Colorado State Supreme Court in a Landmark Ruling Favors Oil Industry over Environmental Concerns in the Martinez Case

A news of great relief for Colorado’s oil and gas industry came on Monday as Colorado’s Supreme Court ruled in favor of oil and gas companies which after the decision won’t require environmental permits from Colorado Oil and Gas Commission (COGCC). The Martinez case which dragged on for years has seen some major ups and downs through its journey before coming to this decision.

The issue which started when Xiuhtezcatl Martinez an 18 year old student and environmental activist who in 2013 with the help of 6 other young students filed a petition to the COGCC which regulates all oil drillings in the state of Colorado. The petition asked the regulator that before issuing permits to drill oil and gas to corporations environmental impact assessment should be carried out by using scientifically demonstrable methods and by an independent third party to ensure that no environmental damage occurs. The commission rebuffed the petition by saying that their job is to balance environmental and industry concerns and not to give one more priority over other.

The young activists went to the trial court level but lost again. But they were far from being subdued, in 2017 a panel of Colorado Appeals Court judges in a landmark ruling for oil and gas industry ruled in favor of the activists and reversed the trial court’s ruling. The Appeals Court judges ruled in favor of compulsory environmental impact based permits based on a 41 word passage in the state law as following  :“utilization of the natural resources of oil and gas in the state of Colorado in a manner consistent with protection of public health, safety, and welfare, including protection of the environment and wildlife resources’’.

The court said that the wording ‘in consistent with’ explicitly requires the state to consider environmental impact as a prerequisite for permit approvals. This came as a shock to the oil and gas industry, but the new ruling by the state Supreme Court reverses this judgment. The court said that the wording only suggests striking balance between competing interests and it should not be taken as an order of priority.

Martinez said that the ruling was not surprising at all but very disappointing indeed. The activist along with others have complained of gross and persistent neglect by state authorities to address the concerns of environmental activists. The ruling has been received differently by the opposing factions of the tussle mainly environmental groups and oil industry.

Members of the oil industry have welcomed the ruling which came as a major relief for them. Colorado Petroleum Council’s executive director Tracee Bentley said that the ruling is ‘positive for all Coloradans’ and expressed that the ruling will ensure development of energy in Colorado and United States.

As more and more people have expressed the inadequacy of the law to protect public safety and environment, Democratic lawmakers are planning to introduce legislation which will force COGCC to consider health and public safety in priority over others while doling out drilling permits.

WANdisco, a Company Based Both in UK and US has Launched LiveData for Multicloud Platform for General Availability

WANdisco has launched its LiveData for Multicloud a technology which processes data on distributed terminals across multiple platforms on January 16 for general use. The technology is powered by a high performance and patented consensus technology called DConE.

As multicloud management is becoming the leading priority in IT world, the multi cloud management software has been expected to grow up to $4.4 billion by 2022. Many tech companies are taking the challenge head on to provide a management software which synchronizes with multiple cloud platforms in real time to leverage best features of each cloud solutions provider. Multicloud strategy which evolved as an answer to the risks involved in relying on single cloud platform and legacy data protection tools which includes data outage as well as natural disasters.  

For the multicloud strategy to work, there is a significant challenge of ensuring a consistent and live data lifecycle management. LiveData offers to resolve this issue by providing a resilient and consistent cloud environ by eliminating points of failure and latency. LiveData gives business the flexibility to choose particular features from a particular cloud to maximize overall performance.

WANdisco has witnessed a year of significant milestones from winning a blockchain patent for DConE technology to securing its first and largest cloud contract with US health insurer for $3 million. It also extended Hadoop services to multiple cloud environments by including value-added services like BigSQL, Hive, Knox and Rangers. It introduced blob storage as well as multi cloud object storage in its list of service offerings and secured a major original equipment manufacturer agreement with Alibaba Cloud. 

Its list of customers include big names like Daimler AG, Morgan Stanley and AMD who are already using WANdisco’s fusion enterprise software.

WANdisco says that the change data capture technology adopts a unidirectional data replicating approach while LiveData’s approach is rather bidirectional or multidirectional which allows continuous replication necessary for reading and writing multiple applications to the same data. The company’s CEO David Richards said that the company manages this at petabytes of scale by producing 4 petabytes of data per day.

WANdisco just recently in a team effort with IBM has announced the development of relational database technology for extending WANdisco Fusion also called IBM Big Replicate to customers in need of a hybrid cloud environment.

Boeing, US Space Giant Invests $14 Million in UK-based Satellite Antenna Startup Isotropic Ventures

Boeing, the Chicago based aerospace giant has invested in a UK based startup which has developed a technology which promises to radically transform the manufacture of satellite antennas by controlling the direction of radio frequency waves.  The investment which came from the investment arm of Boeing called Boeing HorizonX Venture will be used to bring the technology of Isotropic Systems to the market.

The $14 million investment will be the second in line of investment in a British space company by Boeing Ventures in less than a year’s time. The investment comes in the wake of the ongoing storm of Brexit that surrounds the UK industry.

Isotropic Systems which prides at being the next generation satellite terminal provider has used the transformational optical technology for producing a fully electronic low cost tracking terminal. The company uses transformational optics used for bending light and has adopted it to radio waves. The technology bends radio waves through optical devices for making satellite antennas with no mobile parts as well as cheaper manufacturing process than the existing antennas.

With the advent of non-geostationary and high-throughput satellite systems, the satellite industry is undergoing a major shift. The new systems will demand better ground infrastructure which will need satellite antennas to be of greater capacity. The company’s chief executive John Finney believes that Isotropic’s technology will be instrumental in wide scale adoption of satellite communication, for example its application in maritime industry will enable access to low cost broadband to smaller fishing vessels beyond just superyachts. 

Boeing HorizonX Venture director Brian Schettler believes that Isotropic’s solution increases existing capabilities of satellite antennas to many fold at reduced costs. The unit in April 2018 invested in British aerospace manufacturer Reaction Engines Ltd based in Oxfordshire, England. Others investors participating in the Series A round of funding include  two venture funds Space Angel and Space Capital along with a private individual who prefers to be unidentified.

Isotropic formed in 2014 with the backing of grant funding form InnovateUK, UK’s Innovation fund and UK Space Agency. Mr. Finney believes the previous funding was instrumental in nurturing IP in last four years. He is optimistic about the future of UK’s space industry amidst the Brexit uncertainties.

The fear that UK won’t be able to guide the development of the pan- European 10 billion euro Galileo Satellite navigation program’s military aspects post Brexit had urged UK to threaten withdrawal from the project in November 2018. This leaves the future of several UK companies hanging who are closely involved in the Galileo Project. Talks on Galileo and Copernicus projects are still underway which are important for UK’s ambition of generating 40 billion euros through space sector alone by 2030.

Mr. Finney also expressed that it sees Isotropic’s future mainly in UK owing to the support offered by UK Space Agency and that it may shift the engineering resources from US to UK in near future.

Amazon, Samsung Including Retail and Labeling Giants are Investing Big in Israel-based Battery Free Chip Startup Williot

Wiliot, an Israeli startup which harnesses electromagnetic energy in nanowatts from Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and cellular networks to work without any battery or other wired sources has announced that it has secured funding of $30 million from a bunch of companies.

The investors are some of the biggest names in financial and strategic venture capital investment which include Samsung, Avery Dennison and Amazon. Previous investors are Qualcomm Ventures, M Ventures, Grove Venture Partners, 83 North Venture Capital and Norwest Ventures. A retail giant with an undisclosed name is involved in the investment round. With $50 raised up till now the startup is valued at $120 million.

The chip basically is supported without any battery, which can measure air pressure, location and temperature and transmits the information to cloud. The chip is useful for in tagging, logistics and manufacturing for transmitting data about any non-electronic object. It will be a boon for internet of things devices and applications.

The senior vice president of the marketing and business division, Steve Statler said that the initial applications of the chip could be adopted in apparels industry. The chips could be integrated into care labels both manufacturing to sale and will help in providing services to the buyer. The other applications include wardrobe recommendations to washing instructions. The chip although has not been rolled out commercially but the CEO and co-founder of Williot, Tal Tamir said that the new series B funding will be used to find large scale chip production methods as well as sell the chips to its first customers.

The latest bunch of investors may be looking at the investment in strategic point of view. As Avery Dennison is world’s biggest RFID tags and label maker, Qualcomm and Samsung are semiconductor giants while Amazon has been planning to AI based fashion recommendations as well as apparels through its Alexa platform. Its platform Amazon Web Services can aid Williot for the cloud computing part of the chip.

Williot wants tap into the huge amount of electromagnetic energy that gets produced as part of wireless services like Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. The technology can only work where wireless networks are readily available. One significant limitation is that it cannot be used in regions of low and zero connectivity. Another challenge is to ensure energy efficiency for devices to operate on nanowatts instead of watts of power.

The other key players in the field are Sigfox in France, these budding startups with their innovations could open doors for more ambient and sophisticated power solutions. For Williot CEO Tal, this is just the tip of an iceberg who believes that the coming age of edge computing will bring devices using energy from radio frequency. Amazon has also recently acquired another Israeli startup which offers edge computing solutions CloudEndure.

Open Bionics, The UK-based Tech Startup has Raised $5.9 Million in Series-A Funding for its Affordable 3D Printed Bionic Limbs

Open Bionics, named as one of the hottest startups in Europe, has bagged a $5.9 million funding for its affordable and cool bionic limbs. The startup having already received praises from Dalai Lama produces bionic limbs for children and adults using 3D printing technology. The limbs are cheap, lightweight and fashionable are medically certified and registered by FDA.

Amputees often use prosthetics, but earlier prosthetic were not very individualized which proved to be drag on the swift movements of limbs. Children using the prosthetics are often bullied by their peers, which causes a considerable amount trauma which they carry to later life. Inspired by this quest to design and develop cool, rock star like prosthetics with high technical and sensory capabilities, the founders of Open Bionics namely Joel Gibbard and Samantha Payne started their venture.

The startup has grown rapidly since its founding and just two years ago in 2016 it secured a deal with UK’s National Health Service which involves a feasibility study with SBRI Healthcare as partner to develop an affordable bionic multi-grip hand for amputees which may save millions of pounds for the UK government. The current bionic hands can cost $100,000 in some cases with no satisfactory performance, as sometimes the prosthetics don’t fit well or don’t work well.

Open Bionics has addressed the measurement issue by using a 3D printing technology to create personalized prosthetics for individual sizes. The $5.9 million investment which came from Williams Advanced Engineering Group, Ananda Impact Ventures and Downing Ventures will mark a successful Series-A round of funding. The company which is hosted at Bristol Robotics Lab will use the funding to expand to other markets as well like US, Germany, UK and France.

The company said that it has managed a price which is affordable enough to be adopted by UK’s National Health Service. The company the sale of its ‘Hero Arm’ in May 2018 which has been bestselling in the UK, Spain and France. The Hero Arm is equipped with sensors which enables it to track multiple finger movements allows movements at different speeds, the wearer as a result is able to pick up tiny objects like stones and carry shopping baskets with a strong grip.

The founders of the company who have received hottest founders award by The Europa Startup Awards said that the investment will provide Open Bionics crucial capital for delivering on its vision to provide advanced bionic prosthetics to multiple international markets as well to carry out more developments in the technology innovation.

EU Member States are Devising Post-Brexit Contingency Plans for Essential Drugs Supply as UK Grapples with Deal-No-Deal Ambiguity

Brexit’s uncertainties have plagued all industries alike, pharmaceuticals is no exception either. As UK heads for a possible no deal Brexit this year, Germany’s drug regulator has assured its patients that Brexit will not expose them to a loss of access to essential drugs. Ireland is drawing up a list of 24 most vulnerable medicines whose supply would be threatened if Britain exits without a deal.

The Irish drug market is heavily dependent on UK for transit of the drugs as around 60-70% of its drugs transit through or come from the UK. Prime Minister Leo Varadkar has said that he has been undertaking regular discussions with the health officials for the past 2 years to examine the possibility of any severe disruption in supply. Mr. Varadkar told the parliament that any stockpiling of the key drugs will eventually lead to a break in supply as a result they have decided against stockpiling. They are working with wholesalers and the pharmaceutical industry to ensure supply of the 24 key watch listed drugs they are most concerned about.

Germany’s BfArm Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices tasked the country’s main pharmaceutical industry associations to find out the effect of a no-deal Brexit on the supply of drugs. The regulator on its official website posted its analysis that no significant shortage of medicines is expected which are thought to have critical importance. 2600+ drugs used in the country at some stage or the other are manufactured in Britain. 45 million patient packs flow out of UK while 37 million in the opposite direction, according to the figures provided by the industrial bodies.

UK’s drug industry have been given a target by the government to stockpile six weeks of additional medicines to prepare for a no-deal Brexit. The industry said that the target will be a challenge. EU’s central drug authority European Medicines Agency is extra vigilant and has set up a task force to lessen the disruption in supply of drugs over the next 2 years. EMA said that Brexit would likely effect the supply of some drugs. EMA which is currently located in London is shifting to Amsterdam post-Brexit which has prompted many drugmakers to prepare for duplicate licensing and drug testing arrangements.

UK Prime Minister Theresa May’s epic loss in passing the Brexit deal in parliament has left her scrambling for a means to get her deal approved in the coming months. While Britain lingers on deal or no-deal Brexit, European Commission has prepared to publish no-deal Brexit contingency plan. The plan includes 14 urgent and essential policies that EU member states must adopt.

Boston Scientific Settles Longstanding Patent Lawsuit with Irvine-based Edward Lifesciences for $180 Million

Edwards Lifesciences is on the cusp of resolving the longstanding patent dispute with Marlborough, MA-based Company Boston Scientific over the Transcatheter aortic valve replacement device patents. The Irvin, CA based company has agreed pay $180 million as one-time payment to Boston Scientific.

The companies were involved in multiple patent office lawsuits and disputes in Germany, UK and the USA. Under the settlement which was announced on 15 Jan 2019, both the companies have resolved to withdraw the multiple complaints and disputes pending in various courts after Edwards Lifesciences pays the mutually agreed amount to Boston Scientific. However Boston Scientific has not revealed as to how the $180 million figure was decided.

This has cleared the path for relaunching of LOTUS aortic valve device later this year, a significant development after UK’s patent court and German Court gave mixed verdicts on the alleged infringement of Boston’s patent by Edward’s Sapien 3 device and a Delaware Courts verdict affirmed the infringement allegations.

Boston Scientific in 2017 announced the recall of the LOTUS devices due to delay in manufacturing and commercialization timeline. Reuters had forecasted the device sales in the 2017 year to reach between $100 million to $125 million in global annual sales. The LOTUS device is to be used for treating patients with aortic stenosis involves a relatively new development in treatment called transcatheter aortic valve replacement. The surgical which is minimally invasive, blood flow is regulated by replacing the damaged valve by inserting a replacement valve. The American Heart Association believes that it may lead to alleviation of some of the risk factors involved in open heart surgery for high and intermediate risk patients.

Boston Scientific has also recently announced the acquisition of Claret Medical Inc. which is a strategic acquisition considering the company’s extensive involvement in TAVR devices which are FDA- approved and able to filter of debris from the heart during medical procedures. The company is also acquiring Britain’s BTG Plc. for a $4.2 billion. The new settlement is another feather in the cap of Boston’s aggressive Intellectual property rights protection strategy. The settlement has given boost to the stock prices of the company, as Boston’s stock prices rose by over three percent to $36.48.  The TAVR device market is expected to reach $6.5 billion by the year 2022.  The company is one of the most formidable companies in the industry which in 2018 only undertook 9 new acquisitions along with couple of strategic investments worth $6 billion.

Centre for Process Innovation Starts a Project Aimed at Improving Pharmaceutical Processes through Simulation-based Computer Modelling

An InnovateUK initiative with cumulative funding of £700,000 is aimed at helping pharmaceuticals to manufacture particulates by the use of computer simulations. The Project is called Manufacturing of Particulate Process. The project which is led by Centre for Process Innovation is a 2 year long project which will improve the productivity of industrial processes through the use of computer modelling across the length and breadth of manufacturing processes.

The funding will be used to link the academic researchers to the industry experts so that laboratory processes could be adopted for addressing a range of industry requirements, which has for now culminated into the formation of a generic framework to be used by manufacturers for practical and industrial adoption of particle models. The initial application of the models will be used in pharmaceutical industry which in the manufacture of drugs uses cohesive powders.

The key feature of the framework includes a decision tool to be used by industrial organization based in UK for quicker access and easier adoption of particle models. The design provides engineers and product scientists a simulation based platform to better design and develop models involving particulates. And more importantly it will improve the quality of cohesive and fine powders used by pharmaceutical companies. The project will significantly enhance the productivity of the entire manufacturing process as well as aid in reducing manufacturing cost.

The MPP project manager Dr Caroline Kelly believes that the project involves world’s leading partners in several fields to deliver an innovative new process for translating particle modelling from academic research into industrial scale formulations.

EDEM, simulation based software process provider along with Process Systems Enterprise (PSE) were used by the project for developing models and were also validated using real life trials.

Head of Dept. formulated products at PSE, Dr Sean Birmingham is hopeful about CPI’s excellent demonstration on the capability of gPROMS PBM environment developed using the ADDoPT project for pharmaceutical digital design can be applied to other products industries as well which include specialty chemicals and fast moving consumer goods.

DEM and PBM which were previously constrained to only academic and research environment will find a mainstream industrial scale commercial application through the project. CPI is funded by InnovateUK which is an innovation agency which works independently of the government for supporting development of cutting edge research. CPI works in innovation in processing to aid diverse industries which include Electronics, Food, Energy and Healthcare.

Vestager to Face Questions on Her Blocking the Alstom-Siemens Merger Deal at the Strasbourg Meet

Margrethe Vestager, EU  Competition Commission’s chief will be facing questions from a college of EU commissioners about her decision to block one of the biggest mergers in the European Union which involves the corporate merger of Germany’s Siemens and France’s Alstom.

The merger of the two industrial heavyweights which manufactures rail parts is supported by the top leaderships of both French and German governments. The companies claim that the merger is necessary for ensuring that the two European corporations stand a chance against heavily state backed Chinese companies. The deal would create a united entity more of a European rail giant. However the deal backed by the governments is being blocked by Vestager and her supporters alleging that the deal would seriously threaten competition in industry biting a significant chunk of national markets and will leave the united entity in an unfairly dominant position resembling a monopoly.

Vestager who has garnered a reputation of crossing fierce adversaries such as US tech giants. Recent casualties of her tax rulings include Apple who was fined with a $15 billion compensation for malpractices by the EU commissioner. She was recently in news for intensifying investigation in the Nike’s Netherlands operations. She has been dubbed as ‘tax lady’ by the US President Donald Trump.

She has expressed at an event in Berlin, that although the EU needs European champions to compete against powerful foreign rivals but at the same time we can’t build them by making compromises with competition policies and letting member states disregard competition rules.

Grumbling voices are being heard from all quarters of French and German governments who are trying to swing political consensus in favor of the merger. Bruno Le Maire, the French Economy minister has warned that blocking the deal would be political mistake, while Prime Minister Edouard Philippe has warned that if the deal is blocked it would sentence European children with a fate to sit in trains built by non-European manufacturers 30 years down the lane.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel also protested by warning the EU that blocking big mergers which may compete against Asian rivals solely to protect competition would be wrong and threaten economic development of European businesses in the long run. Germany’s leading business lobby, BDI has also favored the merger.

At the meeting scheduled at Strasbourg, Vestager may face critics on her fierce opposition to the deal. Although EU historically has been pro-competition, China’s economic might and spreading global empire of Chinese corporations have forced many to rethink on the competition policies of the Union. Vestager, having angered powerful factions in many European governments as well as abroad has said that she may be friendless on European political stage and fears that this may be her last term as the competition commissioner.

Microsoft and Walgreen Both Biggest Names in Their Respective Fields have Signed a Deal for Innovation in Health-Technology Space

Microsoft has joined hand with pharmaceutical manufacturing and distribution company Walgreens Boots Alliance for its cloud computing solutions. The pharmacy chain as part of this strategic partnership will use Microsoft’s Azure cloud computing software as the two companies start innovation in healthcare sector.

Under the deal which spans seven years, Microsoft will provide Walgreens Boots Alliance 380,000 plus employee strength Office365 software, Windows 10 and other productivity tools, Walgreen on its part will move most of its information technology and cloud infrastructure to Microsoft’s artificial intelligence and cloud computing software Azure.

 In addition to partnership in cloud computing solutions, Microsoft and Walgreens are working ways to innovate in health care delivery systems for low cost and quality health outcomes. The research and development investment will span several years by which the companies are planning to establish joint innovation centers in strategically important markets. Walgreens will start 12 digital health corners in its stores. They’re aimed at sale and merchandising of health care related select devices. Microsoft and Walgreens have resolved to focus more personalized health care related experiences from disease management to preventive self-care.

The deal is the most strategic move by Microsoft when other huge conglomerates including Amazon are pushing boundaries and have entered into healthcare and health technology space. Amazon in 2018 has pushed aggressively into the healthcare sector with filings of several healthcare related technology patents as well as partnerships with companies like Berkshire Hathaway and JP Morgan for employee health initiative.

To launch in Healthcare which a complex industry with number of players including pharmaceuticals, wholesalers, hospital, medical device maker, distributor  and retail chains, a technology company like Microsoft needs tremendous expertise in the field. A partnership with a major enterprise in the industry like Walgreens gives Microsoft the credibility to go after other players in the space. Walgreens and other retail pharmacy players are wary of Amazon after the e-commerce giant bought pharmacy chain PillPack in June 2018. Walgreens has also recently partnered with Alphabet’s Life sciences division Verily for a project to help people take their medicine.

Microsoft has been actively pursuing partnerships with major companies for providing artificial intelligence and cloud computing solutions through its Azure platform.  The recent partnerships include Kroger, the grocery store chain, Walmart and Gap, the fashion retailer. It has inked deals with MasterCard, Nielson, General Electric and Royal Dutch Shell.  Microsoft’s stocks rose to 105.01 by 2.9% and Walgreens to 71.79 by 1.6% post announcement of the deal.