Day: April 25, 2023

MILWAUKEE, April 25, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — WHR Global (WHR), a leader in the global employee relocation industry, announced the release of its international 2023 Destination Services Benchmark Report called “Ask the Expert.” WHR surveyed 32 companies from its trusted destination services provider network, covering 56 countries worldwide. WHR believes its Benchmark report will help current and future clients compare their global mobility programs to other companies’ destination service offerings for relocating employees and assignees. As companies continue to compete for talent, relocation benefits must be competitive.

Destination services help relocating employees get settled in their new location and can include the following: Area Orientation; Local Registration; Tenancy Management, Lease Check Out and Property Management; Home Search; Mortgage Counseling; Temporary Housing; Spousal and Partner Career Assistance; Help with Immigration (Visa and Immigration Regulations); School Search for Children; Moving Pets; Language and Cultural Training; and Other Settling-In Services.

WHR’s Benchmark data includes the following for 56 countries:

• The average number of days companies offer destination services and days recommended, by country (by entry-level, mid-level and executive-level employees; and by varying family sizes).
• The most common leasing arrangement for expats, by country.
• Destination services presenting the most difficulty, by country.
• Departure services offered for employees leaving a location, by country.
• Ease or difficulty getting security deposits back and timeline, by country.
• Additional recommended destination services, by country.

According to WHR Strategic Initiatives Manager, Sean Thrun, “Benchmarking destination services helps answer key questions that are critical to employee engagement and retention: Am I offering my employees enough support? Should we provide departure services, or are employees capable of handling on their own? What should my employees be aware of when they move to this country? If your employees are highly specialized and difficult to replace, this Benchmark will guide the service level you provide, and help your employees relocate eyes wide open.”

Findings from the comprehensive Benchmark include:

• In Germany, a security deposit can take up to 11 months to be returned because the tenant must wait until the end of the year for utility company calculations.
• In the Philippines, a destination service provider recommended at least two days support for entry-level employees (with family sizes of one) and five days of support for executive-level employees (with family sizes of three).

See more data and download the complete 2023 Destination Services Benchmark Report “Ask the Expert” here.

About WHR Global
WHR Global (WHR) is a private, client-driven global relocation management company distinguished by its best-in-class service delivery and cutting-edge, proprietary technology. WHR has offices in Milwaukee, Wis., Basel, Switzerland, and Singapore. With its 100% client retention rate for the past decade, WHR continues to position itself as the trusted leader in global employee relocation. WHR lives by its vision and passion for Advancing Lives Forward^® and Making the Complex Simple. To learn more about WHR, visit http://www.whrg.com, or follow on LinkedIn or Twitter.

Media Contact: Mindy Stroiman, Corporate Writer
Mindy.Stroiman@whrg.com
262.523.7510

GlobeNewswire Distribution ID 8812389

The premium chauffeur service now offers guests the opportunity to book rides between key metropolitan areas, boosting altogether 127 connections

With this move, Blacklane is becoming the high quality transport solution alternative, adding a new level to sustainable next-generation urban mobility

City-to-city offers chauffeurs a reliable revenue stream

BERLIN, April 25, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Today, Blacklane, the leading global chauffeur service, announced that its City-to-city offering will expand by 98 new routes in Australia, Canada, France, Ireland, Italy, the KSA, the U.S., the UK, the U.A.E. and Thailand, bringing the total offering to 127. This includes connections between key metropolitan areas such as London and Manchester, UK, New York and Atlantic City, U.S., as well as Rome and Florence, Italy (full list please see below). Blacklane guests now have the opportunity to book professionally chauffeured rides and enjoy a comfortable, safe, reliable and stress-free travel experience. All rides have a fixed fare including taxes, tolls and tips, guaranteeing a transparent pricing model adding to the peace-of-mind experience Blacklane offers.

The expansion of its City-to-city services is part of Blacklane’s continued growth efforts which focus on diversifying its products as well as exploring new markets. Blacklane’s product range includes airport transfers, City-to-city services, On-demand rides in metropolitan areas as well as hourly bookings. The company is active in 50 countries. With services all around the world, Blacklane not only gets its guests where they need to go safely, but also sustainably. Travelers can ride with Blacklane with ease knowing that all rides and routes are 100% carbon neutral as the company offsets all carbon emissions from all trips, an industry first. In addition, Blacklane’s services are a real alternative to short-haul flights and offer cost savings as the seats can be shared among up to four individuals. At the same time, this approach reduces empty leg journeys for the chauffeurs and offers them new, sustainable income streams.

For guests, the added conveniences are a reliable schedule where they travel on their own time and are not bound to a fixed schedule. In addition, the journey is seamless from door to door, so the guests don’t have to worry about the first or last leg of their journey. A recent survey* Blacklane released with YouGov actually found that 57% of recipients choose a car service, such as Blacklane, over other modes of travel because of this convenience. Lastly, Blacklane’s limousines offer comfort and privacy which enables guests to either fully relax or continue with their work uninterrupted – 36% of recipients in the YouGov survey expressed this is a must when traveling long-distance.

Dr. Jens Wohltorf, Co-Founder and CEO of Blacklane, said: “Blacklane continues to accelerate to reach its growth goals by successfully combining highly personalized services with advanced technology platforms. We are strategically investing in important and popular long-distance routes across several markets to diversify our business model and expand into new sectors. This is also beneficial from an urban mobility perspective as our rides are a real alternative to short-haul flights.”

Blacklane’s focus is on sustainably delivering luxurious experiences, thereby reimagining premium mobility globally. The company pays extra attention to the customer, ensuring they are not only comfortable and relaxed, but that they are getting the highest quality and best-in-class driving services and experience with their chauffeur. For more information and to book a ride, please visit: https://www.blacklane.com/en/city-to-city/.

Full list of long-distance rides:

Australia

• Brisbane – Gold Coast

Canada

• Vancouver – Whistler

France

• Lyon – Courchevel
• Lyon – Megève
• Lyon – Méribel
• Lyon – Val-d’Isère
• Marseille – Aix-en-Provence
• Monaco – Cannes
• Marseille – Montpellier
• Monaco – Nice
• Monaco – Saint Tropez
• Montpellier – Toulouse
• Nice – Aix-en-Provence
• Nice – Cannes
• Nice – Marseille
• Nice – Saint Tropez
• Nice – Toulon
• Paris – Angers
• Paris – Bayeux
• Paris – Caen
• Paris – Disneyland
• Paris – Clermont-Ferrand
• Paris – Le Havre
• Paris – Le Mans
• Paris – Lille
• Paris – Lyon
• Paris – Nantes
• Paris – Orléans
• Paris – Reims
• Paris – Rennes
• Paris – Rouen

Germany

• Berlin – Dresden
• Berlin – Hamburg
• Berlin – Leipzig
• Cologne – Duesseldorf
• Duesseldorf – Bonn
• Duesseldorf – Frankfurt/Main
• Frankfurt/Main – Baden-Baden
• Frankfurt/Main – Bonn
• Frankfurt/Main – Cologne
• Frankfurt/Main – Nuremberg
• Frankfurt/Main – Stuttgart
• Hamburg – Bremen
• Hamburg – Hanover
• Munich – Frankfurt/Main
• Munich – Nuremberg
• Munich – Passau
• Munich – Regensburg
• Munich – Stuttgart

Ireland

• Dublin – Belfast
• Dublin – Galway
• Dublin – Shannon

Italy

• Bologna – Florence
• Naples – Positano
• Naples – Sorrento
• Rome – Florence
• Rome – Naples
• Rome – Positano
• Rome – Sorrento

KSA

• Jeddah – Mecca

Thailand

• Bangkok – Pattaya

U.S.

• Austin – San Antonio
• Chicago – Milwaukee
• Fort Lauderdale – Orlando
• Fort Lauderdale – Palm Beach
• Fort Lauderdale – Tampa
• Houston – Austin
• Los Angeles – Disneyland Anaheim
• Los Angeles – Las Vegas
• Los Angeles – Palm Springs
• Los Angeles – San Diego
• Los Angeles – Santa Barbara
• Miami – Fort Lauderdale
• Miami – Orlando
• Miami – Palm Beach
• Miami – Tampa
• New York – Atlantic City
• New York – Boston
• New York – East Hampton
• New York – Greenport
• New York – Greenwich
• New York – Montauk
• New York – Philadelphia
• New York – Washington, D.C.
• Palm Beach – Orlando
• Palm Beach – Tampa
• Philadelphia – Atlantic City
• Tampa – Orlando
• Washington, D.C. – Baltimore

UK

• Birmingham – Manchester
• Bristol – Cardiff
• Exeter – Manchester
• Glasgow – Ayr
• Glasgow – Edinburgh
• Glasgow – Manchester
• Inverness – Edinburgh
• London – Basingstoke
• London – Birmingham
• London – Bournemouth
• London – Brighton
• London – Bristol
• London – Cambridge
• London – Canterbury
• London – Cardiff
• London – Cheltenham
• London – Colchester
• London – Coventry
• London – Dover
• London – Ipswich
• London – Leeds
• London – Leicester
• London – Liverpool
• London – Manchester
• London – Milton Keynes
• London – Northampton
• London – Norwich
• London – Oxford
• London – Portsmouth
• London – Reading
• London – Southampton
• Manchester – Crewe
• Manchester – Liverpool
• Manchester – Leeds
• Manchester – Sheffield
• Manchester – York

U.A.E.

• Dubai – Abu Dhabi

*Survey Methodology: YouGov conducted this survey around long-distance travel from February 21st, 2023 through March 2nd, 2023 using an online interview administered to members of the YouGov PLC UK panel of over 800,000 individuals.

Download Press Materials.

ABOUT BLACKLANE
Blacklane’s global chauffeur service brings peace of mind to travelers moving through a fast-paced world. The crew’s dedication to safety, reliability, and smart technology places Blacklane at the forefront of a new era of stress-free travel. Since 2017, the company has been carbon-neutral, combining a five-star guest experience with care for the planet. Upgrade your travels on Blacklane’s mobile apps or website.

For Blacklane global media inquiries, please contact:

Blacklane GmbH
Radmila Palová
press@blacklane.com
+49 157 80 67 4435

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/c5a5a5b3-624b-48f2-9de8-692d9654fcdb

GlobeNewswire Distribution ID 8824723

Abu Dhabi, April 24, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Insilico Medicine (“Insilico”), a clinical-stage generative artificial intelligence (AI)-driven drug discovery company which operates the largest AI-powered biotech R&D center in the Middle East, announced that it has successfully discovered a potent, selective, and orally bioavailable small molecule inhibitor of CDK8 for the treatment of cancer using a structure-based generative chemistry approach enabled by the Chemistry42 generative reinforcement learning platform. The research was published in the American Chemical Society’s Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, a leading journal in medicinal chemistry.

As members of the CDK family, CDK8 and its paralog protein CDK19 play critical roles in regulating transcription of many different signaling pathways involved in oncogenic control. Deregulation of CDK8/19 has been implicated as a driving force in many human cancers, particularly in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and advanced solid tumors. Moreover, CDK8/19 is also involved in immune modulation. Targeting CDK8/19 could enhance NK cell cytotoxicity and stimulate NK cell-mediated tumor surveillance. Therefore, targeting CDK8/19 is regarded as a promising strategy with a two-in-one mechanism of action that not only inhibits tumor cell growth, but also increases immune cell activity.

The research published by Insilico was supported by its generative chemistry engine, Chemistry42, which is built on years of modeling and pre-training of large biological, chemical and textual datasets. Chemistry42 includes 42 generative engines and more than 500 predictive engines for scoring which allows researchers to generate molecules with desired properties from scratch using deep learning technologies through structure-based drug design (SBDD) and ligand-based drug design (LBDD).

In this study, scientists described the process of using the SBDD module of Chemistry42 to generate a key anchor linker and identify the hit compound targeting CDK8. Over several optimization cycles, R&D scientists further improved in vitro metabolic stability, kinase selectivity, and in vivo pharmacokinetic profile cross-species, leading to the discovery of one potent, selective, and orally bioavailable inhibitor of CDK8, which was evaluated in in vivo efficacy studies and demonstrated robust tumor growth inhibition in multiple in vivo efficacy models.

In addition to the published molecule, Insilico scientists are progressing with another AI-generated CDK8 inhibitor with a novel structure. Insilico is open to potential partnerships with pharmaceutical companies to co-develop the drug candidate.

“At Insilico, we encourage scientists to share their innovative insights in AI-driven drug discovery with the industry by publishing peer-reviewed papers,” said Feng Ren, PhD, Co-CEO and Chief Scientific Officer of Insilico Medicine. “In this case, we have not only discovered a novel compound for a promising target, but also provided innovative practices in early drug discovery supported by generative AI.”

Insilico has pioneered applying multiple generative approaches for drug design in both generative chemistry and generative biology and published the first paper in generative chemistry. The company then submitted the relevant patents on applying these generative approaches for chemistry and biology, and integrated these approaches into the commercially available Pharma.AI platform, which includes PandaOmics a system utilizing multiple predictive and generative biology models; a generative chemistry engine, Chemistry42; and a clinical trial outcomes prediction engine InClinico, which utilizes a combination of omics-based predictors and text-based transformers. Powered by generative AI, Insilico is delivering breakthroughs for healthcare in multiple disease areas. The lead program targeting fibrosis-driven diseases has completed  Phase 0 and Phase I clinical trials and received positive Phase I topline data and Orphan Drug Designation.

“We described the concept of using generative AI for the design of novel molecules in a peer-reviewed journal in 2016 for the first time. Later, we developed multiple approaches and new features for our GAN-based AI platform for drug design. We also started patenting our findings so that ,in some areas, patents preceded publications. Some of my favorite patents combine generative chemistry and generative biology,” said Alex Zhavoronkov, PhD, Founder and CEO of Insilico Medicine. “I am excited to see  that with the support of generative AI, we have achieved several industry milestones and advanced the drug candidates discovered by generative AI to the clinical stage. In 2022 alone, we nominated 9 preclinical candidates utilizing generative AI. We are committed to refining our approach and tools to reshape the future of healthcare by generative innovation.”

About Insilico Medicine

Insilico Medicine, a clinical-stage generative artificial intelligence (AI)-driven drug discovery company, is connecting biology, chemistry, and clinical trials analysis using next-generation AI systems. The company has developed AI platforms that utilize deep generative models, reinforcement learning, transformers, and other modern machine learning techniques for novel target discovery and the generation of novel molecular structures with desired properties. Insilico Medicine is developing breakthrough solutions to discover and develop innovative drugs for cancer, fibrosis, immunity, central nervous system diseases, infectious diseases, autoimmune diseases, and aging-related diseases. In early 2023, the Company opened the Insilico Medicine Generative Artificial Intelligence and Quantum Computing Research and Development Centre in Abu Dhabi, the region’s largest AI-powered biotechnology research center. The R&D hub brings together global talent in artificial intelligence and software development to expand the capabilities of Insilico’s end-to-end AI-driven drug discovery platform, Pharma.AI, explore aging research and sustainable chemistry, and support the digital transformation of healthcare in the region. www.insilico.com

Attachment

• Generative AI-Produced Inhibitor of CDK8

Jamila Alhammadi
Insilico Medicine
475-225-0843
j.alhammadi@insilicomedicine.com

GlobeNewswire Distribution ID 8824301