On Monday, Shares of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA), lost -0.09% to $84.77.
Ride hailing service Didi Kuaidi, Uber Technologies Inc’s chief rival in China, said on Tuesday it had appointed Yahoo Inc co-founder and Alibaba Group Holdings Ltd investor Jerry Yang as a board observer and senior adviser, according to Reuters
Yang’s new positions at Didi Kuaidi add a new link in the cobweb of relations between the Chinese ride hailing company and its investors, Alibaba and Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp.
Yang, Alibaba founder and executive chairman Jack Ma and SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son all sit on the board of Alibaba. SoftBank was also an early investor in both Yahoo and the Chinese e-commerce behemoth, and the three men maintain close ties.
Their “bromance” has now been extended to Didi Kuaidi, the biggest ride hailing rival to U.S. $62 billion start-up Uber . Reuters Report
On the other news report, on December 1, Alibaba Group (BABA) declared the appointment of Terry von Bibra as managing director of Alibaba Group Germany and Sébastien Badault as managing director of Alibaba Group France, effective right away.
The appointment of these two senior business leaders is another important milestone in Alibaba Group’s expansion in the European markets, a critical part of the company’s globalization strategy to serve as a “gateway to China” for international brands and businesses of all sizes. As a part of this international expansion and in order to better serve existing and future partners in Europe, the company will be opening country offices in Munich, Germany and Paris, France.
The Germany and France offices will assist current partners and local brands, retailers and government partners who want to access the large and growing Chinese consumer class looking for high-quality international products and services. A “one-stop shop” for local business that will encompass the entire scope of Alibaba Group’s ecosystem, Alibaba’s France and Germany country offices will assist identify the most suitable local products for the Chinese market, assist merchants sell on Alibaba’s platforms, assist with outbound and inbound logistics, and facilitate online payments for Chinese consumers and offline payments for Chinese tourists.
“In Europe, our top priority is to engage with existing local partners and assist European brands, retailers, small businesses and government partners understand the opportunities China offers and how Alibaba can assist them access this market,” said Michael Evans, president of Alibaba Group. “We have hired strong leaders in Germany, France, Italy and the UK to connect the needs of local brands and merchants with the capabilities of our ecosystem. Both Terry and Sébastien have proven track records in successfully building teams and business capabilities for major international companies and we are thrilled to have them on board.”
Alibaba Group Holding Limited, through its auxiliaries, operates as an online and mobile commerce company in the People’s Republic of China and internationally. It operates Taobao Marketplace, an online shopping destination; Tmall, a third-party platform for brands and retailers; Juhuasuan, a group buying marketplace; Alibaba.com, an online wholesale marketplace; Alitrip, an online travel booking platform; 1688.com, an online wholesale marketplace; and AliExpress, a consumer marketplace.
Shares of Idera Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:IDRA), inclined 13.68% to $4.32, during its last trading session.
Idera Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: IDRA) made a strong push in Monday’s session following the presentation of its clinical data over the weekend. The company presented initial clinical data from its ongoing Phase 1/2 clinical trial for IMO-8400, a Toll-like receptor 7, 8 and 9 antagonist, being evaluated for the treatment of patients with relapsed or refractory Waldenström’s macroglobulinemia, according to 247wallst
The primary objectives of the study were to assess safety and tolerability. Secondary objectives were to assess pharmacokinetic and clinical activity and define the optimal dose for further clinical evaluation. In addition to clinical treatment parameters, cytokine levels were analyzed as an exploratory endpoint in the trial.
Vincent Milano, CEO of Idera, said:
Our clinical trial in Waldenström’s Macroglobulinemia represents the first step in our understanding of the potential role that TLR antagonism could play in B-cell malignancies, specifically in those harboring the MYD88-L265P oncogenic mutation which is highly prevalent in Waldenström’s Macroglobulinemia. We are happy that the initial results from this ongoing trial met our objectives in determining safety and tolerability, in addition to clinical activity of IMO-8400 in this patient population. We are further encouraged that the safety profile seen to date will enable us to expand this study to evaluate higher dosing levels of IMO-8400.
On the other news report, on December 5, Idera Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (IDRA), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing toll-like receptor and RNA therapeutics for patients with cancer and rare diseases, presented initial clinical data from its ongoing Phase 1/2 clinical trial for IMO-8400, a Toll-like receptor 7, 8 and 9 antagonist, being evaluated for the treatment of patients with relapsed or refractory Waldenström’s Macroglobulinemia (WM). These results provide evidence that IMO-8400 has clinical activity and is well tolerated. Recently’s results were presented during a poster session (Abstract #1540) at the 57th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Hematology (ASH) in Orlando, FL.
The results being stated are from 15 evaluable patients with Waldenström’s Macroglobulinemia who had a history of relapse or failure to one or more prior therapies and who accomplished at least one cycle of therapy with IMO-8400. Patients enrolled in the multi-center, open-label, dose ranging clinical trial which evaluated 3 dose levels of IMO-8400 (06. mg/kg weekly, 1.2 mg/kg weekly, 1.2mg/kg twice a week) administration for a period of up to 24 weeks. The primary objectives of the study were to assess safety and tolerability. Secondary objectives were to assess clinical activity, PK and define the optimal dose for further clinical evaluation. In addition to clinical treatment parameters, cytokine levels were analyzed as an exploratory endpoint in the trial.