Day: December 8, 2021

Bedford, Mass., Dec. 08, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Massachusetts-based biotech Conagen announced its participation in a collaboration supporting the ReSource program funded by a U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) grant. The project aims to leverage Conagen’s proprietary fermentation technology to convert plastics and other energy-dense waste into valuable, reusable materials.

“Humanity needs to make better use of plastic resources and close the recycling loop,” said Casey Lippmeier, Ph.D., vice president of innovation at Conagen. This cooperative agreement project will demonstrate the value of recycled material for building a sustainable infrastructure.”

Under the DOD, the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Biological Technologies Office created the ReSource Program to research and develop an integrated self-containment system. The project explores using a combination of synthetic biology and chemical technology for turning plastic waste into critical supplies.

Professor Chris A. Voigt, Ph.D., directs the project at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in collaboration with Conagen and Novoloop. The Voigt lab has expertise in microbial genetic design and engineering and has created tools and platform technologies central to the effort.

Conagen was selected as the fermentation scale-up partner for its synthetic biology expertise, purification process development capability, and world-scale manufacturing.

“While conventional fermentation has been used for centuries to make foods and beverages, precision fermentation has become the core resource for commercializing natural and sustainable synthetic biology products,” said Lippmeier.

Novoloop uses chemical technologies to decompose plastic waste into chemical building blocks, enabling the downstream fermentation to make bio-products.

“Recycling plastic waste is just the beginning,” says Lippmeier. “This DARPA-funded project primarily seeks to improve the efficient use of resources by our troops.  However, the technology for converting plastics and bio-plastics into other higher-value materials should create incentives to remove these pollutants from the environment and support humanitarian efforts with renewable sources of food, nutrition, and water.”

Now that Phase I is complete, the MIT team, including Conagen, advance to Phase II when they
hope to achieve purifying, scaling, and upcycling waste into valuable products.
About Voigt Lab, MIT
Voigt Lab is focused on the development of a programming language for cells. A genetic program consists of a combination of genetic circuits, each of which uses biochemistry to replicate a function analogous to an electronic circuit (e.g., a logic gate) and applying these tools to problems in biotechnology http://web.mit.edu/voigtlab/.

About Conagen

Conagen is a product-focused synthetic biology R&D company with large-scale manufacturing capabilities. Our scientists and engineers use the latest synthetic biology tools to develop high-quality, sustainable, nature-based products by precision fermentation and enzymatic bioconversion. We focus on the bioproduction of high-value ingredients for food, nutrition, flavors and fragrances, pharmaceutical, and renewable materials industries. www.conagen.com

About Novoloop
Novoloop was founded in 2015 to deliver next-generation materials made from plastic waste via its patented low-carbon upcycling technology ATOD™. Through its proprietary dicarboxylic acid platform, hard-to-recycle plastic waste is transformed into virgin quality materials with superior sustainability at competitive pricing. With its first product, Oistre™, Novoloop provides sustainable and customizable thermoplastic polyurethane solutions for the footwear, sporting goods, and automotive sectors.

Distribution Statement “A”
Approved for Public Release, Distribution Unlimited.  If you have any questions about DARPA, please contact the Public Release Center.

Attachment

• Conagen collaborates with MIT and DARPA on ReSource Program

Ana Arakelian
Conagen
+1.781.271.1588
ana.arakelian@conagen.com

GHENT, Belgium, Dec. 08, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — MRM Health, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing next-generation live microbiome consortia therapeutics, announced that the first patient received MH002 in a phase 1b/2a multi-center clinical trial in mild-to-moderate Ulcerative Colitis. MH002 is MRM Health’s first clinical product candidate resulting from its proprietary and unique CORAL™ platform technology.

“We are very excited about this next step in the development of MH002 in Ulcerative Colitis,” said Sam Possemiers, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer of MRM Health. “Treatment of the first patient in this study is a major achievement for our team, a milestone for the company, and an important step towards improving the lives of patients with Ulcerative Colitis (UC). We thank our Belgian and international investigators for their commitment in successfully advancing our first clinical program resulting from the CORAL™ platform.”

MRM Health’s MH002-UC-201 study is a multi-center, double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial in multiple clinical sites in Belgium, Poland and Czech Republic and will enrol 45 mild-to-moderate UC patients. The trial will evaluate safety, mechanistic effects, and initial efficacy of MH002 on disease activity. More information about the trial is available at clinicaltrialsregister.eu, with identifier 2020-004355-33.

“My medical team is very motivated to study this promising novel treatment in our patients,” said investigator Prof. Pieter Dewint, (MD, PhD), Gastroenterologist at AZ Maria Middelares, Ghent, Belgium. “The potential to offer an effective treatment to our patients that is devoid of severe or serious risks would represent a true advancement for their well-being.”

“There is an important medical need for an effective and safe new medicinal product for the treatment of mild-to-moderate UC,” said Prof. Séverine Vermeire (MD, PhD), IBD expert at the Gastroenterology Department of the University Hospitals Leuven, Belgium, and principal investigator of the trial. “MH002 has all the characteristics and potential to fill that need and may become a novel tool in the first-line treatment of UC.”

MH002 is the first product candidate resulting from MRM Heath’s CORAL™ platform, in which key disease-driving mechanisms guide therapeutic microbial strain selection, to enter clinical studies in patients. Preclinical studies in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) models showed that MH002 repairs gut microbiome dysbiosis, heals the dysfunctional intestinal barrier, and restores immune homeostasis with its differentiated mechanism targeting multiple key disease pathways. MH002 has demonstrated excellent safety and superior preclinical efficacy as compared to conventional, non-optimized microbiome therapeutics, as well as mesalamine, the current first-line standard of care in UC.

As part of the CORAL™ platform, MH002 is produced through a breakthrough scalable, robust, and standardized cGMP manufacturing technology, overcoming past microbiome challenges in manufacturing multi-strain consortia of uniform composition. CORAL™ allows the manufacturing of complete consortia as a single drug substance, expected to provide both key regulatory and patient compliance advantages.

About MRM Health

MRM Health NV, Ghent, Belgium, is a biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of next-generation optimized consortium therapeutics based on the human microbiome. The company has built a diversified pipeline with its proprietary CORAL™ platform to design, optimize, and manufacture bacterial consortia as single drug substance. Its most advanced program MH002 is an optimized consortium of 6 rationally-selected and well-characterized commensal strains. MH002 is entering a Phase 1b/2a study in patients with mild-to-moderate ulcerative colitis in Q4 2021. Additional pipeline development includes a preclinical program in Parkinson’s disease, two preclinical programs in metabolic disease (partnered with IFF Nutrition Biosciences, previously DuPont), and a discovery program in autoimmune disease, including spondyloarthritis.

About CORAL™

MRM Health’s differentiating CORAL™ platform utilizes a bioinformatics-guided in-human discovery engine combined with a breakthrough in optimization and manufacturing of consortia as single drug substance. The proprietary consortia optimization technology allows to develop next-generation consortia therapeutics with faster onset-of-action and increased potency and robustness. The breakthrough scalable, robust, and standardized cGMP-compliant consortia manufacturing technology allows to manufacture complete therapeutic consortia as a single drug substance in a single manufacturing process which strongly surpasses existing approaches in speed, reduced complexity, increased robustness and lower cost.

About IBD and UC

Ulcerative colitis (UC) is a chronic, autoimmune, inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) characterized by mucosal inflammation of the rectum and colon resulting in debilitating diarrhea, abdominal pain, and rectal bleeding. Current treatments include symptomatic anti-inflammatory therapies and immunosuppressants. In many cases, these therapies fail to induce enduring remission and/or cause potentially severe adverse events.

Substantial clinical unmet need persists in UC as many patients remain refractory to standard of care and current treatments (e.g., anti-inflammatory, immunosuppression approaches) primarily provide symptomatic relief. MH002’s disease-modifying mechanism is anticipated to induce remission via immunomodulation, rather than immunosuppression, resulting in superior safety with no elevated risks associated with reduced immune system functioning.

For further information please contact:

Dr Sam Possemiers – CEO
Christiane Verhaegen – CFO
Phone: +32.9.241.11.88
info@mrmhealth.com

End of year statistics from JOOR illustrate that online B2B shopping is the new normal; highlight the importance of small business and increasing APAC adoption

NEW YORK, Dec. 08, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — JOOR, the world’s leading digital wholesale platform, today released its end of year figures for 2021. These data points confirm the continued acceleration of digital adoption among brands and retailers, and that even with the return of in-person markets and events, electronic B2B commerce continues to play an important and ever increasing role in the fashion ecosystem.

In light of evolving supply chain uncertainty, the real-time insights delivered by the JOOR platform proved especially critical to both brands and retailers in 2021. The volume of wholesale transactions (GMV) passing through the JOOR platform increased 60% from 2020, averaging over $1.5bn per month. The number of orders placed on the platform increased 35% year over year, and the average order value (AOV) increased 59% over the prior year.

“We continue to see significant momentum in our business because we prioritize innovations that meaningfully impact the businesses of our brands and retailers,” explained Kristin Savilia, CEO of JOOR. “In 2022, we will look to build out successful offerings including a new and improved JOOR Marketplace to facilitate enhanced product discovery and our electronic payment and financing capabilities.”

Despite a spike in virtual buying and selling at the onset of the pandemic in early 2020, brand and retailer engagement on JOOR increased even further in 2021. 400,000 new connections between brands and retailers have been completed this year to date. Rich content served to enhance the connection experience, with brands uploading almost 85% more images to JOOR than they did in 2020.

Retailers were more active than ever on JOOR, particularly as it pertains to small and medium-sized businesses. As the pandemic recovery has progressed, consumers globally have increasingly chosen to shop local, as reported by Deloitte and others. JOOR’s retail accounts grew by 100,000—a 37% increase from 2020 to 2021, almost exclusively driven by boutique establishments joining the platform.

Ongoing uncertainty concerning public health combined with resolve to increase sustainability have led the industry to rethink the way it travels. Fashion weeks and market shows, once exclusively in-person, have evolved to hybrid events. Through its JOOR Passport platform, JOOR powered 36 events attracting more than 150,000 retail visitors from 150 countries. Over 2,400 brands participated in a JOOR Passport event and sold 215,000 products. All of these figures represent the upward trend from 2020 and provide clear validation for the hybrid model approach.

Following the announcement of its Shanghai office earlier this year, JOOR saw notable growth in China and Asia-Pacific. Brands based in this region of the globe accepted almost 50% more orders and sold over 80% more items in 2021 than in 2020. The Shanghai office bolstered JOOR’s footprint in the region to three offices total, including Tokyo and Melbourne. The ability to receive 24/7 customer support in local languages will allow Chinese brands and retailers to further accelerate their digital transformation in 2022.

JOOR’s complete 2021 End of Year Trend Report, highlighting 2021 data and the top industry trends that will shape wholesale in 2022, can be viewed by clicking here.

About JOOR 
JOOR is the world’s leading wholesale management platform, with over $1.5Bn in wholesale transactions processed every month. More than 13,000 brands and over 360,000 curated fashion retailers across 150 countries connect on the platform every day. With a commitment to fueling the advancement and growth of both brands and retailers, JOOR provides a digital ecosystem that combines dynamic virtual showrooms with collaborative tools including JOOR Passport, which centralizes the trade show experience across multiple global fashion events. JOOR users have greater flexibility, visibility, performance and insights into their business. JOOR is the exclusive platform for leading luxury conglomerates including LVMH, Kering and Richemont, as well as brands such as Balenciaga, Valentino and Saint Laurent. JOOR has exclusive partnerships with 30+ leading global retailers using the JOOR Retail Partner platform including: Harrod’s, Neiman Marcus, Harvey Nichols, Printemps, Bergdorf Goodman, Shopbop, 24S.com, Revolve, FWD, Liberty London and Dover Street Market. JOOR is headquartered in New York City and has offices in Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Paris, London, Milan, Madrid, Berlin, Melbourne, Tokyo and Shanghai. For more information visit: JOOR.com.

Contact: Lindsey Huttrer
joor@nectarpr.com

Investing with intent becoming as clear a priority as financial performance

LONDON and TORONTO, Dec. 08, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Leading diversified professional services and investment management company Colliers (NASDAQ and TSX: CIGI) reveals quality office assets in major metropolitan markets like London, New York, Tokyo, and Sydney have retained their allure and will be in high demand next year. Core and core-plus office spaces are the top global strategy picks, with 60% of investors stating these as their investment preference for 2022, a 50% increase from last year.

Their appeal not only stems from the realization that office demand is here to stay, particularly in cities supported by strong transport infrastructure and high amenity values, but also the ease of large-scale capital deployment that office assets represent. The rising cost of construction, viewed by 4 in 5 (81%) investors as a pain point, limiting new builds, renovations, and retrofit projects amplify the race to core. Investors expect core office values to increase by up to or more than 10% over the next 12 months due to the stark imbalance between demand and supply.

“Based on our 2022 Global Investor Outlook, pent-up demand and delayed transactions will translate into momentum next year. However, investors face an increasingly complex and competitive marketplace, coloured by new regulations and COVID-19 uncertainties. With the amount of dry powder readily available, offices in Tier 1 cities are seen as safe haven assets that offer an attractive route to deploy capital,” said Tony Horrell, Head of Global Capital Markets at Colliers.

Investing with intent

This year’s report shows ESG (environmental, social, governance) considerations are prominent, with nearly 3 in 4 investors integrating environmental factors into their strategies. This desire to invest with intent is both a means of future-proofing their assets and responding to stakeholder and societal pressures requiring them to respond to the climate crisis.

Sustainability is creating a greater chasm between newer, high-quality assets in prime space and older, second-hand stock in city submarkets. To protect their portfolios, investors are concentrating on Grade-A buildings that prioritize sustainability and wellness credentials, while disposing of aging, non-compliant assets that risk potential obsolescence if they are not regarded as retrofit opportunities to capitalize. This recalibration of assets under management will drive market turnover.

“COP26 has reinforced that the next 10 years are imperative to the future of our planet,” said Chris Pilgrim, Director of Global Capital Markets. “The pandemic, climate-related disruptions, and growing recognition of social inequality are prompting investors to adopt a more robust approach to sustainability-related risks. As the number of ESG regulatory requirements continue to soar, we expect investors will be rushing to sell potential stranded assets to avoid discounted prices later.”

Partnership key to realizing diversified portfolios

The pandemic introduced new risks and heightened others for certain real estate assets. Investors are looking for more ways to ensure their portfolios are resilient and diversified, exploring specialized assets such as data centres, life science facilities, affordable and student housing that benefit from their strong ties to demographic and societal trends.

“Joint ventures, local partnerships, and M&A strategies are great for savvy investors who want to get ahead. Alternative assets present compelling investment cases, but their unique characteristics make teaming up with the right partner essential. There is a clear need for expertise to fill knowledge gaps and safely guide capital, particularly those in nascent sectors,” said Damian Harrington, Head of Global Capital Markets Research.

Other key findings from the Colliers 2022 Global Investor Outlook include:

• Logistics: Industrial and logistics assets are the most attractive asset class overall, with 69% of investors choosing this as the preferred sector globally, due to the surging demand for e-commerce.
• Retail: Grocery-linked convenience assets are the most popular retail asset type, accounting for 60% of the retail vote globally, yet some segments of retail such as luxury high-street are making a comeback. Shopping centres are ripe for conversion to last-mile logistics or mixed-use assets, with 30-50% of investors expressing interest in opportunistic and value-add strategies.
• Multifamily/build-to-rent: Investors’ optimism about the broad range of residential opportunities connected closely to economic and demographic trends is driving higher investment volumes in all markets in 2021. Multifamily is the third most popular sector, with 42% of investors expressed an interest in in 2022.

About the Colliers 2022 Global Investor Outlook

The second edition of our annual outlook for global property investors is based on a focused survey undertaken by 300+ investors across the globe and in-depth interviews with our regional Capital Markets leaders. The findings and opinions featured in the report are shaped by their responses.

About Colliers

With operations in 65 countries, our more than 15,000 enterprising professionals work collaboratively to provide expert advice to real estate occupiers, owners, and investors. For more than 26 years, our experienced leadership with significant insider ownership has delivered compound annual investment returns of almost 20% for shareholders. With annualized revenues of $3.6 billion ($4.0 billion including affiliates) and $46 billion of assets under management, we maximize the potential of property and accelerate the success of our clients and our people. Learn more at corporate.colliers.com, Twitter @Colliers or LinkedIn.

Media Contact

Andrea Cheung
Global Manager, Communications
Andrea.cheung@colliers.com
416-324-6402

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/e04b6dab-b5ef-404f-8e65-f8fe0c7ad901

Umicore and Volkswagen AG to create European EV battery materials Joint Venture

Umicore and Volkswagen AG plan to establish a joint venture to build up precursor and cathode material production capacities in Europe to supply Volkswagen AG’s European battery cell production, making a considerable contribution to the region’s transition towards cleaner mobility.

This partnership will be the first of its kind in the European automotive market. It will help achieve the ambitions of the European Green Deal, including the establishment of a sustainable battery supply chain, and is a strong signal for the ongoing roll-out of innovative battery cell technologies and capabilities in the region.

The intention is to gradually ramp up the JV’s precursor and cathode material production capacity. This would start in 2025 with an initial annual production of 20 GWh for Volkswagen AG’s plant in Salzgitter, Germany, and should grow to an annual production capacity of up to 160 GWh by the end of the decade. This compares to an annual production capacity capable of powering about 2.2 million full electric vehicles (EVs).

At the same time, next to the intended JV, Umicore will continue to steadfastly develop its technological and production capabilities to serve other customers and regions.

“As a leader in clean mobility materials, we are committed to support our automotive and battery-cell customers with their electrification strategies. We are very pleased to partner with Volkswagen in this unique joint venture and will bring in our long-standing and proven expertise in battery materials, as well as our strong commitment and solutions to today’s sustainability challenges,” said Mathias Miedreich, CEO of Umicore. “The complementarity of our extensive technology, innovation and industrial knowhow, and shared sustainability convictions will provide a strong framework for the JV and will give us a considerable first-mover advantage.” 

Thomas Schmall, Member of the Board of Management of Volkswagen Group for Technology and CEO of Volkswagen Group Components: “Volkswagen is implementing its battery strategy very consistently and at a high pace. The Volkswagen unified cell must be at the forefront of performance, costs and sustainability right from the start. Teaming up with Umicore enables us to establish a state-of-the-art supply chain in Europe as we share common values such as responsible sourcing of raw materials, as well as closed-loop thinking.”

The partnership’s significant scale will provide secure and cost-competitive supplies of innovative, sustainably sourced and tailored high-performance cathode materials for Volkswagen AG’s ambitious unified cell strategy. It provides Umicore secured access to an important part of the European demand for EV cathode materials, which will unlock significant economies of scale and represents a major leap forward in the further roll-out of its strategy to be a global leader in clean mobility materials.

In the context of the JV, Umicore and Volkswagen AG will furthermore collaborate on the sustainable and responsible sourcing of raw materials, which is a strong area of expertise of Umicore. Both parties aim to include at a later stage, elements of refining and battery recycling into the scope of the JV.

The planned JV is subject to final agreements and customary conditions, including regulatory approvals.

Short-term earnings in battery materials hampered by lower volumes in combination with higher fixed costs related to recent and ongoing expansions

The JV’s portfolio offering will cover next-generation technologies, including a very large portion of high-nickel chemistries. The latter have become faster than anticipated the car industry’s preferred solution to enable higher energy density and longer driving ranges and this is consequently significantly impacting demand for mid-nickel chemistries. Umicore successfully fast-tracked innovation on the next generation higher nickel product and process capabilities and now offers industry-leading high nickel cathode material technology, as also witnessed by today’s announcement.

In the short-term, Umicore is still largely exposed to mid-nickel NMC platforms. Customer demand projections for certain of these qualified mid-nickel platforms are being scaled back to their minimum offtake commitments, resulting in lower volume forecasts for 2022 and 2023, beyond the negative volume impacts from semiconductor shortages. Consequently, Umicore now expects growth in its cathode material sales volumes in 2022 and 2023 to be less than previously anticipated and to be below the anticipated global market growth. These scaled-down short-term volume expectations, together with the need to increase fixed costs to prepare for the expected steep mid-term growth, such as higher R&D expenses and costs related to the recent and ongoing expansions, are likely to result in lower-than-expected earnings growth in Rechargeable Battery Materials in 2022 and 2023. Hence, assuming that Cobalt & Specialty Materials will not repeat the exceptionally strong 2021 performance, the earnings of the Energy & Surface Technologies segment are not expected to show a significant uplift over that period.

Strong mid-term earnings growth comforted

Umicore’s innovation pipeline and strong track record in cathode material technologies, alongside with its flexible production system have allowed to act with agility to the rapidly evolving customer voice. The intention to set up this JV with Volkswagen AG contributes further strength to the Group’s competitive positioning. Its strong technology roadmap, synced with customers’ requirements, puts Umicore in a unique position to disproportionally benefit in the mid-term from the extremely high anticipated growth in EV battery materials. This will significantly boost operating leverage through economies of scale and will allow Umicore to achieve attractive margins and returns in its fast-growing battery materials activity.

Conference call and webcast

A conference call and webcast will be hosted by Mathias Miedreich, CEO, and Filip Platteeuw, CFO, Wednesday December 8 at 9:00 am CET.

More information on: https://umicore.com/dec_2021_webcast

For more information

Investor Relations

Saskia Dheedene       +32 2 227 72 21                                 saskia.dheedene@umicore.com

Eva Behaeghe           +32 2 227 70 68                                     eva.behaeghe@umicore.com

Media Relations 

Marjolein Scheers      +32 2 227 71 47                                marjolein.scheers@umicore.com

Caroline Jacobs         +32 2 227 71 47                                    caroline.jacobs@umicore.com

Umicore profile

Umicore is a global materials technology and recycling group. It focuses on application areas where its expertise in materials science, chemistry and metallurgy makes a real difference. Its activities are organised in three business groups: Catalysis, Energy & Surface Technologies and Recycling. Each business group is divided into market-focused business units offering materials and solutions that are at the cutting edge of new technological developments and essential to everyday life. Umicore generates the majority of its revenues and dedicates most of its R&D efforts to clean mobility materials and recycling.

Umicore’s overriding goal of sustainable value creation is based on an ambition to develop, produce and recycle materials in a way that fulfils its mission: materials for a better life. Umicore’s industrial and commercial operations as well as R&D activities are located across the world to best serve its global customer base.

The Group generated revenues (excluding metal) of € 2.1 billion (turnover of € 12.7 billion) in the first half of 2021 and currently employs just below 11,000 people.