GlaxoSmithKline signs smoking vaccine licensing agreement with Nabi

Melly Alazraki

Not two months after the Swiss start-up Cytos's experimental anti-smoking vaccine failed in a mid-stage study, Nabi Biopharmaceuticals (NABI) and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) have signed a licensing agreement for Nabi's own anti-smoking vaccine, NicVAX. The deal, which could potentially be worth more than half a billion dollars, helped push NABI shares 25% higher.
NicVAX is an experimental therapy for the treatment of nicotine addiction and the prevention of smoking relapse. The vaccine is designed to stimulate the immune system to produce antibodies that bind to the nicotine molecules. Once bound together, they are too large to cross the blood-brain barrier. In this way, the nicotine is blocked from reaching the receptors in the brain that cause the highly-addictive pleasure sensation experienced by smokers and users of nicotine products. When nicotine is prevented from supplying them the sensation they crave, smokers have an easier time kicking the habit.
"If approved, this smoking cessation vaccine technology could be a novel solution to help the millions of smokers who want to stop smoking and remain abstinent; a habit that is well documented to be very hard to stop permanently," said Jean Stephenne, president of GSK Biologicals.
Indeed, smokers who try to stop often relapse. According to Nabi, pre-clinical and clinical data show that NicVAX can help people quit smoking. But what's also crucial is that because the antibodies remain in the blood stream for 6 to 12 months, Nabi believes the vaccine could also be effective in preventing smoking relapse. Currently available smoking cessation therapies, the companies said, have relapse rates that can be as high as 90% in the first year after a smoker quits.

Click here for the full story: http://www.dailyfinance.com/2009/11/16/glaxosmithkline-signs-smoking-vaccine-licensing-agreement-with-n/

Obesity linked to specific cancers

About 100,500 new cases of cancer are caused by obesity every year, according to the most comprehensive attempt ever to estimate the cancers attributed to extra weight.
The analysis, released today by the American Institute for Cancer Research, is based on updated cancer data and a report released earlier this year by a panel of experts. Among the types of cancer most strongly linked to excess body fat:

•Breast, 33,000 cases a year caused by obesity.
•Endometrial, 20,700 cases a year.
•Kidney, 13,900 cases.
•Colorectal, 13,200 cases.
•Pancreas, 11,900.
•Esophagus, 5,800.
•Gallbladder, 2,000.

For the full story: http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/weightloss/2009-11-05-obesity_N.htm

VFHY Central Region RAB to meet Nov. 6 in Charlottesville

The Regional Advisory Board of the Central region will be meeting this Friday, from 10:30am to noon, at the Charlottesville Albemarle Technical Education Center. This meeting is being conducted to bring the members of the advisory board up to date on the happenings of the Virginia Foundation for Healthy Youth, and to give 2 regional grantees the opportunity to show off what they are doing with their VFHY funded programs.

The agenda for this meeting can be obtained by contacting me directly. If you are interested in presenting at an RAB meeting, please contact me and I will get you on our next meetings agenda.

Two cigarette makers boosting pack prices

The nation's two top cigarette-makers are boosting per-pack prices by 6 to 8 cents a pack.
Though the companies won't say why, analysts believe it is to cover new user fees charged by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to pay for the costs of its new assignment to regulate tobacco.
The increase on what Altria's Philip Morris USA and Reynolds American's RJ Reynolds Tobacco Co. charge wholesalers seems unlikely to have a big effect on smoking, as this spring's 61.66 cent-a-pack hike in federal excise taxes did.
Last week, Altria Group Inc. chairman and chief executive Michael E. Szymanczyk told analysts the effect of that tax hike accounted for about two-thirds of the 16 percent drop in the number of cigarettes it sold in the third quarter. The rest came from wholesalers' inventory reductions.

For full story, follow this link: Richmond (VA) Times-Dispatch, 2009-10-29

Central Region Grantees - Voted best looking Region at Conference

VFHY 1st Quarter grant reports due Oct. 15

Well, the first quarter of the 09-10 grant year has ended and it's time to start preparing your 1st quarterly report. This report and simple instructions for completing the report can be found on the healthyyouthva.com website under grantees/forms. I have also included links in this post for your expedited access.

http://www.vtsf.org/grantees/forms/vtsf_qr_09_10.doc
http://www.vtsf.org/grantees/forms/instructions_quarterlyreport.doc

As always, please feel free to contact me with any questions you may have about this form, or any other matters pertaining to your VFHY grant.

Henry

Virginia Foundation for Healthy Youth Fall Conference

Remember folks, the VFHY annual conference is being held at the Downtown Richmond Marriott, October 7 & 8. Today is the cut off date for registering, so if you have not yet done so, be sure to visit the healthyyouthva.org website and register up to 2 people from your organization.

Johns Hopkins: Nicotine dose higher from secondhand smoke in cars

Sharing a ride with a smoker will give you a much heftier dose of nicotine than having a meal in a restaurant that allows smoking or hanging out at a smoky bar, according to new research.
Even opening the window or switching on the air-conditioner when a smoker lights up leaves significant amounts of nicotine in the air, according to the study by four researchers at Johns Hopkins University.
In fact smokers who put their windows down all the way averaged more nicotine in the air, perhaps because they tended to be heavier smokers or perhaps because the air whipping around inside their cars distributed smoke and nicotine more widely, said Dr. Ana Navas-Acien, one of the researchers and an assistant professor at Johns Hopkins' School of Public Health.
"In any case it is clear that ventilation is insufficient to eliminate tobacco smoke," she said.

Follow this link for the full article: http://www2.timesdispatch.com/rtd/business/health_med_fit/article/B-TOBA17_20090916-220406/293396/

S.C. case looks on child obesity as child abuse. But is it?

State courts in Texas, Pennsylvania, New York, New Mexico, Indiana and California have grappled with the question in recent years, according to a 2008 report published by the Child Welfare League of America. In all of those cases, except the one in California, courts expanded their state's legal definition of medical neglect to include morbid obesity and ruled that the children were victims of neglect, the report says. Criminal charges were filed only in the California and Indiana cases, but the parents weren't sentenced to jail time in either.

Click here for the full story: http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/weightloss/2009-07-20-obesityboy_N.htm

Final Reports Due

Hello VTSF grantees.

If your VTSF grant expired on 6/30/09, your final report is due on July 15. Your final reimbursement request should also be submitted no later than July 15. Remember, the final report forms are the same as the quarterly report forms with the addition of a couple of pages at the end. The form can be downloaded from the new HealthyYouthVA.org website, or by following this link. http://www.vtsf.org/grantees/forms/finalqr0809.doc

Please contact me directly if you need any assistance with these items.