Nov11Wed

Member News from Almac

NI pharma firm Almac’s role in Covid-19 vaccine
BBC.com

Almac, the Northern Ireland pharmaceutical firm, is playing a role in the clinical trials of the first effective Covid-19 vaccine.

On Monday, Pfizer and BioNTech said preliminary results showed it can prevent more than 90% of people from getting the virus. Almac’s clinical services division provides clinical trials support to BioNTech. It involves things like distribution, labelling and temperature management. The vaccine has been tested on 43,500 people in six countries. It has to be kept in ultra-cold storage at below minus 80C – Almac’s hardware and software is used to maintain this temperature requirement.

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Nov02Mon

Member News from WSFS Bank

WSFS Bank Accepting Nonperishable Food Donations at Banking Locations for Fall Food Drive

WILMINGTON, Del., Nov. 02, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — As the holiday season approaches, WSFS Bank is encouraging its Associates, Customers and Communities to search their hearts, and their pantries, to donate nonperishable food items to provide meals to the food-insecure. WSFS banking locations in the state of Delaware; Philadelphia, Bucks, Chester and Montgomery counties in Pennsylvania; and Camdenand Burlington counties in New Jersey will be designated as convenient Community food deposit centers as part of the Bank’s annual Fall/Winter Food Drive.

The pandemic has exacerbated the need for food for many, with more than 54 million people estimated to be food insecure in 2020, according to Feeding America. The nationwide trend is no less concerning in our region, where the 2020 projected food insecurity rate in Delaware (17.8%) exceeds the nationwide projection (16.7%), with Pennsylvania (15.9%) and New Jersey (13.5%) not far behind.

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Oct19Mon

Member News from Villanova University

Fr. Donohue, 2020 Taoiseach Award Recipient (2/28/20)

THE INTERVIEW: Villanova’s Peter Donohue on leadership during the pandemic
Philadelphia Business Journal

Despite having about 5,000 students living on campus this semester, Rev. Peter Donohue says Villanova University is disquietingly … quiet.

The coronavirus pandemic has prevented student gatherings of any kind at the Catholic college in Radnor Township, Pennsylvania, so there’s “really nothing going on but academics,” said Donohue, now in his 14th year at the school’s helm.

The downtime has enabled the Augustinian priest to reflect on the role of a college president during a global pandemic — and on leadership in general — while simultaneously encouraging a community of young adults to sacrifice their individual needs to ensure the safety and wellbeing of the entire group (i.e. adhere to Covid-19 protocols). So far, his self-described stint as Villanova’s chief cheerleader has paid off with minimal confirmed coronavirus cases on campus and an otherwise uneventful start to the 2020-21 academic year.

Donohue recently spoke with The Business Journals’ Hilary Burns about how his job has changed since Covid-19 struck, and the effects the pandemic is having on college pricing and on-campus learning. Below is an edited transcript of their conversation.

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Oct08Thu

Member News from Emergent Bio

Emergent BioSolutions announced that its COVID-19 Human Immune Globulin (COVID-HIG) product candidate will be evaluated in an NIH-sponsored phase 3 clinical trial of hyperimmune intravenous immunoglobulins to treat COVID-19

GAITHERSBURG, Md., Oct. 08, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Emergent BioSolutions Inc. (NYSE:EBS) today announced the initiation of the Phase 3 clinical trial that will evaluate plasma-derived therapy COVID-HIG as a potential treatment for hospitalized patients with coronavirus disease (COVID-19). The INSIGHT-013 clinical study called “Inpatient Treatment with Anti-Coronavirus Immunoglobulin (ITAC),” is sponsored by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The study will evaluate the safety, tolerability, and efficacy of hyperimmune globulin products derived from plasma of individuals who have recovered from COVID-19 and have developed neutralizing antibodies to SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. The randomized controlled clinical trial assigns participants to receive infusions of either a placebo or one of four hyperimmune globulin products, which includes Emergent’s COVID-HIG, with a background therapy of remdesivir in all groups.

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Sep08Tue

Member News from Aramark

Aramark partners with Starship Technologies to launch delivery robots on college campus
Philadelphia Business Journal

The future of delivery services is scooting around Arizona State University’s Tempe campus after a partnership between Philadelphia-based food provider Aramark and California-based Starship Technologies brought in a fleet of sidewalk-traveling autonomous delivery robots.

Anyone on the ASU campus can download the Starship app on iOS or Android and have Aramark meals delivered.

Options for food delivery, which began in late August, include Starbucks, Burger King, QDOBA, Pei Wei, Subway, Jamba Juice, Chick-in and Einstein Bros. Bagels. POD Market items are also deliverable — from frozen food to health supplies.

Click HERE to read more.