Life Wireless Donates to American Red Cross to Support Hurricane Sandy Relief Efforts

Life Wireless™, a cellular provider offering free phone service to income-eligible customers through the federal Lifeline program, has made a donation to the American Red Cross to help victims of Hurricane Sandy.

"The American Red Cross is on the ground providing assistance to communities affected by this devastating storm," said Jim Carpenter, a senior vice president with Life Wireless. "Our thoughts and prayers go out to those families trying to rebuild their lives."

Life Wireless provides telephone service to low-income customers in nine states and Puerto Rico, including two states – Maryland and West Virginia – hard-hit by the storm. Life Wireless has a history of helping communities following natural disasters. In recent years, the company offered service upgrades to victims of floods in Minnesota and a tornado in Joplin, Mo.

Bioniche Life Sciences Inc. Reports Q1, Fiscal 2013 Results

Bioniche Life Sciences Inc. (BNC.TO) (BNC.AX), a research-based, technology-driven Canadian biopharmaceutical company, today announced financial results for the first quarter of its 2013 fiscal year (ended September 30, 2012).

"The Company continues to invest in several late-stage development projects and in facilities where commercial products will be made," said Mr. Graeme McRae, President & CEO of Bioniche Life Sciences Inc. "We are nearing commercialization of some important products in the next 12 to 18 months and this requires an intensive resource allocation. Once these products reach the marketplace, we expect the new revenues will neutralize the corporate burn rate."

Further to the Company's news release of Monday, November 5, 2012, the Company continues to discuss with its licensing partner, Endo Pharmaceuticals, potential next steps for the Urocidin™ clinical program following the discontinuation of the current Phase III clinical trial in non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer. Urocidin™ remains a valuable asset and the Company is committed to ensuring that this valuable product becomes commercialized.

Fiscal 2013 First Quarter Financial Results Highlights
Revenues from the sale of Animal Health products increased by $0.5 million in the quarter, offset by a decrease in collaborative research revenue of $0.6 million. Animal Health revenues out of Canada, which includes sales into South America, declined by 17% compared to the same quarter last year due to the timing of sales orders. Sales in the United States increased 30% over the same quarter last year primarily from the introduction of new products. Sales in Australia and Europe also saw modest increases. Consolidated revenues for the quarter were $6.7 million, as compared to $6.8 million in the same period in Fiscal 2012.

The cost of sales related to product sales in the Animal Health business unit has decreased by 2% in Q1, Fiscal 2013 from the same quarter in Fiscal 2012. This decrease is directly related to increased sales from new products. Gross margins were 54.2% in Q1, Fiscal 2013, compared to 49.8% in the first quarter of last year.

The Company generated Earnings (Loss) Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization (EBITDA) - before research and development expenses - of ($107,000) for Q1, Fiscal 2013, as compared to ($242,000) for the same period in Fiscal 2012.

Cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments amounted to $14.4 million at September 30, 2012, as compared to $9.6 million in the same period last year and $20.0 million at June 30, 2012. A further $14 million was available to the Company at September 30, 2012 through trade and other receivables and inventories. In the same period last year, $14.6 million was available through these sources.

At September 30, 2012, the Company's net working capital totalled $21.2M as compared to working capital of $27.5M at June 30, 2012, reflecting the decrease in cash primarily used to invest in late-stage development and commercialization activities.

The Company's cash flow used in operations for the quarter ended September 30, 2012 was $5.0 million, as compared to cash used in operations of $3.9 million in the same period in Fiscal 2012. As a result, the average monthly burn rate for Q1, Fiscal 2013 was $1.8 million, vs. $1.2 million for the same quarter in Fiscal 2012.

"The Company remains committed to reducing the average monthly burn rate progressively throughout the year as it completes the development and commercialization of several new products," said Mr. Brian Ford, Chief Financial Officer of Bioniche Life Sciences Inc. "The Company's goal is to neutralize its burn rate and develop sustainable cash flows in Fiscal 2014."

The value of the Company's Property, Plant and Equipment has increased to $40.2 million at September 30, 2012, compared to $40.1 million at June 30, 2011. This increase reflects an ongoing investment in the Animal Health and Food Safety Vaccine Manufacturing Centre at the Company's corporate headquarters in Belleville, Ontario. This facility is undergoing validation to meet global GMP production standards.
Administrative expenses were $2.3 million in Q1, Fiscal 2013, as compared to $2.5 million in the same quarter last year. Marketing, selling and distribution expenses were $1.8 million in Q1, Fiscal 2013, as compared to $1.8 million in the same quarter last year. The additional expenditure in this category is related to increased staffing to support the launch and distribution of several new Animal Health products.

Research and development (R&D) expenditures for Q1, Fiscal 2013 were $4.3 million, as compared to $4.8 million in the same quarter last year. R&D resources are focused on the advancement of certain development programs in Animal Health and Food Safety. Additionally, there is continued investment in the staffing and infrastructure associated with the GMP production of the Company's UrocidinTM bladder cancer treatment. Further, until such time as the Company's Vaccine Manufacturing Centre in Belleville is making commercial product, the carrying costs associated with this facility are also accounted for under R&D.

The Company incurred financial expenses of $1.5 million (including non-cash financial expenses of $737,000) during Q1, Fiscal 2013 as a result of its US$20 million debt financing with Capital Royalty Partners. This compares to financial expenses of $0.2 million in the same quarter of Fiscal 2012.
The basic and fully-diluted net loss per share for Q1, Fiscal 2013 is ($0.06), as compared to a net loss per share of ($0.04) in the same period last year. Total Common Shares outstanding at September 30, 2012 were 103,738,712, as compared to 102,375,477 at September 30, 2011.

The Company has incurred significant losses and has an accumulated deficit of $125.5 million as at September 30, 2012, including a current loss of $6.7 million for the first quarter of Fiscal 2013. The Company's committed cash obligations and expected level of expenditures for the next twelve months exceed its committed resources of funds and funds available as at September 30, 2012.

The Company expects to finance its future expenditures by obtaining additional financing and the exploration of new partnering agreements on technologies under development. If the Company is unable to accomplish either of these initiatives, which are outside of management's control, the Company will be required to curtail its development activities and operations.

More information on the Company's year-end financial results is provided in the Company's Q1, Fiscal 2013 Management's Discussion and Analysis dated November 7, 2012.

S&P Affirms Rating for Allianz Life

Minneapolis-based Allianz Life Insurance Company of North America (Allianz Life) today announced that the rating agency Standard & Poor’s (S&P)* recently affirmed the company’s rating as AA (very strong) with a negative outlook which continues to be in-line with Allianz SE, the parent company’s overall rating. S&P’s AA rating is the third highest out of 21 possible ratings. S&P based its rating on several factors including Allianz Life’s strong competitive position and market leadership particularly with fixed index annuities.

“Our financial strength continues to be strong due to the sound risk management approach we follow in this challenging market environment,” said Allianz Life Chief Financial Officer Giulio Terzariol. “Allianz Life is positioned to support the long-term retirement goals for the millions of baby boomers retiring each year.”

In June 2012, A.M. Best affirmed Allianz Life’s rating with an A (Excellent), the third highest of 16 possible ratings. Earlier in February 2012, Moody’s also affirmed Allianz Life’s rating with an A2 (Good), the sixth highest of 21 possible ratings.

About Allianz Life
Allianz Life Insurance Company of North America, one of FORTUNE’s 100 Best Companies to Work For in 2012, has been keeping its promises since 1896. Today, it carries on that tradition, helping Americans achieve their retirement income and protection goals with a variety of annuities and life insurance products. As a leading provider of fixed index annuities, Allianz Life is part of Allianz SE, a global leader in the financial services industry with 142,000 employees worldwide. More than 78 million private and corporate customers rely on Allianz knowledge, global reach, and capital strength to help them make the most of financial opportunities.

In New York, life insurance and annuities are issued by Allianz Life Insurance Company of New York, New York City.

*For a full description of how Standard & Poor's® Insurer Financial Strength Rating categories are assigned and to obtain current ratings refer to www.standardandpoors.com.

A Standard & Poor's Insurer Financial Strength Rating is a current opinion of the financial security characteristics of an insurance organization with respect to its ability to pay under its insurance policies and contracts in accordance with their terms. Insurer Financial Strength Ratings are based on information furnished by rated organizations (or obtained by Standard & Poor's from other sources it considers reliable). Insurers rated AA have Very Strong financial security characteristics.

Established in 1906, A.M. Best is the oldest independent insurance analyst in the country. The company assigns a rating to an insurance company based on financial information (results) and qualitative evaluations (management objectives and strategies). The quantitative financial evaluation includes an extensive analysis of reported financial performance in the areas of profitability, leverage, and liquidity. The qualitative evaluation reviews performance in such areas as quality of assets, reserve adequacy, reinsurance, business strategies, market leadership, parent company support, and management competency. A is the third highest rating assigned by A.M. Best.

Moody's has been rating insurance companies since 1986. It is one of the two agencies outside the insurance industry most frequently recognized with respect to financial ratings. Moody's financial strength rating reflects the insurance company's ability to fulfill senior policyholder obligations and claims. The analysis focuses on a company's business fundamentals, including financial factors, franchise value, management, and organizational structure/ownership. In evaluating capital adequacy, Moody's attempts to assess the capital necessary to absorb a number of risks, including asset default, pricing adequacy, and interest rate risk. Insurers rated A2 offer good financial security. However, elements may be present which suggest a susceptibility to impairment sometime in the future.

All guarantees are backed by the financial strength and claims-paying ability of the issuing company.

Exercise Boosts Life Expectancy, Study Finds

Regular, moderate physical activity such as brisk walking can increase life expectancy by several years, even for people who are overweight, a new large study shows.

While higher levels of activity were linked to even longer life expectancies, moderate activity was beneficial, according to the study of people ages 40 and older. The benefit of exercise was seen regardless of people's weight, age, sex and health conditions such as heart disease and cancer.
For example, obese participants who did moderate exercise for 150 minutes a week lived an average of 2.7 to 3.4 years longer, depending on how obese they were, than those who were obese and did not exercise.
Those who were overweight (but not obese) and did 150 minutes of moderate exercise weekly lived 3.9 years longer those who were overweight and did not exercise.

Normal-weight people who exercised for 150 minutes or more weekly lived about 4.7 years longer than normal-weight people who did not do regular moderate exercise.

"Many individuals in the U.S. are overweight or obese," and find that reducing their weight is difficult, said study researcher I-Min Lee, a professor of epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health. "Our study shows that by being physically active, even overweight or obese people can increase their life expectancy, compared to someone of the same weight who is not active."

The researchers say this is the first study to estimate years of life lost due to physical inactivity and body mass index (BMI).

When the researchers considered all study participants, they found that those who did 75 minutes of moderate-intensity activity weekly lived 1.8 years longer, on average, compared with people who did no physical activity.

Greater amounts of physical activity were associated with additional life expectancy gains. At the highest level of activity — 450 minutes per week — the gain was 4.5 years.

"This finding provides further evidence that there is a clear, direct dose-response relationship between volume of physical activity and years of life gained," said Mark Tremblay, director of the Healthy Active Living and Obesity Research Group at the University of Ottawa, Canada.

The researchers used data gathered during six previous studies, including a total of nearly 640,000 men and women ages 40 and over. Over a follow-up period of about 10 years, about 82,500 of these participants died.

Normal-weight individuals who exercised at a moderate level for at least 150 minutes weekly lived about 7.2 years longer, on average, compared with people who were inactive and obese.

The study was limited in that it relied on self-reported physical activity and height and weight, said Stuart Olshansky, a professor of epidemiology at the University of Illinois who was not involved in the work.

Still, Olshansky said, "the authors have provided us with a very convincing argument that exercise is about the only equivalent of a fountain of youth that exists today."

The study is published today (Nov. 6) in the journal Public Library of Science (PLOS) Medicine.
Pass it on: As little as 75 minutes of brisk walking a week can increase life expectancy even for those who are overweight.

Battery life battle royale: Nexus vs. iPad

With all the hoopla about the relative graphics performance of the fourth-generation iPad and the Nexus 10, it's easy to forget another important performance metric: battery life.

Battery life dictates how long you can actually use the unit before it requires a recharge, so I'd say it's pretty darn important. So important in fact that it gets its own blog post. Here I pit the last two generations of iPad, the iPad Mini, the Nexus 7, and the Nexus 10 against each other in a take-no-prisoners battery blood bath! Or acid bath I guess.

How we tested battery life
I evaluated battery life the same way I do for all tablets: by continually running a movie file until the tablet's battery dies.

I set each tablet to Airplane Mode and adjusted their respective brightnesses to 150 candelas per square meter (cd/m2) or as close to that number as possible. The iPads were running version 6.0.1 of iOS; the Nexus 10 ran Android 4.2, while the Nexus 7 was running Android 4.1.2.

I ran the 720p iTunes iPad version of the recent "Avengers" movie on the iPad and the Google Play version of the same movie on the Nexus 10 and Nexus 7, each movie playing through the tablet's native default video players.

The final score is an average of two full runs on each tablet, with the two numbers coming within 5 percent of each other.

Crimson Life Sciences Offers Cost-Saving Technology Solution for Chinese Regulation 276

Crimson Life Sciences, a division of TransPerfect and the only ISO 13485 and ISO 14971 certified translation provider, has introduced an advanced XML labeling solution to help manufacturers cope with the effects of changing regulatory requirements such as French Decree No 2012-743 of May 9, 2012 and China’s medical device Regulation Number 276 (unofficial translation and analysis available upon request from info@crimsonlanguage.com). The regulatory changes, prompted in part by healthcare scandals such as the PIP breast implant recall, require device companies to make substantial content updates. Crimson’s XML-based publishing solution enables manufacturers to automate labeling updates, eliminate formatting costs, and realize savings up to 40% over traditional methods.

Changing Regulations Drive Labeling Costs
A raft of new and revised medical device regulations, including France’s Decree No 2012-743 of May 9, 2012 and China’s updated Regulation Number 276, will create significant compliance challenges for many manufacturers in 2013. That’s the prediction of Marc Miller, President of Crimson Life Sciences: “Labeling mistakes are the number one cause of product recalls and these new regulations will affect tens of thousands of IFUs and marketing pieces industry-wide.”

In fact, recent research from Crimson indicates that the “Total Cost of Content” for device makers, including updates imposed by changing regulations, amounts to $1 billion per year (research memo available upon request from info@crimsonlanguage.com). According to Miller, “Most manufacturers operate with a document-based system for their labeling and marketing materials – working in applications like Word, InDesign, or Illustrator. In order to make updates, each individual document must be opened and modified. For large manufacturers with hundreds or even thousands of products, each small change can take weeks or even months to implement and comes with enormous cost and error risk.”

A Cure for the $1 Billion Industry Headache
As labeling updates become more frequent due to changing regulatory requirements and corporate rebranding, manufacturers are exploring new ways to achieve cost and time savings. Crimson’s solution is based on industry-standard DITA XML publishing strategies and proven, mature technologies to help manufacturers safely reduce labeling costs by as much as 40%. Explains Miller, “Not only does XML publishing make sense for manufacturers who want to reduce the cost of labeling, it also opens up a whole range of opportunities for content reuse in other channels, such as the web and tablet-based multimedia apps.”

Through the development of a custom “Information Model,” Crimson works with manufacturers to convert their content to XML format for storage and automated retrieval in the same Component Content Management system used by device makers industry-wide (and developed by sister company, Astoria Software). Publishing is then automated through the use of document templates. Any content changes made by the user are automatically propagated to all documents where the designated change occurs. Says Miller, “Thanks to the many cost-cutting efforts underway in the device industry, XML publishing based on the DITA standard is quickly becoming the labeling strategy of choice for global, multi-product manufacturers. We are pleased that we could develop this solution in partnership with Astoria Software—the recognized leader in DITA-based XML publishing systems.”

Why Mars Life Hunt Targets Methane

The hunt for life on Mars took a new turn today (Nov. 2), with the news that NASA's Mars rover Curiosity detected no methane in its first few sniffs of Red Planet air.

The search for Red Planet life has long been intertwined with the search for methane, which is why so many scientists and laypeople alike were probably disappointed by the initial atmospheric readings from Curiosity's Sample Analysis at Mars instrument, or SAM.

"Everybody is excited about the possibility about methane from Mars, because life as we know it produces methane," SAM co-investigator Sushil Atreya, of the University of Michigan, told reporters today.
A possible biosignature

At least 90 percent of the methane in Earth's atmosphere is biologically derived, Atreya said. As a result, many researchers regard Martian methane as a possible indicator of Red Planet life.

Further, scientists think the gas disappears rapidly from the Martian atmosphere, meaning any methane swirling there today was likely produced in the recent past.

"The conventional destruction mechanism of methane is photochemistry, as on Earth, and that results in a several-hundred-year lifetime of methane on Mars," Atreya said, adding that some of the gas is probably absorbed by the Red Planet surface as well.

But detecting lots of methane on Mars would not be convincing evidence of life by any stretch. The gas can also be produced by abiotic processes, such as the degradation of interplanetary dust particles by ultraviolet light and interactions between water and rocks. Comet strikes may also deliver methane to Mars, Atreya said.

An evolving story
Other research teams using several different ground-based and space-based instruments have detected methane in Mars air. The observed concentrations have been very low, between 10 and 50 parts per billion or so.

SAM's initial readings don't necessarily invalidate these previous measurements, researchers say. But the rover's results do highlight the need to better understand the sources and sinks of Martian methane.
Toward that end, the Curiosity team plans to keep hunting for methane over the course of Curiosity's two-year mission, which aims to determine if the Red Planet could ever have supported microbial life.
"At least for now, the sinks seem to be winning over the sources," Atreya said. "But that also could change with time."