UK says home-grown cancer pill too costly to use (Reuters)

LONDON (Reuters) ? Britain's health cost watchdog NICE sparked a major row on Thursday by snubbing a pricey new prostate cancer pill discovered at the country's top cancer research centre, a decision critics said was bad for patients and research.

If the draft ruling is upheld after further consultation, Zytiga, which is marketed by Johnson & Johnson, will not be reimbursed on the state-run National Health Service (NHS).

The drug was hailed as a significant advance by cancer doctors after a clinical trial showed it extended the lives of patients with advanced prostate cancer by an average of 3.9 months. Unlike many cancer medicines, it can be taken at home.

It was quickly approved by U.S. and European regulators last year, but Britain's National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) said it did not provide enough benefit to justify the high cost, even with a discount offered by J&J.

Zytiga, also known as abiraterone, is taken once a day as a single dose of four tablets and costs 2,930 pounds ($4,600) for a 30-day supply.

J&J has offered a discount, the size of which is confidential, and it is possible that further haggling might produce an acceptable pricing deal -- but leading cancer charities are alarmed by the impasse.

The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR), whose scientists discovered the medicine, said it hoped NICE would now work with J&J to find a solution.

Cancer Research UK, which supported research into Zytiga with the Medical Research Council and BTG before rights to the drug were finally acquired by J&J, also questioned the grounds of the NICE verdict, which it said made "no sense."

"Generous public donations to Cancer Research UK and other organizations paid for the initial development of the drug and we feel extremely let down," said Harpal Kumar, the charity's chief executive.

It is the first time since 2008 that Cancer Research UK has publicly criticized a ruling from NICE, whose decisions on whether or not drugs should be used on the NHS are often controversial.

Worldwide sales of Zytiga are expected to reach $1.6 billion a year by 2015, according to consensus forecasts compiled by Thomson Reuters Pharma. British charities will receive royalties on those sales, which will be reinvested in further research.

The drug works by decreasing production of testosterone that would stimulate cancer cells to continue growing. It is designed for use in combination with the steroid prednisone in patients with late-stage castration-resistant prostate cancer who have received prior chemotherapy treatment.

Johann de Bono from the ICR told a conference in Milan in 2010 the survival gain it offered compared favorably with that seen with Roche's Herceptin in breast cancer.

The NICE decision means British men could be left without the chance to benefit from "one of the biggest breakthroughs in the treatment of the disease for many years," according to Owen Sharp, chief executive of the Prostate Cancer Charity.

(Reporting by Ben Hirschler; Editing by Helen Massy-Beresford)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/health/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120202/hl_nm/us_britain_jj_cancer

luck undercover boss sag awards 2012 nominees sag awards pro bowl 2012 roster yamaguchi road house

MN Job Posting: Associate Librarian

Job Title:	Associate Librarian - Watertown
Closing Date/Time:	Wed. 02/15/12 4:30 PM Central Time
Salary:	$18.73 - $28.11 Hourly
Job Type:	Part-Time(PT Benefits Eligible)
Location:	Watertown Library, Minnesota
Department:	Administrative Services

Under the direction of the Branch Manager, the Associate Librarian is a paraprofessional position that performs varied and technical library duties, including assisting the public with library services, answering moderately complex research questions, and in the absence of a branch manager or other librarian, performs the duties of a "person in charge". This is a part-time position with an average of 20 hours per week. Flexibility to work in other Carver County Library branch location as needed.

http://agency.governmentjobs.com/carvermn/default.cfm?action=viewjob&JobID=417883&headerfooter=1&WDDXJobSearchParams=

Oxygen molecule survives to enormously high pressures

Monday, January 30, 2012

Using computer simulations, a RUB researcher has shown that the oxygen molecule (O2) is stable up to pressures of 1.9 terapascal, which is about nineteen million times higher than atmosphere pressure. Above that, it polymerizes, i.e. builds larger molecules or structures. "This is very surprising" says Dr. Jian Sun from the Department of Theoretical Chemistry. "Other simple molecules like nitrogen or hydrogen do not survive such high pressures." In cooperation with colleagues from University College London, the University of Cambridge, and the National Research Council of Canada, the researcher also reports that the behaviour of oxygen with increasing pressure is very complicated. It's electrical conductivity first increases, then decreases, and finally increases again. The results are published in Physical Review Letters.

Weaker bonds, greater stability

The oxygen atoms in the O2 molecule are held together by a double covalent bond. Nitrogen (N2), on the other hand, possesses a triple bond. "You would think that the weaker double bond is easier to break than the triple bond and that oxygen would therefore polymerize at lower pressures than nitrogen" says Sun. "We found the opposite, which is astonishing at first sight."

Coming together when pressure increases

However, in the condensed phase when pressure increases, the molecules become closer to each other. The research team suggests that, under these conditions, the electron lone pairs on different molecules repel one another strongly, thus hindering the molecules from approaching each other. Since oxygen has more lone pairs than nitrogen, the repulsive force between these molecules is stronger, which makes polymerization more difficult. However, the number of lone pairs cannot be the only determinant of the polymerization pressure. "We believe that it is a combination of the number of lone pairs and the strength of the bonds between the atoms", says Sun.

The many structures of oxygen

At high pressures, gaseous molecules such as hydrogen, carbon monoxide, or nitrogen polymerize into chains, layers, or framework structures. At the same time they usually change from insulators to metals, i.e. they become more conductive with increasing pressure. The research team, however, showed that things are more complicated with oxygen. Under standard conditions, the molecule has insulating properties. If the pressure increases, oxygen metallises and becomes a superconductor. With further pressure increase, its structure changes into a polymer and it becomes semi-conducting. If the pressure rises even more, oxygen once more assumes metallic properties, meaning that the conductivity goes up again. The metallic polymer structure finally changes into a metallic layered structure.

Inside planets

"The polymerization of small molecules under high pressure has attracted much attention because it helps to understand the fundamental physics and chemistry of geological and planetary processes" explains Sun. "For instance, the pressure at the centre of Jupiter is estimated to be about seven terapascal. It was also found that polymerized molecules, like N2 and CO2, have intriguing properties, such as high energy densities and super-hardness." Dr. Jian Sun joined the RUB-research group of Prof. Dr. Dominik Marx as a Humboldt Research Fellow in 2008 to work on vibrational spectroscopy of aqueous solutions. In parallel to this joint work in "Solvation Science" he developed independent research interests into high pressure chemical physics as an Early Career Researcher.

###

Ruhr-University Bochum: http://www.ruhr-uni-bochum.de

Thanks to Ruhr-University Bochum for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

This press release has been viewed 55 time(s).

Source: http://www.labspaces.net/117178/Oxygen_molecule_survives_to_enormously_high_pressures

tesla model s prohibition alex honnold koch industries dexter season 6 andy rooney 60 minutes andre johnson

Apple updates Airport stations and Time Capsule, brings bug fixes and iCloud support

It looks as if the Final Cut Pro X update wasn't the only software refresh Cupertino folks had in store for us. In this particular case, it's the company's networking and backup goods -- also known as Airport Express, Extreme and Time Capsule -- that are on the receiving end of the virtual enhancements. The 802.11n stations are getting a fix that solves "an issue with wireless performance," while the capsule is seeing some much needed iCloud support. Additional Apple cloud integration doesn't stop there, as you'll also be able to remotely access your Airport disk. Though, it's worth mentioning that in order to take advantage of the iCloud features you'll have to update your Airport Utility to the latest version (6.0). That means you'll also need Lion, so those of you keepin' your OS X old school with Snow Leopard will be out of luck. Looking to up your wireless game? Hit up the source link for the full details.

Apple updates Airport stations and Time Capsule, brings bug fixes and iCloud support originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 31 Jan 2012 17:12:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  Apple  | Email this | Comments

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/OXaziRLWiwM/

university of alabama national championship game lsu vs alabama college football college football ncaa football brian van gorder