Smoking Cessation Programs Reduce Healthcare Costs for Employers
Nymox NicAlert™ Product Valuable Tool for Smoking Cessation Programs
MAYWOOD, NJ (September 18, 2003) A new report from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) targets tobacco use - the single most preventable cause of death in the U.S. - as a key part of business strategy to improve productivity and reduce healthcare costs. According to the report entitled "Prevention Makes Common `Cents'" covering treatments to help employees quit smoking offers substantial savings for employers in the costs of treating smoking-related illness. Earlier, in July 2003, the CEOs of several dozen major corporations announced their agreement to extend coverage for smoking cessation programs to 8 million employees and 17 million dependents as part of a comprehensive cancer screening and prevention program.
Nymox's NicAlert™ product is a valuable and cost-effective aid for smoking cessation programs. NicAlert™ can accurately and quickly determine a person's level of tobacco use and exposure on-site without the need for instruments or special training. NicAlert™ received clearance from the U.S. FDA in October 2002.
NicAlert™ is being used as the official test agent in several smoking cessation programs to be offered by the American Respiratory Alliance. NicAlert™ has also been successfully used in quit- smoking contests sponsored by public health officials in Switzerland and Canada.
Studies have shown that NicAlert™ can help smokers quit. A large European clinical trial found significant smoking reduction over the four-month trial period when nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) was combined with individual cotinine levels as measured by NicAlert. The study of NRT with NicAlert™ was undertaken at the Hirslanden Lung Center Zurich, Switzerland. The lead investigator was Dr. Karl Klingler. Some results from this study were presented at the 12th World Conference on Tobacco or Health in Helsinki in August 2003.
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) 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) 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.
