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Science

NICE accelerates time-to-value for businesses globally with new RoboticProcess Automation offer

New commitment-free ‘try and buy’ model allows businesses to swiftly adopt or expand unattended automation

and simplify the purchasing decision process

HOBOKEN, N.J.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Organizations globally have been impacted by dynamic changes in recent months and are in critical need of efficiencies in delivering the service their customers demand at the rapid pace and excellent quality they expect. To answer this need, NICE (Nasdaq: NICE) today announced a new commercial offer, named ‘The Easiest Decision You’ll Make This Year’, providing unattended RPA robots at no cost or commitment for a two-year period, to help organizations quickly power their business with the benefits RPA offers. Its strong financial standing and innovation-driven portfolio place NICE in a unique position to bring this commercial RPA offer to market. This opportunity allows organizations to quickly adopt or expand process automations across their business to improve efficiencies, increase productivity, and drive service excellence even with a remote workforce and while keeping the cost of ownership low. Click here to learn more.

The advantages offered by RPA to the bottom line are widely accepted around the world. In today’s post-pandemic environment where organizations are struggling to address business-critical operational and service-related challenges, RPA offers a lifeline that enables organizations to overcome them. Fabrizio Biscotti, Research Vice President at Gartner confirms this in his report, “Forecast Analysis: Robotic Process Automation, Worldwide.” In a press release discussing the report, he stated “The key driver for RPA projects is their ability to improve process quality, speed and productivity, each of which is increasingly important as organizations try to meet the demands of cost reduction during COVID-19. Enterprises can quickly make headway on their digital optimization initiatives by investing in RPA software, and the trend isn’t going away anytime soon.”

The new commercial offer by NICE provides unattended robots at no charge or commitment for a period of two years. Organizations can choose to continue for a third year at a significant discount on robot pricing. By removing license costs from the equation, businesses can easily take the decision to adopt RPA now or scale automation across more areas of the business, gaining the benefits at a low total cost of ownership (TCO).

Barry Cooper, NICE Enterprise Group President, said, “This is a time when organizations are most in need of efficiency and ensuring service excellence not just because their business requires it but because their customers need it. Our strong financial position enables us to help businesses with their digital optimization initiatives and keep their operations on track during these challenging times. With this offer, organizations can power their business to provide better, faster service even as employees work remotely – without the risk or high costs.”

About NICE

NICE (Nasdaq: NICE) is the world’s leading provider of both cloud and on-premises enterprise software solutions that empower organizations to make smarter decisions based on advanced analytics of structured and unstructured data. NICE helps organizations of all sizes deliver better customer service, ensure compliance, combat fraud and safeguard citizens. Over 25,000 organizations in more than 150 countries, including over 85 of the Fortune 100 companies, are using NICE solutions. www.nice.com.

Trademark Note: NICE and the NICE logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of NICE Ltd. All other marks are trademarks of their respective owners. For a full list of NICE’s marks, please see: www.nice.com/nice-trademarks.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements as that term is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking statements, including the statements by Mr. Cooper, are based on the current beliefs, expectations and assumptions of the management of NICE Ltd. (the “Company”). In some cases, such forward-looking statements can be identified by terms such as “believe,” “expect,” “seek,” “may,” “will,” “intend,” “should,” “project,” “anticipate,” “plan,” “estimate,” or similar words. Forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause the actual results or performance of the Company to differ materially from those described herein, including but not limited to the impact of changes in economic and business conditions, including as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic; competition; successful execution of the Company’s growth strategy; success and growth of the Company’s cloud Software-as-a-Service business; changes in technology and market requirements; decline in demand for the Company’s products; inability to timely develop and introduce new technologies, products and applications; difficulties or delays in absorbing and integrating acquired operations, products, technologies and personnel; loss of market share; an inability to maintain certain marketing and distribution arrangements; the Company’s dependency on third-party cloud computing platform providers, hosting facilities and service partners;, cyber security attacks or other security breaches against the Company; the effect of newly enacted or modified laws, regulation or standards on the Company and our products and various other factors and uncertainties discussed in our filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”). For a more detailed description of the risk factors and uncertainties affecting the company, refer to the Company’s reports filed from time to time with the SEC, including the Company’s Annual Report on Form 20-F. The forward-looking statements contained in this press release are made as of the date of this press release, and the Company undertakes no obligation to update or revise them, except as required by law.

Contacts

Corporate Media Contact
Christopher Irwin-Dudek, +1 201 561 4442, ET, chris.irwin-dudek@nice.com

Investors
Marty Cohen, +1 551 256 5354, ET, ir@nice.com
Yisca Erez +972 9 775 3798, CET, ir@nice.com

Categories
Science

Asteroid size of 747 set to fly past Earth on Halloween

An asteroid known as 2018VP1 will fly past Earth just before Election Day,  said NASA.

The asteroid, nearly the size of a Boeing 747, will safely fly past Earth on Halloween at 2:24 a.m. EST, experts note.

It is not considered “potentially hazardous” due to its small size.

The massive space rock, known as 2020 UX3, is estimated to have a diameter between 88 and 196 feet, according to NASA’s Center for Near Earth Studies (CNEOS). For comparison purposes, the wingspan of a 747 is 225 feet long.

It will come within 3.2 million miles of Earth, traveling at roughly 36,000 miles per hour. Its size and its proximity to Earth make it a near-Earth object (NEO).

“Potentially hazardous” NEOs are defined as space objects that come within 0.05 astronomical units and measure more than 460 feet in diameter, according to NASA. According to a 2018 report put together by Planetary.org, there are more than 18,000 NEOs.

NASA unveiled a 20-page plan in 2018 that details the steps the U.S. should take to be better prepared for NEOs, such as asteroids and comets that come within 30 million miles of the planet.

recent survey showed that Americans prefer a space program that focuses on potential asteroid impacts over sending humans back to the moon or to Mars.

 

— FOX News

Categories
Science

Asana BioSciences to present clinical data on oral ASN007, a novel ERK1/2 inhibitor, at the 32nd EORTC-NCI-AACR Symposium

LAWRENCEVILLE, N.J.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Asana BioSciences, a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company, announced that ASN007 clinical data on safety, efficacy and pharmacokinetics in solid tumor patients will be presented at the 32nd EORTC-NCI-AACR Virtual Symposium on Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics (ENA 2020) to be held on October 24-25, 2020. Details of this invited presentation are as follows:

Title: Targeting ERK with novel inhibitor ASN007

Presenter: Filip Janku, MD, PhD. Associate Professor, Investigational Cancer Therapeutics (Phase I Clinical Trials Program), The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center

Session Title: New Drugs on the Horizon

Date and Time: Sunday, October 25, 2020 at 21:00 CET/4:00 PM US ET

About ASN007

ASN007 is an orally bioavailable, potent and selective inhibitor of ERK1/2 designed to potently inhibit the RAS/RAF/MEK/ERK (MAPK) signaling pathway. ASN007 shows potent preclinical activity in KRAS-driven models, irrespective of subtype mutation, and in BRAF mutant models, including RAF/MEK inhibitor-resistant melanoma. ASN007 has a long target residence time and shows activity in preclinical models using an intermittent dosing schedule. ASN007 has been evaluated in patients with advanced solid tumors, including BRAF- and KRAS-mutant cancers (NCT03415126). The maximum tolerated dose levels (MTD) and recommended Phase 2 dose (RP2D) has been determined. Clinical development of ASN007 is ongoing and aims to address the medical need across a range of cancer types defined by RAS/RAF/MEK driven mutations as monotherapy and in combinations.

About Asana BioSciences, LLC

Asana BioSciences is a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company based in Lawrenceville, NJ. Asana is focused on discovery and development of novel targeted investigational medicines in immunology/inflammation and oncology.

Additional oncology pipeline candidates in Asana’s portfolio include:

ASN003 is a dual-selective inhibitor of BRAF and PI3 kinases. Dual targeting of RAF and PI3K pathways has the potential to overcome and/or delay acquired resistance to selective RAF inhibitors. ASN003 is in Phase 1 development in patients with BRAFV600 mutated metastatic melanoma, metastatic colorectal and advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NCT02961283).

ASN004 is an antibody drug conjugate that targets the 5T4 oncofetal antigen, which is expressed in a wide range of malignant tumors but has very limited expression in normal tissues. ASN004 demonstrates robust and durable antitumor activity after single administration in multiple human tumor xenograft models. A First-in-Human Phase 1 trial is being planned.

Asana’s lead asset in the immunology/dermatology area is gusacitinib (ASN002), an oral potent inhibitor of the Janus Kinase (JAK) and Spleen Tyrosine Kinase (SYK). This potential best-in-class JAK/SYK inhibitor has been studied in over 400 patients with moderate-to-severe atopic dermatitis (AD) (NCT03531957) and chronic hand eczema (NCT03728504) in two separate Phase 2b studies, with good safety/tolerability and efficacy.

Asana’s second immunology/dermatology asset ASN008 is a novel, topical Na+-channel blocker with high functional selectivity for itch and pain sensing neurons without affecting motor neurons. In a Phase 1b study in atopic dermatitis patients, topical application of ASN008 showed rapid onset of pruritus relief after a single application, which lasted between 8-12 hours, and no tachyphylaxis to this response was observed after 2 weeks of daily application (NCT03798561). ASN008 also has potential for the treatment of pain, urologic and other chronic conditions.

Asana is also developing ASN009, a selective antagonist of the purinergic P2X3 ion channel that is activated by extracellular ATP and involved in various pain, urological and respiratory disease conditions. Preclinical proof-of-concept has been demonstrated with ASN009 in a cough model. ASN009 is currently in preclinical development.

www.asanabiosciences.com

Contacts

David Zammit

Asana BioSciences

997 Lenox Drive, Suite 220

Princeton Pike Corporate Center

Lawrenceville, NJ 08648

Ph: 908-698-0486

David.Zammit@asanabio.com

Categories
Science

Jupiter, Saturn spotted over legendary Bronze Age structure

A remarkable picture shows the two largest planets in the solar system, Jupiter and Saturn, in the night sky over the legendary Mitchell’s Fold stone circle.

 

— FOX News: Chris Ciaccia