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LOCA launches LOCA PAY Enabling QR Code payment via Credit Card

Loca launched a new product “Loca Pay” on 16 December 2022, with a new goal to be a convenient and safe digital payment intermediary for everyone.

Hong Kong Baptist University develops new aptamer drug for bone anabolic therapies

HONG KONG SAR – Media OutReach – 19 December 2022 – A research team led by Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU) has identified a molecular target for bone anabolic therapies using a selected aptamer that serves as an inhibitor of sclerostin, a protein that prevents bone growth. The discovery offers hope for the development of an effective next-generation treatment for osteoporosis and osteogenesis imperfecta that is free of cardiovascular risk compared to the marketed antibody drug.

(From left) Dr Yu Yuanyuan, Professor Lyu Aiping, Professor Zhang Ge, and Dr Wang Luyao, Post-Doctoral Research Fellow of the Law Sau Fai Institute for Advancing Translational Medicine in Bone and Joint Diseases at HKBU, develop the new aptamer drug for osteoporosis and osteogenesis imperfecta.
(From left) Dr Yu Yuanyuan, Professor Lyu Aiping, Professor Zhang Ge, and Dr Wang Luyao, Post-Doctoral Research Fellow of the Law Sau Fai Institute for Advancing Translational Medicine in Bone and Joint Diseases at HKBU, develop the new aptamer drug for osteoporosis and osteogenesis imperfecta.

The research findings have been published in the international academic journals Nature Communications and Theranostics. The New drug is at the pre-clinical trial development stage, and the research team plans to start clinical trials in the US and on the Mainland in 2024.

Current medication increases cardiovascular risk

Osteoporosis is a metabolic condition which leads to a reduction in bone density, resulting in weakened bones that are more fragile and likely to break. Osteogenesis imperfecta, also known as “brittle bone disease”, is a rare congenital genetic disorder characterised by extremely fragile bones. Sclerostin has been identified as a therapeutic target for both diseases.

In 2019, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the use of the monoclonal antibody against sclerostin for the treatment of postmenopausal osteoporosis. Studies have also shown that sclerostin antibody enhances bone mass and bone strength of mice with osteogenesis imperfecta. However, as sclerostin plays a protective role in the cardiovascular system, it was seen that sclerostin antibody increased the risk of heart attacks, stroke and cardiovascular death during clinical trials. Therefore, a black box warning for potential cardiovascular risks is required by FDA.

A research team led by Professor Lyu Aiping, Dr. Kennedy Y.H. Wong Endowed Professor in Chinese Medicineand Director of the Institute of Integrated Bioinformedicine and Translational Science at HKBU; Professor Zhang Ge, Director of the Law Sau Fai Institute for Advancing Translational Medicine in Bone and Joint Diseases at HKBU; and Dr Yu Yuanyuan, Manager of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area International Research Platform for Aptamer-based Translational Medicine and Drug Discovery and Assistant Professor of the School of Chinese Medicine at HKBU, endeavoured to develop alternative drug options.

“loop3” identified as a new therapeutic target

Sclerostin suppresses bone formation by antagonising the “Wnt signalling pathway”. The “Wnt signalling pathway” modulates the stem cells responsible for skeletal tissue regeneration. Therefore, inhibition of sclerostin promotes bone growth.

The research team discovered that a “loop3 domain” in the core region of sclerostin can be used as a molecular target to inhibit sclerostin. Through genetic studies, it was shown that deficiency of the loop3 domain can inhibit sclerostin’s antagonistic effect against the Wnt signalling pathway, but it does not affect the cardiovascular protective effect of sclerostin. The result suggests that the loop3 domain can serve as a molecular target for inhibiting sclerostin while preserving its cardiovascular protective function.

The researchers then proceeded to screen aptamers that can specifically inhibit sclerostin loop3. Aptamers are single-stranded DNA or RNA molecules that can selectively bind to molecular targets such as proteins. After binding with specific proteins, aptamers may inhibit protein–protein interactions and thereby elicit certain therapeutic effects. Through a combinatorial technology, an aptamer “aptscl56” was selected as a potential sclerostin inhibitor that targets the loop3 structure.

Aptamer selected as effective and safe sclerostin inhibitor

The research team examined aptscl56’s therapeutic functions with osteoporotic rat models and osteogenesis imperfecta mouse models. They found that aptscl56 effectively promots bone formation. On the other hand, the application of aptscl56 does not increase the risk of developing cardiovascular diseases such as aortic aneurysms and atherosclerotic development in both models.

The medical use of aptamers confers certain advantages, such as thermal stability and ease of synthesis. However, they are prone to rapid degradation and renal filtration. The research team therefore modified aptscl56 to produce an aptamer named “Apc001” with a longer half-life. The team demonstrated that Apc001 promotes bone formation, increases bone mass, improves bone microarchitecture integrity, and enhances bone mechanical properties in rats with osteoporosis and mice with osteogenesis imperfecta.

Clinical trials due to start in 2024

“Searching for reliable and safe alternatives to overcome the limitations of the currently available drugs is crucial to help patients who need bone anabolic therapies. Our ongoing studies, which span from identifying molecular targets for sclerostin inhibition to aptamer drug discovery, offer hope for the development of next-generation sclerostin inhibitors in the near future,” said Professor Zhang Ge.

“Our search for alternative drugs for bone anabolic therapies is a good example of tripartite collaboration between academia, industry and the government. The research work was partly conducted in collaboration with a local biotechnology company, and it was supported by the Innovation and Technology Fund. Some biotechnology companies in the Mainland were engaged in certain aspects of developmental research for the aptamer, such as toxicology tests. The collaborative efforts will continue to create more synergy and fruitful results,” said Professor Lyu Aiping.

The therapeutic aptamer Apc001 was granted orphan drug designation by the FDA for the treatment of osteogenesis imperfecta in 2019.

Hashtag: #HongKongBaptistUniversity #HKBU

The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.

Straw Hut Village is New Tourist Attraction in Vientiane Province

People gather and enjoy themselves at a straw hut | (Photo: ເມືອງເຟືອງແດນງາມ Mueng Fueng Dan Ngam)

Straw Hut Village, a new tourist attraction just opened this month in Vientiane Province’s Meuang Feuang district, to attract both domestic and international visitors.

LOFTER Group assisted with “Gingko House”, the social enterprise, to hold a series of activities to bring warmth to the community this winter

HONG KONG SAR – Media OutReach – 19 December 2022 – LOFTER GROUP (“LOFTER” or “the Group”), a Hong Kong-based property developer has always been concerned about the needs of the community. Towards the end of the year, under LOFTER Care Community Programme which adheres to the spirit of “LOFTER Cares All”, the Group has assisted with “Gingko House”, the social enterprise, to organize the activities and to spread cares and warmth to grassroots.

Donation of Winter Clothing

Gingko House held “Donation of Winter Clothing” last year in the site of Nanking Street, Yau Ma Tei acquiring by LOFTER and aroused strong support from the public. In order to continue this event, the Group together with its internationally fund partner join hands to lend out acquired asset located at Hankow Road Tsim Sha Tsui, to the organization to carry out the activity. The Group hopes that the site could be made the best use of it and have charitable event before demolition and redevelopment.

Regarding to the event, the site is used to collect the winter clothing, small household appliances and other material donated by the community and to give to those in need, so as to endow the objects with “second life.”

Besides, the Group also come to the site with the representatives of organization to help with the activity and also hoping to take this opportunity to care about the needs of the grassroots.

Date :From today to 27 December 2022 (Tuesday)
Time :12 nn to 6 p.m.
Venue :G/F, 31 and 33 Hankow Road, Tsim Sha Tsui(near exit A of MTR Tsim Sha Tsui Station)

Categories of recycled items:

  1. Winter clothing ─ down jackets, fleece coats, thermal underwear (new), rubber band trousers, sleeping bags, etc.
  2. Smart phone, tablets
  3. Small household appliances ─ electric water heater, hair dryer, toaster, rice cooker, mixer, etc.


Winter Love Project

In addition to the “Donation of Winter Clothing”, LOFTER will also visit different districts with Gingko House during Christmas and distribute gift bags with daily necessities, as well as packed meals and soup to those in need. Moreover, the Group also plans to present the gift bags to the grassroots before Lunar New Year.

Ms. Carol Chow, Founder and Chairperson of LOFTER said, “Affected by the epidemic situation of COVID-19, the economic environment still needs time to return to normal which putting a burden on the livelihood of the grassroots. Towards the end of the year, the Group supported the social welfare organization to provide the public with all kinds of daily necessities to the community, hoping to provide them with warmth in the winter. ”

Kenneth Choi, Director of Business Development at Gingko House said, “Thank you for all concerted support, so that the clothes and small household appliances, which were originally planned to be abandoned in winter, can be revived, and to make to vulnerable communities can feel warm in cold season.”

Hashtag: #LOFTERGroup

The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.

About LOFTER GROUP

Founded in 2012, LOFTER GROUP is a property developer based in Hong Kong. It is principally engaged in developing exceptional and high-quality residential, commercial, retail, and industrial properties. Leverage on its extensive experience, the Group is actively exploring a variety of opportunities for developing urban renewal projects across core districts of Hong Kong, with key focus on Grade A Commercial and Luxury Residential Projects. The Group vows to accommodate the needs of a diverse market and dynamic social policies, while maintaining a good balance between profitability, responsibility and sustainability.

About LOFTER-Care Community Program
LOFTER-Care Community Program is funded by LOFTER GROUP, sharing the value of “LOFTER Cares ALL”. It mainly provides support to charitable activities in HKSAR. The program strives to keep abreast of the needs of the community and flexibly provides various resources to the needy, aiming to bring positive changes to the world and build a sustainable future for the city.

About Gingko House

Established in 2003, Gingko House is the first institution in Hong Kong to motivate the employment of the elderly, and is committed to providing support to those in need. The services of the organization are diversified, including social enterprise restaurants, organic farms, eldershop, and so on, providing employment opportunities for the elderly who are in financial and psychological need. The total number of elderlies employed by the organization has exceeded 3,000 at present.

Over 100 Thai Sailors Stranded After Navy Ship Sinks

Three Warships and two helicopters were assigned to rescue the sailors after their ship sank in the turbulent waters of the Gulf of Thailand on Sunday.

Appier launches AIRIS, the next-gen AI-powered CDP leveraging first-party data to activate MarTech applications

Seamless data unification enables 360° user profile generation in one-click, while data visualization reflects user feedback in real-time

TAIPEI, TAIWAN – Media OutReach – 19 December 2022 – Shortening the time spent from data to insight and insight to action, and visualizing results from marketing campaigns remain as critical issues for most enterprises considering Customer Data Platforms (CDP). In light of this, Appier (TSE: 4180) today announces the launch of AIRIS, the next-generation AI-powered CDP to support brands and marketers to achieve the fastest time-to-insight with smarter decision-making and execution by leveraging its advanced AI and Machine Learning technologies.

Caption

This launch comes following its acquisition of Woopra in October and is a combination of AIXON’s advanced user-centric predictive AI capabilities with Woopra’s superior data analytics and intuitive data visualization to help enterprises turn data to insight, and insights to action and results. The name AIRIS is derived from the word “iris”, which strongly reflects its visualization features that will empower enterprises to identify customers precisely and generate timely predictive insights.

AIRIS meets the current pain points of shorter time-to-insights and prediction requests that enterprises need to maximize their campaign ROIs in order to better respond to market challenges. Appier completing the integration just two months after the Woopra acquisition is a strong demonstration of its position as a leading AI SaaS company. AIRIS is available across Asia Pacific in English, Japanese, Korea, and Traditional Chinese with flexible and scalable pricing packages to suit enterprises of all sizes.

“We understand that obtaining insights from data in the shortest time possible is a major pain point for enterprises and marketers. The next generation of CDP launched by Appier, combining its expertise in AI technology and digital marketing, not just meets the needs of marketers, but will also be a market-leading solution to respond to this pain point,” said Dr. Chih-Han Yu, CEO and co-founder of Appier. “AIRIS will empower enterprises to achieve seamless data integration and fastest data-to-visualization, and tailor prediction models to strengthen customer relationships and bring customer experiences to the next level.”

Fragmented and missing data are some of the key reasons driving the higher costs of personalization for brands. What enterprises care about the most is usually the hardest to predict. With the next-generation CDP AIRIS, enterprises can integrate and synchronize customer data via one-click integrations and analyze every touch point throughout the customers’ journeys to gain more insights. With its AI-powered prediction capability, enterprises can now create more campaigns that have a higher likelihood of being received well by customers, unleashing the full benefits of a CDP to maximize business value and impact.

Brands and marketers stand to benefit from AIRIS in the following five ways:

1. Increase the value of first-party data and empower data storytelling
In response to several restrictions around the use of third-party data, AIRIS can seamlessly integrate various data sources, including existing cloud databases, online and offline sales data, and user data across web, app, messenger, and more than 50 external platforms to establish user-centric and comprehensive 360-degree customer views. Brands will be able to tell stories with data by visualizing customers’ purchase intent, preferences, and decision-making tendencies. With the inferred data insights and AI extrapolations, enterprises will now be able to tailor more effective and personalized marketing strategies.

2. Grant a higher level of autonomy and flexibility for marketers
Without data science capabilities, it is hard for marketers to quickly develop marketing strategies and directions. AIRIS is equipped with several marketer-friendly features, such as defining user attributes in one-click, plug-and-play set-up, and low-code/no-code interface so that marketers can easily gain insights to make decisions and plan activities without the help of IT, data scientists, or manual data analysis. This advantage is even more crucial in the current post-Covid era, as it can solve marketers’ challenges fundamentally to help them cope with the fast-changing market environment.

3. Data visualization is like a gold mine of insights
Through built-in user-centric and intuitive analysis templates, AIRIS can visualize the impact on the user at every touchpoint, supporting marketers to analyze long-term cohort behaviors through timeframe, segment, retention, and churn rate analysis, and find out the correlations and insights. For example, marketers can analyze campaign performance and its correlations and uplift cues by browsing “how many users are repeatedly making purchases after they sign up”, observing “the changes in monthly revenue after adopting a specific coupon delivery campaign”, and analyzing “users’ revisit, interaction, and purchase behavior for several months after sign up”.

4. Preview and predict performance before investment to maximize ROI
AIRIS can tag onsite visitors with more than 500 predictive user attributes in real-time, allowing marketers to quickly tailor engagement and prediction models through an automated Machine Learning platform to create more campaigns that are received well by customers. With AIRIS, marketers can also predict before investment by reviewing the correlations between marketing activity and sales growth, as well as getting to know why a customer stopped its journey on a specific channel. By predicting users who have higher chances to purchase or with a higher chance to churn, marketers can retarget high-value customers and customize product recommendations or coupon delivery to further enhance campaign performance and optimize their return on investment.

5. Responding to data privacy regulations to ensure user data security
Growing concerns about data privacy from customers and regulations regarding data privacy have set up a higher compliance standard for enterprises. Enterprises are now being requested to review and delete user data when users ask for the “Right to be forgotten (RTBF)”. Adopting AIRIS can enable enterprises to manage users’ cookie consent easily and maximize the value of data while respecting users’ data privacy for further analysis and campaign usage. Appier has always been committed to protecting every client’s and their customer’s data and has also been transparent in how data is being collected, utilized, and shared. Ensuring user data security while fulfilling the needs of data processing for enterprises of all sizes is of the utmost importance for Appier.

AIRIS’s powerful and highly customizable features can simplify routine marketing tasks. Coupled with Appier’s strong AI-powered prediction and analytics capability, AIRIS can further enrich data or bridge gaps in marketing campaigns. Marketers can now focus on tasks that matter the most and stay aligned with the organization’s strategic goals while paying close attention to their customer’s needs and experiences to truly empower first-party data-centric solutions and activate the power of MarTech applications.

Hashtag: #Appier

The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.

About Appier

Appier (TSE: 4180) is a software-as-a-service (SaaS) company that uses artificial intelligence to power business decision-making. Founded in 2012 with a vision of democratizing AI, Appier now has 17 offices across APAC, Europe and US, and is listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. Visit for more company information and visit for more IR information.

Infobip appoints Vice President of Marketing and Growth to support ambitious targets

By combining the marketing and growth teams, Infobip puts its customers front and center to build global brand awareness

KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA – Media OutReach – 19 December 2022 – Global cloud communications platform Infobip has appointed Ben Lewis as Vice President of Marketing and Growth. Ben will lead Infobip’s global marketing and growth function and is responsible for increasing the firm’s market share and brand awareness to meet its ambitious growth targets. Taking a customer-centric approach, he will ensure Infobip is positioned as the full-stack omnichannel communications platform for every platform.

Caption
Ben Lewis, Vice President of Marketing and Growth, Infobip


His immediate priorities include launching Infobip’s One Communications Platform brand positioning across all audiences and channels to drive awareness. He will also enhance Infobip’s customer marketing and growth capabilities by, for instance, introducing new initiatives such as account-based marketing. In addition, by bringing together the firm’s marketing and growth teams globally, Ben will align all regions behind the same objective.

In the medium term, Ben will build Infobip’s brand equity globally and drive greater engagement with its critical tier-one platform business customers. He will also ensure greater visibility for Infobip’s self-service offer.

Ivan Ostojić, Chief Business Officer at Infobip, said: “Infobip is focused on profitable growth, and the marketing and growth team is critical to our success. But to achieve that success, every team worldwide must be aligned and focused on the same objective. Combining the marketing and growth teams under Ben’s new leadership unifies our end-to-end go-to-market functions from strategy to campaigns. Now everyone is focused on how they can help our customers succeed and, by doing so, how we can achieve ambitious profitable growth.

“Ben is an exceptional marketing leader with vast industry experience. What’s more, having been with the firm for some time in understands our business inside out. At Infobip, we’re committed to developing our people, helping them perform at their best and make the step up, which Ben exemplifies with this new appointment.”

Overseeing a global team, Ben has significant experience in global omnichannel communications. He was previously VP of Strategic Commercial Innovation at Infobip. Before Infobip, Ben was Director of Revenue Operations at U.S. messaging heavyweight OpenMarket. Acquired by Infobip in 2020, Ben joined OpenMarket from a tech start-up in 2016. Following the acquisition of OpenMarket, Ben managed the transition of the sales and accounts teams, working closely with Infobip’s executive team.

Ben Lewis, Vice President of Marketing and Growth at Infobip, said: “Having worked with Infobip and its executive team since its acquisition of OpenMarket, I’ve seen first-hand the breadth and depth of its people. Infobip has been hugely successful to date, and it has strong relationships with customers such as Microsoft and Adobe and partners like CRM platform HubSpot and workflow platform ServiceNow.

“With a more agile and collaborative approach, we can enhance that success and ensure Infobip achieves ambitious profitable growth. I’m looking forward to working with colleagues to ensure customers understand how our full stack communications infrastructure is so powerful that other providers run their platforms on it.”

Hashtag: #Infobip

The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.

About Infobip

Infobip is a global cloud communications platform that enables businesses to build connected experiences across all stages of the customer journey. Accessed through a single platform, Infobip’s omnichannel engagement, identity, user authentication and contact centre solutions help businesses and partners overcome the complexity of consumer communications to grow business and increase loyalty. With over a decade of industry experience, Infobip has expanded to 70+ offices globally. It offers natively built technology with the capacity to reach over seven billion mobile devices and ‘things’ in 6 continents connected directly to over 700 telecom networks. Infobip was established in 2006 and is led by its co-founders, CEO Silvio Kutić, Roberto Kutić and Izabel Jelenić.

Recent award wins include:

  • Infobip named a leader in the CCaaS Leaderboard, Juniper Research (Aug 2022)
  • Omdia Ranks Infobip as Leader in CPaaS Universe Report (May 2022)
  • Ranked the leading service provider in CPaaS by Juniper Research in its new Competitor Leaderboard CPaaS Vendors (October 2021)
  • Infobip named a Leader in the IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Communications Platform-as-a-Service (CPaaS) 2021 Vendor Assessment (doc #US46746221, May 2021)
  • Best A2P SMS provider for the fourth year running by mobile operators and enterprises in ROCCO’s annual Messaging Vendor Benchmarking Report
  • Best CPaaS Provider of the Year, Best RCS Provider of the Year, and Mover & Shaker in Telco Innovation at the 2021 Juniper Digital Awards

Remittances an Important Source of Income for Laos Economy

Remittances have been increasingly recognized as an important source of income in Laos, particularly this year, as the country faces increased challenges from high inflation and currency depreciation.