We Look Forward to Hearing From You

We Look Forward to Hearing From You

With this and every issue of Oncology & Biotech News, we seek to provide clinicians with practical news with a global perspective. As we move forward, it is our goal to provide more information from markets outside the United States. Please let us know if this type of information is helpful to you in your daily practice.

In this issue, we include several articles (cover story and in our Policy and Politics department on page 15) on cervical cancer vaccines. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has adopted the recommendations of its advisory committee on immunizing girls and women from the ages of 11 through 26 to receive the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine (specifically Merck’s Gardasil). The debate seems to be heating up at the state level regarding making the vaccine mandatory to females in this

age group. And to add a new twist to the story, GlaxoSkithKline’s experimental cervical cancer vaccine Cervarix moved closer to being approved. The vaccine was shown to be 100% effective in preventing precancerous lesions due to cancer-causing HPV strains 16 and 18 for up to five and one half years. Glaxo applied for FDA approval for Cervarix in March and is expected to gain approval in Europe

this year.

Clinical Trial Updates

Physicians Financial News

Also in this issue, we bring you our monthly departments. focuses on therapies in clinical trials. Of particular interest is Amgen’s and ImClone’s competing EGFr-targeting drugs (article on page 9). In coming months, we plan to enhance to better keep you abreast of the financial aspects of the biotechnology industry. We also plan to continue covering important oncology meetings from across the country. If there are local meetings that you feel would be of particular interest to readers of this publication, please contact us and we’ll have our reporters attend.

As with any publication, we look forward to hearing from you, our readers. Your input is essential to developing this publication into a useful tool for you in your daily practice.

Sincerely,

E. Roy Berger, MD, FACP

Physician Contributor

Oncology & Biotech News