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American Lung Association Magazine debuts; 'Lung Health' created by Vitality Communications
GREENSBORO, N.C. - 01-27-2006 - Vitality Communications announced publication of the premier issue of LUNG health, the magazine of the American Lung Association. The publication features the latest information on the association's research and programs, advice for managing conditions such as COPD and asthma, answers to questions about lung health, and news about the organization.
"We are delighted to be partnering with the American Lung Association to help bring this valuable information to the public," said William G. Moore, president of Vitality Communications, which is the custom-publishing arm of StayWell, the largest provider of consumer health materials in the United States. "For more than 100 years, the American Lung Association has had an outstanding record of service in the fight against lung disease, and this new publication will help to further the association's vital communication with the public, patients, and caregivers."
The 32-page first issue of LUNG health contains feature articles on dealing with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), living with asthma, smoking cessation through the association's Freedom From Smoking program, fighting the flu, and understanding the dangers of radon gas. There also are inspirational personal success stories related to lung disease, a question-and-answer interview with lung experts, and information about association research, advocacy, and resources. The magazine, which has a colorful, easy-to-read design and layout, has an initial circulation of 100,000 and is being distributed to patients through physicians' offices and to association affiliates and contributors.
In a letter to readers in the first issue, American Lung Association President and CEO John L. Kirkwood and Chairman John F. "Jack" Sutter say that the association "is committed to finding new ways to reach communities in need, harnessing new technologies and ways of disseminating information. The magazine you're holding in your hands is one of those ways," write Kirkwood and Sutter. "It is part of our effort to better serve you and provide you with even more information about lung health. We are committed to providing the information and knowledge that everyone needs to breathe easier."
For more information about the American Lung Association and to support the work that it does, call 800-LUNG-USA (800-586-4872) or log on to www.lungusa.org. For more information on LUNG health magazine and Vitality Communications, a MediMedia USA company, call 336-547-8970 or log on to www.vitalitycommunications.com.
About MediMedia
MediMedia offers some of the best-known brands in healthcare communications to both industry professionals and consumers. In addition to its leading consumer health content sources, MediMedia is the pre-eminent provider of solutions for pharmaceutical companies along their entire marketing continuum, targeting physicians, payers and patients with our content and applications. The company's attention to content quality, accuracy and ease of comprehension, as well as its experience in delivering specialized information to targeted audiences, has earned the trust and respect of healthcare organizations, pharmaceutical companies, physicians, employers and consumers throughout the country.
Pharmaceuticals
Peace At Last
Robert Lenzner
04.03.06 - New York - Another confrontational chapter in the $22 billion gold rush over diet drug fen-phen was resolved last week when trial lawyers Paul Napoli, Marc Bern and Mario D'Angelo settled more than 8,000 of their remaining claims against drug giant Wyeth.
All parties to the deal have promised to keep the cost of the settlement confidential, but it was surely far less than Napoli's negotiating demand of $900 million.
"We've reached a confidential agreement with Wyeth. That's all I'm permitted to say," says Mario D'Angelo, partner in Hariton & D'Angelo, of Hauppauge, N.Y.
Even more significantly for Wyeth (nyse: WYE - news - people ), these trial lawyers have capitulated and made a total peace with the drug giant.
They have promised to no longer try to dissolve the trust and break apart the agreement to pay claimants $3.75 billion established in 2000.
"Napoli and Hariton agreed to withdraw with prejudice all of the outstanding motions, joinders, oppositions which could be construed as attacks on the enforceability of the settlement," according to a transcript of the hearing which took place in the courtroom of Judge Harvey Bartle III on Wednesday, March 29.
Michael Fishbein, lead counsel for the 6 million fen-phen users, disclosed in court that he had been approached on March 2 by other lawyers Wayne Spivey and Jerry Alexander about the interest of Napoli Hariton in resolving all outstanding cases against Wyeth and the trust.
As a result, Wyeth came to a "global peace" with the lawyers according to testimony by Peter Zimroth, Wyeth's attorney,and a partner in Arnold & Porter, a major law firm.
Napoli Bern, a New York firm, is rumored to have settled 5,600 earlier cases with Wyeth for $1 billion and earned total legal fees of $300 million for itself and referring lawyers around the country.
This sealed agreement may well be one of the last episodes in the costly fallout from Wyeth's promotion of a new diet drug Redux, whose central component was fen-phen, alleged to have resulted in heart-valve diseases, that was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 1996. The drug was recalled in 1997, and Wyeth has been paying billions ever since to deal with an avalanche of lawsuits and claims from diet drug users.
The U.S. Department of Justice in both Philadelphia and Jackson, Miss., have been investigating fraud and alleged fraud that resulted from the withdrawal of fen-phen and 600,000 claims that were made against Wyeth.
CHEST: Early PAH Patients Gain Walking Distances with Investigational Drug
By Ed Susman, Contributing Writer, MedPage Today
Reviewed by Zalman S. Agus, MD; Emeritus Professor at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.
SALT LAKE CITY, Oct. 27 -- For patients with early-stage pulmonary arterial hypertension, high doses of an investigational selective endothelin receptor antagonist significantly improved six-minute walking distances.
Action Points
* Explain to interested patients that ambrisentan is an investigational agent that is not approved by the FDA for general clinical use.
* This report is based on an abstract presented at a meeting. These data and conclusions should be considered preliminary as they have not yet been reviewed and published in a peer-reviewed publication.
So found the ARIES-1 study, a multicenter double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial that evaluated 5 mg/day and 10 mg/day of ambrisentan, Lewis J. Rubin, M.D., of the University of California, San Diego, reported at CHEST 2006, the meeting of the American College of Chest Physicians.
A similar study, ARIES-2, had previously shown that the oral agent was effective, although somewhat less so, at doses of 2.5 mg/day and 5 mg/day.
Ambrisentan also reduced levels of brain natriuretic peptide, a marker of the severity of PAH, said Dr. Rubin.
For the 12-week ARIES-1trial, Dr. Rubin and colleagues randomized 202 patients (mean age 50) with PAH to one of three regimens: ambrisentan 10 mg once daily, ambrisentan 5 mg/day and placebo. There were five dropouts in the 10-mg arm, four in the 5-mg arm, and 10 in the placebo arm.
Some 90% of these patients were in WHO functional class II or III, and 84% were women, who are disproportionately affected by PAH.
There were 183 patients who finished the study. At that point the researchers measured the distance each patient was able to walk in six minutes.
Those in the 10-mg ambrisentan group enjoyed a mean increase of 51.4 meters over their baseline distance (P=0.0001), compared with an increase of 30.6 meters in the 5-mg ambrisentan group (P=0.0084). The placebo controls had a small decline in distance walked.
Mean brain natriuretic peptide levels fell 149.3 pg/mL in the 10-mg ambrisentan group (P=0.0001) and 62.5 pg/mL in the 5-mg ambrisentan group (P=0.002), while rising 11.8 pg/mL in the placebo group.
"This is the first trial to show that an oral medication can reduce levels of brain natriuretic peptide," said Dr. Rubin.
For other secondary endpoints, the 10-mg dose of ambrisentan was superior to placebo in reducing Borg dyspnea index scores (mean change: -0.8 vs. 0; P=0.0018), Dr. Rubin said.
Also, patients in the two active-treatment groups combined had a significantly greater improvement in WHO functional class than did the controls (P=0.0362). Finally, there was no significant difference among the groups in the time to clinical worsening or in mortality.
Ambrisentan selectively blocks the endothelin receptor. Endothelin is a small peptide that is believed to play a critical role in the control of blood flow and cell growth. Elevated blood endothelin levels are associated with several diseases other than PAH, including chronic kidney disease, heart failure, stroke and restenosis following balloon angioplasty and stent implantation.
The apparent dose-response relationship seen in both ARIES-1 and ARIES-2 is a promising finding, said Vallerie McLaughlin, M.D., of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, who co-chaired the oral presentation session at which Dr. Rubin reported the results of the trial.
"I would like to see several doses of ambrisentan brought forward to give clinicians a choice in treating their patients," she said.
Complete CHEST Coverage
Primary source: CHEST
Source reference:
Ronald Oudiz, "ARIES-1: A Placebo-Controlled, Efficacy and Safety Study of Ambrisentan in Patients with Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension" CHEST October 2006, 130:4, 121s
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