Employee Benefit Programs in U.S. Increase Coverage of Smoking Cessation Programs; Nymox -NASDAQ:NYMX- NicAlert Product Valuable Tool for Smoking Cessation Programs.Business Editors/Health/Medical Writers MAYWOOD, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 3, 2003 Coverage for smoking cessation programs is part of comprehensive cancer screening and prevention programs agreed to by the CEOs of several dozen major corporations. The programs will extend the benefit of smoking cessation programs to 8 million employees and 17 million dependents. Smoking cessation programs have been traditionally excluded from such employee benefit programs. Nymox's NicAlert(TM) product is a valuable aid for smoking cessation programs. NicAlert can accurately and quickly determine a person's level of tobacco use and exposure on-site without the need for instruments or special training. NicAlert received clearance from the U.S. FDA FDA abbr. Food and Drug Administration FDA, n.pr See Food and Drug Administration. FDA, n.pr the abbreviation for the Food and Drug Administration. in October 2002. Quitting smoking also significantly reduces mortality risk for patients with coronary heart disease coronary heart disease: see coronary artery disease. coronary heart disease or ischemic heart disease Progressive reduction of blood supply to the heart muscle due to narrowing or blocking of a coronary artery (see atherosclerosis). according to a review article published in the most recent issue of the Journal of American Medical Association American Medical Association (AMA), professional physicians' organization (founded 1847). Its goals are to protect the interests of American physicians, advance public health, and support the growth of medical science. (JAMA JAMA abbr. Journal of the American Medical Association July 2, 2003; 290:86-97). The authors found that studies consistently showed that patients with heart disease who stopped smoking had a considerably lower risk of heart disease. They also noted the tendency of some patients with heart disease to falsely claim cessation. NicAlert was recently adopted by the American Respiratory Alliance for use as its official test agents in some of its smoking cessation programs. NicAlert has been successfully used in anti-smoking campaigns in Switzerland and smoking cessation programs in the United States. A European study recently successfully used NicAlert as an adjunct to nicotine replacement therapy Nicotine replacement therapy A method of weaning a smoker away from both nicotine and the oral fixation that accompanies a smoking habit by giving the smoker smaller and smaller doses of nicotine in the form of a patch or gum. (NRT) in a four month study to be presented the 12th World Conference on Tobacco or Health in Helsinki August 3-8, 2003. Two recent independent peer-reviewed studies found the technology employed in NicAlert to be an accurate, rapid and cost-effective means of confirming smoking status. One study, "Validating a Dipstick dipstick /dipĀ·stick/ (dipĀ“stik) a strip of cellulose chemically impregnated to render it sensitive to protein, glucose, or other substances in the urine. Method for Detecting Recent Smoking," Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention (2002; 11: 1123-1125) was authored by Peter Gariti of the University of Pennsylvania (body, education) University of Pennsylvania - The home of ENIAC and Machiavelli. http://upenn.edu/. Address: Philadelphia, PA, USA. Cancer Center Group, Philadelphia Veterans Affairs Medical Center and the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine The University of Pennsylvania's School of Medicine, presently located in the University City section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was the United States's first school of medicine, founded at the College of Philadelphia, as the University was then called. , David I. Rosenthal of the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Kathleen Lindell of the University of Pittsburgh and John Hansen-Flaschen, Joseph Shrager, Craig Lipkin, Arthur I. Alterman and Lawrence R. Kaiser of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. The study examined the smoking status of patients at a cancer clinic and found that the results obtained using Nymox's tobacco product exposure test had an "excellent agreement" with state-of-the-art sophisticated laboratory measurements but at a substantially lower cost (over 90% less). The second study, "The Accuracy of Self-Reported Smoking Status Assessed by Cotinine cotinine (kō´tinēn), n a substance that remains in body fluids after nicotine has been used. Presence of this chemical in body fluids is considered proof of recent nicotine use. Test Strips," Nicotine & Tobacco Research (2002; 4: 305-9) was authored by Donna R. Parker, ScD, and Thomas M. Lasater, PhD, Brown University School of Medicine; Richard Windsor, PhD, MPH, George Washington University George Washington University, at Washington, D.C.; coeducational; chartered 1821 as Columbian College (one of the first nonsectarian colleges), opened 1822, became a university in 1873, renamed 1904. Medical Center; Jeff Wilkins, MD, Greater Los Angeles VA Healthcare Center, David Upegui, BA, Memorial Hospital of Rhode Island; and James Heimdal, PhD, The Hoffman Heart Institute, Saint Francis Hospital and Medical Center, Hartford, CT. The study found Nymox's product to be "an inexpensive and rapid method to routinely biochemically confirm smoking status at a clinical visit." The authors described the Nymox product as a "simple, inexpensive and rapid measure to immediately confirm smoking status in field settings." The U.S. Surgeon General, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), agency of the U.S. Public Health Service since 1973, with headquarters in Atlanta; it was established in 1946 as the Communicable Disease Center. (CDC), the World Health Organization (WHO) and many other public health organizations have targeted tobacco use as the single most preventable cause of premature death today. The CDC estimates that smoking causes over 440,000 premature deaths annually in the United States and creates an economic loss of over $150 billion a year. More information about Nymox is available at www.nymox.com, email: info@nymox.com, or 800-936-9669. This press release contains certain "forward-looking statements" as defined in the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (PSLRA) implemented several significant substantive changes affecting certain cases brought under the federal securities laws, including changes related to pleading, discovery, liability, class representation and awards fees and of 1995 that involve a number of risks and uncertainties. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate and the actual results and future events could differ materially from management's current expectations. Such factors are detailed from time to time in Nymox's filings with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission and other regulatory authorities. |
|

Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion