Category: Culture

Ethnic cultures as newsmakers

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The FCC sends letters to nine of the largest automakers, warns  about abusive partners with connected car apps to harass and track their victims

—  The Federal Communications Commission is concerned about abusive partners using connected car apps to harass and track their victims.

 

 

Kashmir Hill / New York Times:

 

Many modern cars are internet-connected and have apps that allow an owner to see a car’s location, turn it on remotely, honk its horn and even adjust the temperature. These apps for car control and tracking are designed for convenience, but a New York Times article last month detailed how they have been weaponized in abusive relationships, allowing for unwanted stalking and harassment.

 

PHOTO: The Federal Communications Commission sent letters to nine of the largest automakers, asking for more information about their connected car apps and whether the companies had processes in place to assist abuse victims.Credit…Mike Blake/Reuters

 

Domestic violence survivors and experts said car companies had not been responsive when asked to cut off abusers’ digital access to cars. Customer service agents at the car companies were unable to help when the abuser was the owner or co-owner of the vehicle, even when the victim had a restraining order or a legal judgment awarding her sole use of the car during divorce proceedings.

 

On Thursday, the Federal Communications Commission sent letters to nine of the largest automakers, including General Motors, Toyota, Ford Motor and Tesla, asking for more information about their connected car apps and whether the companies had processes in place to assist abuse victims.

 

“No survivor of domestic violence and abuse should have to choose between giving up their car and allowing themselves to be stalked and harmed by those who can access its data and connectivity,” Jessica Rosenworcel, the F.C.C. chairwoman, said in a statement. “We must do everything we can to help survivors stay safe. We need to work with auto and wireless industry leaders to find solutions.”

Chairwoman Rosenworcel wrote in the letters that the F.C.C. was responsible for enforcing the Safe Connections Act, a relatively new law that requires phone companies to separate a victim’s phone from a family plan shared with an abuser. To the extent that cars have become “smartphones on wheels,” automakers “may be ‘covered providers’” under the act, she wrote.

 

The agency also sent letters to the three largest wireless communications providers — Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile — about the role they play in providing connectivity to cars and whether they are complying with the law.

 

Thomas Kadri, a law professor at the University of Georgia who was an adviser on the Safe Connections Act, found it surprising that the law might apply to car manufacturers. But he said he hoped the letters would cause automakers to consider how connected car apps might be used for stalking and harassment.

 

“It’s not a niche or rare issue at the scale they are operating at,” he said.

 

The F.C.C. asked for responses to the letters by the end of the month.

 

 

 

— Techmeme

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Culture Digital - AI & Apps Education Lifestyle Technology

How the Internet adapts Google’s algorithms, such as SEO tricks, its many websites now with similar designs 

—  How the Internet reshaped itself around Google’s search algorithms — and into a world where websites look the same.

—  Animations by Richard Parry

 

 

Mia Sato / The Verge:

 

 

As the 14th season of Bravo’s Real Housewives of New York City came to a close this fall, I found myself on Reddit, reading rumors about the marriage and divorce timeline of one of the show’s stars. Redditors wanted more clues about a fishy relationship history to see if they could uncover a cheating scandal.

 

Were divorce papers public record in New York? I wondered. I did a quick Google search to find out.

 

The search results page was filled with my question’s exact words, repeated across site after site — websites for law firms, posts on forums, ads for creepy lookup tools — but the answer to my actual question was harder to find. At the top of the results page on my phone, Google offered two featured snippets of information quoting different websites. The first one: “Divorce records are not public in New York due to the sensitive nature of many divorce proceedings.” The second: “Due to the state’s underlying legislation regarding family law cases, each divorce is a matter of public record.”

 

Google bolded both snippets, but it wasn’t clear to me how they squared. I clicked on both.

 

The two law firm websites were part of an ecosystem I didn’t know existed until I accidentally went looking for it. Law firms across different fields — family law, personal injury, employment lawyers — have blogs full of keyword-addled articles being churned out at a surprisingly fast clip. The goal for firms is simple: be the top result to pop up on Google when someone is looking for legal help. The searcher might just end up hiring them.

 

Many of these blog posts are written by people like E., a self-employed content writer who juggles law firm clients that want Google-friendly content. E. does not have a legal background; they’re just a competent writer who can turn in clean copy. They trawl health department records, looking for nursing homes that get citations for neglect or other infractions. Then E. writes a blog post about it for a firm, making sure to include the name of the offender and the wrongdoing — keywords for which concerned patients or families will likely be searching. (E. requested anonymity so as to not jeopardize their employment).

 

“My bosses, they all don’t want anyone else to know that they use me or that we have the specific process that we have,” E. says. Their name is nowhere to be found, but their writing is often the first thing a searcher will see. The pages were made to be found by people like me.

 

Google controls around 90 percent of the search market, by some measures, so it’s too valuable a referral source to just leave up to luck. Search engine optimization — or SEO, the practice of tweaking content and websites to get Google to boost your visibility — is everywhere, including on the page you’re reading now. And once you see it or SEO-ify your own work, like E. has, it’s impossible not to notice.

 

Google’s outsized influence on how we find things has been 25 years in the making, and the people running businesses online have tried countless methods of getting Google to surface their content. Some business owners use generative AI to make Google-optimized blog postsso they can turn around and sell tchotchkes; brick-and-mortar businesses are picking funny names like “Thai Food Near Me” to try to game Google’s local search algorithm. An entire SEO industry has sprung up, dedicated to trying to understand (or outsmart) Google Search.

 

The relentless optimizing of pages, words, paragraphs, photos, and hundreds of other variables has led to a wasteland of capital-C Content that is competing for increasingly dwindling Google Search real estate as generative AI rears its head. You’ve seen it before: the awkward subheadings and text that repeats the same phrases a dozen times, the articles that say nothing but which are sprayed with links that in turn direct you to other meaningless pages. Much of the information we find on the web — and much of what’s produced for the web in the first place — is designed to get Google’s attention.

 

We often hear about the latest engagement hacks on other platforms like Instagram, TikTok, or X, formerly known as Twitter. But Google is consequential above all of these, acting essentially as the referee of the web. Yet deep knowledge of how its systems work is largely limited to industry publications and marketing firms — as users, we don’t get an explanation of why sites suddenly look different or how Google ranks one website above another. It just happens.

 

Bit by bit, the internet has been remade in Google’s image. And it’s humans — not machines — who have to deal with the consequences.

 

1. Site performance and accessibility

There’s an inherent contradiction in what Google promises is the best way to succeed on Search. Publicly, Google representatives like search liaison Danny Sullivan give a simple, almost quaint answer to business owners who want help: you just need to make great content for people, not Google’s robots.

 

At the same time, Google’s “SEO Starter Guide” is nearly 9,000 words long with dozens of links to additional material. There are several SEO industry publications, plus an untold number of scrappy blogs, marketing firms, and self-proclaimed SEO gurus promising to demystify Google’s black box algorithm. Small business owners must either learn how to do SEO or hire someone — even multiple people or special firms — to do it for them. It’s expensive, time consuming, and often confusing work, and failure to learn the ropes could mean trouble if your traffic begins to tank unexpectedly. Google executives like Sullivan often respond to the folk wisdom of the SEO industry with a six-word incantation meant to absolve them of the industry’s worst practices: that’s not what the guidelines say. It can feel like the guidelines are there to protect Google’s reputation, not actually help anyone get search traffic.

 

Optimizing pages for Google isn’t inherently a bad thing. Google uses its influence over the web to push for objectively good results, like fast-loading sites and accessibility features like alt text on images, which can help audiences understand what’s on a page if an image doesn’t load or if readers use assistive technology like screen readers. Google’s Core Web Vitals metric pushes down sites with certain kinds of intrusive ads or which have slow-loading ads that cause content on the page to shift around.

“[Google’s changes] did sort of homogenize the design of the internet.”

 

Perhaps Google’s most benevolent push has been toward a fast, mobile-first web that has forced small and large publishers alike to overhaul their publishing platforms. But even that effort has come with collateral damage — see the entire news industry reluctantly embracing Google’s AMP format — or in the case of smaller blogs, a flattening and whitewashing of web design across the board.

 

Valerie Stimac Bailey, a professional blogger of a decade, remembers in 2021 when Google began using a new metric to rank sites, called “page experience,” that emphasized giving readers a “delightful” web to browse. Passing Google’s Core Web Vitals tests became all the more important — Google would look at load times, interactivity, and whether visual elements would move around unexpectedly.

 

Bloggers like Stimac Bailey, along with an untold number of other site operators and web companies, saw the writing on the wall: Google might not like your old site, with its giant logos and custom fonts, or the ads that cause text to jump around. Companies like Mediavine, a popular ad-management company, released web design frameworks optimized for this new Google metric and Stimac Bailey, like many others, switched and redesigned her site. But she found the new theme “sterile,” she tells me, and it lacked customization options. It didn’t feel like part of her brand.

 

“I get that that probably was the impetus for a lot of people with really old, slow themes that were not handling mobile well to move to something that was faster for the world of the mobile-first indexing and internet,” Stimac Bailey says. “That was a good impact… but simultaneously, it did sort of homogenize the design of the internet.”

 

Stimac Bailey, who in the past published up to 11 blogs at a time, has experimented with different website themes. All eight of her current sites look nearly identical — her Alaska travel blog Valerie & Valise looks the same as Site School, a blog where she shares data-heavy analyses of how her portfolio of websites is performing.

 

“People spent a lot of money, and a lot of time, and a lot of heartache and stress and psychology redesigning websites,” Stimac Bailey says.

 

Taking Google’s advice on creating good, fast, accessible websites sounds nice in theory; why not do what the search engine prefers and help your readers in the process? Creators I spoke to acknowledged that changes sometimes benefit Google and readers alike. But the line between what’s good for the search algorithm and what’s good for audiences has become blurry over time, and in some cases, the two are treated essentially as the same thing.

 

2. Page design and structure of articles

The small, behind-the-scenes changes site operators deployed over the years have made browsing the web — especially on mobile — more frictionless and enjoyable. But Google’s preferences and systems don’t just guide how sites run: Search has also influenced how information looks and how audiences experience the internet. The project of optimizing your digital existence for Google doesn’t stop at page design. The content has to conform, too.

 

Take, for example, the question-based subheadings that are rampant on pages ranging from personal finance explainers to travel tips to annual event reminders. Sections like “When should I make IRA contributions?” or “What states are getting rid of Daylight Savings time?” will cascade down a page, presumably to help a reader scan for information. But subheadings are also a piece of information Google uses to understand what a page is about and to rank it in Search. Historically, subheadings have been an easy, fast way to juice content for maximum visibility.

 

Some bloggers and outlets scrape the “People Also Ask” panel on search results pages for ideas: the Google-curated section spits out strangely worded or oddly specific questions like, “What is the healthiest vegetable 2023?” and “What two vegetables can be eaten raw?”

 

Sean Bromilow, a food writer based in Canada, has reformatted his blog posts in hopes that Google will pick up his content for placement in these fields. On a page for cucamelons, he added an FAQ section featuring questions like, “How do you eat cucamelons?” and “Are cucamelons a GMO?”

 

“I did that in direct response to Google’s [People Also Ask questions] that they introduced,” he says.

 

Some creators scrape the “People Also Ask” panel for story ideas

A Q&A format might often be the most effective way to write a story or share information — I’ve done stories in this format, too. But other times, question-based subheadings are harder to read, repeating the same phrases without adding anything substantial. Browse this article about gua sha, a massaging technique with roots in traditional Chinese medicine, and you’ll find headings including, “What is a gua sha,” “What are the benefits of a gua sha,” “How to find your gua sha,” and “How to use your gua sha.”

 

A table of contents, too, has become a common sight, appearing at the top of articles. On a post about animals to look out for in Alaska, for example, Stimac Bailey has 10 sections in the table of contents, each linking to the corresponding part of the blog post. Having a linked table of contents allows readers to skip to the part they most want to read, like if someone is strictly interested in seeing caribou.

 

But the table of contents sections also work as jump links on Google Search that appear below the headline and other metadata. Stimac Bailey gets a reasonable amount of traffic to her Pacific Coast Highway guide, not from searchers clicking the title but through people clicking on one of the jump links below. Some SEO strategists even debate whether bloggers should leave their table of contents expanded or collapsed for maximum SEO juice. Stimac Bailey keeps hers collapsed but recently heard from a person selling SEO services that your table of contents should be auto-expanded.

 

“At a certain point, I don’t care if it costs me time on site or it costs me ad views or costs me bounce rate or whatever it might be,” she says. “I like my site to look the way I want it to look, so that’s what I’m going to do.”

 

But many websites just do what they think Google wants or what’s being recommended by SEO experts, even if there’s no guarantee it will work. Google is both overbearing with manuals and withholding of clear answers. Give too much away, and everyone could game the system. In that void, creators and website operators throw things at the wall to see what sticks. And once they start designing their page for Google, it’s easy for their content to be fashioned for Google, too.

 

3. Keyword research and what content is made

For publishers handcuffed to Google Search traffic, there’s often no reason to produce content if people aren’t searching for it. So marketers, writers, and bloggers use a suite of keyword research tools to assess whether there’s enough interest to write the article or make the video in the first place. The result is that publishers end up producing a mountain of material, with Google keywords essentially acting like the assigning editor.

 

When Stimac Bailey writes for her London travel blog, for example, she strategically picks topics that the site will be able to rank highly for — keywords and topics that are too competitive get put on the backburner.

 

“[My writers and I] work on picking topics together, but we need them to be productive because not only am I [monetizing them], I’m paying people for their work, and I’m trying to pay very fairly for that work,” she says. “It’s like, ‘I gotta find these low-competition, high-volume, magic keywords.” For a popular destination like London, those magic keywords don’t really exist.

 

Catherine Cusick understands this tension well. Cusick worked in media for years — including in SEO — before creating the Self-Employed FAQin March. The subscription-driven business acts as a help guide for people who are new to self-employment or who simply have a specific question they can’t get an answer to elsewhere.

 

Most of Cusick’s answers to queries like “Do I need an accountant?” or “What are my healthcare options?” are behind a paywall, so she curates a small number of unlocked articles meant to give prospective customers a sampling of what she offers. These are what Cusick calls “SEO plays.”

 

For these articles, she is only targeting long-tail keywords — lengthier search terms that are often more specific and, as a result, have fewer people searching for them and are less competitive.

 

“The keyword search term that I am going for is, ‘How to pay yourself from a single member LLC.’ My game is entirely long-tail keywords,” she says. “I’m not even competing with ‘How to pay myself LLC.’ Like, that’s too high of a term for me, let alone something like ‘LLC.’”

 

Cusick wrestles with the disconnect between who her business is for — scared, uncertain people trying to make a living — and the SEO requirements she needs to fulfill. Time strategizing and reading technical manuals can feel like time “stolen” from making in-person connections and writing paywalled articles meant to help people through self-employment.

 

“I will need to have a different page for humans, and then another page that’s more of a directory that points humans who’ve arrived to the directory to other pages that will tell them a story,” she says. “The directory page can be structured in a way that makes search engine crawlers satisfied.” In Cusick’s view, we’re asking one piece of content to do too much: fulfill all the SEO requirements and do the careful, uninterrupted work of getting real answers to a reader.

 

I rewrote my prose over and over, but it didn’t seem to satisfy my robot grader

In an emailed statement, Google spokesperson Jennifer Kutz offered a dozen links to public documentation around search, along with generalities about keeping content “helpful” and “relevant.” All points underscored the company’s most common refrain: make content for human audiences.

 

“We’ve given longstanding guidance to create content that’s first and foremost helpful, and we work very hard to ensure that our ranking systems reward content designed for people first. Many sites perform well on Search simply by creating this helpful content, without undertaking extensive SEO efforts,” Kutz tells The Verge. “We continuously refine our ranking systems, and where we identify areas we can improve in ranking people-first content, we prioritize them. For more than a year, we’ve had focused efforts to show more content based on first-hand experience in Search, and to reduce content created solely for search engines, and this work continues.”

 

Kutz did not comment on my questions around specific strategies outlined in this piece, saying that giving granular guidance might make creators “lose sight” of the people-first guidance put forth by Google. Instead, the advice is for website operators to “ask themselves if [a tactic] would be helpful for someone visiting their site.”

 

But in order to be helpful to readers, website operators need people to visit their site in the first place. Fine-tuning content to match exact search terms is a common strategy that can entice users to click on a page that looks like it will answer their question. That doesn’t guarantee content will be better or even good — and sometimes, how users search can create an echo chamber of errors, oft-repeated misinformation, or poorly researched content.

 

One instance of errors multiplying sticks out to Bromilow, the food writer. For a while, he says that Google was returning a litany of incorrect information about Ethiopian cardamom, or korarima. Though black cardamom and korarima look similar, their flavors are not. Websites and writers — and by extension, Google results — were confusing the ingredients. At one point, Bromilow says the first picture on Google Images was of the wrong plant.

 

“If people are searching the wrong thing because that’s what they’ve been given, how do you return a result to them that explains that they’re incorrect, while also being found by them?” Bromilow says. “You don’t want to reinforce the mistake, right? It’s really weird and complicated.”

 

That Ethiopian recipes are being translated from Amharic to English also brings a host of problems: how should Bromilow spell the names of dishes? Should he use whatever spelling people are searching for the most? A post on savory pancakes sums it up, in which the Canadian Bromilow explains why he’s opted to omit the “u” in savoury: “The choice, while it breaks my maple-syrup filled heart, is obvious — savory is searched for more often, and using that spelling is more likely to [get] a recipe noticed by the all-powerful and oft-mysterious search engine algorithms.”

 

To understand what pure SEO-optimized writing looks like, I put my recent story about Google-optimized local businesses through an SEO tool called Semrush that’s reportedly used by 10 million people.

 

Among its suggestions: write a longer headline; split a six-sentence paragraph up because it’s “too long”; and replace “too complex” words like “invariably,” “notoriety,” and “modification.” Dozens of sentences were flagged as being confusing (I disagree) — and it really hated em dashes. I rewrote my prose over and over, but it didn’t seem to satisfy my robot grader. I finally chose one thought per sentence, broke up paragraphs, and replaced words with suggested keywords to get rid of the red dots signaling problems.

 

The result feels like an AI summary of my story — at any moment, a paragraph could start with “In conclusion…” or “The next thing to consider is…” The nuance, voice, and unexpected twists and turns have been snuffed out. I’m sure some people would prefer this uncomplicated, beat-by-beat version of the story, but it’s gone from being a story written by a real person to a clinical, stiff series of sentences.

 

Now imagine thousands of website operators all using this same plug-in to rewrite content. No wonder people feel like the answers are increasingly robotic and say nothing.

 

 

Read more

 

 

— Techmeme

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Jimmy Kimmel calls Aaron Rodgers a ‘Karen’ over Epstein list comments: A ‘hamster-brained man’ who is ‘too arrogant to know how ignorant he is’

Jimmy Kimmel addressed his recent feud with New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers during his first monologue of the year on Monday night, calling him “Karen Rodgers” for suggesting that Kimmel’s name would appear on sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s client list.

 

During an appearance on “The Pat McAfee Show” on Jan. 2, Rodgers said that “there’s a lot of people, including Jimmy Kimmel, really hoping that doesn’t come out.” In response, Kimmel took to X (formerly known as Twitter) to dismiss the claim and even threatened legal action, writing: “Keep it up and we will debate the facts further in court.”

 

After confirming that he has never met Epstein or been on his “plane or island or anything, ever,” Kimmel said that Rodgers was probably just trying to get back at him for previously roasting him on “Live!”

 

“Either he actually believes my name was going to be on Epstein’s list, which is insane, or the more likely scenario is he doesn’t actually believe that, he just said it because he’s mad at me for making fun of his top knot and his lies about being vaccinated,” Kimmel said. “He’s particularly upset, I think, because I made fun of the fact that he floated this wacko idea that the UFO sightings that were in the news in February were being reported to distract us from the Epstein list.”

 

After playing said clip of Kimmel poking fun at Rodgers over his conspiracy theory, the host said that it “might be time” for the athlete to “revisit that concussion protocol.”

 

“Aaron Rodgers has a very high opinion of himself. Because he had success on the football field, he believes himself to be an extraordinary being. He genuinely thinks that because God gave him the ability to throw a ball, he’s smarter than everyone else. The idea that his brain is just average is unfathomable to him,” Kimmel continued.

 

“We learned during COVID, somehow he knows more about science than scientists. A guy who went to community college, then got into Cal on a football scholarship and didn’t graduate. Someone who never spent a minute studying the human body, is an expert in the field of immunology. He put on a magic helmet, and that G made him a genius. Aaron got two As on his report card, they were both in the word ‘Aaron,’ OK? Can you imagine that this hamster-brained man thinks he knows what the government is up to because he’s a quarterback doing research on YouTube and listening to podcasts?”

 

Although Kimmel thinks Rodgers “is too arrogant to know how ignorant he is,” he said that if the footballer apologized, he would accept it.

 

“But I bet he won’t,” Kimmel said. “If he does, you know what I’ll do? I’ll accept his apology and move on, but he probably won’t do that.”

 

A representative for Rodgers did not immediately respond to Variety‘s request for comment.

 

Kimmel ended his monologue by directing some heat at former President Donald Trump.

 

“By the way, if you’re looking for someone who actually was a friend of Jeffrey Epstein, who called him a terrific guy and bragged about his affinity for younger women, I have very good news for you, Epstein hunters,” Kimmel said as a clip of Trump and Epstein chatting played. “I found one for you!”

 

Watch Kimmel’s full monologue below.

 

 

— Variety

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Organon affirms 2023 revenue and Adjusted EBITDA guidance; also provides 2024 outlook

Regular dividend to remain primary capital allocation priority

  • For full year 2023, the company expects revenue and Adjusted EBITDA margin to be within the ranges provided on Nov. 2, 2023
  • For full year 2023 the company expects free cash flow before one-time spin-related costs to be above previously provided range
  • For full year 2024, the company expects revenue to grow in the low-single-digit range on a constant currency basis, and to achieve stable to improving Adjusted EBITDA margin
  • The company’s annual dividend of $1.12 per share remains its primary capital allocation priority, followed by a balance of discretionary debt repayment and opportunistic business development

 

 

JERSEY CITY, N.J. — (BUSINESS WIRE) — Organon (NYSE: OGN) on Tuesday affirmed prior revenue and Adjusted EBITDA guidance, indicated that free cash flow before one-time spin-related costs is expected to be above the high end of the previous guidance range, and provided high-level financial objectives for 2024.

 

Kevin Ali, Organon’s Chief Executive Officer and Matthew Walsh, Organon’s Chief Financial Officer, will discuss these updates as part of a webcast presentation at the 42nd Annual J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference to be held tomorrow, Jan. 9, 2024, at 4:30 p.m. E.T./1:30 p.m. P.T.

 

Updates to 2023 Financial Guidance Previously Provided on Nov. 2, 2023

For full year 2023, the company is affirming prior revenue and Adjusted EBITDA margin guidance in the ranges of $6.15 billion to $6.25 billion and 30.5% to 31.5%, respectively. Full year 2023 free cash flow before one-time spin-related costs is expected to be above the high end of the previously provided range of $700 million to $800 million.

 

The information presented above reflects the company’s preliminary estimates subject to the completion of the company’s financial closing procedures and any adjustments that may result from the completion of the quarterly and annual review of the company’s consolidated financial statements. Organon will report its full year 2023 results and more fulsome 2024 outlook on Feb. 15, 2024.

 

Preliminary Full Year 2024 Outlook

For full year 2024, Organon expects constant currency revenue growth in the low-single-digit range and stable to improving Adjusted EBITDA margin, which it expects to achieve, in part, through operating expense management.

 

Capital Allocation

The company’s annual dividend of $1.12 per share remains its primary capital allocation priority. Organon has generated, and expects to continue to generate, more than ample cash flow to service its dividend. The company expects to continue to use its remaining free cash flow to achieve its additional capital allocation objectives, which include discretionary debt repayment and the acquisition of assets that enhance Organon’s growth profile.

 

Webcast Information

Investors, analysts, members of the media and the general public are invited to listen to a live audio webcast of the company’s presentation at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare conference on Jan. 9th at: https://jpmorgan.metameetings.net/events/healthcare24/sessions/49500-organon/webcast?gpu_only=true&kiosk=true.

 

About Organon

Organon is a global healthcare company formed to focus on improving the health of women throughout their lives. Organon offers more than 60 medicines and products in women’s health in addition to a growing biosimilars business and a large franchise of established medicines across a range of therapeutic areas. Organon’s existing products produce strong cash flows that support investments in innovation and future growth opportunities in women’s health and biosimilars. In addition, Organon is pursuing opportunities to collaborate with biopharmaceutical innovators looking to commercialize their products by leveraging its scale and presence in fast growing international markets.

 

Organon has a global footprint with significant scale and geographic reach, world-class commercial capabilities, and approximately 10,000 employees with headquarters located in Jersey City, New Jersey.

 

For more information, visit http://www.organon.com and connect with us on LinkedIn, Instagram, X (formerly known as Twitter) and Facebook.

 

Cautionary Note Regarding Non-GAAP Financial Measures

This press release contains “non-GAAP financial measures,” which are financial measures that either exclude or include amounts that are correspondingly not excluded or included in the most directly comparable measures calculated and presented in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles “(GAAP).” Specifically, the company makes use of the non-GAAP financial measures Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA margin, and free cash flow before one-time spin-related costs which are not recognized terms under GAAP and are presented only as a supplement to the company’s GAAP financial statements. This press release also provides certain measures that exclude the impact of foreign exchange. We calculate foreign exchange by converting our current-period local currency financial results using the prior period average currency rates and comparing these adjusted amounts to our current-period results. The company believes that these non-GAAP financial measures help to enhance an understanding of the company’s financial performance. However, the presentation of these measures has limitations as an analytical tool and should not be considered in isolation, or as a substitute for the company’s results as reported under GAAP. Because not all companies use identical calculations, the presentations of these non-GAAP measures may not be comparable to other similarly titled measures of other companies.

 

The company uses non-GAAP financial measures in its operational and financial decision making and believes that it is useful to exclude certain items in order to focus on what it regards to be a more meaningful representation of the underlying operating performance of the business.

 

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

Except for historical information, this press release includes “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the safe harbor provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including, but not limited to, statements about management’s expectations about Organon’s future financial performance and prospects, including preliminary full-year 2023 financial results, full-year 2024 guidance, and future cash flows and capital requirements, as well as statements concerning Organon’s capital allocation and expense management plans, future dividend payments, , and ability to acquire assets that enhance Organon’s growth profile. Forward-looking statements may be identified by words such as “believes,” “expects,” “will,” “would,” “potentially,” “foresees,” “intends,” “anticipates,” “plans,” “seeks,” “estimates,” “preliminary” or words of similar meaning. These statements are based upon the current beliefs and expectations of the company’s management and are subject to significant risks and uncertainties. If underlying assumptions prove inaccurate or risks or uncertainties materialize, actual results may differ materially from those set forth in the forward-looking statements.

 

Risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, an inability to fully execute on our product development and commercialization plans within the United States or internationally; an inability to adapt to the industry-wide trend toward highly discounted channels; changes in tax laws or other tax guidance which could adversely affect our cash tax liability, effective tax rates, and results of operations and lead to greater audit scrutiny; an inability to execute on our business development strategy or realize the benefits of our planned acquisitions; efficacy, safety, or other quality concerns with respect to marketed products, including market actions such as recalls, withdrawals, or declining sales; political and social pressures, or regulatory developments, that adversely impact demand for, availability of, or patient access to contraception or fertility products; general economic factors, including recessionary pressures, interest rate and currency exchange rate fluctuations; general industry conditions and competition; the impact of pharmaceutical industry regulation and health care legislation in the United States and internationally; global trends toward health care cost containment; technological advances; new products and patents attained by competitors; challenges inherent in new product development, including obtaining regulatory approval; the company’s ability to accurately predict its future financial results and performance; developments that result in changes to Organon’s capital allocation priorities; manufacturing difficulties or delays; financial instability of international economies and sovereign risk; difficulties developing and sustaining relationships with commercial counterparties; dependence on the effectiveness of the company’s patents and other protections for innovative products; and the exposure to litigation, including patent litigation, and/or regulatory actions.

 

The company undertakes no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Additional factors that could cause results to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements can be found in the company’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”), including the company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended Dec. 31, 2022 and subsequent SEC filings, available at the SEC’s Internet site (www.sec.gov).

 

Cautionary Note Regarding Preliminary Financial Information

The 2023 full year results set forth in this press release are still preliminary estimates and subject to Organon’s detailed quarter and year-end close procedures. Organon’s consolidated financial statements as of, and for the three and twelve months ended Dec. 31, 2023, are not yet available. Accordingly, the information presented in this press release reflects the company’s preliminary estimates subject to the completion of the company’s financial closing procedures and any adjustments that may result from the completion of the quarterly and annual review of the company’s consolidated financial statements. As a result, these preliminary estimates may differ from the actual results that will be reflected in the company’s consolidated financial statements for 2023 when they are completed and publicly disclosed. These preliminary estimates may change, and those changes may be material. The company’s expectations with respect to its unaudited results for the period discussed above are based on management estimates. The company’s independent registered public accounting firm has not audited, reviewed or performed any procedures with respect to these preliminary estimates and, accordingly, does not express an opinion or any other form of assurance about them.

Contacts

Media Contacts:

Felicia Bisaro

(646) 703-1807

Kate Vossen

(732) 675-8448

Investor Contacts:

Jennifer Halchak

(201) 275-2711

Alex Arzeno

(203) 550-3972

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Business Culture Entertainment News International & World Lifestyle Perspectives

Sao Paulo industry driver Spcine builds ties with Africa for film production

With the exception of Nigeria’s Nollywood, which produces an average of 2,500 films a year, Africa’s “potential as a film powerhouse remains largely untapped” despite great strides in production, according to a Unesco report.

 

PHOTO – AFRIFF, Africa International Film Festival (Courtesy of Spcine)

 

Brazil’s Spcine, the city of São Paulo’s film-TV body, is hoping to change the status quo. Since it launched the country’s first international film incentive policy in 2019, Spcine has played a vital role in fostering the Brazilian audiovisual industry worldwide. In 2020, it spearheaded a strategy to strengthen ties with the African continent, particularly in markets with the strongest growth potential, led by Nigeria and South Africa.

 

The move makes sense, given that Brazil is home to the largest black population outside of Africa and the third-largest in the world, with over 79 million Afro-descendants.

 

In 2022, Spcine participated in key audiovisual events in Africa, particularly the Pan-African Film and Television Festival (FESPACO) in Burkina Faso and in Nigeria where it took part in targeted meetings and visits, seeking to close business deals and strategic partnerships with distribution and production studios, training institutes, film schools and festival heads.

 

More recently, Spcine sent a delegation to the Durban FilmMart in South Africa, held between July 20 and 30, 2023, which highlights the foundations of the African film industry.

 

It was here that Spcine formalized its commitment, signing a co-production pact with South Africa that entails an investment of $20,000 per project (est. 95,000 Reales), which will cover comprehensive support for four projects, two led by South African producers and the other two from São Paulo-based producers.

 

The call for projects is expected to be posted by the first semester of 2024, said Spcine president, Viviane Ferreira, who highlighted the Audiovisual Professional Meetings: São Paulo – South Africa which assembled creatives and execs from the São Paulo and the South African industries online so they could pitch their projects to each other. “It was four days of meetings with a matchmaking session, and we made a catalogue with everyone who was interested in collaborating with São Paulo and vice versa,” she said.

 

According to Spcine, several key factors drive further cooperation between Brazil and Africa:

 

  1. Nigeria is the only other country that boasts a black population exceeding that of Brazil. This connection, rooted in the African diaspora, offers fertile ground for collaborative ventures and cultural exchanges.
  2. The film and audiovisual industry in Africa wield considerable influence, contributing an estimated $5 billion to the GDP and supporting approximately 5 million jobs, as per Unesco estimates. The future holds promise, with the potential to generate 20 million jobs and contribute $20 billion to the collective GDP of the continent.
  3. Numerous media outlets indicate that by the end of this century, an anticipated 442 million Portuguese speakers will inhabit the world. Presently, Brazil leads with 215.8 million speakers, but projections suggest that the growth of Lusophony will be spearheaded by nations such as Angola and Mozambique. The anticipated population surge in these countries hints at Africa potentially emerging as the premier Lusophone consumer market for audiovisual content, surpassing even Brazil.
  4. Forecasts for Nigeria point towards its ascent as a global powerhouse by 2100, propelled by the expansion of its working-age population. This demographic surge is anticipated to fuel rapid economic growth, advancing the country from the 23rd position in the 2017 world GDP ranking to the 9th position. This transformation, both economically and demographically, reveals strategic opportunities for collaborative ventures and investments in the audiovisual sector between Brazil and Nigeria.

 

In further initiatives, as a direct outcome of Spcine’s visit to Lagos in March 2023, a São Paulo – Nigeria 2023 Meeting backed by Brazilian Content and organized in partnership with The Production Collective of Nigeria has furthered business partnerships between between Brazil and Nigeria. Discussed at a virtual meeting were co-productions, licensing of original content, and provision of production services.

 

Spcine also attended African International Film Festival (AFRIFF) over Nov. 5-10.

 

It took part in two panels – International Cinematic Collaboration Opportunities with Nigerian Filmmakers, and Spcine in Conversations with Nollywood – and backed a networking event and Brazil x Nigeria Speed Dating Sessions, where Nigerian producers presented projects.

 

 

PHOTO – Hollywood Brazilian Film Festival Courtesy of Spcine

 

 

 

— Variety

Categories
Business Culture Digital - AI & Apps International & World Lifestyle Regulations & Security Technology

 Apple appeals EU’s DMA designation of App Stores as a single service, iOS interoperability, and iMessage NIICS designation 

Foo Yun Chee / Reuters:

 

 

—  Apple (AAPL.O) has challenged EU tech rules designating its five App Stores as a single core platform service subject to onerous obligations, saying that EU regulators have misinterpreted and misapplied the new legislation that took effect last May.

 

The company also disputed the characterisation of its operating system iOS as an important gateway for business users to reach end users and the interoperability obligation that goes with that label.

 

(PHOTO: Apple logo is seen on the Apple store at The Marche Saint Germain in Paris, France July 15, 2020. REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes/File Photo Acquire Licensing Rights)

 

The iPhone maker challenged the Digital Markets Act (DMA) in November last year but did not provide details.

The European Commission made “material factual errors, in concluding that the applicant’s five App Stores are a single core platform service,” Apple said in its plea to the Luxembourg-based General Court, Europe’s second-highest.

The company in its argument to the EU competition enforcer said it operates five App Stores on iPhones, iPads, Mac computers, Apple TVs and Apple Watches, with each designed to distribute apps for a specific operating system and Apple device.

DMA requirements that would affect Apple include allowing third parties to inter-operate with its own services and letting business users promote their offers and conclude contracts with their customers outside its platform.

Apple’s lawsuit also took issue with the Commission’s designation of its messaging service iMessage as a number-independent interpersonal communications service (NIICS) that prompted an EU investigation into whether it should comply with DMA rules.

The company contends that iMessage is not a NIICS as it is not a fee-based service and it does not monetise it via the sale of hardware devices nor via the processing of personal data.

 

Reporting by Foo Yun Chee; Editing by Andrew Heavens

— Techmeme

Categories
Culture Digital - AI & Apps Entertainment News Lifestyle

Streaming Hot: Here’s how to watch every ‘Real Housewives’ city and series online

From the shocking season of ‘Real Housewives of Salt Lake City’ to the glamour of Beverly Hills, here’s how to stream the Bravo reality show online

 

 

Every Bravo-holic has their “Real Housewives” city of choice, but the most loyal devotees don’t play favorites. Lukas Gage from “The White Lotus” said in a recent interview that they’re “all beautiful in different ways” after being asked which series is his favorite.

 

According to Gage, New Jersey is “unhinged;” New York is “classy;” Beverly Beverly Hills is the “O.G.”

 

“Real Housewives” fans also know that different cities will usher in high levels of drama every year. Salt Lake City, for example, has quickly delivered some of the most entertainment value in its four short seasons of existence. The 90-minute episode that sees Jen Shah go on the run as the police show up to arrest her might have been one of the best episodes of TV all year (the former reality star has now been sentenced to 6.5 years in prison for fraud). Now, the season four finale has left viewers stunned and desperate to know more.

 

You can watch now watch “The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City” finale (and binge all four seasons) on Peacock. The NBCUniversal streaming site lets you catch up on the Bravo drama and watch “Housewives” live on TV or replay episodes of the reality show on-demand from just $5.99 a month.

 

You can also watch Bravo and the “Housewives” shows live on TV without cable through DirecTV Stream. The streaming service has a 5-day free trialthat you can use to stream the show online free.

 

Right now, four out of the eight “Real Housewives” series are currently on air: Salt Lake City, Miami, Beverly Hills and Potomac. “Vanderpump Rules” and Peacock’s “The Real Housewives Ultimate Girls Trip,” the only show featuring Housewives from multiple series, are also set to release new episodes.

 

While all of the new episodes are broadcast on Bravo, cable-cutters can access the new episodes as they come out on live TV streaming services such as Fubo TV, DirecTV Stream, Sling TV and Hulu + Live TV. Hulu and Peacock‘s expansive libraries even have cancelled series such as D.C and and Dallas, while Peacock exclusively rebooted “The Real Housewives of Miami” when it was cancelled in 2011 after three seasons.

 

Below, check out all the best ways to stream every “Real Housewives” city online, include free trial offers to take advantage of to watch the “Real Housewives” online for free.

 

Access more than 85 top channels, including Bravo, with Hulu’s Live TV plan, which costs $69.99/month. In addition to live sports, news and cable networks, you can also access the streamer’s entire ad-supported Hulu streaming library, which also includes previous seasons of “Real Housewives” favorites such as New Jersey, Potomac and Beverly Hills. Plus, Hulu + Live TV is now also bundled with Disney+ and ESPN+, saving you nearly $15/month from subscribing to each service individually.

 

 

 

— Variety

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Art & Life Culture International & World Lifestyle

Mammootty, Mohanlal, Gippy Grewal, Tovino Thomas lead India’s Yoodlee Films’ 2024 slate

India’s Yoodlee Films has unveiled a star-studded 2024 release slate across languages. Malayalam-language cinema superstar Mammootty, who had a phenomenal 2023 with critical and commercial hits “Kannur Squad” and “Kaathal – The Core,” headlines “Bazooka.”

 

Directed by debutant Deeno Dennis, the film is a game thriller, a category not often explored in Indian cinema. The cast also includes actor-directors Gautham Vasudev Menon and V.K. Prakash, Siddharth Bharathan and Shine Tom Chacko. The Malayalam-language film is scheduled for release in early 2024.

 

Mohanlal, Malayalam-language cinema’s other superstar, leads action-drama-fantasy “Malaikottai Vaaliban.” Written by P.S. Rafeeque, the film is directed by acclaimed filmmaker Lijo Jose Pellissery, whose credits include “Jallikattu,” “Amen,” “Nanpakal Nerathu Mayakkam” and “Churuli.” The Malayalam-language film is due to release on Thursday, Jan. 25, ahead of the Jan. 26 Republic Day holiday, ensuring a long box office weekend.

 

Punjabi-language cinema superstar Gippy Grewal headlines “Warning 2,” the second part of what is planned as an action franchise, directed by Amar Hundal. The cast also includes Prince Kanwaljit Singh, Jasmin Bhasin, Rahul Dev and Raghveer Boli in major roles. Produced by Yoodlee Films and Humble Motion Pictures, the Punjabi-language film is scheduled for a Feb. 2 release.

 

Produced by Yoodlee Films and Theatre of Dreams, Malayalam-language investigative thriller “Anweshippin Kandethum” features Tovino Thomas in the lead portraying a cop. The film is from debutant director Darwin Kuriakose and written by Jinu Abraham. The cast also includes seasoned Malayalam cinema actors Siddique, Indrans, Jaffer Idukki, Harisree Ashokan and Alencier. The film is due Feb. 9.

 

Another Punjabi-language sequel, comedy-drama “Ni Main Sass Kutni 2,” written and directed by Mohit Banwait, depicts the complex relationship between a mother-in-law and daughter-in-law as well as the clash of values within joint families. The cast of 2022’s “Ni Main Sass Kutni,” including Anita Devgan, Gurpreet Ghuggi, Karamjit Anmol, Tanvi Nagi, Mehtab Virk, Nirmal Rishi, Harby Sangha, Nisha Bano and Akshita Sharma, return for the sequel. The film is due to release on March 1.

 

Set up in 2017, Yoodlee Films is the film division of Saregama India, India’s oldest music label. It has produced more than 30 titles so far. Its first film, Devashish Makhija’s “Ajji,” played at the Busan, Rotterdam and Gothenburg festivals.

 

 

 

— Variety (EXCLUSIVE) 

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Culture Government International & World News Now! Politics Regulations & Security Technology

Critics and tech firms worry UK’s Investigatory Powers Bill,  surveillance law undermines user privacy

—  Despite the protestations of industry and campaigners, ministers are whisking a new bill through parliament.

 

 

Laurie Clarke / Politico:

 

 

LONDON — The U.K. already has some of the most far-reaching surveillance laws in the democratic world. Now it’s rushing to beef them up even further — and tech firms are spooked.

 

Britain’s government wants to build on its landmark Investigatory Powers Act, a controversial piece of legislation dubbed the “snooper’s charter” by critics when introduced back in 2016.

 

PHOTO: The new legislation is triggering fresh alarm among both industry execs and privacy campaigners | Scott Barbour/Getty Images

 

That law — introduced in the wake of whistleblower Edward Snowden’s revelations of mass state surveillance — attempted to introduce more accountability into the U.K. intelligence agencies’ sprawling snooping regime by formalizing wide-ranging powers to intercept emails, texts, web history and more.

 

Now new legislation is triggering a fresh outcry among both industry execs and privacy campaigners — who say it could hobble efforts to protect user privacy.

 

Industry body TechUK has written to Home Secretary James Cleverly airing its complaints. The group’s letter warns that the Investigatory Powers (Amendment) Bill threatens technological innovation; undermines the sovereignty of other nations; and could unleash dire consequences if it sets off a domino effect overseas.

 

Tech companies are most concerned by a change that would allow the Home Office to issue notices preventing them from making technical updates that might impede information-sharing with U.K. intelligence agencies.

 

TechUK argues that, combined with pre-existing powers, the changes would “grant a de facto power to indefinitely veto companies from making changes to their products and services offered in the U.K.”

 

“Using this power, the government could prevent the implementation of new end-to-end encryption, or stop developers from patching vulnerabilities in code that the government or their partners would like to exploit,” Meredith Whittaker, president of secure messaging app Signal, told POLITICO when the bill was first unveiled.

 

The Home Office, Britain’s interior ministry, remains adamant it’s a technical and procedural set of tweaks. Home Office Minister Andrew Sharpe said at the bill’s committee stage in the House of Lords that the law was “not going to … ban end-to-end encryption or introduce a veto power for the secretary of state … contrary to what some are incorrectly speculating.”

 

“We have always been clear that we support technological innovation and private and secure communications technologies, including end-to-end encryption,” a government spokesperson said. “But this cannot come at a cost to public safety, and it is critical that decisions are taken by those with democratic accountability.”

 

Encryption threat

Despite the protestations of industry and campaigners, the British government is whisking the bill through parliament at breakneck speed — risking the ire of lawmakers.

 

Ministers have so far blocked efforts to refine the bill in the House of Lords, the U.K.’s upper chamber. But there are more opportunities to contest the legislation coming and industry is already making appeals to MPs in the hopes of paring it back in the House of Commons.

 

PHOTO: Some companies including Apple have threatened to pull their services from the UK if asked to undermine encryption under Britain’s laws | Feline Lim/Getty Images

 

“We stress the critical need for adequate time to thoroughly discuss these changes, highlighting that rigorous scrutiny is essential given the international precedent they will set and their very serious impacts,” the TechUK letter states.

 

The backdrop to the row is the fraught debate on encryption that unfolded during the passage of the earlier Online Safety Act, which companies and campaigners argued could compel companies to break encryption in the name of online safety.

 

The bill ultimately said that the government can call for the implementation of this technology when it’s “technically feasible” and simultaneously preserves privacy.

 

Apple, WhatsApp and Signal have threatened to pull their services from the U.K. if asked to undermine encryption under U.K. laws.

 

Since the Online Safety Act passed in November, Meta announced that it had begun its rollout of end-to-end encryption on its Messenger service.

 

In response, Cleverly issued a statement saying he was “disappointed” that the company had gone ahead with the move despite repeated government warnings that it would make identifying child abusers on the platform more difficult.

 

Critics see a pincer movement. “Taken together, it appears that the Online Safety Bill’s Clause 122 is intended to undermine existing encryption, while the updates to the IPA are intended to block further rollouts of encryption,” said Whittaker.

Beyond encryption

In addition to the notice regime, rights campaigners are worried that the bill allows for the more permissive use of bulk data where there are “low or no” expectations of privacy, for wide-ranging purposes including training AI models.

 

Lib Dem peer Christopher Fox argued in the House of Lords that this “creates an essentially new and essentially undefined category of information” which marks “a departure from existing privacy law,” notably the Data Protection Act.

 

Director of campaign group Big Brother Watch, Silkie Carlo, also has issues with the newly invented category. With CCTV footage or social media posts for example, people may not have an expectation of privacy, “[but] that’s not the point, the point is that that data taken together and processed in a certain way, can be incredibly intrusive.”

 

Big Brother Watch is also concerned about how the bill deals with internet connection records — i.e. web logs for individuals for the last 12 months. These can currently be obtained by agencies when specific criteria is known, like the person of interest’s identity. Changes to the bill would broaden this for the purpose of “target discovery,” which Big Brother Watch characterizes as “generalized surveillance.”

 

Members of the House of Lords are also worried about the bill’s proposal to expand the number of people who can sanction spying on parliamentarians themselves. Right now, this requires the PM’s sign-off, but under the bill, the PM would be able to designate deputies for when he is not “available.” The change was inspired by the period in which former PM Boris Johnson was incapacitated with COVID-19.

 

PHOTO: The bill will return to the House of Lords on January 23, before heading to the House of Commons to be debated by MPs | Tolga Akmen/AFP via Getty Images

“The purpose of this bill is to give the intelligence agencies a bit of extra agility at the margins, where the existing Rolls Royce regime is proving a bit clunky and bureaucratic,” argues David Anderson, crossbench peer and author of a review that served as a blueprint for the bill. “If you start throwing in too many safeguards, you will negate that purpose, and you will not solve the problem that bill is addressing.”

 

Anderson proposed the changes relating to spying on MPs and peers are necessary “if the prime minister has got COVID, or if they’re in a foreign country where they have no access to secure communications.”

 

This could even apply in cases where there’s a conflict of interest because spies want to snoop on the PM’s relatives or the PM himself, he added.

 

Amendments proposed by peers at the committee stage were uniformly rejected by the government.

 

The bill will return to the House of Lords for the next stage of the legislative process on January 23, before heading to the House of Commons to be debated by MPs.

 

“Our overarching concern is that the significance of the proposed changes to the notices regime are presented by the Home Office as minor adjustments and as such are being downplayed,” reads the TechUK letter.

 

“What we’re seeing across these different bills is a continual edging further towards … turning private tech companies into arms of a surveillance state,” says Carlo.

 

 

 

— Techmeme

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Culture Digital - AI & Apps Education Healthcare Lifestyle Local News Science

Rocket Pharmaceuticals to present at 42nd Annual J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference

CRANBURY, N.J. — (BUSINESS WIRE) — Rocket Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: RCKT), a fully integrated, late-stage biotechnology company advancing a sustainable pipeline of genetic therapies for rare disorders with high unmet need, on Wednesday announced that Gaurav Shah, M.D., Chief Executive Officer, is scheduled to present at the 42nd Annual J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference on Monday, Jan. 8, 2024, at 3:45 p.m. PT.

 

A webcast of the presentation will be available under “Events” in the Investors section of the Company’s website at https://ir.rocketpharma.com/.

 

About Rocket Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Rocket Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: RCKT) is a fully integrated, late-stage biotechnology company advancing a sustainable pipeline of investigational genetic therapies designed to correct the root cause of complex and rare disorders. Rocket’s innovative multi-platform approach allows us to design the optimal gene therapy for each indication, creating potentially transformative options that enable people living with devastating rare diseases to experience long and full lives.

 

Rocket’s lentiviral (LV) vector-based gene therapies target hematologic diseases and consist of late-stage programs for Fanconi Anemia (FA), a difficult to treat genetic disease that leads to bone marrow failure and potentially cancer, Leukocyte Adhesion Deficiency-I (LAD-I), a severe pediatric genetic disorder that causes recurrent and life-threatening infections which are frequently fatal, and Pyruvate Kinase Deficiency (PKD), a monogenic red blood cell disorder resulting in increased red cell destruction and mild to life-threatening anemia.

 

Our adeno-associated virus (AAV)-based cardiovascular portfolio includes a late-stage program for Danon Disease, a devastating heart failure condition resulting in thickening of the heart, an early-stage program in clinical trials for PKP2-arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy (ACM), a life-threatening heart failure disease causing ventricular arrhythmias and sudden cardiac death, and a pre-clinical program targeting BAG3-associated dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM), a heart failure condition that causes enlarged ventricles.

 

For more information about Rocket, please visit www.rocketpharma.com and follow us on LinkedIn, YouTube and X.

 

Rocket cautionary statement regarding forward-looking statements

Various statements in this release concerning Rocket’s future expectations, plans and prospects, including without limitation, Rocket’s expectations regarding the safety and effectiveness of product candidates that Rocket is developing to treat Fanconi Anemia (FA), Leukocyte Adhesion Deficiency-I (LAD-I), Pyruvate Kinase Deficiency (PKD), Danon Disease (DD) and other diseases, the expected timing and data readouts of Rocket’s ongoing and planned clinical trials, the expected timing and outcome of Rocket’s regulatory interactions and planned submissions, Rocket’s plans for the advancement of its Danon Disease program, including its planned pivotal trial, and the safety, effectiveness and timing of related pre-clinical studies and clinical trials, may constitute forward-looking statements for the purposes of the safe harbor provisions under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and other federal securities laws and are subject to substantial risks, uncertainties and assumptions. You should not place reliance on these forward-looking statements, which often include words such as “believe,” “expect,” “anticipate,” “intend,” “plan,” “will give,” “estimate,” “seek,” “will,” “may,” “suggest” or similar terms, variations of such terms or the negative of those terms. Although Rocket believes that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, Rocket cannot guarantee such outcomes. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by these forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors, including, without limitation, Rocket’s ability to monitor the impact of COVID-19 on its business operations and take steps to ensure the safety of patients, families and employees, the interest from patients and families for participation in each of Rocket’s ongoing trials, our expectations regarding the delays and impact of COVID-19 on clinical sites, patient enrollment, trial timelines and data readouts, our expectations regarding our drug supply for our ongoing and anticipated trials, actions of regulatory agencies, which may affect the initiation, timing and progress of pre-clinical studies and clinical trials of its product candidates, Rocket’s dependence on third parties for development, manufacture, marketing, sales and distribution of product candidates, the outcome of litigation, and unexpected expenditures, as well as those risks more fully discussed in the section entitled “Risk Factors” in Rocket’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2022, filed February 28, 2023 with the SEC and subsequent filings with the SEC including our Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q. Accordingly, you should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. All such statements speak only as of the date made, and Rocket undertakes no obligation to update or revise publicly any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

Contacts

Media
Kevin Giordano

media@rocketpharma.com

Investors
Brooks Rahmer

investors@rocketpharma.com