Latest news with #Brigham
Boston Globe
02-06-2025
- Politics
- Boston Globe
Brown University police should not be exempt from public records law, ACLU lawsuit claims
Related : Advertisement The lawsuit argues that Brown University's Department of Public Safety wields state-authorized police powers and therefore fits within the state Access to Public Records Act's definition of an 'agency.' Get Rhode Map A weekday briefing from veteran Rhode Island reporters, focused on the things that matter most in the Ocean State. Enter Email Sign Up 'The purpose of this action is simple,' ACLU of Rhode Island cooperating attorney Fausto Anguilla said in a statement. 'Every city and town police department in Rhode Island must provide arrest reports under APRA. Brown's police should not be an exception.' Anguilla, a former state representative, filed the lawsuit in state Superior Court against Brown University's Department of Public Safety on behalf of two journalists, after the department refused to provide them reports of arrests made by Brown officers. In 2022, Noble Brigham, then a Brown Daily Herald reporter, was investigating the story of a man who had been charged multiple times by Brown's Department of Public Safety with trespassing and breaking and entering on the Brown campus. Advertisement Brigham submitted a public records request for the arrest reports, which was initially ignored by Department of Public Safety. When the department did respond, it was to assert that the Access to Public Records Act didn't apply because Brown is a private university. In 2023, Motif Magazine reporter Michael Bilow was reporting on When Bilow filed an public records request seeking the arrest reports, Brown public safety department ignored the request. Bilow and Brigham filed complaints with Attorney General Peter F. Neronha's office. In January, his office issued an opinion, agreeing with Brown that the university was not subject to the state's Access to Public Records Act. The lawsuit Monday notes that the public records law applies to private agencies that are 'acting on behalf of and/or in place of any public agency,' and the suit claims the Brown Department of Public Safety fits that definition. 'By engaging in one of the most fundamental functions of government — the enforcement of criminal laws and exercising the power to search and seize individuals — (the Brown Department of Public Safety) is acting on behalf of and/or in place of a government agency or public body," the suit states. The lawsuit asks the judge to declare that the Brown Department of Public Safety is a public body within the meaning of Access to Public Records Act, and that it must comply with requests for arrest records and other publicly available law enforcement documents. Advertisement Bilow said, 'Experience has proven that preventing police abuses depends on full transparency under the law, and it is a civic responsibility of news reporting to keep the public aware and informed about what is done in their name.' Brigham said, 'Access to police reports is a basic public right. The public should be able to understand why police have arrested someone, and Brown's stance that its nonprofit status exempts them from the state law every municipal Rhode Island police department follows is troubling.' Brown University did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Edward Fitzpatrick can be reached at
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
ImmuCell Reports Y/Y Q1 Earnings Growth on Record Sales & Margin Gains
Shares of ImmuCell Corporation ICCC have gained 3.9% since reporting results for the first quarter of 2025. This compares with the S&P 500 index's 5.5% rise over the same time frame. Over the past month, the stock has jumped 11.2% against the S&P 500's 13.5% rally. ImmuCell posted a strong financial performance for the first quarter of 2025, delivering a record $8.1 million in product sales, up 11% from $7.3 million in the prior-year period. The rise marked a continuation of momentum established in late 2024. Net income turned positive to $1.45 million from a net loss of $438,000 in the same quarter a year ago. This swing was driven by sales growth and gross margin expansion. Earnings per share improved to 16 cents from a loss of 6 cents per share in the prior-year quarter. ImmuCell Corporation price-consensus-eps-surprise-chart | ImmuCell Corporation Quote The gross margin for the quarter improved to 42% from 37% in the fourth quarter of 2024, and is significantly higher than the margin reported a year ago when the company faced elevated scrap and contamination-related costs. This progress reflects operational normalization following production disruptions in 2022 and 2023. Adjusted EBITDA for the first quarter came in at $2.3 million, a sharp rise from $458,000 in the prior-year quarter. For the trailing 12 months ended March 31, 2025, adjusted EBITDA totaled $3.3 million, up from a $280,000 loss in the comparable period. First Defense — ImmuCell's flagship product line for scours prevention in calves — accounted for the majority of sales. Tri-Shield, which contains E. coli, coronavirus and rotavirus claims, represented 71% of First Defense product sales for the quarter. Management noted that expanded capacity and the diversification of delivery formats, including gel tubes and a soon-to-launch bulk powder product, are improving customer reach and supporting revenue growth. CEO Michael Brigham emphasized that the business has become larger, more complex and increasingly diversified, driven primarily by the strength of First Defense and continued investment in production capacity. The company's annualized manufacturing capacity has been scaled to support $30 million in sales. Brigham also noted that contamination issues that affected the prior quarters have been successfully remediated, with no new events since April 2024. New CFO Tim Fiori highlighted cost control and operational improvements, particularly in managing fixed costs across higher sales volumes. He also mentioned that gross margin expansion and improved adjusted EBITDA are the key to driving long-term profitability, especially with many fixed facility and labor costs already in place. The turnaround in profitability and margins stems from a combination of operational stability, capacity expansion and higher sales volumes. Past contamination events had led to increased scrap costs and disrupted inventory flow. However, the company has operated without further contamination incidents for over a year, allowing for better yields and manufacturing efficiencies. Additionally, customer demand for Tri-Shield has risen sharply, reflecting the product's strong efficacy claims compared with traditional dam-level vaccines. Sales were also buoyed by improved distribution and a strengthened sales team that includes four regional managers, a commercial stakeholder leader, and a marketing director. The backlog of orders, which had accumulated during supply disruptions, has been gradually reduced, standing at $4 million as of March 31 and falling further to $3.4 million by early May. ImmuCell stated that its backlog reduction and increased production capability position it well for continued sales growth. The company expects the recently introduced investigational product use of Re-Tain to yield valuable field feedback, which could help shape future commercialization strategies. Brigham acknowledged that while full FDA approval for Re-Tain remains pending due to manufacturing inspection delays, the investigational phase will allow for data collection on product performance in real-world settings. The company confirmed that it paused a $4-million investment to bring formulation and aseptic filling for Re-Tain in-house. This initiative may resume once further clarity is achieved regarding FDA licensing timelines and strategic options. Overall, ImmuCell's first-quarter performance demonstrated solid operational recovery and financial improvement, driven by sustained demand for its core products and improved execution following prior-year setbacks. Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report ImmuCell Corporation (ICCC) : Free Stock Analysis Report This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research ( Zacks Investment Research Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Boston Globe
12-05-2025
- Health
- Boston Globe
Boston scientists join $81m quest to extend human healthspan
Americans are living longer than in generations past, yet those gains have not translated to longer, healthy lives, as But an unusual competition is aiming to change that with a goal of dramatically extending the number of our healthy years — known as our healthspan. An $81 million grand prize is up for grabs to the researchers who add two decades to our healthspan by restoring lost muscle mass, cognitive ability and immune function in people ages 50 to 80. Two Massachusetts teams have made it to the competition's semi-finals, a list that includes 40 teams worldwide, with 19 based in the United States. Now comes the hard part: semifinalists must, in the next year, demonstrate they're ready to test their intervention on people. Advertisement 'There's the divide from going from the lab to testing in real life, on living, breathing people. It's not just a small bridge that has to be overcome, it's like the Grand Canyon,' said Jamie Justice, a top executive at the The hurdles in this challenge are considerable. Americans, on average, spend Advertisement The growing gap between life and health spans around the world has fueled a That interest is reflected in the sheer number of teams that entered the competition — more than 600 across 58 countries — and the diverse array of proposed interventions to reverse the ravages of aging, from methods to bolster the immune system, tamp down inflammation, fire up the body's system of breaking down and reusing old cells, and more. Winners must come up with a drug, a device, a therapy, or a combination of approaches. A team from Brigham and Women's Hospital, one of the two semifinalists from Massachusetts, aims to use a GLP-1 medication similar to wildly popular weight loss drugs such as Ozempic. A growing number of studies suggest this class of drug can improve multiple age-related conditions linked to obesity such as diabetes and heart disease, and perhaps certain cancers. 'It's been linked now to a reduced risk of Parkinson's disease and dementia, all kinds of outcomes,' said Adds Dr. Shalender Bhasin, director of the Brigham's Boston Claude Pepper Aging Research Center and the co-lead researcher: GLP-1 drugs are 'an attractive candidate because they have been used in tens of thousands of people now. So we have a good safety record.' The medications, however, have never been tested for their effect on delaying the onset of a person's first age-related disorder. Federal regulators require medications to target a specific disease to be approved, yet Advertisement Part of the XPRIZE challenge requires teams to show by using a biomarker test, such as a blood sample, that their approach actually improves muscle mass, cognitive function, and immune function, in addition to other potential improvements that may be more readily apparent. The Brigham team plans to tap 300 to 400 participants who are overweight for their trial, which will deliver a low dose of the medication. The other Massachusetts semifinalist is Stealth is proposing to use an experimental drug called Elamipretide, a molecule that targets the mitochondria. David A. Brown, the company's senior vice president and team leader for the XPRIZE challenge, said a small trial the company conducted to test the molecule's effectiveness showed it preserved a layer of the retina that's rich with mitochondria in older adults with macular degeneration, an age-related disease that affects vision. 'The fact that the decline in vision is often accompanied by mitochondrial dysfunction, the fact that we saw such encouraging signs in older individuals, just provided further fuel to our fire that this really could be something here to improve the healthspan in older individuals,' Brown said. David A. Brown, Senior Vice President of Discovery at Stealth BioTherapeutics of Needham. He leads a team of scientists that made the semi-finals in the XPRIZE Stealth BioTherapeutics Another small study that involved one injection of Elamipretide in older adults appeared to strengthen the muscles in their hands, an area that often becomes weaker with age. Advertisement 'Lots of independent investigators have studied this molecule with probably over 150 peer-reviewed publications,' Brown said. The company Each semi-finalist team receives $250,000 to help defray costs for this next round, but XPRIZE administrators acknowledge many will need to secure additional funding, which could be a problem, particularly in the US, where numerous researchers have experienced significant Semi-finalists need to demonstrate their ability to secure necessary regulatory approvals to conduct a trial, which is often time-consuming. They must also prove their ability to recruit participants. By 2026, only 10 finalists will remain, each receiving $1 million to move into full-scale human trials. In that round, the trials must include at least 100 participants for one year. XPRIZE judges will be paying close attention to whether the proposed drug or other type of intervention would be easily accessible to most people. 'The solution might be great, but maybe it's only achievable for one person, either that or it's too risky or too expensive, or any other barriers,' said Justice, the XPRIZE executive vice president. 'The judges want to make sure that any of the therapeutics to get advanced actually have a chance of making public good.' The competition is slated to conclude in 2030. But what happens if no team meets that ultimate goal? That's happened a few times in the XPRIZE'S 30-year history of challenges, including last year for a competition that aimed to ease world hunger and the food industry's strain on climate by requiring researchers to recreate fish and meat alternatives. Judges determined the closest entries hit most of the requirements, including a reasonable taste, but missed recreating an acceptable texture. No prize was awarded. Advertisement 'Because of the relationships we're building with our sponsors, we don't foresee that,' Justice said. 'But at the same time, it's not going to be a gimme. Even to get to where the judges might say this has merit, the teams really do have to have something they can demonstrate that's an innovation beyond what we have available now.' Kay Lazar can be reached at
Yahoo
22-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Couple's happily ever after begins at Boston Marathon finish line
One couple headed toward their happily ever after on Boston Marathon Monday. Andrew Becker, a Massachusetts General Hospital marathon team member and anesthesiologist at Brigham and Women's Hospital, made a pitstop to propose to his girlfriend Julia Frederick just before crossing the Boston Marathon finish line. Becker chose the race to mark both a personal milestone and his connection to Boston, running in honor of the new life he's built in Boston, and to represent the Mass General Brigham system he serves, Mass. General Brigham said. See the couple's happy moment below. The marathon runner said there was 'no better way to celebrate love, commitment and community than with a proposal on Julia's favorite day of the year — Patriot's Day," according to Mass. General Brigham. While Becker serves the health community at Brigham and Women's Hospital, Frederick is the chief of staff at the Boston Public Health Commission. Wellesley College students scream for, smooch Boston Marathon runners Mass. weather: Here's what to know about temperatures, wind for Boston Marathon Monday 2025 Boston Marathon recap: Who won this year's race? Why this runner's Boston Marathon will help two dreams come true The 129th Boston Marathon: What to know ahead of the race, how to watch
Yahoo
16-03-2025
- Yahoo
Three arrested for illegal firearms in Danville
DANVILLE, Ill. (WCIA) — The Danville Police Department arrested three individuals related to three separate illegal firearms incidents late last week. On Wednesday around 9 p.m., officers were patrolling near Cherry Street in Danville when they noticed a subject 'walking illegally in the roadway.' The police ordered the person to stop, but he attempted to run away and was placed in custody. Danville High School hosting JROTC state archery tournament During the arrest, a loaded firearm was found on the subject. Officers identified the subject as 18-year-old Kamarion Jones of Danville. Jones was transported to the Vermilion County Public Safety Building. He was booked on charges of aggravated possession of a firearm and being under the age of 21, aggravated unlawful use of a weapon, and obstructing and resisting a peace officer. The next day, officers responded to the intersection of Buchanan Street and Perrysville Avenue around 10:15 p.m. after reports of a truck crashing into a garage. Police were also told the driver fled the scene. When police arrived they learned that the male driver ran into the woods west of the crash site. Officers were given a description of the suspect by the witnesses. After searching the woods, the police officers found the driver and placed him into custody. He was later identified as 20-year-old Michael Sanquenetti of Clinton, Indiana. 'Some of our students have barriers': Danville schools help students in need After investigating, police also found a gun in the suspect's truck. Police added that Sanquenetti is not allowed to have a firearm in Illinois. Sanquenetti was transported to the Vermilion County Public Safety Building and booked for aggravated unlawful possession of a handgun and being under the age of 21, driving under the influence of alcohol, and leaving the scene of an accident with vehicle damage. On Friday evening, police stopped a vehicle for a registration violation near the intersection of English and Walnut Streets. The driver was identified as 22-year-old Shatiya Brigham of Danville. Officers saw open alcohol and cannabis inside the vehicle, which allowed the officers to investigate further. The police then found a loaded and stolen firearm on Brigham. Danville Fire Department pushing for smoke detector safety after another deadly fire Brigham was arrested and brought to Vermilion County Public Safety Building. She was booked on aggravated unlawful use of a weapon, possession of a stolen firearm, and driving with improper registration. The Danville Police Department added that all are considered innocent until proven guilty. Anyone with additional information is asked to contact the Danville Police Department at 217-431-2250. To submit an anonymous tip, contact the Vermilion County Crimestoppers online, use the mobile app P3TIPS or call 217-446-TIPS (8477). Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
