Woonsocket, RI-based CVS Caremark said that it will discontinue sales of tobacco products at its more than 7,600 CVS/pharmacy stores across the country by October 1, making the company the first national pharmacy chain to take this step in support of the health of its customers. “Put simply, the sale of tobacco products is inconsistent with our purpose,” said Larry Merlo, president and CEO of CVS Caremark. The move is expected to cost the company $2 billion in sales annually.
The $1,000 human genome sequence is now a reality, according to San Diego, CA–based Illumina, Inc., making mass sequencing possible. The company's CEO, Jay Flatley, introduced its HiSeq X sequencer, designed to process 20,000 genomes a year at a cost of $1,000 each, at the JP Morgan Chase & Co. health care conference in San Francisco, CA.
Between 2005 and 2009, lung cancer incidence rates have dropped by 2.6% per year among men and 1.1% per year among women, according to a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Among adults ages 35 to 44, the drop in incidence rates was even greater—6.5% per year among men and 5.8% per year among women. In all age groups, lung cancer incidence rates dropped more quickly among men than among women.
Mylan Pharmaceuticals began marketing Hertraz (trastuzumab) in India. The drug is the world's first biosimilar to Herceptin (Roche/Genentech).
Due to insufficient enrollment, Aveo Oncology and Astellas Pharma have decided to discontinue a phase II trial of tivozanib in patients with locally recurrent or metastatic triple-negative breast cancer.
In a study in the Annals of Oncology, researchers conclude that Europe may not have enough medical oncologists to keep pace with the rising toll of cancer (Ann Oncol 2014;25:525–8). The report shows that 12 countries, mostly in Western Europe, will probably have enough medical oncologists over the next 8 years, but researchers were not able to gather sufficient information from 15 other European Union members to assess their needs.
For more news on cancer research, visit Cancer Discovery online at http://CDnews.aacrjournals.org.
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