Novartis announced the US Food and Drug Administration has granted accelerated approval for Kymriah for the treatment of adult patients with relapsed or refractory, or r/r, follicular lymphoma, or FL, after two or more lines of systemic therapy. In accordance with the Accelerated Approval Program, continued approval for this indication may be contingent upon verification and description of clinical benefit in confirmatory trial(s). The approval is based on data from the Phase II ELARA trial, a single-arm, open-label trial, in which 90 patients were evaluated for efficacy with a median follow-up of approximately 17 months. Eighty-six percent of patients treated with Kymriah achieved a response including 68% who experienced a complete response, the company noted. "Kymriah is now FDA approved in three indications and remains the only CAR-T cell therapy approved in both adult and pediatric settings," the company stated.

Bristol Myers Squibb announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved both Opdivo in combination with fluoropyrimidine- and platinum-containing chemotherapy and Opdivo plus Yervoy as a first-line treatment for adult patients with unresectable advanced or metastatic esophageal squamous cell carcinoma, or ESCC, regardless of PD-L1 status. The approvals are based on the Phase 3 CheckMate -648 trial, which evaluated Opdivo in combination with chemotherapy and Opdivo plus Yervoy, each compared to chemotherapy alone, and was the largest Phase 3 trial of an immunotherapy in first-line ESCC, the company stated. Adam Lenkowsky, senior vice president and general manager, U.S., Cardiovascular, Immunology, Oncology, Bristol Myers Squibb, added, "Today's approvals bring two first-line immunotherapy-based treatment options at once, Opdivo in combination with chemotherapy and Opdivo plus Yervoy as the first dual immunotherapy option, to newly diagnosed patients with unresectable advanced or metastatic esophageal squamous cell carcinoma, further building on the role of Opdivo-based regimens in upper gastroesophageal cancers."

Akerna announced that the company is implementing a plan to reduce its workforce and operating costs in order to focus its resources, accelerate its path to profitability, and create stakeholder value. The company anticipates reporting $690,000 in total costs in its second quarter to implement the reduction in force, including the following cost elements: $630,000 in severance and associated payroll taxes; $40,000 in legal costs; and $20,000 in employee insurance benefits. Of the total cost, $440,000 in salaries, payroll taxes and benefits costs would have been reported in its second quarter if the reduction in force had not been implemented. "Our sales performance in 2022 has thus far met our expectations. We believe we are showing signs of progress with revenue now at a run rate of $27m at last filing," commented Jessica Billingsley, Akerna's Chief Executive Officer. "While we believe we can continue to grow revenue and continue to reduce expenses over time, we have made the decision to focus our initiatives on our enterprise business and new market expansion of our SMB business, at least until the market conditions and the regulatory environment are in more favorable territory. We can see a path to positive cash flows and profitability, and the board and the management team are committed to getting there on an accelerated timetable. While we continue to deal with liquidity concerns, our headcount reduction and additional cost savings measures represent a material annual cost savings. As part of this restructure, executive leadership team has also collectively agreed to a 25% reduction in salary to help support the company's cost savings initiatives. As we noted on our last earnings call, bookings have been strong and our CARR is $21.1 million, and we are looking to continue to grow our top-line through a combination of enterprise wins as well as the opportunity we see in new market expansion from the SMB side of the business," added Ms. Billingsley.

Northrop Grumman was awarded a $254.42M firm-fixed-price modification to a previously awarded contract to exercise an option for production of Surface Electronic Warfare Improvement Program Block 3 Hemisphere systems. Work is expected to be completed by September 2025. FY22 other procurement funds in the amount of $152.65M and FY22 shipbuilding and conversion funds in the amount of $101.77M will be obligated at time of award and will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Sea Systems Command is the contracting authority.

Raytheon was awarded a $624.6M modification to contract for the procurement of Stinger missiles and associated equipment. Work locations and funding will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date of June 30, 2026. U.S. Army Contracting Command is the contracting activity.

In a regulatory filing, Range Resources disclosed that its CFO Mark Scucchi sold 55K shares of common stock on May 25th in a total transaction of $1.8M.