Stockwinners Market Radar for July 02, 2020 - Earnings, Upgrades downgrades, option trades, Best Stock Advisory Service

19:17 EDT Churchill Downs announces reopening of Rivers Casino Des Plaines - Churchill Downs Incorporated announced the reopening of Rivers Des Plaines in Des Plaines, Illinois, the company's joint venture with Rush Street Gaming on Wednesday, July 1, 2020. Rivers will have a dedicated "Rivers Clean Team," newly installed protective plexiglass throughout the casino and has implemented new health and safety procedures established by the Illinois Gaming Board. The Rivers Clean initiative reinforces hand washing, social distancing and required face coverings for all team members and guests. Sanitization stations and social distancing markers are installed throughout the property.

18:35 EDT Conagra Brands' Wise sells 18,417 common shares - In a regulatory filing, Conagra Brands SVP and corporate controller Robert G. Wise disclosed the sale of 18,417 common shares of the company on July 2 at a price of $35.475 per share.

18:03 EDT Columbia Property, WeWork terminate lease at 149 Madison Avenue - Columbia Property Trust, Inc. (CXP) and WeWork Companies (WE) released the following joint statement: "Columbia Property Trust and WeWork today announced that they have mutually agreed to terminate WeWork's lease at Columbia's 149 Madison Avenue. This decision is part of WeWork's plan to seek profitable growth and optimize the company's real estate portfolio, while allowing Columbia to assume full control of 149 Madison Avenue, including all improvements that WeWork has completed at the property to date, and market the boutique building's 115,000 square feet of modern, high-end office space for lease. WeWork and Columbia Property Trust look forward to continuing their productive relationship at 80 M Street in Washington, D.C., and 650 California Street in San Francisco and providing a wide range of companies with first-class, flexible space solutions."

17:35 EDT Ballard Power announces $7.7M MEA order from joint venture in China - Ballard Power announced that it has received a purchase order for $7.7M of membrane electrode assemblies, or MEAs, for use in manufacturing FCvelocity-9SSL fuel cell stacks from Guangdong Synergy Ballard Hydrogen Power, a joint venture in which Ballard holds a 10% ownership interest.

17:02 EDT Anixa redirects resources to therapeutics, vaccines in high-need patients - Anixa Biosciences announced that it has strategically realigned its business focus and redirected resources to exclusively focus on the development of therapeutics and vaccines in high-need patient populations. As part of this realignment, the company has suspended development of the Cchek liquid biopsy technology. Going forward, Anixa's operations will center entirely on the development and expansion of its therapeutics and vaccine portfolio, which includes a cancer immunotherapy program being developed in partnership with the Moffitt Cancer Center, that uses chimeric endocrine receptor T-cell technology, a novel type of CAR-T. Anixa is also developing a cancer vaccine technology addressing breast cancer with a specific focus on triple negative breast cancer, the most lethal form of the disease, in partnership with the Cleveland Clinic. Anixa will continue drug discovery and development of Covid-19 therapies, in partnership with OntoChem, GmbH. In addition, Anixa will continue to examine emerging therapeutic technologies for further development. "Due to the evolving dynamics of the diagnostics market during this pandemic and projected disruptions in this industry, we see greater opportunity to benefit patients and our shareholders as a therapeutics-directed company," said Amit Kumar, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer of Anixa. "The pandemic and market forces have made it clear that we need to pivot. Our confidence in the Cchek(TM) technology remains undiminished, but we feel the prudent decision is to suspend work on diagnostics at this time."

16:57 EDT Zynga to acquire Toon Blast developer Peak for $1.85B - Zynga has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Peak, "one of the most globally successful mobile gaming companies, for $1.8B. Peak brings a 100-person strong team and two Forever Franchises, Toon Blast and Toy Blast, that have consistently ranked in the top 10 and top 20 U.S. iPhone grossing games for over two years, respectively. These franchises add significant scale to Zynga's live services and will be an additional driver of margin expansion over the coming years. Peak also enhances Zynga's new game pipeline with additional projects in early development." Founded in 2010 by Sidar Sahin, Peak has developed the beloved game franchises Toon Blast and Toy Blast. Known for their innovation, creativity and exquisite design, Toon Blast and Toy Blast popularized the 'collapse' mechanic within match-3 puzzle games, and have captured a highly engaged global audience base that ranks among the industry's best in player retention. Collectively, Toon Blast and Toy Blast have more than 12 million average mobile DAUs. Peak is expected to grow Zynga's average mobile DAUs by more than 60% while strengthening Zynga's international audience," said the company in a statement earlier. Reference Link

16:34 EDT ReTo Eco-Solutions receives noncompliance notice from Nasdaq - ReTo Eco-Solutions announced it has received a notice from Nasdaq stating that, as a result of not having timely filed its annual report on Form 20-F for the year ended December 31, 2019, ReTo is not in compliance with Nasdaq Listing Rule 5250, which requires timely filing of periodic financial reports with the SEC. The notification has no immediate effect on the listing of the company's common shares, which trade on Nasdaq. ReTo is required by Nasdaq to submit its plan to regain compliance no later than August 31. If the plan is accepted by Nasdaq, ReTo can be granted up to 180 calendar days from the Form 20-F's due date, or until December 28 to regain compliance.

16:32 EDT Regeneron/Sanofi's ph3 trial of Kevzara in COVID did not meet endpoints - Regeneron (REGN) and Sanofi (SNY) announced that the U.S. Phase 3 trial of Kevzara or sarilumab, 400 mg in COVID-19 patients requiring mechanical ventilation did not meet its primary and key secondary endpoints when Kevzara was added to best supportive care compared to best supportive care alone. Minor positive trends were observed in the primary pre-specified analysis group that did not reach statistical significance, and these were countered by negative trends in a subgroup of critical patients who were not mechanically ventilated at baseline. In the primary analysis group, adverse events were experienced by 80% of Kevzara patients and 77% of placebo patients. Serious adverse events that occurred in at least 3% of patients and more frequently among Kevzara patients were multi-organ dysfunction syndrome and hypotension. Based on the results, the U.S.-based trial has been stopped, including in a second cohort of patients who received a higher dose of Kevzara of 800 mg.

16:20 EDT ViiV Healthcare announces FDA approval of Rukobia for HIV - ViiV Healthcare, the global specialist HIV company majority owned by GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), with Pfizer (PFE) and Shionogi Limited as shareholders, announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved Rukobia 600 mg extended-release tablets. Rukobia is a novel attachment inhibitor for the treatment of HIV-1 infection indicated for use in combination with other antiretroviral therapies in heavily treatment-experienced adults with multidrug-resistant HIV-1 infection, who are failing their current ARV regimen due to resistance, intolerance or safety considerations. Reference Link

16:16 EDT miRagen regains compliance with Nasdaq listing requirements - miRagen Therapeutics announced that on July 1, 2020 it received written notice from the Nasdaq Listing Qualifications Staff of the NASDAQ Stock Market LLC stating that the company regained compliance with the applicable Nasdaq minimum bid price continued listing requirement and the matter is now closed. The company had previously been notified by Nasdaq on October 28, 2019 that it was not in compliance with the minimum bid price requirement because its common stock failed to maintain a minimum bid price of $1.00 for 30 consecutive business days. In order to regain compliance with Nasdaq Listing Rule 5450(a)(1), the company was required to maintain a minimum closing bid price of $1.00 or more for at least 10 consecutive trading days, which was achieved on June 30, 2020.

16:12 EDT Voxeljet receives cure letter from NYSE for average share price requirement - Voxeljet announced that it had received a notice letter from the NYSE that it has regained full compliance with the NYSE's minimum average share price listing requirement. Section 802.01C of the NYSE's listed company manual requires that a company's common stock trade at a minimum average closing price of $1.00 over a consecutive 30 trading-day period. The company regained compliance after its average closing American depositary share price for the consecutive 30-days of trading ending June 30 was above the minimum average price requirement. As previously disclosed in the filings with the SEC, the company currently remains out of compliance with the continued listing standard set forth in Section 802.01B, which requires that the company's average global market capitalization over a consecutive 30 trading-day period be greater than $50M and, at the same time, its shareholders' equity be greater than $50M. The NYSE accepted the company's proposed compliance plan to regain compliance with Section 802.01B and the company has until May 4, 2021 to regain compliance with this listing standard.

16:06 EDT ARK Restaurants announces cancellation of March dividend payment - Ark Restaurants announced cancellation of its March dividend payment. On March 13, the company announced that, in light of the unprecedented circumstances and rapidly changing situation with respect to the coronavirus disease, as part of an overall plan to preserve cash flow, the Board of Directors determined that it was appropriate for the company to defer payment of the dividend that was declared on March 2. Based on the information that was available at that time, the payment of such dividend was deferred until such time as the Board of Directors determined that payment may have been appropriate. However, in light of the events that have occurred since March 13 related to the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the rapid development and fluidity of this situation, such dividend was canceled by the Board of Directors on July 1 and will not be paid.

16:06 EDT Nautilus to explore options to sell Octane Fitness - Nautilus announced its plan to pursue efforts to find a potential buyer for Octane Fitness to focus solely on growing, investing, and innovating in the home fitness equipment market. "Our decision to explore the potential sale of Octane Fitness is as a result of our long-term strategic planning process and a conclusion to refocus more resources on what we do best: deliver best-in-class home fitness products and connected fitness experiences," said Jim Barr, CEO of Nautilus. The company has retained investment banker, William Blair, as its advisor for the potential transaction.

16:02 EDT RF Industries CFO Mark Turfler to step down, Peter Yin named interim CFO - RF Industries (RFIL) announced that effective July 10, Mark Turfler will be stepping down as CFO, a position he has held since January 2014. Peter Yin, RF Industries Senior Vice President, Finance & Operations, has been appointed interim CFO, effective July 11. Yin joined RF Industries in September 2014 as Corporate Controller and was promoted to Senior Vice President, Finance & Operations in November 2019. He previously worked at Sony Corporation of America (SNE) in Corporate Audit and at Grant Thornton in the Assurance practice.

15:07 EDT Tesla's Musk issues series of tweets appearing to taunt SEC, short-sellers - In a series of tweets, Tesla CEO Elon Musk stated: "Who wears short shorts? ... Tesla will make fabulous short shorts in radiant red satin with gold trim ... Will send some to the Shortseller Enrichment Commission to comfort them through these difficult times ... SEC, three letter acronym, middle word is Elon's" Reference Link

15:04 EDT Tesla issues series of tweets appearing to taunt SEC, short-sellers - In a series of tweets, Tesla CEO Elon Musk stated: "Who wears short shorts? ... Tesla will make fabulous short shorts in radiant red satin with gold trim ... Will send some to the Shortseller Enrichment Commission to comfort them through these difficult times ... SEC, three letter acronym, middle word is Elon's" Reference Link

14:44 EDT TNT's Inside the NBA, NBA on TNT to return Tuesday, July 7 - WarnerMedia's TNT will look ahead to the NBA's restart with a series of one-hour special editions of the Sports Emmy Award-winning Inside the NBA presented by Kia and new NBA on TNT Tuesday Night studio shows starting Tuesday, July 7, at 8 p.m. ET. Inside the NBA's Ernie Johnson, Charles Barkley, Kenny Smith and Shaquille O'Neal will be featured on Thursday nights, while Dwyane Wade, Candace Parker, O'Neal and Adam Lefkoe will appear on Tuesday nights. TNT's Chris Haynes will report from Orlando.

14:06 EDT Acacia announces FDA approval of Byfavo for procedural sedation - Acacia Pharma Group announces that the Food and Drug Administration has approved Byfavo for injection for the induction and maintenance of procedural sedation in adults undergoing procedures lasting 30 minutes or less. Acacia Pharma in-licensed the commercial rights to Byfavo for the U.S. from Cosmo Pharmaceuticals in January 2020. The company will now have access to an additional EUR 25M debt facility from Cosmo. Acacia Pharma will make a EUR 30M upfront payment for the license of Byfavo to Cosmo, triggered by the approval, consisting of EUR 15M in cash and EUR 15M in ordinary shares of Acacia Pharma stock. The EUR 10M of net cash that Acacia Pharma will receive will be available to help fund the U.S. launch of Byfavo.

13:34 EDT Baidu unveils 'new infrastructure' plan for the smart economy - Baidu announced that it will increase its investments in cloud computing, AI education, AI platforms, chipsets, and data centers in the coming ten years as part of its efforts to construct "new infrastructure" for the smart economy of the future. "Under the plan, Baidu aims to have 5 million intelligent cloud servers by 2030 and train 5 million AI professionals within 5 years, which will help facilitate the widespread application of AI in transportation, city management, finance, energy, health care, and manufacturing to eventually achieve industrial intelligence. "New infrastructure--which encompasses emerging technologies like AI, cloud computing, 5G, IoT, and blockchain--will be the driver for China's economic development in the coming decades," said Baidu Chief Technology Officer Haifeng Wang, underscoring the importance of the plan," said Baidu in a statement out earlier on Thursday.

13:04 EDT Baker Hughes reports U.S. rig count down 2 to 263 rigs - Baker Hughes reports that the U.S. Rig Count is down 2 rigs from last week to 263 with oil rigs down 3 to 185, gas rigs up 1 to 76, and miscellaneous rigs unchanged at 2. The U.S. Rig Count is down 700 rigs from last year's count of 963, with oil rigs down 603, gas rigs down 98, and miscellaneous rigs up 1 to 2. The U.S. Offshore Rig Count is up 1 to 12 and down 12 year-over-year. The Canada Rig Count is up 5 rigs from last week to 18, with oil rigs up 2 to 6 and gas rigs up 3 to 12. The Canada Rig Count is down 102 rigs from last year's count of 120, with oil rigs down 74 and gas rigs down 28.

13:01 EDT Walmart to convert parking lots into drive-in event spaces in early August - Walmart said that, starting in early August, it is setting up safe, socially distanced rive-in events at Walmart Supercenters across the U.S. The company did not disclose any specific dates or other details about the initiative, but said it is "coming soon." Reference Link

12:25 EDT 'NBA 2K21' will cost $69.99 on PS5, Xbox Series X - 2K (TTWO) said that its upcoming basketball sim "NBA 2K21" will be available on current-generation platforms on September 4, 2020 and is available for pre-order today; it will also be available on PlayStation 5 (SNE) and Xbox Series X (MSFT) as a launch title this holiday. This year, "NBA 2K21" will offer two editions of the game on digital and physical formats - standard and a special Mamba Forever Edition. "NBA 2K21" will be available for $59.99 on current-generation platforms; the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X version of "NBA 2K21" will be available for $69.99. NBA 2K21 Mamba Forever Edition will be available for $99.99 for both current and next-generation platforms.

12:14 EDT Nikola's Milton says Badger $5,000 deposit package 'sold out' - Trevor Milton, Executive Chairman of Nikola, tweeted: "$5,000 #nikolabadger deposit package sold out." In February, Nikola announced its entry into the electric pick-up market with its electric pickup, the Nikola Badger. The company announced that pre-orders were being accepted starting on June 29. Reference Link

12:09 EDT Nordic American Tankers CEO Hansson buys 50K shares of company stock at $4.08 - "Herbjorn Hansson has today bought 50,000 shares in NAT at $4.08 per share," said the company in a statement.

12:00 EDT American Realty Investors falls -7.3% - American Realty Investors is down -7.3%, or -76c to $9.64.

12:00 EDT BG Staffing falls -9.8% - BG Staffing is down -9.8%, or -$1.09 to $10.11.

12:00 EDT Graf Industrial rises 17.9% - Graf Industrial is up 17.9%, or $2.48 to $16.33.

11:28 EDT KKR to acquire controlling stake in J.B. Chemicals for INR745 per share - KKR announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to purchase a controlling stake in J.B. Chemicals & Pharmaceuticals, an Indian pharmaceutical company specializing in branded formulations. As part of the agreement, KKR will acquire its stake from the founding Mody family at a purchase price of INR745 per share and make an open offer for an additional 26% of the Company. Details of the open offer will be disclosed at the appropriate time. KKR will fund this investment from Asian Fund III. The transaction is subject to regulatory and other customary approvals.

10:29 EDT Alterity reached agreement with FDA on Phase 2 study design - Alterity Therapeutics announced on Monday that it has received guidance from the Food and Drug Administration in relation to the development pathway for ATH434, the company's lead compound for the treatment of multiple system atrophy, a Parkinsonian disorder. Alterity said it recently met with the FDA following the completion of its Phase 1 clinical trial last year and further data analysis. The pre-Investigational New Drug meeting was to obtain input on the clinical development plan for ATH434. Alterity reached agreement with the FDA on the non-clinical investigations required to support the Phase 2 study. In addition, the FDA "agreed to key aspects of the company's Phase 2 study design including the proposed patient population, safety monitoring plan, and strategy for evaluating drug exposure during the study," Alterity said in a statement. It added, "As there are currently no approved treatments for MSA and, therefore, no regulatory precedent regarding accepted efficacy endpoints, the FDA and Alterity will work together to develop an endpoint that is best suited for the MSA patients to be studied. The FDA has also encouraged Alterity to utilise data from a natural history study that Alterity has planned with clinical and neuroimaging experts at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in the US." Alterity is also pursuing a regulatory pathway in Europe and Australia, it added.

09:47 EDT ProShares Trust Ultra VIX Short Term Futures ETF falls -7.1% - ProShares Trust Ultra VIX Short Term Futures ETF is down -7.1%, or -$2.21 to $29.10.

09:47 EDT Culp, Inc. falls -12.1% - Culp, Inc. is down -12.1%, or -$1.21 to $8.79.

09:47 EDT Nu Skin rises 17.2% - Nu Skin is up 17.2%, or $6.63 to $45.08.

09:37 EDT Aegion lifts temporary salary reductions that were in place in Q2 - Ending global cash balances as of June 30 were more than $85M, bolstered by success in the quarter managing discretionary spending, strong cash collection performance across the business and reduced working capital requirements, enabling the repayment of more than $40M of debt in the second quarter. Net debt as of June 30 was approximately $175M and is at the lowest level in more than four years. As a result of the company's strong cash generation and increasing confidence in its ability to weather the impacts and uncertainty from the COVID-19 pandemic, the company also announced the lifting of temporary salary reductions that were in place during the second quarter of 2020. Aegion implemented a number of cash-reduction initiatives in late March as part of a plan to reduce costs, increase liquidity and improve financial flexibility in response to the COVID-19 crisis. Actions included a temporary cash wage reduction for more than 700 North American salaried employees, ranging from 15% for lower salary bands to 50% for senior leadership and 100% for the company's CEO, CFO and General Counsel. The cash savings achieved during the second quarter as a result of the salary reductions were approximately $5M. Wage reductions were lifted with a reinstatement of salaries to 100% on July 1, 2020.

09:27 EDT Neonode signs distributor agreement with HY-LINE Computer Components - Neonode is pleased to announce it has signed a distributor agreement with HY-LINE Computer Components GmbH to promote and sell Neonode's sensor products in Germany, Switzerland, Austria, the Netherlands and Belgium. Neonode and HY-LINE started discussions during 2019 and have now formalized the partnership.

09:26 EDT Ford reports Q2 U.S. truck sales down 26.6% to 237,891 - Reports Q2 U.S. SUV sales down 29.9% to 151,328. Reports Q2 U.S. car sales down 59.5% to 44,650.

09:21 EDT Graf Industrial and Velodyne to form publicly-traded Lidar Technology - Graf Industrial has entered into a definitive agreement with Velodyne Lidar and its founder David Hall, pursuant to which Graf will combine with Velodyne through a merger of a wholly-owned subsidiary of Graf with and into Velodyne, with Velodyne surviving as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Graf. Current Velodyne shareholders, including David Hall and strategic investors Ford, Baidu, Inc., Nikon Corporation and Hyundai Mobis, will retain an equity interest of more than 80% in the combined company. Upon the closing of the transaction, Graf will be renamed "Velodyne Lidar" and will remain NYSE-listed under the new ticker symbol VLDR. Graf will acquire Velodyne through a reverse merger in which Velodyne is ascribed an enterprise value of approximately $1.6B and equity value of approximately $1.8B. The transaction will be funded by issuance of approximately $1.5B in new common stock of GRAF to current holders of Velodyne securities, cash from the Graf trust account for up to $117M and cash from a $150M PIPE at $10.00 per share. Velodyne is expected to add approximately $190M of cash to its balance sheet and up to $50M of total cash consideration will be paid to existing Velodyne shareholders. Velodyne's existing shareholders will hold approximately 83% of the issued and outstanding shares of common stock immediately following the closing of the business combination. The transaction has been approved by bioh boards and is expected to close in Q3.

09:19 EDT Alkaline Water expands partnership with UNFI - The Alkaline Water Company (WTER) announces that it has expanded its partnership with United Natural Foods (UNFI). UNFI is a distributor of healthy lifestyle products, with over 40,000 retail customers. They now sell the complete line of Alkaline88 beverages and A88CBD hemp-derived topical products.

09:16 EDT Net 1's Ceevo launches payment solution in Europe - Net 1 UEPS Technologies announced that it has launched its automated onboarding payment gateway solution across Europe, offering local merchants a fast and simple plug-and-play payment solution available on www.ceevo.com to help them capitalize on growing cross-border ecommerce opportunities. Net1's Ceevo, formerly known as the International Payments Group, leverages its international reach and financial and technological expertise, to handle all the complexities of international payments including security, regulation, and a vast range of payment options so that merchants can focus on growing their businesses. Ceevo's solution is now available to all European merchants.

09:11 EDT Natuzzi regains compliance with NYSE average closing price standard - Natuzzi announced that it has regained compliance with the minimum average closing price criterion required by the New York Stock Exchange for continued listing of the company's American depositary receipts.

09:07 EDT NuGenerex announces plans to address pandemic threat from swine flu virus - NuGenerex Immuno-Oncology announced that the company is launching a vaccine development effort to address the new, emerging pandemic threat from a newly identified swine influenza virus. On June 29, 2020 scientists in China published a paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences identifying a new virus in pigs that has the capacity to infect humans. This emerging virus is similar to the 2009 swine flu virus that is estimated to have killed nearly 500,000 globally. Between April 12, 2009, and April 10, 2010, the CDC estimates that the 2009 swine flu virus caused 60.8 million illnesses, 273,304 hospitalizations and 12,469 deaths in the United States. Of particular concern is that an infection surveillance program with swine workers showed an elevated level of antibodies to the G4 EA H1 influenza virus, indicating swine to human transmission and the potential for another viral pandemic. NGIO is uniquely positioned to respond this pandemic threat as the company has successfully completed a Phase I human clinical trial with an Ii-Key peptide vaccine designed to elicit an immune response against the H1 hemagglutinin protein of the 2009 H1 swine influenza strain.

09:04 EDT Verizon Media expands DOOH footprint with Shark Experience - Verizon Media has partnered with Shark Experience presented by Verizon and Edison Interactive to expand its digital out-of-home footprint and enable advertisers to reach engaged golfers across the country. Shark Experience presented by Verizon is a premium media platform delivering connectivity and customizable content to a golfer through a DOOH screen in a golf cart. The experience was developed in partnership with Verizon Media's parent company, Verizon, Greg Norman Company and Club Car. Powered by Verizon's LTE network, the connected golf cars include HD touchscreen displays and built-in speakers with Bluetooth connectivity.

08:54 EDT Conduent granted patents designed to optimize schedules, trip planning - Conduent Transportation announced the award of patents designed to optimize schedules and trip planning for public transportation systems that aim to improve the commuting experience. Both patents cover features of the Conduent Mobility Analytics Platform. The Conduent Mobility Analytics Platform aggregates and analyzes urban travel data to better understand user habits and to improve their experience. Using advanced data modeling capabilities across transport operations such as ticketing and fleet management, the platform can optimize the timing and predictability of travel schedules. The platform will also simulate the impacts of planned modifications such as new routes or fare policies. The Conduent Mobility Analytics Platform is a tool aimed at improving travelers' experience. The two new technology patents protect Conduent's intellectual property that enable this functionality, creating "smarter public transportation systems" currently adopted by several cities in Europe. The first patent, "Goal-based Travel Reconstruction," uses a computerized system for tracking passengers who make multi-segment trips, including transfers, to reconstruct their full journeys. Presently, most transit systems only track when passengers board and not when they disembark. This technology uses boarding records and other data to reconstruct the journey and generate insights that can be used to optimize schedules across all segments of a commute. The second patent, "Efficient Optimization of Schedules in a Public Transportation System," employs methods and systems for optimizing passenger transfers from one train, bus or transit line to another. The technology evaluates current schedules and precisely quantifies and models transfer times. Using ticket validation data to construct a realistic scenario-based model of the times, this approach can dynamically adjust the current schedules to reduce the overall expected wait time.

08:50 EDT Leaf Group forms Independent Committee to engage with Investor Group - Leaf Group issued the following letter to its shareholders: "Earlier this week, a group of Leaf Group shareholders publicized a letter to the Company's Board of Directors expressing concern with Leaf's business strategy and corporate governance. The Leaf Group Board of Directors will listen to their views and work to engage in a constructive dialogue with them, as we would with any shareholder. Over the past several years, Leaf Group has been focused on executing its strategy of building digital first brands in high passion categories. We have made significant changes across the organization to strengthen our team, optimize our operations and drive much-improved financial performance...On April 15, 2019, we publicly announced the launch of a comprehensive review of all strategic alternatives available to Leaf Group, including a potential sale of the Company, divestitures of certain assets, and various financing alternatives. This review was initiated by the Board at the request of Osmium Partners LLC, with the support of Oak Management and Spectrum Equity, all participants in the Investor Group. Over the next 13 months, a Special Committee of the Board of Directors and its financial and legal advisors assessed an exhaustive range of alternatives to maximize shareholder value. Leaf Group and its advisors contacted over 160 potential acquirers regarding a possible sale of the Company or certain assets and entered into non-disclosure agreements with 45 of those parties to facilitate discussions. Additionally, Leaf Group and its advisors contacted over 48 companies to discuss financing options and engaged in negotiations with parties concerning potential asset sales. This process did not yield a single offer for the whole company, and we received just one offer for one of our assets - a wholly inadequate bid for Society6 Group, which is expected to post its best-ever performance in the second quarter of 2020 with year-over-year Gross Transaction Value growth in excess of 100%. Importantly, two members of the Investor Group-John Hawkins of Generation Partners and Brian Regan of Spectrum Equity- were on Leaf Group's Board of Directors throughout this exhaustive process, and were briefed frequently on it as it developed. Both Mr. Hawkins and Mr. Regan stepped down from the Company's Board in May and April 2020, respectively, a full year into the review process, and were fully aware at the time of their respective resignations that Leaf Group had received no offers for the whole company and just one inadequate offer for Society6 Group. The Board subsequently agreed unanimously to conclude the strategic review process and return the Company's focus to building digital first brands in high-passion categories. The press release announcing the completion and full results of the strategic review process, issued on May 20, can be viewed online here. While the Investor Group is calling for Leaf to conduct this process again, investors should know that the review was comprehensive and clearly reaffirmed that the best path forward to create value for all of Leaf Group's stakeholders is to continue executing on our current business strategy as an independent company. ..Additionally, Leaf Group separately issued a financial update that underscores the Company's strong financial position and performance, even despite uncertain macroeconomic trends. The Company's preliminary second quarter 2020 revenue grew over 35% year-over-year, which would mark the strongest quarterly year-over-year revenue growth rate since the first quarter of 2011 ..Our Board of Directors takes its fiduciary duties to act in the best interests of all of its shareholders extremely seriously, and has accordingly appointed an Independent Committee of Directors comprised of Beverly Carmichael and Deborah Benton to engage with the Investor Group on this topic. These Directors are fully independent and are not investors in, nor have any business or other relationships with any of the members of the Investor Group or our CEO Sean Moriarty. The Independent Committee has sole decision-making power with respect to this matter. The primary focus of the Leaf Group Board of Directors is to ensure the long-term success of the Company by acting in the best interest of all Leaf stakeholders. As always, we welcome shareholder input as part of our ongoing efforts to enhance shareholder value and encourage open and productive dialogues with shareholders to ensure the views and perspectives of all of our investors are evaluated accordingly."

08:45 EDT Alexion to pay more than $21M to resolve SEC FCPA charges - The Securities and Exchange Commission announced that Boston-based pharmaceutical company Alexion Pharmaceuticals has agreed to pay more than $21M to resolve charges that it violated the books and records and internal accounting controls provisions of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. According to the SEC's order, two Alexion subsidiaries made payments to foreign government officials to secure favorable treatment for Alexion's primary drug, Soliris. The order finds that, from 2010 to 2015, Alexion Turkey paid Turkish government officials to improperly influence them to approve patient prescriptions and provide other favorable regulatory treatment for Soliris. The order similarly finds that from 2011 to 2015, Alexion Russia made improper payments to Russian government health care officials to favorably influence the regulatory treatment of and the budget allocated to Soliris as well as to increase the number of approved Soliris prescriptions. Alexion's internal accounting controls failed to detect and prevent payments to foreign government officials by its subsidiaries," said Melissa Hodgman, an Associate Director in the SEC's Division of Enforcement. "Companies in frequent contact with foreign officials need to ensure that their internal controls appropriately address such risks." Without admitting or denying the SEC's findings, Alexion agreed to cease and desist from committing violations of the books and records and internal accounting controls provisions of the FCPA and pay $14.2M in disgorgement, $3.78M in prejudgment interest, and a $3.5M penalty.

08:43 EDT Aquestive CEO sees near-term value driven by CNS/epilepsy franchise - Aquestive Therapeutics (AQST) is a pharmaceutical company committed to developing and commercializing products to address unmet medical needs. In an exclusive interview with The Fly, Aquestive President and CEO Keith Kendall discussed the company and potential key value drivers: "The company has certainly been negatively impacted by a number of tangential events that are not in our control and, in some cases, not central to the key value drivers of the company. Aquestive is a fully integrated pharmaceutical company with multiple approved products, and additional pipeline candidates in development. Near-term value will be driven by the CNS/epilepsy franchise comprised of Sympazan, already launched, and Libervant, with its NDA currently pending at the FDA. Additionally, significant value has the potential to be created if we are successful in the development and launch of AQST-108 sublingual epinephrine, a potentially significant disruptive change to the historically injectable therapies currently available. Moreover, we believe that the company has significant opportunity to continue to provide innovative therapies in complex conditions beyond the programs currently in our pipeline, and we will consider augmenting our PharmFilm technology and know-how with other technologies in order to expand what we do for patients in our targeted therapeutic areas and other disease states. We expect that we will add other products to our pipeline over time, with a focus on under-treated conditions where our innovative drug delivery technology and know-how can create significant value for the patient." "Meet the Company" is The Fly's recurring series of exclusive short interviews with Executive Officers to offer a deeper look inside the company.

08:41 EDT Kitov expects cash runway to support activities into at least 2024 - CEO Isaac Israel said, "I would like to provide an update on our current pipeline and CONSENSI. On May 14, 2020, we announced that the positive results of a previously reported Phase 1 trial of CM24 were presented in a poster presentation at the American Society of Clinical Oncology 2020 Virtual Scientific Program. These Phase 1 results are encouraging and indicate that CM24 at higher doses warrants further evaluation in a larger clinical study. Importantly, pharmacokinetic modelling suggests that higher doses of CM24 of up to 20mg/kg administered every two weeks would be required for target saturation. We look forward to the anticipated initiation of our planned Phase 1/2 clinical trial to evaluate the combination of CM24 with the PD-1 inhibitor, nivolumab, to be conducted in collaboration with Bristol Myers Squibb, which we expect to initiate in the second half of this year. In order to maximize the potential of the trial to demonstrate a strong efficacy signal, we intend to include expansion cohorts that will follow the dose escalating phase: an expansion cohort in non-small cell lung cancer patients, and an additional expansion cohort in pancreatic cancer patients. This new arm of the trial in pancreatic cancer patients is designed to evaluate the CEACAM1/PD-1 combination in addition to standard of care chemotherapy. On May 22, 2020, we announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration had accepted our Investigational New Drug application to conduct a Phase 1/2 clinical trial of NT219. The study is designed to evaluate NT219 as a monotherapy treatment for advanced solid tumors and in combination with cetuximab, an epithelial growth factor receptor blocking monoclonal antibody, for the treatment of recurrent or metastatic solid tumors and head and neck cancer or colorectal adenocarcinoma. Based on the encouraging pre-clinical data generated in various studies with NT219, as both monotherapy and in combination with cetuximab, we believe this promising drug candidate has the potential to be a safe and effective therapy for multiple hard-to-treat cancers. In addition to U.S. clinical sites, and in order to mitigate a potential COVID-19 pandemic-related slowdown in patient recruitment into the study, we are also including additional clinical sites in Canada. The primary objectives of the open-label Phase 1/2 trial are to evaluate safety, assess pharmacokinetics, identify the appropriate dose to be studied in the Phase 2 portion, and establish preliminary efficacy of NT219. The Phase 1 portion of the study will encompass a dose escalation evaluation of NT219 monotherapy administered in patients with refractory advanced solid tumors. A second cohort of patients, with either recurrent or metastatic squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck or colorectal adenocarcinoma, will be dosed with NT219, dose escalated, in combination with cetuximab. Upon completion of the Phase 1 monotherapy and combination dose escalation portion of the trial, we plan to commence the expansion Phase 2 components of the study at the recommended Phase 2 dose of NT219 in combination with cetuximab. In addition, based on the data obtained in the Phase 1 monotherapy portion, we intend to pursue an expansion Phase 2 study in a yet to be defined indication for NT219 as monotherapy. The principal investigator of the Phase 1/2 study is Dr. Ezra Cohen, Chief, Division of Hematology-Oncology at the University of California San Diego, and a distinguished key opinion leader. We expect to activate up to eight sites in the U.S. and Canada over the next few months and that our first clinical site will be initiated shortly. On May 20, 2020, we announced the U.S. commercial launch of CONSENSI, a fixed-dose combination of celecoxib and amlodipine besylate, designed for the simultaneous treatment of hypertension and osteoarthritis pain. CONSENSI is being sold in the U.S. by Burke Therapeutics, the marketing partner of Kitov's U.S. distributor, Coeptis Pharmaceuticals. Burke Therapeutics' sales team is growing steadily, and is expected to soon include about 50 sales representatives, with plans to increase this number further. We believe the team is highly-motivated to introduce this once-a-day treatment for hypertension and osteoarthritis pain in the U.S. market. In addition, we believe Burke is taking the necessary actions to overcome the short-term challenges imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic and we look forward to sales beginning to ramp up in the next few months, which will result in royalty revenue to us of 20% of sales, pursuant to our marketing and distribution agreement with Coeptis. According to the agreement for CONSENSI, Kitov is eligible to receive up to $99.5M in milestone and reimbursement payments, in addition to royalties. We expect to receive aggregate milestone and royalty revenues of between $28M and $36M from 2020 through 2022. In summary, we look forward to further advancing our commercial and clinical activities by leveraging our strong cash position. Our current cash runway is expected to support our currently planned activities into at least 2024, beyond multiple anticipated clinical milestones, and we believe we are well-funded to execute our strategic plans."

08:38 EDT Kitov Pharmaceuticals CEO reports over $60M in cash by the end of Jue - Kitov Pharma provided the following letter to shareholders from its CEO Isaac Israel. The letter read, in part, "Following our recently closed $35M financing, we believe we have successfully completed our evolution to an oncology focused biotechnology company, and wanted to provide our shareholders and other stakeholders with an update on our business and strategic plans. As of the end of June 2020, we had over $60M in cash, which we believe positions us well to conduct the two clinical studies we intend to initiate this year, and provides us with the resources to expand these development programs, as appropriate, as well as potentially acquire additional promising drug candidates that we may identify to further expand our pipeline. Moreover, we continue to support our distribution partners for CONSENSI indicated for the simultaneous treatment of hypertension and osteoarthritis pain in the U.S. and the Far East. Importantly, following the recent launch of CONSENSI(R) in the U.S., this drug is expected to begin generating royalty revenue for Kitov this year. With this launch underway, our strategic focus has shifted to the development of innovative therapeutics to treat cancer patients with significant unmet medical needs. We are focused on building a pipeline of first-in-class oncology assets based on our three core values of Innovation - we have assembled a team of world-class oncology drug developers, Collaboration - we strive to establish beneficial relationships with our partners to best progress our mission, and Agility - we are focused on advancing our pipeline as expeditiously as possible. Our emerging oncology pipeline currently consists of CM24, a monoclonal antibody targeting CEACAM1, a novel immune checkpoint that supports tumor immune evasion and survival through multiple pathways, in patients with advanced cancer, and NT219, a dual inhibitor, novel small molecule targeting IRS1/2 and STAT3, important oncogenic drivers and major drug resistance pathways in many hard-to-treat cancers. In addition, with a strong balance sheet that includes no debt, we have the flexibility to enhance our growth through smart acquisitions and/or in-licensing activity that we may identify in our core focus area of oncology. We expect to identify promising drug candidates with unique differentiation that have the potential to create exciting new treatment paradigms for the benefit of cancer patients. Our core objective is to become a recognized leader in the oncology field and to make a significant impact on patients' lives. An important aspect of our strategy is to collaborate with third-parties. As a result of our recent financing activity, our current balance sheet provides us with the ability to maximize the value of the strategic opportunities that we are pursuing. We look forward to providing you with further updates on these ongoing activities as events warrant."

08:33 EDT BRP Group appoints Erin King as chief colleague officer - BRP Group announced the appointment of Erin King as chief colleague officer.. As a key member of BRP Group's executive leadership team, King will continue to build and foster a culture focused on attracting, retaining and developing top talent. She joins the firm from Publix, an employee-owned retail grocer known for its exceptional customer service, where she served as Human Resources Director. In her new role as chief colleague officer, Ms. King will oversee such vital human resources areas as learning and development, talent acquisition and management, compensation and benefits strategy, rewards and recognition, and colleague relations.

08:23 EDT Full House Resorts appoints Eric Green, Michael Shaunnessy to board - Full House Resorts announced that it has appointed Eric Green and Michael Shaunnessy to the Company's board of directors. Green currently serves as Penn Capital's chief investment officer of Equity, where he is responsible for guiding the firm's equity strategies. Most recently, Mr. Shaunnessy was President and CEO of Nevada Gold & Casinos, Inc., which he led for more than six years until its sale in 2019.

08:20 EDT ABM establishes Expert Advisory Council to support COVID-19 response - ABM announces that it has established an Expert Advisory Council, composed of external leading experts in infectious disease and industrial hygiene. This group will advise on many aspects of ABM's business, including ABM's proprietary EnhancedClean program and provide independent, third-party perspective to support ABM in the value it delivers to clients. This includes continued efforts to maintain consistent, high quality standard operating practices; offer clients the latest equipment and technologies; and equip its team members with best-in-class training and certifications. In addition to ABM's internal experts, the founding members of the advisory council include: Ruth Carrico is Professor and Director of the Global Health Initiative and Director of Epidemiologic Research for the Center of Excellence for Research in Infectious Diseases at the University of Louisville School of Medicine. Nancy McClellan is the current Chair of the University of Michigan School of Public Health External Advisory Board. She is the CEO of Occupational Health Management, PLLC industrial hygiene consultancy.

08:18 EDT LiveXLive Media partners with Pay-Per-View platform FITE - LiveXLive Media announced a cross-platform promotional deal with global sports and entertainment live streaming platform, FITE, for Pay-Per-View events on both platforms. FITE includes an array of content verticals streaming over 1000 events annually with sales in 160 countries. FITE will run marketing and promotional campaigns on its platform to help drive digital ticket sales for LiveXLive's marquee events. LiveXLive will market and promote FITE's Pay-Per-View events. Since it announced Pay-Per-View and digital touring in May, LiveXLive has sold over 17,000 PPV tickets in over 96 countries at an average price of $27. LiveXLive's PPV initiative is a new revenue-sharing model for both artists and LiveXLive via digital ticket sales, fan tipping, digital meet and greets, merchandise sales and sponsorship.

08:15 EDT H2O Innovation acquires Gulf Utility Service for $2.75M - H2O Innovation announced the acquisition of Gulf Utility Service, a company offering complete operation, maintenance and management services to water and wastewater infrastructures for different type of clients such as municipalities, municipal utility districts and public water systems in the State of Texas. The total purchase price amounts to $2.75M equivalent to 5 times GUS' EBITDA on December 31, 2019. With over 20 years of experience in the operation and maintenance sector of water and wastewater treatment systems, GUS offers its services to approximately 40 municipal and private customers, servicing more than 10,000 users. These additional clients and users are added to the Corporation's O&M customer base in Texas, totaling now 85 customers. On a combined basis, we can now count on 110 employees based in Texas to support our operations and future growth. GUS had revenues of approximately $5M in revenues and earnings of $0.6M before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization for the fiscal year ended on December 31, 2019. H2O Innovation's management expects that this acquisition will grow immediately H2O Innovation's EBITDA and will also be accretive to its earnings. The total consideration for this acquisition is U$2.75M, of which $1.875M is being paid at the closing, and the balance not exceeding $875,000 will be paid 18 months after closing subject to the achievement of certain revenue levels by GUS. The Corporation secured an additional long-term debt of C$2.1M in order to complete this acquisition. The remaining portion of the purchase price is financed from the working capital of the Corporation.

08:12 EDT Iqvia collaborates with LMC Manna Research to launch prime site in Canada - Iqvia announced its strategic alliance with LMC Manna Research to launch Iqvia's first prime site in Canada. This adds to its network of more than 980 prime and partner clinical sites globally, which are sites with special designation assuring pharmaceutical and biotech companies their clinical trials will take place in investigative research centers with professionals and with infrastructure focused on research development for patients. LMC Manna and Iqvia will collaborate on research programs with goals to optimize processes, reduce the time to start clinical research, align procedures and support an increase in clinical and real-world evidence studies in Canada.

08:10 EDT HF Foods Group appoints Russell Libby to board of directors - HF Foods Group welcomes Russell Libby to the Company's board of directors effective July 1, 2020. Pursuant to the previous 8K filing and announcement dated March 23, 2020, Libby has replaced the outgoing director, Zhehui Ni, who resigned effective June 30, 2020 due to personal and professional obligations. As a result of the change, the Company's board of directors remained composed of five directors, including three independent directors and two inside directors. From 2007 to 2019, Libby held numerous leadership positions at Sysco Corp. and most recently served as the company's executive vice president and corporate secretary.

08:09 EDT Diversified Healthcare provides segment update amid COVID-19 pandemic - The company said Diversified Healthcare Trust's (DHT) office segment, which contains medical office and life science assets, has maintained strength through the pandemic. As of June 30, DHC had granted rent deferrals equal to $2.2M in its office segment, which represents only 0.6% of DHC's annualized total revenues. During Q2, DHC had collected approximately 99% of its office segment rents that were due in April, May and June, after giving effect to rent deferrals. In light of the pandemic, DHC has worked closely with its operator, Five Star Senior Living (FVE), to ensure that early measures were taken at DHC's senior living communities, including active engagement by Five Star with its employees who are responsible for implementing protocols from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and/or local-equivalent public health authorities and other best practices measures. As a result of these measures, DHC's SHOP segment has maintained occupancies that are generally consistent with its peers and slightly better than DHC's expectations. As of March 31, April 30 and May 31, occupancy in DHC's SHOP Segment was 81.6%, 79.5% and 78.2%%, respectively. As of June 30, occupancy in DHC's SHOP Segment was 77.4%.

08:07 EDT Tesla rallies after Q2 deliveries of 90,650 top 83,071 estimate

08:06 EDT Kratos Defense receives $30M C5ISR contract awards - Kratos Defense & Security Solutions announced that it has recently received approximately $30M in contract awards for Command, Control, Computing, Communication, Combat, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Systems, focused primarily on missile defense related combat systems. Kratos is an industry leader in the rapid development, demonstration and fielding of affordable leading technology products and solutions in support of the United States and its allies' national security missions. Kratos C5ISR Modular Systems Business is an industry leader in manufacturing, producing and delivering C5ISR Systems for Missile, Radar, High Power Directed Energy, Ballistic Missile Defense, Unmanned Aerial Vehicle, Chemical, Biological, Radiation, Nuclear and High Explosive and other programs and applications. Work under these recent program awards will be performed at secure Kratos manufacturing and production facilities. The majority of the performance under these contract awards will be completed over the next 24 months. Due to customer, competitive and other considerations, no additional information will be provided related to these U.S. National Security related program awards.

08:05 EDT Centogene receives EUA for COVID-19 molecular diagnostic test - Centogene announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has issued Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for the company's SARS-CoV-2 RT-PCR test.

08:04 EDT Gentherm, ThermoAnalytics partner for human thermal comfort predictions - Gentherm and ThermoAnalytics announced the companies' joint efforts in developing advanced software to improve human thermal comfort predictions. There is an increased need and demand from consumers to provide a personalized experience when they enter a vehicle. Individual comfort varies from person to person, and the year-long partnership resulted in the development of new and improved software solutions that can accurately predict an individual's personalized comfort and wellness. The collaboration improved upon existing abilities to predict passenger comfort by modeling the human body in the cabin of the vehicle to increase the number of body parts measured. The partnership moved beyond thermal comfort predictions to include the effects of moisture on human comfort. This is the first-time software will have the ability to predict comfort and discomfort caused by sweat from the human body.

08:02 EDT Apellis completes enrollment in Phase 3 study of pegcetacoplan - Apellis Pharmaceuticals announced the completion of enrollment in the global Phase 3 PRINCE study, which is evaluating pegcetacoplan in patients with paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria who are treatment-naive, meaning they had not received a complement inhibitor within three months before entering the trial. The PRINCE study is a Phase 3, randomized, multicenter, open-label, controlled trial. The study was designed to evaluate the efficacy of pegcetacoplan in 48 adult patients who are treatment-naive, showed evidence of hemolysis and had hemoglobin levels that were less than the lower limit of normal at the time of their screening. Primary outcome measures, to be evaluated after 26 weeks of treatment, include hemoglobin stabilization in the absence of transfusion and reduction in lactate dehydrogenase level. A total of 53 patients were enrolled in the study. Based on positive results from the pivotal PEGASUS study of pegcetacoplan in PNH, the company plans to submit marketing applications for pegcetacoplan for the treatment of PNH both in the United States and the European Union in the second half of 2020.

08:00 EDT Tesla reports Q2 production of 82,000 vehicles, delivery of 90,650 vehicles - The company said, "In the second quarter, we produced over 82,000 vehicles and delivered approximately 90,650 vehicles. While our main factory in Fremont was shut down for much of the quarter, we have successfully ramped production back to prior levels.. Our net income and cash flow results will be announced along with the rest of our financial performance when we announce Q2 earnings. Our delivery count should be viewed as slightly conservative, as we only count a car as delivered if it is transferred to the customer and all paperwork is correct. Final numbers could vary by up to 0.5% or more. Tesla vehicle deliveries represent only one measure of the company's financial performance and should not be relied on as an indicator of quarterly financial results, which depend on a variety of factors, including the cost of sales, foreign exchange movements and mix of directly leased vehicles."

07:53 EDT MEI Pharma, Helsinn announce pracinostat with azacitidin study discontinued - Helsinn and MEI Pharma announced that an interim futility analysis of the ongoing Phase 3 study of pracinostat in combination with azacitidine in patients with AML who are unfit to receive standard intensive chemotherapy, undertaken by the study Independent Data Monitoring Committee, or IDMC, has demonstrated it was unlikely to meet the primary endpoint of overall survival compared to the control group. Based on the outcome of the interim analysis, the decision was made to discontinue the recruitment of patients and end the study. The decision was based on a lack of efficacy and not on safety concerns. Pending further evaluation, patients currently enrolled in other pracinostat studies will continue treatment.

07:45 EDT Aquestive CEO says AQST-108 on track, PK trials to commence this year - Aquestive Therapeutics (AQST) is a pharmaceutical company committed to developing and commercializing products to address unmet medical needs. In an exclusive interview with The Fly, Aquestive President and CEO Keith Kendall discussed the company's AQST-108: "As we committed, the company announced on June 29 that we have submitted our IND application to the FDA for AQST-108. We continue to expect to commence PK clinical trials later in 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic has not affected our anticipated timelines on this product. AQST-108 represents a 'first of its kind' oral sublingual film formulation delivering systemic epinephrine that is in development for the treatment of anaphylaxis using Aquestive's proprietary PharmFilm technologies. We are excited about AQST-108's prospects based on the early proof of concept clinical trials we ran during 2018 and 2019, and the pre-IND meeting we held with the FDA in February 2020. In that meeting, we presented all of our development information to-date, and the FDA indicated no additional clinical work was necessary prior to filing our IND. The FDA also confirmed the application will be reviewed under the 505(b)(2) regulatory pathway. Additionally, the FDA acknowledged that there appears to be an unmet medical need among patients who resist the standard of care use of subcutaneous and intramuscular injection in the treatment of anaphylaxis. We believe that AQST-108 may potentially address some of those unmet needs. We plan to announce more about the program after the IND application has been accepted by the FDA, which is expected approximately 30 to 60 days after the filing date." "Meet the Company" is The Fly's recurring series of exclusive short interviews with Executive Officers to offer a deeper look inside the company. The remainder of this interview to follow.

07:39 EDT Harpoon Therapeutics appoints Joanne Viney to board of directors - Harpoon Therapeutics announced the appointment of Joanne Viney, Ph.D., to its board of directors as an independent board member. Current board members, Luke Evnin, Ph.D, and Patrick Baeuerle, Ph.D., will be stepping down from the board. Following these changes, Harpoon's board will be composed of nine directors. Viney currently serves as President, CSO and Co-founder of Pandion Therapeutics, a privately held startup drug discovery and development company focused on developing modular biologics for regulating autoimmunity and inflammatory disease.

07:33 EDT Francesca's partners with Poq to develop mobile application - Francesca's and Poq announced its partnership to develop francesca's first mobile application. As part of the Company's effort to meet the customer wherever, whenever and however she chooses to shop, francesca's plans to launch a new iOS app this summer and a new Android app later this year, in time for Black Friday and the holiday season. Recognizing that mobile is increasingly becoming her preferred way to shop, this application will be designed to enhance the customer experience when she engages with francesca's on her smart phone. The new digital format will provide an elevated design, improved navigation and increased ease of use.

07:32 EDT Pacira concludes EXPAREL agreement with DePuy Synthes - Pacira BioSciences announced that the company has notified DePuy Synthes Sales that the agreement between the two companies to jointly market and promote the use of EXPAREL for orthopedic procedures in the United States will terminate on January 2, 2021. Under this collaboration, which began in January 2017, DePuy Synthes field representatives, specializing in joint reconstruction, spine, sports medicine, trauma and cranio-maxillofacial procedures, collaborate with the Pacira field teams to support EXPAREL use and education in orthopedic surgical settings. In addition to partnering with DePuy Synthes in support of orthopedic surgical procedures, Pacira field representatives have remained the overall EXPAREL account managers and commercial leads for soft tissue surgeons, anesthesiologists, and ambulatory surgery centers. Pacira is nearing completion of the build-out of a 20,000 square foot education and training center in Tampa, which will allow for interactive, hands-on customer training related to both infiltration technique and best practice regional approaches to improve patient care. DePuy Synthes receives commissions on sales of EXPAREL under the agreement and will continue to do so for the remainder of 2020 as the two companies work together to support EXPAREL and a smooth transition. Pacira will pay an additional early termination payment in 2021. The initial term of the agreement began on January 24, 2017 with a defined end date of December 31, 2021. The agreement provided that either company could terminate the relationship without cause after three years of the effective date of the agreement with a six-month notification.

07:25 EDT Aquestive CEO sees $50M-$100M from Parkinson's license royalties monetization - Aquestive Therapeutics (AQST) is a pharmaceutical company committed to developing and commercializing products to address unmet medical needs. In an exclusive interview with The Fly, Aquestive President and CEO Keith Kendall talked about the company's plans to advance its strategy to monetize the anticipated royalties associated with Sunovion Pharmaceuticals' apomorphine sublingual film APL-130277, which received FDA approval to treat motor fluctuations experienced by people living with Parkinson's disease. According to the executive: "As expected, Sunovion's Kynmobi product was approved by the FDA on May 21. Sunovion has announced its intention to launch the product in the U.S. in September of 2020. Sunovion licensed Aquestive Therapeutics' technology in order to develop Kynmobi. Based on the terms of our license agreement with Sunovion, we expect to receive a regular stream of royalties and license fees over the coming years from Kynmobi. These payments represent a potentially significant source of non-dilutive capital to Aquestive. We have begun the process to monetize the asset, and believe that the market is stabilizing so that we can expect to be in a position in the coming weeks to evaluate the timing and structure of a transaction that is the most advantageous to the company. Our expectation is that we will raise $50 to $100 million of gross proceeds from this monetization, subject to covenants in our debt agreements." "Meet the Company" is The Fly's recurring series of exclusive short interviews with Executive Officers to offer a deeper look inside the company. The remainder of this interview to follow.

07:09 EDT Just Energy announces amendments to debt covenants - Just Energy Group announced that it has amended its senior secured credit facility to increase the senior debt to EBITDA covenant ratio from 1.50:1 to 2.00:1 and the total debt to EBITDA covenant from 3.50:1 to 4.00:1 with respect to the fiscal quarter ending June 30, 2020. In addition, the lenders under the Company's senior unsecured term loan facility waived compliance with the senior debt to EBITDA and total debt to EBITDA covenants contained therein for the fiscal quarter ending June 30, 2020.

07:06 EDT CN to invest C$10M in Nova Scotia - CN announced that, as part of its strategic investments to support growing demand and enable supply chains, it plans to invest over C$10M across Nova Scotia in 2020. The investments will focus on the replacement of rail and ties, rebuilding road crossing surfaces as well as maintenance work on bridges, culverts, signal systems and other track infrastructure.

07:05 EDT Calithera Biosciences announces new employment inducement grants - Calithera Biosciences announced that the compensation committee of the company's board of directors granted two new employees a non-qualified stock option to purchase an aggregate of 14,500 shares of Calithera's common stock, at a per share exercise price of $5.28, the closing trading price on June 30, 2020. One-fourth of the options vest in June 2021, and the balance of the options vest in a series of thirty-six successive equal monthly installments thereafter and was granted pursuant to the Calithera Biosciences, Inc. 2018 Inducement Plan, or Inducement Plan, which was approved by Calithera's board of directors in January 2018 in accordance with Nasdaq Listing Rule 5653(c)(4). The stock options also have a ten year term and are subject to the terms and conditions of the Inducement Plan and the stock option agreement pursuant to which the options were granted. The stock options were granted as an inducement material to the new employees entering into employment with Calithera in accordance with Nasdaq Listing Rule 5635(c)(4).

07:02 EDT Quintana Energy Services regains compliance with NYSE listing standards - Quintana Energy Services was notified by the NYSE that the company has regained compliance with the NYSE's continued listing standards. The company is no longer considered below the $1.00 per share continued listing criterion and the below compliance ".BC" indicator has been removed from the company's common shares.

07:00 EDT Near-term value should be driven by CNS/epilepsy franchise, Aquestive CEO says

07:00 EDT Aquestive CEO sees 'no reason' to expect delays related to Libervant PDUFA

07:00 EDT Aquestive CEO sees $50-$100M from monetization of Parkinson's license royalties

06:51 EDT BrainStorm completes all dosing in Phase 3 pivotal trial of NurOwn in ALS - BrainStorm announced that final participant dosing has been administered in the Phase 3 pivotal trial of NurOwn in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS. BrainStorm said in a release, "The trial enrolled approximately 200 participants, randomized 1:1 to receive three doses of MSC-NTF cells or placebo, administered over four months. As previously reported, the Company expects top-line data from the trial to be available in the fourth quarter of 2020, consistent with the timeline established upon trial enrollment."

06:47 EDT Coty names Sue Nabi as CEO, effective September 1 - Coty (COTY) announced that Sue Nabi has been appointed CEO, effective September 1. Peter Harf will be elevated to the role of Executive Chairman and will work closely with Nabi to lead Coty's transformation. Nabi is the founder and CEO of the new-age luxury skincare line, Orveda. Previously, she served as Worldwide President of both L'Oreal, and Lancome, during her 20-year tenure at L'Oreal (LRLCY).

06:32 EDT Avalara appoints Kathleen Weslock as Chief Human Resources Officer - Avalara appointed human resources veteran Kathleen Weslock as its new Chief Human Resources officer. Weslock has overseen human resources for publicly and privately held companies including Cisco, Deloitte, FIS and more. Weslock comes to Avalara from Livent, a start-up lithium technology company, where she served as the chief human resources officer.

06:07 EDT VMware announces intent to acquire Datrium; terms not disclosed - VMware has announced its intent to acquire Datrium, to expand the current VMware Site Recovery disaster recovery as a service offering with Datrium's world-class cost-optimized DRaaS solution. VMware said in a blog post: "This is a significant move forward to help customers build hybrid clouds by combining the consistent infrastructure and operations of VMware Cloud with Datrium DRaaS to reduce the cost and complexity of business continuity." After the deal closes, the Datrium disaster recovery service will expand on the existing performance-optimized VMware Site Recovery DRaaS solution with a cost-optimized option.

05:29 EDT NIO Inc. reports 3,740 vehicles delivered in June - NIO Inc. provided its June and Q2 delivery results. NIO Inc. said in a release, "NIO delivered 3,740 vehicles in June, representing a strong 179.1% growth year-over-year. The deliveries consisted of 2,476 ES6s, the Company's 5-seater high-performance premium smart electric SUV, and 1,264 ES8s, the Company's 7-seater high-performance premium smart electric SUV, and its 6-seater variant. NIO delivered 10,331 vehicles in the second quarter, representing an increase of 190.8% year-over-year and an increase of 169.2% quarter-over-quarter. As of June 30, cumulative deliveries of the ES8 and the ES6 reached 46,082 vehicles, of which 14,169 were delivered in 2020."

05:20 EDT Alibaba Cloud announces partnership with Unilever - Alibaba Cloud (BABA) is partnering with Unilever (UN, UL) in a pioneering strategic initiative that will enable Unilever to action on next-generation digital marketing campaigns. Alibaba said in a release, "In the partnership, Unilever will be able to utilize Alibaba Cloud's trusted artificial intelligence and cloud-based technologies to optimize its omni-channel, online and offline demand generation activities. With intelligent analysis, Alibaba Cloud's solutions can help to unlock detailed insights into Unilever's customers buying patterns and behavior. The data-driven business intelligence could help Unilever accelerate the creation of new and precisely targeted digital marketing campaigns. It could also enable Unilever to predict more precisely and quickly respond to changing customer buying habits across multiple platforms. Taking Unilever's digital marketing to the next level, Alibaba Cloud's solution can support optimized brand experience for consumers' purchasing journey through Unilever's online stores in Taobao and Tmall. The data intelligence provided by Alibaba Cloud can be easily translated into consumer insight, pivotal in enabling Unilever to expand its current and future product offerings in line with customer needs. The insights into anticipated and current customer demand, will also benefit Unilever's supply chain, as well as optimize its route to market. The Unilever and Alibaba Cloud collaboration was announced at the Alibaba Cloud Global Summit. The program, that Unilever is part of, hopes to help Alibaba Cloud's partners and customers to accelerate their growth in China by capitalizing Alibaba Cloud's local business expertise, technologies and matured ecosystem."