Nymox's NicAlert™ Used in Conjunction With Nicotine Replacement Therapy Results in Higher Smoking Cessation Success Rates
MAYWOOD, NJ (May 22, 2003) Nymox Pharmaceutical Corporation's (NASDAQ: NYMX) NicAlert™ is "easy to use, cost-effective and accurate," according to a team of Swiss researchers led by Dr. Karl Klingler of the Hirslanden Lung Center, Zurich, Switzerland.
The researchers recently presented their findings to the Assembly of Pneumologists in St.Gallen, Switzerland.
The Swiss researchers conducted a study to evaluate the use of NicAlert™ in conjunction with nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) in smoking cessation and reduction programs. The initial study was successful . NicAlert™ use led to higher success rates for smoking cessation. NicAlert™ is now being used to help tailor initial NRT dosages for subjects and to evaluate progress in a randomized smoking cessation trial.
"The success rates of smoking cessation with nicotine replacement therapy have historically been low (about 15%). NicAlert™ provides a quick, easy and accurate way of measuring a person's level of nicotine exposure on-site. The results of this pilot study indicate how NicAlert™'s unique proprietary technology offers physicians and smokers the ability to individualize the appropriate level of nicotine replacement for successful smoking cessation," said Dr. Michael Munzar, Medical Director of Nymox.
NicAlert™ received clearance from the U.S. FDA in October 2002.
NicAlert™ was recently used by the Quebec Public Health Department of Nunavik in Canada to check the current smoking status of potential winners of a 2003 Regional Quit to Win Challenge. NicAlert™ was also used in a nationwide stop-smoking campaign jointly run by the Swiss Federal Office of Public Health, the Swiss Association for Smoking Prevention, the Swiss League Against Cancer and the Swiss Lung Association. NicAlert™ was also recently successfully used in Switzerland in high school students in an awareness campaign in Basel.
NicAlert™ is a powerful one-step patented urine test for detecting smoking and tobacco product exposure that combines the advantages of semi-quantitative measurement together with an easy-to-use, cost effective, rapid format. NicAlert™ does not require any instruments or special training for its use.
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 Method for Detecting Recent Smoking," Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention (2002; 11: 1123-1125) was authored by Peter Gariti of the University of Pennsylvania Cancer Center Group, Philadelphia Veterans Affairs Medical Center and the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, 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 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 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 (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 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.