, the approach used in this campaign may be less than effective.

Let us know what you think by visiting this article posted on our Twitter account (@channelchek) and tweeting your thoughts, while there, please follow us to stay in touch.

Paul Hoffman

Managing Editor, Channelchek

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Sources

https://www.sec.gov/news/press-release/2022-95

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3TwZOMm6Wc

https://www.investor.gov/additional-resources/spotlight/investomania

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Release – Defense Metals Commences 2022 Wicheeda Rare Earth Element Deposit Pit Slope Geotechnical, Resource Delineation And Exploration Diamond Drill Program

Posted on by Admin



Defense Metals Commences 2022 Wicheeda Rare Earth Element Deposit Pit Slope Geotechnical, Resource Delineation And Exploration Diamond Drill Program

News, and Market Data on Defense Metals

VANCOUVER, BC, June 7, 2022 /CNW/ – Defense Metals Corp. (“Defense Metals” or the “Company“) (TSXV: DEFN) (OTCQB: DFMTF) (FSE: 35D) is pleased to announce the commencement of diamond drilling at its Wicheeda Rare Earth Element (REE) deposit. The Company plans to complete up to 5,000 metres of diamond drilling designed to further delineate existing resources, assess near deposit exploration targets, collect geotechnical and hydrogeological drilling for the purpose of optimization of open pit slope design, and generate additional REE mineralized material for continued metallurgical testwork.

The 2022 Wicheeda REE diamond drill campaign is expected to include up to 1,500 metres of pit geotechnical and hydrogeological drilling, 1,500 metres of further resource delineation and near resource exploration drilling, and up to 2,000 metres of 8.5 cm diameter PQ core for continued metallurgical testing (Figure 1).

The 2022 drill program has commenced from existing drill pads prepared during 2021 in the northern area of the Wicheeda REE Deposit that returned some of the highest grade x width intercepts of the 2021 drilling (Figure 2). Drill holes WI21-33 and WI21-40 yielded 3.79%
TREO over 150 metres; including 4.77% TREO over 60 metres1 that extends 80 metres beyond the current mineral resource and 40 metres beyond the constraining pit shell. This higher-grade interval includes 
12 metres averaging 8.06% TREO1 from 84 to 96 metres downhole, which contained the highest single (3 metre) combined neodymium-praseodymium (Nd-Pr) oxide assay value to date on the Wicheeda Project of 1.41% Nd-Pr Oxide at 10% TREO2.

North area drilling will be followed by near resource exploration drilling immediately west of the Wicheeda Deposit targeting combined REE in soil geochemical and radiometric anomalies in the vicinity of historical 2009 exploration holes that revealed visual indication of potential REE mineralization when recently reviewed by the Defense Metals technical team.

As previously announced the Company has retained SRK Consulting (Canada) Inc. (“SRK“) to assist with planning and executing geotechnical drilling investigations (see
the Defense Metals News Release dated May 24, 2022). Senior SRK engineering personnel are expected to conduct a two-day field site visit to Wicheeda to conduct bedrock and structural mapping, view drill core, and establish geotechnical data collection protocols, testing, and instrumentation installation procedures.

Luisa Moreno, President, and Director of Defense Metals commented: “Defense Meal
is excited to once again get back to drilling at Wicheeda. Given the success of
last years 5,349 metre diamond drill program, we look forward to continuing to
define the Wicheeda Deposit, in particular the high grade north area, testing
near resource exploration targets, and commencing our pre-feasibility level
geotechnical studies. As announced last week, metallurgical optimizations
continue at pace at the SGS Lakefield site, and we look forward to releasing
results of that testwork as information becomes available.”

_______________________

1

The true width of REE mineralization is estimated to be 70-100% of the drilled interval.

2

See Defense Metals news release dated March 15, 2022.

Figure 1. Wicheeda REE Deposit Cross Section and 2021 Drilling Results (CNW Group/Defense Metals Corp.)

Figure 2. Wicheeda REE Deposit North Area Cross Section (CNW Group/Defense Metals Corp.)

About the Wicheeda REE
Property

The 100% owned 2,008-hectare Wicheeda REE Property, located approximately 80 km northeast of the city of Prince George, British Columbia, is readily accessible by all-weather gravel roads and is near infrastructure, including power transmission lines, the CN railway, and major highways.

The Wicheeda REE Project yielded a robust 2021 PEA that demonstrated an after-tax net present value (NPV@8%) of $517 million, and 18% IRR3. A unique advantage of the Wicheeda REE Project is the production of a saleable high-grade flotation-concentrate. The PEA contemplates a 1.8 Mtpa (million tonnes per year) mill throughput open pit mining operation with 1.75:1 (waste:mill feed) strip ratio over a 19 year mine (project) life producing and average of 25,423 tonnes REO annually. A Phase 1 initial pit strip ratio of 0.63:1 (waste:mill feed) would yield rapid access to higher grade surface mineralization in year 1 and payback of $440 million initial capital within 5 years.

_______________________

3

Independent Preliminary Economic Assessment for the Wicheeda Rare Earth Element Project, British Columbia, Canada, dated January 6, 2022, with an effective date of November 7, 2021, and prepared by SRK Consulting (Canada) Inc. is filed under Defense Metals Corp.’s Issuer Profile on SEDAR (www.sedar.com).

Qualified Person

The scientific and technical information contained in this news release as it relates to the Wicheeda REE Project has been reviewed and approved by Kristopher J. Raffle, P.Geo. (BC) Principal and Consultant of APEX Geoscience Ltd. of Edmonton, AB, a director of Defense Metals and a “Qualified Person” as defined in NI 43-101. Mr. Raffle verified the data disclosed which includes a review of the sampling, analytical and test data underlying the information and opinions contained therein.

About Defense
Metals Corp.

Defense Metals Corp. is a mineral exploration and development company focused on the acquisition, exploration and development of mineral deposits containing metals and elements commonly used in the electric power market, defense industry, national security sector and in the production of green energy technologies, such as, rare earths magnets used in wind turbines and in permanent magnet motors for electric vehicles. Defense Metals owns 100% of the Wicheeda Rare Earth Element Property located near Prince George, British Columbia, Canada. Defense Metals Corp. trades in Canada under the symbol “DEFN” on the TSX Venture Exchange, in the United States, under “DFMTF” on the OTCQB and in Germany on the Frankfurt Exchange under “35D”.

For further
information, please contact:

Todd Hanas, Bluesky Corporate Communications Ltd. 
Vice President, Investor Relations 
Tel: (778) 994 8072
Email: 
todd@blueskycorp.ca

Neither the TSX
Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined
in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the
adequacy or accuracy of this news release.

Cautionary Statement
Regarding “Forward-Looking” Information

This news release contains “forward?looking information or statements” within the meaning of applicable securities laws, which may include, without limitation, statements relating to advancing the Wicheeda REE Project, drill results including anticipated timeline of such results/assays, the Company’s plans for its Wicheeda REE Project, expanded resource and scale of expanded resource, expected results and outcomes, completion of metallurgical optimizations and the results of that testwork, the technical, financial and business prospects of the Company, its project and other matters. All statements in this news release, other than statements of historical facts, that address events or developments that the Company expects to occur, are forward-looking statements. Although the Company believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results may differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. Such statements and information are based on numerous assumptions regarding present and future business strategies and the environment in which the Company will operate in the future, including the price of rare earth elements, the anticipated costs and expenditures, the ability to achieve its goals, that general business and economic conditions will not change in a material adverse manner, that financing will be available if and when needed and on reasonable terms. Such forward-looking information reflects the Company’s views with respect to future events and is subject to risks, uncertainties and assumptions, including the risks and uncertainties relating to the interpretation of exploration results, risks related to the inherent uncertainty of exploration and cost estimates, the potential for unexpected costs and expenses and those other risks filed under the Company’s profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. While such estimates and assumptions are considered reasonable by the management of the Company, they are inherently subject to significant business, economic, competitive and regulatory uncertainties and risks. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward looking statements include, but are not limited to, continued availability of capital and financing and general economic, market or business conditions, adverse weather and climate conditions, failure to maintain or obtain all necessary government permits, approvals and authorizations, failure to maintain community acceptance (including First Nations),  risks relating to unanticipated operational difficulties (including failure of equipment or processes to operate in accordance with specifications or expectations, cost escalation, unavailability of personnel, materials and equipment, government action or delays in the receipt of government approvals, industrial disturbances or other job action, and unanticipated events related to health, safety and environmental matters), risks relating to inaccurate geological and engineering assumptions, decrease in the price of rare earth elements, the impact of Covid-19 or other viruses and diseases on the Company’s ability to operate, an inability to predict and counteract the effects of COVID-19 on the business of the Company, including but not limited to, the effects of COVID-19 on the price of commodities, capital market conditions, restriction on labour and international travel and supply chains, loss of key employees, consultants, or directors, increase in costs, delayed drilling results, litigation, and failure of counterparties to perform their contractual obligations. The Company does not undertake to update forward?looking statements or forward?looking information, except as required by law.

 

SOURCE Defense Metals Corp.