Kulicke & Soffa Supports MGH and Jefferson Health to Increase ALS Patient Access to Potentially Life-Saving Advanced Therapies

PRNewswire 1-Sep-2022 9:05 AM

SINGAPORE and BOSTON and PHILADELPHIA, Sept. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Kulicke and Soffa Industries, Inc. (NASDAQ:KLIC) ("Kulicke & Soffa", "K&S" or  the "Company"), Massachusetts General Hospital and Jefferson Health today announced a multi-year donation from K&S to establish and support the Multicenter Expanded Access Protocol (EAP) Companion Program to the HEALEY ALS Platform trial led by the team from the Sean M. Healey & AMG Center for ALS at Massachusetts General Hospital. This program will be expanding to the Jefferson Weinberg ALS Center to provide patients in the Philadelphia area with expanded access to ALS investigational treatments.    

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig's disease, is a progressive neuromuscular disease that affects the nerve cells in both the brain and spinal cord impacting an individual's ability to maintain essential human functions such as movement, speech, swallowing and breathing.  

The donation drive was inspired by TechVsALS – a charitable organization on a mission to raise funding making advanced investigational therapies available to individuals with ALS in cooperation with the Healey & AMG Center's companion EA program. Also known as compassionate use programs, EAPs provide FDA-sanctioned access of investigational drugs, biologics or medical devices to physicians and patients outside of a traditional clinical trial setting. EAPs have the potential to enhance patients' outcomes today while accelerating the development of next-generation treatments.

"This generous gift from Kulicke & Soffa will allow the Healey & AMG Center to explore the next generation of ALS therapies and investigational drugs that have promise to slow and perhaps stop the progression of ALS," said Merit Cudkowicz, MD, MSc, director of the Sean M. Healey & AMG Center for ALS and chief of the Department of Neurology at MGH. "These funds will make our promising advanced therapies available to many more patients battling this disease."

"We are grateful for the opportunity to expand access to new medications in development for ALS patients. At the Weinberg ALS Center, we provide comprehensive care that puts research at the core of what we do.  Our mission will be strengthened by this donation, which will allow us to work with and hopefully help more patients in the Philadelphia region," said Dr. Piera Pasinelli, PhD, Director of the Weinberg ALS Center at the Vickie and Jack Farber Institute for Neuroscience – Jefferson Health.

"Our ultimate goal is to transform the care for ALS patients into an individualized, likely multi-prong approach able to prevent disease progression sufficiently to allow for a dignified life with limited disability. This program is a significant step forward to achieve our goal," said Dr. Hristelina Ilieva, MD, PhD, Clinical Director of the Weinberg ALS Center.

"Considering our long history of development and ongoing commitment to philanthropy, we are very pleased to have the opportunity to contribute towards this initiative," said Lester Wong, Kulicke & Soffa's EVP, Chief Financial Officer, and philanthropy lead of the organization, "we anticipate our participation can meaningfully help spur faster pharmacological advancements leading to better treatment options and near-term outcomes for individuals facing ALS."

About Kulicke & Soffa

Kulicke & Soffa (NASDAQ:KLIC) is a leading provider of semiconductor, LED and electronic assembly solutions serving the global automotive, consumer, communications, computing and industrial markets. Founded in 1951, K&S prides itself on establishing foundations for technological advancement - creating pioneering interconnect solutions that enable performance improvements, power efficiency, form-factor reductions and assembly excellence of current and next-generation semiconductor devices.

Leveraging decades of development proficiency and extensive process technology expertise, Kulicke & Soffa's expanding portfolio provides equipment solutions, aftermarket products and services supporting a comprehensive set of interconnect technologies including wire bonding, advanced packaging, lithography, and electronics assembly. Dedicated to empowering technological discovery, always, K&S collaborates with customers and technology partners to push the boundaries of possibility, enabling a smarter future.

About Massachusetts General Hospital

Massachusetts General Hospital, founded in 1811, is the original and largest teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School. The Mass General Research Institute conducts the largest hospital-based research program in the nation, with annual research operations of more than $1 billion and comprises more than 9,500 researchers working across more than 30 institutes, centers and departments. In July 2022, Mass General was named #8 in the U.S. News & World Report list of "America's Best Hospitals." MGH is a founding member of the Mass General Brigham healthcare system.

About the Sean M. Healey & AMG Center for ALS at Mass General

At the Sean M. Healey & AMG Center for ALS at Mass General, we are on a quest to discover life-saving therapies for all individuals affected by ALS. Launched in November 2018, the Healey Center leverages a global network of scientists, physicians, nurses, caregivers, patients and families working together to accelerate the pace of ALS therapy discovery and development.

Under the leadership of Merit Cudkowicz, MD, chief of the Department Neurology, and a Science Advisory Council of international experts, we are reimagining how to develop and test the most effective therapies to treat the disease, identify cures and, ultimately, prevent it.

The key to our success is our tightly integrated research and clinical efforts, encouraging opportunities to bring the challenges our patients face every day into our laboratories, focusing investigations on finding solutions that will make a meaningful difference to our patients without delay. Our collaborative efforts are designing more efficient and effective clinical trials while broadening access to these trials for people with ALS.

About Jefferson Weinberg ALS Center

The Jefferson Weinberg ALS Center (JWALSC) is a patient-centric clinical & research integrated program of the Vickie & Jack Farber Institute for Neuroscience. As an ALSA Certified Treatment Center of Excellence, it combines a multi-disciplinary ALS clinic, 4 basic and translational research laboratories and a clinical research program all working together in a seamless bench-to-bedside approach.

JWALSC was launched six years ago with the goal to build of an all-in-one clinical-research enterprise solely focused on the care and treatment of ALS. Thus, JWALSC is structured around an academic model in which research and clinical programs are developed based on disease, rather than academic specialties, creating a collaborative environment in which members from multiple disciplines/departments work together and include the patients in everything they do.

By involving the community in every step, whether in the clinic or in the research labs, our mission is to help patients live a purposeful life with, and despite, ALS. Life comes with personalized symptomatic treatment in clinic. Purpose comes with involvement and education in research.

The Vickie and Jack Farber Institute for Neuroscience is home to preeminent centers for the diagnosis and treatment of stroke and cerebrovascular diseases, Alzheimer's disease, sleep, brain tumors, epilepsy, Parkinson's disease, multiple sclerosis, headache, ALS, traumatic brain injury, and spine and spinal cord injuries. We treat more than 120,000 outpatients a year and perform more than 6,000 neurosurgical/interventional procedures annually. Advanced treatments include: fractionated stereotactic radiosurgery, mechanical and pharmaceutical thrombectomy for stroke, minimally invasive cranial base surgery and endoscopic neurosurgery, endovascular treatments for aneurysms and AVMs, complex reconstructive spine and spinal cord injury surgery, and functional neurosurgery including deep brain stimulation and laser ablation for epilepsy and brain tumors.

About TechVsALS

Founded by 30-year tech industry veteran and person with ALS (pALS) Shawn Sarbacker, the TechVsALS fundraising team is reaching out to the innovative and forward-looking "Tech" community. In collaboration with the Mass General Healey ALS Center, we are engaging companies, foundations, organizations, and individuals who might join us in sponsoring ALS Expanded Access Protocol (EAP) programs nationwide to extend, and perhaps save, the lives of those suffering from ALS while accelerating novel treatments and cures.

Contacts

Kulicke & Soffa
Marilyn Sim
Public Relations
+65-6880 9309
msim@kns.com

Kulicke & Soffa
Joseph Elgindy
Investor Relations
+1-215-784-7500
investor@kns.com

TechVsALS
www.techvsals.org
info@techvsals.org

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SOURCE Kulicke & Soffa Industries, Inc.