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Oncopole, the cancer division of Fonds de recherche du Québec, unveils the results of its PROVEM competition: $2 million for the implementation of innovations in real healthcare settings

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MONTRÉAL and SAN DIEGO, June 3, 2024 /CNW/ – Oncopole, the cancer division of Fonds de recherche du Québec, has unveiled the results of its PROVEM (données PRObantes éValuées En Milieu réel) competition. The announcement was made at the BIO International Convention, held in San Diego from June 3 to 6, in the presence of Oncopole representatives, Minister for the Economy Christopher Skeete, founding partner Merck Canada, and partners GSK and Pfizer Canada.

Oncopole, the cancer division of FRQ, is announcing $2 million in funding for two teams under its PROVEM competition. 

The implementation of healthcare innovations, particularly in oncology, is essential at a time when the growing complexity of such advances can present a level of uncertainty as to their real value. It is therefore necessary to develop processes for evaluating and adopting innovations that eliminate these uncertainties to enable rapid and optimal use for patients and the healthcare system.

Against this backdrop, Oncopole, a major player in oncology research in Québec, is announcing $2 million in funding for two teams under its PROVEM competition. This initiative is supported by Québec’s Ministère de l’Économie, de l’Innovation et de l’Énergie, Oncopole’s founding partner Merck Canada, and partners GSK and Pfizer Canada.

The following two platforms have been awarded funding under the PROVEM competition:

“Leveraging real-world care data for responsible, efficient and equitable introduction of therapeutic innovations in oncology” led by Hermann Nabi and Isabelle Laverdière (CHU de Québec, Université Laval)”Creating timely real-world evidence and economic assessments to improve decisions for cancer patients” led by Elena Alice Dragomir (Université de Montréal) and Armen G. Aprikian (McGill University Health Centre).

These two teams will develop a set of services to obtain evidence in real-world contexts, reduce uncertainties, and accelerate the implementation of innovations in cancer treatment. Supporting innovations as close as possible to their use will have a direct impact on the quality of care and services offered to people affected by cancer in Québec.

“We are delighted to support these two platforms, which will help make high-impact research advances more accessible”, says Carole Jabet, Director of Oncopole and Scientific Director of Fonds de recherche du Québec – secteur Santé. “Oncopole will continue to play a leading role in funding and promoting oncology research, with a focus on scientific excellence and improving clinical outcomes for patients.”

“We applaud Oncopole and the brilliant research teams who are championing innovative work in support of cancer patients. We understand the profound impact that research in oncology has on patient outcomes and recognize the potential this program will have in advancing breakthrough discoveries and novel treatment approaches,” says Jennifer Chan, Executive Director of Policy at Merck Canada. “Our collaboration with Oncopole and other stakeholders in the PROVEM program underscores our commitment to improving patient outcomes with a better evaluation process to access innovative drugs and look forward to supporting the progress ahead.”

“Innovation is at the heart of GSK’s purpose, and strategic partnerships are essential to opening up new avenues of discovery. Through our partnership with Oncopole we are proud to help improve and accelerate access to the latest advances for patients” says Alison Pozzobon, Pharma Operations and Communications Director, GSK Canada Pharma.

“This announcement brings hope to people living with cancer. The level of excellence in cancer research in Québec is among the highest in the world. We are proud to continue to support cancer research in Québec through our support of Oncopole”, says Karine Grand‘Maison, Vice President, Access and Government Relations, Pfizer Canada. “Collaboration in Québec’s life sciences ecosystem is of great importance in ensuring that we can continue to develop our capacities in the province.”

About Oncopole

Oncopole, cancer division of Fonds de recherche du Québec – secteur Santé, is the result of a unique co-creative approach, supporting research, innovation and investment to accelerate the fight against cancer. Oncopole’s mission is to act as a catalyst for the actions deployed by Quebec’s oncology research and innovation ecosystem. It aims to position the province as a leader in the field. For more information, visit https://oncopole.ca/en/

About Merck

At Merck, known as MSD outside of the United States and Canada, we are unified around our purpose: We use the power of leading-edge science to save and improve lives around the world. For more than 130 years, we have brought hope to humanity through the development of important medicines and vaccines. We aspire to be the premier research-intensive biopharmaceutical company in the world – and today, we are at the forefront of research to deliver innovative health solutions that advance the prevention and treatment of diseases in people and animals. We foster a diverse and inclusive global workforce and operate responsibly every day to enable a safe, sustainable and healthy future for all people and communities. For more information about our operations in Canada, visit www.merck.ca and connect with us on LinkedIn and Twitter @MerckCanada.

About GSK

GSK is a global biopharma company with a purpose to unite science, technology, and talent to get ahead of disease together. Find out more www.ca.gsk.com.

About Pfizer Canada

Pfizer Canada ULC is the Canadian operation of Pfizer Inc., one of the world’s leading biopharmaceutical companies. At Pfizer, we apply science and our global resources to bring therapies to people that help extend and improve their lives. We strive to set the standard for quality, safety, and value in the discovery, development, and manufacture of health care products. Every day, Pfizer colleagues work to advance wellness, prevention, treatments, and cures that challenge the most feared diseases of our time. To learn more about Pfizer Canada, visit pfizer.ca or you can follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook, X, Instagram or YouTube.

SOURCE Fonds de Recherche du Québec

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Ravelin Defense Launches Unified Brand Identity, Marking the Completion of ArmorWorks and Fox Valley Metal Tech Integration

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CHANDLER, Ariz., June 16, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — ArmorWorks Enterprises and its wholly-owned subsidiary Fox Valley Metal Tech (“FVMT”) announced today the completion of their brand integration under a unified identity: Ravelin Defense. The launch marks the culmination of the strategic integration effort following the 2024 acquisition of Fox Valley Metal Tech and its combination with ArmorWorks Enterprises, bringing together more than six decades of combined defense manufacturing expertise under one name, one brand, and one go-to-market platform. Ravelin Defense is a portfolio company of Littlejohn Capital.

About the Name
The name Ravelin Defense draws from a defense architectural reference. A ravelin is a forward-positioned, triangular fortification — a structure engineered to provide layered protection and absorb a threat before it reaches the core. The name reflects both the nature of what the company builds and how it thinks about its role in the defense industrial base.

A Platform Built on Two Proven Legacies
ArmorWorks Enterprises spent more than 30 years building its reputation as a trusted provider of survivability solutions — delivering armor systems, blast attenuating seating, crew protection, nuclear protection, and mission-critical products to the U.S. military and global defense partners. Fox Valley Metal Tech built a complementary organization as a precision metal fabricator with advanced manufacturing capabilities serving defense and industrial customers with large, complex, tight-tolerance precision enclosures. Acquired by ArmorWorks in 2024 and operating as a wholly owned subsidiary since, FVMT’s integration added manufacturing depth and precision fabrication capacity and a significant maritime customer base that materially broadened what the combined platforms support.

Since the acquisition, the two businesses have operated as one company under a unified leadership team and common strategy. All customer relationships, contracts, certifications, and points of contact remain unchanged.

Strategic Rationale
The Ravelin Defense brand reflects the completion of a deliberate platform-building strategy. The integrated company offers a unified capability spanning survivability structures, armor, precision enclosures, blast attenuating seating, nuclear security systems, signature management, and situational awareness solutions — delivered through two established locations and one cohesive leadership team. That combination positions Ravelin Defense to pursue larger, multi-domain defense programs at a scale the businesses could not have accessed independently.

Kevin Dahlin, Chief Executive Officer of Ravelin Defense says, “ArmorWorks and Fox Valley Metal Tech each built substantial credibility over the past three decades — proven capability, hard-won customer trust, and a standard of quality that defines who we are. We have been one company since 2024, and Ravelin Defense is the name that reflects that reality in the market. Operating under a unified identity gives our customers a clearer picture of the full scope of what we can deliver across Land, Sea, and Air — and opens doors to program opportunities that match the scale of what we have built.

The name has changed, but the mission remains constant: to protect and enable warfighters and global partners by delivering mission-critical and survivability solutions through innovative products and advanced manufacturing.”

About Ravelin Defense
Ravelin Defense is an integrated survivability and precision manufacturing platform serving the U.S. defense market and global partners across Land, Sea, Air, and Infrastructure domains. The company delivers mission-critical and survivability solutions — including armor systems, blast attenuating seating, precision enclosures, nuclear security, signature management, survivability structures, and situational awareness capabilities — through innovative products and advanced manufacturing.

Ravelin Defense is headquartered in Chandler, Arizona, with manufacturing operations in Green Bay, WI.

ArmorWorks Enterprises and Fox Valley Metal Tech are operating units of Ravelin Defense. All existing contracts, certifications, registrations, and customer and supplier relationships remain in full effect under the new brand.

For more information, visit www.ravelindefense.com.

About Littlejohn Capital, LLC
Littlejohn Capital is the family office of Angus C. Littlejohn Jr., founder of Littlejohn & Co., where he currently serves as Chairman Emeritus. Founded in 2013, Littlejohn Capital seeks to make control investments in small to mid-sized private companies that are undergoing strategic, operational or generational transition. For more information, visit www.littlejohncapital.com

Media Contact
Chris Tofalli
Chris Tofalli Public Relations, LLC
914-834-4334
chris@tofallipr.com

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/ravelin-defense-launches-unified-brand-identity-marking-the-completion-of-armorworks-and-fox-valley-metal-tech-integration-302800596.html

SOURCE Ravelin Defense

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F-Secure and IdentifAI Take Aim at AI-Generated Scams with Deepfake Protection Launch

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Real-time deepfake detection capabilities added to F-Secure’s Scam Protection Suite, helping service providers combat increasingly convincing AI-driven scams

HELSINKI and MILAN, June 16, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Global consumer cyber security leader F-Secure and deepfake-detection experts IdentifAI have joined forces to help digital service providers combat the rapidly rising threat of AI-generated scams. Available now through the F-Secure Embedded portfolio, Deepfake Protection adds real-time detection of AI-generated images, video, and voice to F-Secure’s Scam Protection Suite, helping consumers determine what’s real and what’s not, while closing one of the fastest-growing gaps in global scam protection. 

AI-generated scams have quickly reached crisis levels: The FBI reports that Americans lost nearly $900 million to AI-generated scams in 2025. And according to F-Secure’s latest research, more than 56% of all consumers are targeted by scammers every month, with financial scam losses doubling in the last year alone.

Generative AI is pouring fuel on the fire: cloned voices, synthetic video, and hyper-realistic fake images are turning yesterday’s clumsy phishing attempts into convincing, personalized deception. The red flags aren’t obvious anymore, and consumers are increasingly left guessing whether what they’re seeing or hearing is real. This makes deepfake detection a critical new capability for service providers looking to help customers identify manipulated content before it can be used to scam them.

“A video, a voice message, a photo — things people once trusted instinctively can now be fabricated in minutes,” said Dimi Vellikok, SVP of Product Engagement at F-Secure. “The reality is that scam protection can’t stop at suspicious links and messages anymore. Consumers are increasingly being targeted with manipulated content, and service providers need tools that address those threats too. That’s exactly why we’ve partnered with IdentifAI: to give our partners real-time deepfake detection for the consumers they serve, as part of the protection they already trust.”

Protection built for the AI era

Deepfake Protection draws on IdentifAI’s multi-modal detection technology, which analyzes images, video, and voice in real time to flag AI-generated and manipulated content. IdentifAI takes a deliberately independent approach to the problem: the company exclusively detects AI-generated content and does not build generative models itself, avoiding the conflict of interest that affects vendors who do both. That focus lets its detection keep pace as new generative models reach the market.

“Our mission is to safeguard the fundamental human right to distinguish between the artificial and the human, ensuring we all engage with the world authentically,” said Marco Ramilli, IdentifAI Founder and CEO. “In partnering with F-Secure, we have turned this vision into reality—co-creating powerful, proven solutions to counter the threat of deepfakes.”

The partnership brings together F-Secure’s network of more than 200 service-provider partners and IdentifAI’s specialist deepfake detection technology. Together, the companies aim to make trustworthy, real-time content verification a standard part of everyday consumer protection, rather than a specialist tool solely reserved for enterprises. 

The future of scam protection, available now

Deepfake Protection is available to digital service providers as part of the F-Secure Embedded portfolio, the suite of consumer-security capabilities F-Secure delivers to its service-provider partners. Through the Embedded portfolio, providers can integrate deepfake detection into the security experiences they already offer without having to build new infrastructure of their own.

About F-Secure

F-Secure is a human-first, AI-powered consumer cyber security experience company with 38 years of expertise in tackling digital threats. We help digital service providers turn trust into a high-value growth engine — protecting their customers while enabling them to live their best digital lives in a world of relentless, AI-driven scams. With billions of digital interactions secured each year, tens of millions of consumers protected globally, and over $10bn in partner value created, we deliver proven impact at scale.

About IdentifAI

IdentifAI is an Italian startup that has developed an innovative AI platform capable of detecting whether images or videos were created by humans or generative AI. Its proactive solutions promote digital integrity, protect against misinformation, and empower users to distinguish between human and AI-generated content. In July 2025, identifAI raised €5 million in a funding round led by United Ventures, reflecting a continued commitment to developing anti-deepfake technologies and promoting a secure information ecosystem. For more information: www.identifai.net | sales@identifai.net

PRESS CONTACTS:
Meghan Sawyer
Senior Public Relations Manager, US
Meghan.Sawyer@f-secure.com

Joel Latto
Public Relations Manager, EMEA
Joel.Latto@f-secure.com

IdentifAI
pr.it@identifai.net | pr.uk@identifai.net

This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com.

https://news.cision.com/f-secure/r/f-secure-and-identifai-take-aim-at-ai-generated-scams-with-deepfake-protection-launch,c4364126

 

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/f-secure-and-identifai-take-aim-at-ai-generated-scams-with-deepfake-protection-launch-302801586.html

SOURCE F-Secure

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Aviso Advances Technology Modernization with Broadridge’s Wealth Platform

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TORONTO, June 16, 2026 /CNW/ — Leading Canadian wealth services provider Aviso is collaborating with global Fintech leader Broadridge Financial Solutions, Inc. (NYSE: BR) to support the next phase of technology modernization for its Aviso Correspondent Partners business by deploying Broadridge’s Wealth Platform.

As part of its long-term strategic vision, and expanded multi-year relationship with Broadridge, Aviso is evolving the systems that support partners to enable modern, flexible technology that drives innovation, advisor productivity, and long-term growth while enhancing the overall client experience. This includes deepening its collaboration with Broadridge as part of a broader partner ecosystem.

Aviso will leverage Broadridge’s Wealth Platform, which provides a next-generation open API architecture and innovative Advisor Workstation components. The solution combines Broadridge’s technology and books and records engine with Aviso’s own capabilities and select third-party partner applications to offer a seamless, scalable experience for partners, advisors and clients.

“Our strategy is focused on delivering smarter, more agile digital experiences for our clients and advisors, while creating a strong foundation for future innovation,” said Bill Packham, President and Chief Executive Officer of Aviso. “Broadridge’s platform approach complements our vision by enabling us to integrate the best available capabilities across our own technology, Broadridge’s solutions, and other valued partners. This collaboration builds on our long-lasting relationship with Broadridge and positions us to deliver a future-ready platform that enhances advisor productivity and client experiences.”

“This expanded engagement with Aviso reflects our shared commitment to transforming and modernizing the wealth management ecosystem for advisors and their clients,” said Karin Kirkwood, President, Broadridge Canada. “We’re proud to deepen our collaboration with Aviso and play a key role in enabling their transformation. As a trusted provider of industry expertise and transformative technology, Broadridge supports large-scale modernization efforts across the financial services sector, helping forward-looking firms like Aviso lead with agility, confidence, and impact.”

The enhanced Advisor Workstation will increase advisor productivity, enable accelerated onboarding of new tools, reduce internal integration work and costs, and provide real-time access to data and insights while digitizing operations. Aviso will be better positioned to capitalize on growth opportunities while more easily responding to industry evolution and regulatory developments.

With an agile and scalable platform, Broadridge empowers wealth management firms to streamline operations, accelerate digital transformation, and unlock growth. As the Canadian wealth industry prioritizes modernization of their front- and middle-office operations, Broadridge’s integrated, future-ready platform serves as a strategic differentiator, enabling leading firms to shape the future of wealth management in Canada.  

About Broadridge

Broadridge Financial Solutions (NYSE: BR) is a global technology leader with trusted expertise and transformative technology, helping clients and the financial services industry operate, innovate, and grow. We power investing, governance, and communications for our clients – driving operational resiliency, elevating business performance, and transforming investor experiences.

Our technology and operations platforms process and generate over 7 billion communications annually and underpin the daily average trading of over $15 trillion in tokenized and traditional securities globally. A certified Great Place to Work®, Broadridge is part of the S&P 500® Index, employing over 15,000 associates in 21 countries.

For more information, visit www.broadridge.com.

About Aviso

Aviso is a leading wealth and investment services provider for the Canadian financial industry, with more than $220 billion in assets under administration and management as of May 31, 2026. Guided by our values — we care, we dare, we share, we deliver — we’re building a technology-enabled, client-centric wealth management ecosystem for partners, advisors and investors. Aviso supports over 4,600 advisors and nearly 900,000 investors.

Aviso works with over 450 partner organizations, including nearly all credit unions across Canada, as well as portfolio managers, investment dealers, insurance and trust companies, and introducing brokers. Our services include an investment and mutual fund dealer, insurance and estate planning, managed assets, online brokerage and automated investing, asset management, and custodial and carrying broker solutions. For more information, visit aviso.ca.

Media Contact:

Olivia Whalen
pro-BRWAM@prosek.com

 

SOURCE Broadridge Financial Solutions, Inc.

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