Market Newsdesk

VANCOUVER, BC, Nov. 16, 2020 /CNW/ – The following issues have been halted by IIROC:

Company: E3 Metals Corp.

TSX-Venture Symbol: ETMC

All Issues: Yes

Reason: At the Request of the Company Pending News

Halt Time (ET): 8:45 AM

IIROC can make a decision to impose a temporary suspension (halt) of trading in a security of a publicly-listed company. Trading halts are implemented to ensure a fair and orderly market. IIROC is the national self-regulatory organization which oversees all investment dealers and trading activity on debt and equity marketplaces in Canada.

SOURCE Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada (IIROC) – Halts/Resumptions

CINCINNATI, Nov. 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ — Cincinnati Financial Corporation (Nasdaq: CINF) posted updated investor presentation slides at cinfin.com/investors to be used in investor meetings beginning this week.

The slides highlight recent performance and target trends, as well as discuss the company’s strategy and competitive advantages, including strong agent relationships, financial strength, local decision making and claims excellence.

In addition, the slides consolidate information about both the company’s timely appeal of a ruling in the North State Deli case to the Court of Appeals of North Carolina and the prevailing view by courts across the country that an economic loss alone doesn’t qualify as direct physical damage or loss to property, which is the trigger for business interruption coverage. This view has been shared by courts in Alabama, California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Mississippi, New Jersey, New York, Oklahoma, Texas, West Virginia and the District of Columbia.

About Cincinnati Financial
Cincinnati Financial Corporation offers primarily business, home and auto insurance through The Cincinnati Insurance Company and its two standard market property casualty companies. The same local independent insurance agencies that market those policies may offer products of our other subsidiaries, including life insurance, fixed annuities and surplus lines property and casualty insurance. For additional information about the company, please visit cinfin.com.

Safe Harbor Statement

This is our “Safe Harbor” statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Our business is subject to certain risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those suggested by the forward-looking statements in this report. Some of those risks and uncertainties are discussed in our 2019 Annual Report on Form 10-K, Item 1A, Risk Factors, Page 35 and Item 1A, Risk Factors in our subsequent Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q.

Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include, but are not limited to:

• Effects of the COVID-19 pandemic that could affect results for reasons such as:
• Securities market disruption or volatility and related effects such as decreased economic activity that affect the company’s investment portfolio and book value
• An unusually high level of claims in our insurance or reinsurance operations that increase litigation-related expenses
• An unusually high level of insurance losses, including risk of legislation or court decisions extending business interruption insurance in commercial property coverage forms to cover claims for pure economic loss related to the COVID-19 pandemic
• Decreased premium revenue and cash flow from disruption to our distribution channel of independent agents, consumer self-isolation, travel limitations, business restrictions and decreased economic activity
• Inability of our workforce, agencies or vendors to perform necessary business functions
• Unusually high levels of catastrophe losses due to risk concentrations, changes in weather patterns, environmental events, terrorism incidents or other causes
• Increased frequency and/or severity of claims or development of claims that are unforeseen at the time of policy issuance
• Inadequate estimates, assumptions or reliance on third-party data used for critical accounting estimates
• Declines in overall stock market values negatively affecting the company’s equity portfolio and book value
• Prolonged low interest rate environment or other factors that limit the company’s ability to generate growth in investment income or interest rate fluctuations that result in declining values of fixed-maturity investments, including declines in accounts in which we hold bank-owned life insurance contract assets
• Domestic and global events resulting in capital market or credit market uncertainty, followed by prolonged periods of economic instability or recession, that lead to:
• Significant or prolonged decline in the fair value of a particular security or group of securities and impairment of the asset(s)
• Significant decline in investment income due to reduced or eliminated dividend payouts from a particular security or group of securities
• Significant rise in losses from surety and director and officer policies written for financial institutions or other insured entities
• Our inability to integrate Cincinnati Global and its subsidiaries into our on-going operations, or disruptions to our on-going operations due to such integration
• Recession or other economic conditions resulting in lower demand for insurance products or increased payment delinquencies
• Difficulties with technology or data security breaches, including cyberattacks, that could negatively affect our ability to conduct business; disrupt our relationships with agents, policyholders and others; cause reputational damage, mitigation expenses and data loss and expose us to liability under federal and state laws
• Disruption of the insurance market caused by technology innovations such as driverless cars that could decrease consumer demand for insurance products
• Delays, inadequate data developed internally or from third parties, or performance inadequacies from ongoing development and implementation of underwriting and pricing methods, including telematics and other usage-based insurance methods, or technology projects and enhancements expected to increase our pricing accuracy, underwriting profit and competitiveness
• Increased competition that could result in a significant reduction in the company’s premium volume
• Changing consumer insurance-buying habits and consolidation of independent insurance agencies that could alter our competitive advantages
• Inability to obtain adequate ceded reinsurance on acceptable terms, amount of reinsurance coverage purchased, financial strength of reinsurers and the potential for nonpayment or delay in payment by reinsurers
• Inability to defer policy acquisition costs for any business segment if pricing and loss trends would lead management to conclude that segment could not achieve sustainable profitability
• Inability of our subsidiaries to pay dividends consistent with current or past levels
• Events or conditions that could weaken or harm the company’s relationships with its independent agencies and hamper opportunities to add new agencies, resulting in limitations on the company’s opportunities for growth, such as:
• Downgrades of the company’s financial strength ratings
• Concerns that doing business with the company is too difficult
• Perceptions that the company’s level of service, particularly claims service, is no longer a distinguishing characteristic in the marketplace
• Inability or unwillingness to nimbly develop and introduce coverage product updates and innovations that our competitors offer and consumers expect to find in the marketplace
• Actions of insurance departments, state attorneys general or other regulatory agencies, including a change to a federal system of regulation from a state-based system, that:
• Impose new obligations on us that increase our expenses or change the assumptions underlying our critical accounting estimates
• Place the insurance industry under greater regulatory scrutiny or result in new statutes, rules and regulations
• Restrict our ability to exit or reduce writings of unprofitable coverages or lines of business
• Add assessments for guaranty funds, other insurance–related assessments or mandatory reinsurance arrangements; or that impair our ability to recover such assessments through future surcharges or other rate changes
• Increase our provision for federal income taxes due to changes in tax law
• Increase our other expenses
• Limit our ability to set fair, adequate and reasonable rates
• Place us at a disadvantage in the marketplace
• Restrict our ability to execute our business model, including the way we compensate agents
• Adverse outcomes from litigation or administrative proceedings
• Events or actions, including unauthorized intentional circumvention of controls, that reduce the company’s future ability to maintain effective internal control over financial reporting under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002
• Unforeseen departure of certain executive officers or other key employees due to retirement, health or other causes that could interrupt progress toward important strategic goals or diminish the effectiveness of certain longstanding relationships with insurance agents and others
• Events, such as an epidemic, natural catastrophe or terrorism, that could hamper our ability to assemble our workforce at our headquarters location

Further, the company’s insurance businesses are subject to the effects of changing social, global, economic and regulatory environments. Public and regulatory initiatives have included efforts to adversely influence and restrict premium rates, restrict the ability to cancel policies, impose underwriting standards and expand overall regulation. The company also is subject to public and regulatory initiatives that can affect the market value for its common stock, such as measures affecting corporate financial reporting and governance. The ultimate changes and eventual effects, if any, of these initiatives are uncertain.

 

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SOURCE Cincinnati Financial Corporation

SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., Nov. 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ — Titan Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: TTNP) (“Titan” or the “Company”) today reported financial results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2020 and provided an update on its business.

Third Quarter 2020 and Recent Highlights

• In September 2020, the Company completed a registered direct offering, resulting in net cash proceeds of approximately $2.4 million.
• In October 2020, Titan announced a strategic restructuring, where it will focus on ProNeura^®-based product development; and discontinue its U.S. Probuphine implant sales and wind down Probuphine commercialization activities.
• In October 2020, Kate DeVarney, Ph.D., was promoted from the position of Executive Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer to President and Chief Operating Officer. In addition, Sunil Bhonsle stepped down from his executive role. Dr. Marc Rubin, Titan’s Executive Chairman, together with Dr. DeVarney, will oversee the Company’s product development activities.
• In October 2020, Titan completed a public offering resulting in net cash proceeds of approximately $5.7 million.
• In October 2020, the Company settled all of its debt obligations with Molteni & C. dei F.lli Alitti Società di Esercizio S.p.A and Horizon Credit LLC II.
• In October 2020, Titan acquired JT Pharmaceuticals, Inc.’s kappa opioid agonist peptide, JT-09, for use in combination with Titan’s ProNeura^® long-term, continuous drug delivery technology, for the treatment of chronic pruritus.

“Subsequent to the end of the third quarter, Titan began an important, focused restructuring to position the Company for future growth,” said Dr. DeVarney. “We believe that our ProNeura platform, which has the potential to provide continuous drug delivery over extended periods of up to six to 12 months, offers potential key value-generating opportunities. These include the platform’s application to the recently-acquired JT-09, for which we plan to establish proof-of-concept as a treatment of chronic pruritus in the first half of next year. In addition, we remain committed to helping individuals impacted by the opioid epidemic through our ongoing, National Institute on Drug Abuse-funded nalmefene implant development program, with plans to file an investigational New Drug Application with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in the first half of 2021.”

“In addition to refocusing our efforts on the ProNeura platform, our recent restructuring significantly reduced operating expenses, while our debt settlements restored our ability to fully capitalize on our IP,” said Dr. Rubin. “These, combined with the recent completion of two financings, positions Titan to execute on our new strategy.”

Third Quarter 2020 Financial Results 

For the three months ended September 30, 2020, Titan reported approximately $1.1 million in revenue, which reflects approximately $0.1 million in product sales and approximately $1.0 million related to the Company’s National Institute on Drug Abuse (“NIDA”) grant. This compared with revenues of approximately $0.9 million in the same period in 2019, which was comprised of $0.2 million in product sales and $0.8 million related to the NIDA grant. Product revenue during the three month period ended September 30, 2020 declined from the comparable periods in 2019 due to a substantial decrease in unit sales volumes; increased utilization of patient assistance programs; and the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and the related shelter-in-place restrictions and clinic closures. 

Total operating expenses for the third quarter of 2020 were approximately $5.8 million, compared with approximately $4.8 million from the same quarter in 2019, and consisted primarily of research and development (“R&D”) and selling, general and administrative (“SG&A”) expenses and costs of goods sold, inclusive of distribution expenses. R&D expenses for the quarter ended September 30, 2020 were approximately $1.6 million, consistent with the same three month period in 2019. SG&A expenses for the 2020 third quarter were approximately $3.5 million, compared with approximately $3.0 million in the same quarter a year ago. Costs of goods sold for the third quarter of 2020 were approximately $0.7 million, compared with approximately $0.2 million the 2019 third quarter.

Net other expense, consisting primarily of interest expense, was approximately $0.3 million in the third quarter of 2020, compared with net other income of approximately $1.1 million in the third quarter of 2019. The increase in other expense, net for the three months ended September 30, 2020 was primarily due to an approximately $1.0 million non-cash gain on changes in the fair value of warrants issued in connection with Titan’s August 2019 offering and an approximately $0.3 million non-cash gain on debt extinguishment related to the modification of Titan’s loan from Molteni.

Net loss applicable to common stockholders in the third quarter of 2020 was approximately $4.9 million, or approximately $0.05 per share, compared with a net loss applicable to common stockholders of approximately $2.8 million, or approximately $0.18 per share, in the same quarter in 2019.

As of September 30, 2020, Titan had cash and cash equivalents of approximately $4.1 million, which the Company believes, along with the proceeds of public offering, is sufficient to fund planned operations into the third quarter of 2021.

Conference Call Details

Titan management will host a conference call today at 12:00 p.m. ET / 9:00 a.m. PT to discuss business developments in the period. The conference call will be hosted by Marc Rubin, M.D., Executive Chairman, and Kate DeVarney, Ph.D., President and Chief Operating Officer.

The live conference call may be accessed by dialing 1-888-317-6003 (U.S.) or 1-412-317-6061 (international) and providing passcode 9502574. The call will also be broadcast live at https://www.webcaster4.com/Webcast/Page/1655/38848, and archived on Titan’s website at www.titanpharm.com/news/events.    

About Titan Pharmaceuticals

Titan Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:TTNP), based in South San Francisco, CA, is a development stage company developing proprietary therapeutics with its ProNeura^® long-term, continuous drug delivery technology. The ProNeura technology has the potential to be used in developing products for treating a number of chronic conditions, where maintaining consistent, around-the-clock blood levels of medication may benefit the patient and improve medical outcomes. For more information about Titan, please visit www.titanpharm.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release may contain “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Such statements include, but are not limited to, any statements relating to our product development programs and any other statements that are not historical facts. Such statements involve risks and uncertainties that could negatively affect our business, operating results, financial condition and stock price. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from management’s current expectations include those risks and uncertainties relating to our ability to raise capital, the winding down of U.S. commercial activities related to Probuphine, the regulatory approval process, the development, testing, production and marketing of our drug candidates, patent and intellectual property matters and strategic agreements and relationships. We expressly disclaim any obligation or undertaking to release publicly any updates or revisions to any forward-looking statements contained herein to reflect any change in our expectations or any changes in events, conditions or circumstances on which any such statement is based, except as required by law.

CONTACT:

Stephen Kilmer

Investor Relations
(650) 989-2215
[email protected]

 

 

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SOURCE Titan Pharmaceuticals, Inc.