Washington DC Twitter: Anti-Smoking Vaccine

Showing posts with label Anti-Smoking Vaccine. Show all posts

Sunday, January 3, 2010

Give Homeland Security role in U.S. visas: Senator

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Homeland Security Department rather than the State Department should handle U.S. visas overseas to meet security threats, the chairman of the Senate homeland security committee said on Sunday.

Barack Obama

Connecticut independent Joe Lieberman raised the idea during a discussion on ABCs "This Week" of the attempted bombing of a Detroit-bound plane on Dec 25.

"I believe, incidentally, that we ought to take a look at taking the visa application and admission responsibility from the State Department. It doesn't really fit with foreign policy anymore," he said.

"And in an age of terrorism, I think the Department of Homeland Security ought to be handling visas abroad."

The 23-year-old Nigerian accused of the attempted bombing, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, held a multiple-entry U.S. visa issued in London, according to a statement by his family.

Leaders of the Senate committee say they will convene a hearing this month to examine airline security.

The committee's top Republican, Susan Collins of Maine, said on "This Week" the State Department should have revoked Abdulmutallab's visa after his family told U.S. officials they were worried about his activities.

The Homeland Security Department was to take control this month of a visa program for flight school students.

Foreign citizens from all but 35 countries, mostly in Europe but also including Australia, New Zealand, Japan and South Korea, must obtain a U.S. visa to visit the United States but a visa does not guarantee entry. Some 5.8 million non-immigrant visas were issued in 2006, the most recent year listed on a State Department site on the Internet.

Source:reuters.com/

Saturday, January 2, 2010

Think you've got all the answers, man? Try this D.C. quiz.

Think you know Washington? Answer Man will see about that. It's time for the second annual John Kelly's Washington Trivia Quiz. The answers are below -- and more details can be found online at http://voices.washingtonpost.com/commons.

1. The Washington Monument is topped with a tiny pyramid made of:

(a) gold; (b) aluminum; (c) crystal; (d) tourmaline.

2. Who described Washington, D.C., as "the head-quarters of tobacco-tinctured saliva"?

(a) Lord Cornwallis; (b). Charles Dickens; (c) Fanne Foxe; (d) Ralph Nader.

3. The construction of this building in 1894 so alarmed District officials that strict height limits were set for the city:

(a) the Cairo apartments; (b) the Baghdad apartments; (c) the Kennedy-Warren apartments; (d) Dr. Harvey's Velocipede Amphitheatre.

4. The maximum height of buildings in Washington is determined by a formula that takes into account:

(a) the height of the Capitol dome; (b) the height of the Washington Monument; (c) the width of the street the building is on; (d) the distance a musket ball travels when shot straight up into the air.

5. What does the statue shown in the photo commemorate?

(a) the temperance movement; (b) the abolition of slavery; (c) the heroes of the Titanic; (d) the great tourmaline mine disaster of 1897.

6. Where did pop star Jackson Browne record his 1977 song "Running on Empty"?

Source:washingtonpost.com/

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Thursday, December 24, 2009

Chantix to see Competition from New Anti-Smoking Vaccine

Washington, DC: It's all over the television now—ads for Chantix that depict a smiling, real-life Chantix user going about her everyday business without a cigarette between her fingers, while the announcer rattles off a warning about potential Chantix side effects, including suicide and aggression. Chantix side effects, for some, can be nasty.

And now a new vaccine that works in similar fashion to Chantix may be coming to a family doctor or pharmacy near you.

Many companies over the years have experimented with vaccines that do what essentially Chantix does—block neuron receptors in the brain that react to nicotine, producing the dopamine that's largely responsible for the pleasure that comes from smoking.

Now a company in Rockville, Maryland has announced the testing of an experimental vaccine. Nabi Biopharmaceuticals is in the midst of Phase 3 trials of what it calls NicVax, which shares a common modus operandi with Pfizer's Chantix. What’s more, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) has entered into an agreement in principle with Nabi to undertake the cost and marketing of the new vaccine.

NicVax causes the immune system to create antibodies that bond with the nicotine molecule if it enters the bloodstream. The result is a molecule too large to pass along to the brain, essentially making the body immune to nicotine.

If smokers can't get a buzz from lighting up a cigarette, the thinking goes, there's no reason for them to continue the habit. Antibodies created by NicVax are thought to stay in the body for long periods, lowering the chances that a smoker will quickly return to the habit.

The Washington Post reported earlier this month that Nabi will realize a financial windfall from GSK, provided that Nabi completes Phase 3 testing sometime in 2011.

Under the terms of the agreement with GSK, Nabi will reap $40 million for the exclusive worldwide licensing of NicVax. GSK could wind up paying Nabi as much as $500 million if Nabi meets a number of developmental and marketing milestones in the coming years. That figure does not include royalties Nabi would earn if NicVax makes it to market.

Analysts predict there is still a vast amount of money to be made from the smoking cessation market. Chantix, on the market for three years, is already worth a reported $800 million in sales to Pfizer, in spite of a spate of negative publicity.

While smokers have declined steadily over the past few decades, the trend has flattened in recent years: 20.9 percent of Americans counted themselves as smokers in 2004, compared with 20.6 percent in 2008.

Source:Lawyersandsettlements.com/

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