SUN PRAIRIE, Wis., Feb. 16, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — Independent Pharmacy Cooperative (IPC), the leading Group Purchasing Organization (GPO) for independent pharmacies nationwide, is thrilled to announce a groundbreaking cooperation agreement with Legacy Pharmacy Group (LPG). This strategic partnership aims to enhance the capabilities and offerings for both organizations, benefiting our members and advancing independent pharmacy.

Why This Agreement Matters:

This collaboration ensures a streamlined supply chain, fast delivery, and competitive pricing for essential medications and healthcare products.IPC’s government relations team will work alongside LPG legislative advocacy to provide members with critical insights, legislative updates, and additional advocacy efforts. Together, we will champion PBM reform, protect pharmacist provider status and defend patient access to cost effective medications at community pharmacies.LPG members will be able to leverage IPC’s comprehensive suite of pharmacy services, including operational and clinical program expansion and support, contract and PSAO compliance assistance, and business development resources. Whether optimizing workflow or expanding clinical services, IPC is committed to empowering independent pharmacies.IPC’s cutting-edge iCare+ platform offers LPG members access to digital health services including tele health, patient transport and discount prescriptions allowing patients the opportunity for non-emergent medical care, transportation & prescription services. Our technology bridges the gap between community pharmacies and patients, enhancing overall healthcare outcomes.LPG members have access to their own warehouse to use as a quality secondary wholesaler and now gain access to an extensive portfolio of brand-name and generic drugs through the IPC Warehouse. IPC’s competitive pricing ensures cost savings, allowing independent pharmacies to thrive in a competitive market.

Quote from Marc Essensa, CEO, IPC:
“This partnership is a big step for IPC and LPG community pharmacies. This collaboration creates new opportunities to grow, improve patient care and strengthen the future of community pharmacy. Together, we’re building a more resilient and innovative healthcare system.”

Quote from Ritesh Shah, CEO, LPG:
“This strategic relationship will bring huge advantages for our Legacy pharmacies. We are excited for the new partnership, and more importantly, we will make a positive and meaningful impact on the communities our pharmacies serve.”

IPC and LPG are committed to supporting independent pharmacies and the patients they serve. We’re excited about this collaboration and the impact it can have on our members and their communities.

About Independent Pharmacy Cooperative (IPC): IPC is a member-owned GPO dedicated to supporting independent pharmacies across the United States. With a focus on advocacy, purchasing power, and operational excellence, IPC empowers pharmacies to thrive in an ever-evolving healthcare landscape.

About Legacy Pharmacy Group (LPG): Legacy Pharmacy Group is a leading pharmacy solutions provider dedicated to supporting independent pharmacies in a highly competitive business environment. Headquartered in Hackensack, New Jersey, LPG has evolved into the tristate area’s largest group purchasing organization for independent pharmacies providing the most progressive and effective programs and services to put profit back in the independent pharmacy.

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SOURCE IPC (Independent Pharmacy Cooperative)

VANCOUVER, BC, Feb. 16, 2025 /CNW/ – Light AI Inc. (“Light AI” or the “Company”) (CBOE CA: ALGO) (FSE: 0HC), a global healthcare technology company focused on developing artificial intelligence health diagnostic and wellness solutions today is featured in Beast Philanthropy’s latest video which has just gone live on YouTube.

The video feature marks the beginning of a new initiative that will be carried out by Light AI and MrBeast Industries in Africa. The initiative aims to address the need for better disease detection methods to specifically identify Strep A, which when left unidentified and untreated can lead to rheumatic heart disease in children and/or fatalities.

According to preliminary data from the CDC, Strep A reached an all-time high in 2023. Strep A, which is the direct cause of rheumatic heart disease, a condition commonly found in school children, has a prevalence rate of nearly 18 cases per 1000 children in East Africa, which is considerably higher than results from developed countries according to the National Institute of Health.

The company is proud to be working with MrBeast Industries in tackling this very serious, yet preventable disease, and to donate its tech-powered Strep A tests to ensure better health outcomes for several African communities.

The MrBeast video featuring Light AI’s technology can be found here.

About Light AI Inc. (CBOE CA: ALGO / FSE: 0HC)

Light AI Inc. is a healthcare company focused on developing artificial intelligence health diagnostic solutions. Light AI is developing a technology platform which represents the next generation of patient management: it applies AI algorithms to smartphone images—starting with images of StrepA—to identify the disease in seconds. Its patented, app-based solution requires no swabs, lab tests or proprietary hardware of any kind—its hardware platform is the 4.5B smartphones that exist in the world today.

In pre-FDA validation studies, Light AI’s algorithm demonstrated remarkable accuracy in differentiating between viral and bacterial pharyngitis, specifically targeting Group A Streptococcus (GAS). The Company’s algorithm generated pre-Federal Drug Administration (FDA) results were in the range of the “Gold Standard” swab culture currently used for diagnosing GAS achieving a 96.57% accuracy rate that is and a Negative Predictive Value (NPV) of 100%, indicating its high reliability in confirming the absence of Streptococcus A infection. Viral and GAS pharyngitis affects over 600 million people annually worldwide. If left untreated, GAS pharyngitis can lead to serious complications such as Rheumatic Heart Disease (RHD), which imposes a global economic burden exceeding $1 trillion annually. Light AI’s technology offers a significant advancement in the accurate and timely diagnosis of GAS pharyngitis, potentially reducing the incidence of RHD and its associated costs. Light AI’s approach to applying AI to smartphone images can be expanded to other throat conditions, as well as other areas of analysis, such as the human eye and skin. Light AI’s vision is to combine the smartphone with AI in-the-Cloud to create a Digital Clinical Lab that provides quick and accessible diagnosis for countless conditions that today require expensive and time-consuming imaging or lab processes.

ON BEHALF OF THE COMPANY

“George Reznik”

George Reznik
Chief Financial Officer

For more information, please contact the Company at 604-307-6800 or visit https://light.ai/.

Investor Relations:
investors@light.ai

Website: https://light.ai/
LinkedIn: LinkedIn/company/Light AI
X (Formerly Twitter): @lightaihealth

Forward-Looking Information:

This news release includes information, statements, beliefs and opinions which are forward-looking, and which reflect current estimates, expectations and projections about future events, including, but not limited to, the contributions to be made by the Company’s partnership with MrBeast, the anticipated inflection of the business, the opportunity related to the commercialization of Light AI’s software and other offerings, and other statements that contain words such as “believe,” “expect,” “project,” “should,” “seek,” “anticipate,” “will,” “intend,” “positioned,” “risk,” “plan,” “may,” “estimate” or, in each case, their negative and words of similar meaning. By its nature, forward-looking information involves a number of risks, uncertainties and assumptions that could cause actual results or events to differ materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking information. These risks, uncertainties and assumptions could adversely affect the outcome of the plans and events described herein. Readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information, which is based on the information available as of the date of this news release.  For a list of the factors that may affect any of the Company’s forward-looking statements, please refer to the Company’s long form prospectus dated December 17, 2024 and other filings made by the Company with the Canadian securities regulatory authorities (which may be viewed under its SEDAR+ profile at www.sedarplus.ca). Light AI disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information contained in this new release, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, unless required by applicable law. The forward-looking information included in this news release is expressly qualified in its entirety by this cautionary statement.

SOURCE Light AI Inc.

Aquiline Drones Embarks on Nationwide Campaign – Using Disruptive Technologies: Drones and AI cameras to Fight Unsightly Graffiti.

HARTFORD, Conn., Feb. 15, 2025 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ — Aquiline Drones Embarks on Nationwide Campaign – Using Disruptive Technologies: Drones and AI cameras to Fight Unsightly Graffiti.

Unsightly graffiti is a menace to communities and metropolises, worldwide! More than just a nuisance, graffiti is a form of vandalism, making it a crime that devalues property and consumes valuable police time and other public resources.

Moreover, graffiti negatively affects communities by creating a perception of neglect or disorder, lowering property values, deterring businesses, and contributing to feelings of insecurity among residents, especially if associated with gang activity or offensive content.

Globally, cities like Sydney invest in anti-graffiti technologies such as surveillance cameras and protective coatings on walls, to prevent graffiti before it happens. Clearly however, these efforts, while seemingly progressive, prove inadequate by only scratching the surface. As is the case with graffiti tagging, the problem recurs – even increasing and likely fostering retaliation by taggers.

Thankfully, a more complete solution has emerged. An absolute game-changer in the fight against graffiti by taking it one step farther and aiming to largely eradicate it. This timely solution blends key technologies – smart cameras, artificial intelligence (AI) and graffiti drones…yes, drones, ready to get the job done once and for all!

CT-based Aquiline Drones (AD) – a drone technology enterprise, has debuted the only proven solution available today. that is a complete and highly effective technology solution that can reduce the recurrence of graffiti by a factor of 10, especially in harder-to-reach areas.

Having successfully incubated this solution aided by prime customer, Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT), AD now embarks on a nationwide campaign targeting States, and their municipalities and regions to significantly reduce the occurrence of this problem.

“If technology benefits society, I say let it. And let’s be deliberate about success while we’re at it!” says Barry Alexander, Founder and CEO of Aquiline Drones. “Time to make America clean again” Alexander continues.

Currently, graffiti-based vandalism is on a sharp increase in America – globally too, costing an estimated $12 billion (in the US alone) in annual cleanup expenses! Even worse is that this expense is incurred by public entities and thus, taxpayers. In most cases, residents also incur costs to remove graffiti from their private property.

Disruptive Technology that Works – AD’s Graffiti Abatement (GA) solution

AD’s GA solution is results-oriented. Its primary goal is to significantly reduce graffiti tagging incidences nationwide by a factor of 10. As an example, in Seattle, Washington, a city of approximately 755,000 residents, city agencies removed 5,000 graffiti tags in 2019 and 8,700 in 2021. In 2023, KIRO-TV reported that there were around 20,000 graffiti reports in 2021 – a sharp and uncontrollable increase!

Using the city of Seattle again as an example, the city’s Graffiti Nuisance Ordinance requires property owners to remove graffiti within 10 days of receiving a notice. If graffiti is gang or hate related, it must be removed within 48 hours. Property owners who don’t remove graffiti within the 10-day window may face fines of up to $5,000.

Applying AD’s turnkey GA solution to the city of Seattle and its stats, would probably realize a reduction in the number of graffiti tags from 20,000 (in 2023) to 2,000 while remaining sensitive to societal expression through acceptable forms of street art. Contextually, while Seattle has an ordinance against graffiti tagging, the city does recognize the value of street art and has commissioned murals from local artist.

AD’s solution starts with surveillance. Single or multiple sites can be monitored simultaneously, equipped with security cameras. AD’s cameras are solar powered, cloud connected via LTE and have night vision IR (infrared), with its live feed stored both locally and on AD’s proprietary cloud and backed up on Amazon Web Services (AWS). AD’s AI framework accesses these camera feeds and uses Machine Vision to analyze the data to detect any human object(s) in the vicinity of the monitored sites. This refined model uses AI detection to identify specific acts such as graffiti painting, other illegal acts, loitering, etc. The camera data is then analyzed and persons detected in the vicinity triggers email notifications to email addresses supplied by the Department of Transportation (DoT) and sent to Traffic Management Centers (TMCs) and law enforcement. Analyzed data is stored and made available to the client(s). Data transmission and storage occurs within the US, on local servers.

AD’s framework utilizes domestic LTE carriers along with AWS (Amazon’s cloud) as backup to the AD Cloud, which provides the highest levels of data security.

AD’s GA solution is broken down into two distinctive phases: 1) Surveillance/monitoring, analytics, and push notification; and 2) Graffiti abatement using AD’s Spartacus Endure drones.

For surveillance, AD uses AI enabled smart cameras to provide real time monitoring while computing on the edge, to detect occurrences of graffiti and vandalism. For suspected incidents, AD uses highly accurate computer vision and machine learning on the AD Cloud to further eliminate false positives. This process is highly autonomous and strongly protective of all personally identifiable information (PII) from the processed data.

Graffiti Abatement (GA). At center stage of the solution is AD’s anti-graffiti drone – the Spartacus Endure, Power-Washing, Painting & Graffiti drone, which is the most versatile in its class. The Endure is the only drone on the market capable of performing multiple challenging tasks using the same drone by simply swapping out its payload (its undercarriage).

Customers can choose from an assortment of payloads: spray bars, straight lances, carrying baskets, winches, cameras/sensors, seed spreaders/hoppers, ag spraying tanks and bars, droppers (used for lifeguard pontoon drops), etc. to have an absolute workhorse like no other!

“Think of the Endure as your trusted John Deere tractor. Change out the bucket and off you go.” Alexander continues.

The versatility of AD’s Spartacus Endure drone is what makes it unique. It’s literally unmatched, giving users’ ultimate freedom and flexibility. This versatility is highly-beneficial to those customers already owning an Endure drone, for example, increasing its utility by targeting seasonal work.

Existing Endure owners or prospective customers wanting to start their own power-washing or painting and graffiti-removal business now have the right tool to target these never-ending graffiti removal contracting opportunities. On the public sector (municipalities) side of things, customers can perform different tasks within their jurisdiction, using the same drone.

Imagine municipalities across its many regions using the same drone or a fleet of drones simultaneously, to target multiple sites for graffiti removal and then switch out payloads if desired, in three minutes or less to go power-wash overhead retro reflective highway signage, or to go de-ice electrical pylons, etc. The list goes on, and on!

In his final report, Mike Gauger, Maintenance Superintendent at WASDOT and program visionary adds “The drone program provides a very effective additional tool for graffiti removal in locations where it can mitigate the risk of employee injury due to the graffiti’s precarious locations. It also provides a more cost-effective way to handle graffiti removal from all locations where specialized equipment is required”

Mike concludes by saying “The use of drones to remove graffiti in dangerous and difficult locations is also a better use of resources. It takes less time to remove the graffiti with a drone compared to traditional methods, which deters “retagging.” His story is shared in this short, but one of many, YouTube videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVbHRiLVveE

AD provides the entire solution and gives customers the option to pick from an a-la-carte menu:

Drones and associated hardware (built in-house – made in America, Hartford CT.)

Surveillance cameras/hardware (vendor supplied). Back-end digital dashboard, AI analytics, push notifications, etc. (all done by AD)

Training (online, in-house and onsite option). Online training: AD’s proprietary online prep course (Flight to the Future or F2F). Watch YouTube video tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgd0zD-mcw4&t=17s

With one simple way to get started – via phone call or email:

Email: Info@aquilinedrones.com
Phone: (860) 361-7958

ABOUT AQUILINE DRONES:

Aquiline Drones Corporation (AD) is an all-American drone technology company specializing in drone manufacturing, artificial intelligence (AI), and superior drone pilot training. AD is also self-insured through Aquiline Drones Indemnity Corporation (ADIC). AD’s core management comprises highly experienced aviators, systems engineers, IT gurus, military personnel (including veterans), and business strategists. AD delivers a vertically integrated blend of products and services. AD’s full spectrum of technological solutions is widely applicable across countless industries and environments for superior, real-time data processing and insights. Visit www.AquilineDrones.com for more information.

Media Contact
Barry Alexander, Aquiline Drones Corporation, 1 860-361-7958, info@aquilinedrones.com, https://aquilinedrones.com/

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SOURCE Aquiline Drones Corporation