On October 22, 2019 Quest Diagnostics Incorporated (NYSE: DGX), the world’s leading provider of diagnostic information services, reported financial results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2019 (Press release, Quest Diagnostics, OCT 22, 2019, View Source [SID1234542395]).

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"We had a solid quarter of top and bottom-line growth," said Steve Rusckowski, Chairman, CEO and President. "While PAMA reimbursement pressures persist throughout the industry, our expanded network access and laser focus on driving operational excellence are enabling growth. Based on our progress to date we have updated our outlook and are well-positioned to meet our commitments for the rest of the year."

For further details impacting the year-over-year comparisons related to operating income, operating income as a percentage of net revenues, income from continuing operations attributable to Quest Diagnostics, and diluted EPS from continuing operations, see note 2 of the financial tables attached below.

Beginning in 2019, the company has changed how it presents adjusted income measures to additionally exclude amortization expense for all periods presented. We believe this presentation provides investors with additional insight to evaluate our performance period over period and relative to competitors, as well as to analyze the underlying trends in our business.

As used in this press release the term "reported" refers to measures under accounting principles generally accepted in the United States ("GAAP"). The term "adjusted" refers to non-GAAP operating performance measures that exclude special items such as restructuring and integration charges, amortization expense, excess tax benefits ("ETB") associated with stock-based compensation and other items.

Non-GAAP adjusted measures are presented because management believes those measures are useful adjuncts to GAAP results. Non-GAAP adjusted measures should not be considered as an alternative to the corresponding measures determined under GAAP. Management may use these non-GAAP measures to evaluate our performance period over period and relative to competitors, to analyze the underlying trends in our business, to establish operational budgets and forecasts and for incentive compensation purposes. We believe that these non-GAAP measures are useful to investors and analysts to evaluate our performance period over period and relative to competitors, as well as to analyze the underlying trends in our business and to assess our performance. The additional tables attached below include reconciliations of non-GAAP adjusted measures to GAAP measures.

Conference Call Information

Quest Diagnostics will hold its quarterly conference call to discuss financial results beginning at 8:30 a.m. Eastern Time today. The conference call can be accessed by dialing 888-455-0391 within the U.S. and Canada, or 773-756-0467 internationally, passcode: Investor; or via live webcast on the company’s website at www.QuestDiagnostics.com/investor. The company suggests participants dial in approximately 10 minutes before the call.

A replay of the call may be accessed online at www.QuestDiagnostics.com/investor or by phone at 888-566-0408 for domestic callers or 402-998-0597 for international callers. No passcode is required. Telephone replays will be available from approximately 10:30 a.m. Eastern Time on October 22, 2019 until midnight Eastern Time on November 5, 2019. Anyone listening to the call is encouraged to read the company’s periodic reports, on file with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the discussion of risk factors and historical results of operations and financial condition in those reports.

On October 21, 2019 pH Pharma Co. Ltd., a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company advancing a diverse pipeline which includes therapeutic candidates for oncology, ophthalmology and NASH, and Immunome, Inc., a biotechnology company developing first-in-class antibodies as cancer therapeutics by harnessing the human immune response, reported the companies have entered into a collaboration and license agreement to discover unique antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) against multiple oncology targets (Press release, pH Pharma, OCT 21, 2019, View Source [SID1234632577]).

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Under the terms of the agreement, Immunome will conduct the initial antibody discovery and prioritization work with its proprietary platform. pH Pharma will conjugate the antibody candidates to its proprietary ADC payloads and test the ADC candidates for efficacy and safety.

"By combining Immunome’s ability to simultaneously identify novel targets and first-in-class human antibodies that work against them, and with pH Pharma’s capabilities in toxin payloads, there is tremendous potential to yield truly new and highly differentiated ADCs," said Purnanand Sarma, Ph.D., chief executive officer of Immunome. "pH Pharma’s innovative payloads act via a novel mechanism, and the resulting ADCs are expected to improve the potency of a subset of Immunome antibodies against a wide variety of cancer types."

Hoyoung Huh, M.D. Ph.D., chief executive officer of pH Pharma said, "This partnership offers a truly unique opportunity to bring together two proprietary platform technologies in order to create beneficial medicines for cancer patients. The Immunome platform represents an innovative approach to identify targets and antibodies in the immune repertoire of cancer patients that specifically contribute to positive health outcomes. Research collaborations such as this provide important validation of pH Pharma’s payload and ADC capabilities and are an important part of our strategy for building a leading global healthcare company."

The agreement terms state that pH Pharma will have the right to develop and commercialize the first development candidate generated in the collaboration with a selection process to determine rights to subsequent candidates. The company that develops and commercializes the candidate(s) will pay certain development, regulatory and commercial milestones to the other company worth up to $100 million for each product, with the potential for multiple candidates to be developed and commercialized. Royalties on net sales will be paid to the party that does not have commercial rights. Both parties will share in any revenue realized through sublicensing to third parties.

On October 21, 2019 Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated (Nasdaq: VRTX) reported that it will report its third quarter 2019 financial results on Wednesday, October 30, 2019 after the financial markets close (Press release, Vertex Pharmaceuticals, OCT 21, 2019, View Source [SID1234542413]). The company will host a conference call and webcast at 5:00 p.m. ET. To access the call, please dial (866) 501-1537 (U.S.) or +1 (720) 545-0001 (International).

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The conference call will be webcast live and a link to the webcast can be accessed through Vertex’s website at www.vrtx.com in the "Investors" section. To ensure a timely connection, it is recommended that participants register at least 15 minutes prior to the scheduled webcast. An archived webcast will be available on the company’s website.

On October 21, 2019 Exicure, Inc. (Nasdaq: XCUR), a pioneer in gene regulatory and immunotherapeutic drugs utilizing spherical nucleic acid (SNA) constructs, reported that its chief financial officer, David Snyder, will give a company update on Tuesday, October 22, 2019 at 11:00am PT at the 2019 BIO Investor Forum in San Francisco (Press release, Exicure, OCT 21, 2019, View Source [SID1234542394]).

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A live audio webcast will be available on the Investors section of Exicure’s website: www.exicuretx.com. The webcast will be archived for approximately 30 days following the event.

On October 21, 2019 Rheos Medicines, a biopharmaceutical company harnessing insights in immunometabolism to create a new class of therapeutics for patients with severe autoimmune disorders, inflammatory diseases and cancer, reported the appointment of industry veteran Barbara S. Fox, Ph.D., to Chief Executive Officer (Press release, Rheos Medicines, OCT 21, 2019, View Source [SID1234542393]). Dr. Fox succeeds interim Chief Executive Officer, Abbie Celniker, Ph.D., a partner at Third Rock Ventures, who will remain Chairman of Rheos Medicines’ board of directors.

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"Rheos’ scientific founders and passionate scientists are leaders in the field, and their groundwork has established an incredible foundation on which to build upon. I look forward to working with the Rheos team as we leverage the Company’s proprietary immunometabolism product engine to unlock a new frontier in drug discovery."

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"We are delighted to welcome Barbara to the team and believe her track record makes her an ideal fit as Rheos Medicines’ Chief Executive Officer," said Dr. Celniker. "We are confident that Barbara’s expertise in building and leading organizations will be an indispensable asset for Rheos and will propel the Company as it develops precision medicines for autoimmunity and other immune-mediated diseases."

Dr. Fox brings more than 25 years of biopharmaceutical leadership expertise to Rheos Medicines. She joins the Company from Tilos Therapeutics, a Lexington, MA-based biotech company developing antibody-based therapies for oncology and immune-mediated diseases. Dr. Fox served as Chief Executive Officer at Tilos and led the successful acquisition of the company by Merck in June of this year. Previous positions include Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Partners Innovation Fund, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Avaxia Biologics, Founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Recovery Pharmaceuticals, and VP, Discovery and Immunology at ImmuLogic Pharmaceutical Corp. Prior to ImmuLogic, Dr. Fox was an Associate Professor of Rheumatology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. Dr. Fox received her A.B. in Chemistry from Bryn Mawr College, her Ph.D. in Chemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and trained as a post-doc in Cellular Immunology at the National Institutes of Health.

"Rheos Medicines is pioneering and industrializing the emerging field of immunometabolism, and I am thrilled to be joining at such a pivotal time in the Company’s evolution," said Dr. Fox. "Rheos’ scientific founders and passionate scientists are leaders in the field, and their groundwork has established an incredible foundation on which to build upon. I look forward to working with the Rheos team as we leverage the Company’s proprietary immunometabolism product engine to unlock a new frontier in drug discovery."