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CHICAGO, Dec. 7, 2020 /PRNewswire/ — CME Group, the world’s leading and most diverse derivatives marketplace, and the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute (MSRI), announced its 14th Innovative Quantitative Applications Prize recipient. Susan Athey, Economics of Technology Professor at Stanford Graduate School of Business, is the 2019 CME Group-MSRI Prize winner for her work in the economics of digitization and marketplace design. A virtual event honoring Athey will be hosted by CME Group on Dec. 11, 2020 at 10:00 a.m. CT.

Athey is the first woman to receive the CME Group-MSRI Prize. Past CME Group-MSRI Prize winners have included distinguished luminaries in economics and mathematics. Seven out of 13 past recipients have gone on to receive the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences. A complete list of past recipients is available at msri.org.

The CME Group-MSRI Prize recognizes individuals who contribute original concepts in mathematical, statistical or computational methods for the study of markets’ behavior and global economics. As one of the first “tech economists,” Athey’s research focuses on the design of auction-based marketplaces and the economics of the internet, primarily on online advertising and the economics of the news media. She has also studied dynamic mechanisms and games with incomplete information, comparative statics under uncertainty, and econometric methods for analyzing auction models.

“It is a great honor to receive this prize, especially to join the company of some of my greatest heroes in economics — including one of my PhD advisors and recent Nobel Laureate, Paul Milgrom,” said Athey. “Throughout my career I’ve aspired to the ideals of this prize, and I’ve seen first-hand how mathematics and statistics can be powerful tools for both the theory and practice of analyzing and designing markets.”

Athey served as consulting chief economist for Microsoft Corporation for six years, and now serves on the boards of Expedia, Lending Club, Rover, Turo and Ripple, as well as non-profit Innovations for Poverty Action. She also serves as a long-term advisor to the British Columbia Ministry of Forests, helping architect and implement their auction-based pricing system. She is the founding director of the Golub Capital Social Impact Lab at Stanford GSB, and associate director of the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence.

Athey received her bachelor’s degree from Duke University and her PhD from Stanford, and she holds an honorary doctorate from Duke University. She previously taught at the economics departments at MIT, Stanford and Harvard.

“We are pleased to honor Professor Susan Athey with this prestigious award,” said Leo Melamed, Chairman Emeritus of CME Group and founder of the CME Group-MSRI Prize. “Her groundbreaking work in market design as it relates to business and economics has significant applications to our industry.”

“Susan Athey’s research, from the uses of machine learning in economics to the optimization of government expenditures on vaccines, has been at the leading edge of the field in economics,” said David Eisenbud, Director of MSRI and Professor of Mathematics at the University of California, Berkeley. “MSRI is proud to collaborate with CME Group to honor the importance of Professor Athey’s work.”

The virtual event honoring Athey will feature presentations focused on topics related to market design, including how food banks use markets and the intersection of markets with the COVID-19 pandemic response. Several distinguished economists and academics will be participating in the program, including:

• 
  Scott Kominers – MBA Class of 1960 Associate Professor, Entrepreneurial Management Unit, Harvard Business School
• 
  Paul Milgrom
   – Shirley and Leonard Ely professor of Humanities and Sciences in the Department of Economics at Stanford University; 2017 CME Group-MSRI Prizewinner; 2020 Nobel Laureate in Economic Sciences   
• 
  Canice Prendergast – W. Allen Wallis Distinguished Service Professor of Economics, University of Chicago Booth School of Business
• 
  Christopher Snyder – Joel Z. and Susan Hyatt Professor in the Economics Department, Dartmouth College 

Members of the media can attend the virtual seminar where CME Group will present Athey with the CME Group-MSRI Prize medal. Email Liz McGee at [email protected] for more information and to register.

The CME Center for Innovation’s mission is to identify, foster and showcase examples of significant innovation and creative thinking pertaining to markets, commerce or trade in the public and private sectors. For more information on the CME Center for Innovation, visit http://www.cmegroup.com/company/center-for-innovation/.

About MSRI

The Mathematical Sciences Research Institute (MSRI) in Berkeley, California, is one of the world’s preeminent centers for collaborative research in the mathematical sciences. MSRI advances mathematical research through workshops and conferences since its founding in 1982, and over 1,700 mathematicians are hosted by MSRI each year. A rotating committee of renowned mathematical scientists governs the Institute’s scientific program with a vision of the field that is perpetually renewed. A Board of Trustees, composed of accomplished business and academic leaders, oversees the Institute’s strategy, and assures its operational and financial welfare. The Institute has been funded primarily by the National Science Foundation with additional support from other government agencies, private foundations, corporations, individual donors, and over 100 academic institutions.

MSRI also serves a wider community through the development of human scientific capital, providing postdoctoral training to extraordinary young scientists and increasing the diversity of the research workforce. The Institute advances the education of young people with conferences on critical issues in mathematics education and the creation of a nationwide Math Circles movement engaging children in math as a hobby. MSRI strives to make mathematics accessible and exciting to those outside the field through the National Math Festival, sponsorship of Numberphile, YouTube’s most popular informal mathematics channel, film production for public television, and the Mathical Book Prize for youth literature. www.msri.org

About CME Group

As the world’s leading and most diverse derivatives marketplace, CME Group (www.cmegroup.com) enables clients to trade futures, options, cash and OTC markets, optimize portfolios, and analyze data – empowering market participants worldwide to efficiently manage risk and capture opportunities. CME Group exchanges offer the widest range of global benchmark products across all major asset classes based on interest rates, equity indexes, foreign  exchange, energy, agricultural products and metals.  The company offers futures and options on futures trading through the CME Globex® platform, fixed income trading via BrokerTec and foreign exchange trading on the EBS platform.  In addition, it operates one of the world’s leading central counterparty clearing providers, CME Clearing.  With a range of pre- and post-trade products and services underpinning the entire lifecycle of a trade, CME Group also offers optimization and reconciliation services through TriOptima, and trade processing services through Traiana.

CME Group, the Globe logo, CME, Chicago Mercantile Exchange, Globex, and, E-mini are trademarks of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc.  CBOT and Chicago Board of Trade are trademarks of Board of Trade of the City of Chicago, Inc.  NYMEX, New York Mercantile Exchange and ClearPort are trademarks of New York Mercantile Exchange, Inc.  COMEX is a trademark of Commodity Exchange, Inc. BrokerTec, EBS, TriOptima, and Traiana are trademarks of BrokerTec Europe LTD, EBS Group LTD, TriOptima AB, and Traiana, Inc., respectively.  Dow Jones, Dow Jones Industrial Average, S&P 500 and S&P are service and/or trademarks of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC, Standard & Poor’s Financial Services LLC and S&P/Dow Jones Indices LLC, as the case may be, and have been licensed for use by Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc.  All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. 

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SOURCE CME Group

SAN JOSE, Calif. and MUMBAI, India, Dec. 7, 2020 /PRNewswire/ — Tata Consultancy Services (BSE: 532540, NSE: TCS), a leading global IT services, consulting and business solutions organization, announced that it has helped Extreme Networks to successfully adopt a flexible consumption-as-a-service subscription model, enabling the roll-out of its ExtremeCloud™ IQ cloud management platform,  strengthening its customer relationships and helping the cloud-driven networking leader gain market share.

TCS was chosen as a strategic partner by Extreme Networks in their digital transformation journey to unlock the power of the subscription-based economy by spearheading this business-critical initiative from conceptualization and design to solution implementation. The transformation required changes in processes and underlying systems across the customer engagement lifecycle, including offer creation to marketing, sales, fulfillment, and renewals. In addition to these changes, new capabilities like subscription billing, and new business performance metrics were also introduced. 

Adding a subscription-based model has enabled Extreme Networks to become more customer centric, elevating them as a true partner in their customers’ cloud journeys. By understanding consumption patterns and making recommendations through deep customer insights, Extreme Networks can build lasting customer relationships resulting in significant revenue growth.

“Our partnership with TCS has provided our business the ability to create new and flexible subscription products for our customers that seamlessly integrate into our existing IT landscape,” said Daniel Adam, Chief Information Officer, Extreme Networks. “TCS has consistently delivered on time and on budget during very trying times, and the business value delivered has enhanced our capabilities for managing, reporting, and supporting our customers.” 

“Our growth strategy has significantly increased our share of the subscription market. Our partnership with TCS enabled a seamless implementation of a subscription-based model, allowing our business to immediately adjust to demand for e simplified  billing and seamless as-a-service solutions when we brought our ExtremeCloud IQ cloud management platform to market. This improves our customers’ experience while giving us the flexibility and capability to enable growth and reduce risk,” said Padraig Hayes, Vice President Controller – Finance, Extreme Networks.

“Leaders in the network technology industry are adopting recurring revenue business models that offer more flexible, outcome driven solutions to their customers,”
 said V Rajanna, Global Head, Technology Business Unit, TCS. “We are proud to be Extreme Networks’ growth and transformation partner, leveraging our deep contextual knowledge, expertise in business model innovation and Business 4.0™ thought leadership framework to enable this end-to-end transformation that significantly elevates the customer experience while accelerating growth.”

Earlier this year, TCS helped Extreme Networks complete its post-merger integration of Aerohive Networks into its ecosystem, in record time. The successful integration has resulted in a unified customer experience and added critical cloud management and edge capabilities to Extreme’s portfolio of end-to-end edge to cloud networking solutions.

About Tata Consultancy Services Ltd (TCS)

Tata Consultancy Services is an IT services, consulting and business solutions organization that has been partnering with many of the world’s largest businesses in their transformation journeys for over 50 years. TCS offers a consulting-led, cognitive powered, integrated portfolio of business, technology and engineering services and solutions. This is delivered through its unique Location Independent Agile^TM delivery model, recognized as a benchmark of excellence in software development.

A part of the Tata group, India’s largest multinational business group, TCS has over 453,000 of the world’s best-trained consultants in 46 countries. The company generated consolidated revenues of US $22 billion in the fiscal year ended March 31, 2020, and is listed on the BSE (formerly Bombay Stock Exchange) and the NSE (National Stock Exchange) in India. TCS’ proactive stance on climate change and award-winning work with communities across the world have earned it a place in leading sustainability indices such as the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI), MSCI Global Sustainability Index and the FTSE4Good Emerging Index. For more information, visit us at www.tcs.com.

For TCS global news, follow @TCS_News.

TCS media contacts:

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SOURCE Tata Consultancy Services

WOONSOCKET, R.I., Dec. 7, 2020 /PRNewswire/ — CVS Health (NYSE: CVS) is reminding everyone that it’s not too late to get a flu shot, as the country marks National Influenza Vaccination Week (Dec. 6 – 12). The flu shot is the most effective way to protect against the flu and is an important step individuals and families can take to help safeguard the overall health of the community and minimize the impact on health care resources, as the United States continues to fight the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We have seen more patients than ever get their flu shot this season but know that there are still individuals that have not yet received their vaccination and are planning to,” said Jon Roberts, Chief Operating Officer, CVS Health. “CVS Health is prepared to administer 20 million flu shots this flu season and we encourage everyone to make a plan to be immunized before the end of the year.”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention established National Influenza Immunization Week in 2005 to highlight the importance of continued vaccination through the holiday season and into the New Year when flu activity is typically at its peak. Flu shots are available at the nearly 10,000 CVS Pharmacy and approximately 1,100 MinuteClinic locations across the country. Both CVS Pharmacy and MinuteClinic, the retail health clinic of CVS Health inside select CVS Pharmacy and Target stores, offer convenient options for people to get their flu shot, seven days a week with expanded evening and weekend hours.

“The effects of COVID-19 are unprecedented factors this cold and flu season. Health care providers are busy meeting pandemic-related demands, and that’s likely to get worse as we head into the winter months so it’s important that we reduce the number of cold and flu cases and flu-related hospitalizations as much as possible to  preserve our health care resources,” said Angela Patterson, DNP, FNP-BC, NEA-BC, FAANP, Chief Nurse Practitioner Officer, MinuteClinic.

“This begins with getting your annual flu vaccination,” added Patterson. “It’s also important to remember that the same things that can help slow the spread of COVID-19 – washing your hands for at least 20 seconds, wearing a face covering and avoiding crowds – are also important actions in reducing transmission of the flu.”

This year, CVS Health is taking additional steps to help patients and colleagues feel safe during the entire immunization process. All patients must wear a face covering and will have their temperature taken prior to immunization. Pharmacists and MinuteClinic providers administering vaccines are wearing personal protection equipment (PPE) and observing enhanced cleaning protocols.

For patients that do fall ill this season, CVS Health recommends talking with their health care provider as soon as symptoms develop. The company is currently managing more than 4,300 COVID-19 testing locations, up to 1,000 of which will provide rapid-result testing. Rapid-result testing also enables symptomatic patients who test negative for COVID-19 to access testing and care for influenza and other seasonal illnesses at MinuteClinic.

For more information about COVID-19 testing, or to make a flu shot appointment, please visit cvs.com.  Patients can also walk-in for an immunization at MinuteClinic and CVS Pharmacy locations.

About CVS Health
CVS Health is a different kind of health care company. We are a diversified health services company with nearly 300,000 employees united around a common purpose of helping people on their path to better health. In an increasingly connected and digital world, we are meeting people wherever they are and changing health care to meet their needs. Built on a foundation of unmatched community presence, our diversified model engages one in three Americans each year. From our innovative new services at HealthHUB locations, to transformative programs that help manage chronic conditions, we are making health care more accessible, more affordable and simply better. Learn more about how we’re transforming health at www.cvshealth.com. 

Media Contacts

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SOURCE CVS Health

CUPERTINO, Calif., Dec. 7, 2020 /PRNewswire/ — DURECT Corporation (Nasdaq: DRRX) today announced that it has signed an agreement to sell its LACTEL Absorbable Polymer (LACTEL) product line to Evonik, a global leader in specialty chemicals.

Under the terms of the agreement, Evonik will pay DURECT $15 million in exchange for certain assets and liabilities associated with LACTEL product line based in Birmingham, Alabama, plus an additional potential payment based on full year EBITDAS results. The transaction is expected to close by Q1 2021 pending the satisfaction of certain customary closing conditions. An offer will be extended to each of the 15 employees of DURECT located in Birmingham, Alabama, which are associated with the LACTEL® business to transition to Evonik.

“It has been a pleasure working with the highly motivated and talented LACTEL team. We have confidence that Evonik will apply its resources and commitment to excellence to enable the LACTEL product line and supporting team members to thrive,” said James E. Brown, President and CEO of DURECT. “This deal makes strategic sense for DURECT as we continue to focus on epigenetic regulation and the development of DUR-928 for alcohol-associated hepatitis and other acute organ injury and chronic liver diseases. We wish all of our LACTEL colleagues the very best going forward.”

“The acquisition of the LACTEL® business will strengthen both our innovation growth field Healthcare Solutions and Evonik’s position as a globally leading CDMO for drug delivery solutions,” says Johann-Caspar Gammelin, Head of the Nutrition & Care Division of Evonik. “The acquisition of the LACTEL® business marks a consequential step in the growth agenda of the life-science division Nutrition & Care. The LACTEL® business will benefit from fast-growing markets such as advanced drug delivery, biomaterials for tissue engineering, and the 3D printing of implantable medical devices.”

Evonik is one of the world leaders in specialty chemicals. The company is active in more than 100 countries around the world and generated sales of €13.1 billion and an operating profit (adjusted EBITDA) of €2.15 billion in 2019. Evonik goes far beyond chemistry to create innovative, profitable and sustainable solutions for customers. The focus of Evonik’s Nutrition & Care division is on health and quality of life. It develops differentiated solutions for active pharmaceutical ingredients, medical devices, nutrition for humans and animals, personal care, cosmetics, and household cleaning. In these resilient end markets, the division generated sales of around €2.9 billion in 2019 with about 5,300 employees.

About DURECT Corporation
DURECT is a biopharmaceutical company committed to transforming the treatment of acute organ injury and chronic liver diseases by advancing novel and potentially lifesaving therapies based on its endogenous epigenetic regulator program. DUR-928, the company’s lead drug candidate is in clinical development for the potential treatment of alcohol-associated hepatitis (AH), COVID-19 patients with acute liver or kidney injury, and nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). DURECT’s proprietary drug delivery technologies are designed to enable new indications and enhanced attributes for small-molecule and biologic drugs. One late-stage product candidate in this category is POSIMIR® (bupivacaine sustained-release solution), an investigational locally-acting, non-opioid analgesic intended to provide up to three days of continuous pain relief after surgery. For more information about DURECT, please visit www.durect.com and follow us on Twitter https://twitter.com/DURECTCorp.

DURECT Forward-Looking Statement

The statements in this press release regarding the agreement to sell the LACTEL product line to Evonik and potential additional payments, clinical development plans for DUR-928, including the potential use of DUR-928 to treat COVID-19 patients with liver or kidney injury, the potential use of DUR-928 to treat acute organ injuries, such as AH, and chronic liver diseases, such as NASH,  and the potential use of POSIMIR to provide pain relief after surgery are forward-looking statements involving risks and uncertainties that can cause actual results to differ materially from those in such forward-looking statements. Potential risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, the risks that the closing of the sale of the LACTEL product line fails to close as anticipated or that additional payments are not earned, that the clinical trial of DUR-928 in COVID-19 patients is delayed or stopped because of changes to the standard of care, the availability of alternative therapies, protocol changes or lack of available patients, the risk that future clinical trials of DUR-928 are not started when anticipated, take longer to conduct than anticipated, do not confirm the results from earlier clinical or pre-clinical trials, or do not demonstrate the safety or efficacy of DUR-928 in a statistically significant manner, the risk that the FDA will not approve POSIMIR or approve POSIMIR with a limited label, the risk that additional time and resources may be required for development, testing and regulatory approval of DUR-928 or the Company’s other product candidates, potential adverse effects arising from the testing or use of our drug candidates, our potential failure to maintain our collaborative agreements with third parties and risks related to our ability to obtain capital to fund operations and expenses. Further information regarding these and other risks is included in DURECT’s Form 10-Q filed on November 3, 2020 under the heading “Risk Factors.”

NOTE: POSIMIR^® and SABER^® are trademarks of DURECT Corporation.  Other referenced trademarks belong to their respective owners.  DUR-928 and POSIMIR are investigational drug candidates under development and have not been approved for commercialization by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration or other health authorities for any indication.

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SOURCE DURECT Corporation