Sep 3, 2021 02:24 AM
OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma is dissolved
https://consumer.healthday.com/oxycontin...80392.html
EXCERPTS: Purdue Pharma was dissolved on Wednesday and the Sackler family will pay $4.5 billion under a bankruptcy settlement that will end thousands of lawsuits brought against the company over the U.S. opioid crisis. Purdue was the maker of OxyContin, which was first brought to market in 1996. To date, more than 500,000 Americans have died of opioid overdoses.
However, the deal includes a controversial condition that largely absolves the Sacklers of liability, and they will remain among the richest families in the United States, The New York Times reported. As Judge Robert Drain [...] was frustrated that so much of the Sackler money was parked in offshore accounts. He said he had expected and wished for a higher settlement.
The lack of remorse from Sackler family members has been glaring: Last month, Richard Sackler, former president and co-chairman of the company's board, testified that the family, the company, and its products bore no responsibility for the opioid epidemic. Other Sacklers struck a more conciliatory note, but none apologized or took personal responsibility... (MORE - details)
HPV vaccination will reduce throat and mouth cancers, but overall impact will take 25-plus years to see
https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/927322
INTRO: Vaccinations against human papillomavirus (HPV), a major cause of throat and back of mouth cancers, are expected to yield significant reductions in the rates of these cancers in the U.S., but will not do so until after 2045, according to a new modeling study from researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
HPV is the most common sexually transmitted infectious virus worldwide. HPV infections are often silent, and while most infections clear, some are chronic and can trigger cancers including mouth and throat (oropharyngeal), and cervical cancer because they disrupt DNA and inhibit tumor-suppressor proteins in the cells they infect. Although there is no cure for existing HPV infections, new infections are preventable with vaccines, the first of which entered use in the U.S. in 2006.
In the new study, the Bloomberg School researchers analyzed national databases on oropharyngeal cancer cases and HPV vaccinations, and projected the impact of HPV vaccination on the rates of these cancers in different age groups. They estimated that the oropharyngeal cancer rate would nearly halve between 2018 and 2045 among people ages 36–45. However, they also projected that the rate in the overall population would stay about the same from 2018-2045, due to still-rising rates of these cancers in older people, where most of these cancers occur.
The study appears online September 2 in JAMA Oncology.
“We estimate that most of the oropharyngeal cancers from 2018 to 2045 will occur among people who are 55 years and older and have not been vaccinated,” says study lead author Yuehan Zhang, a PhD candidate in the research group of Gypsyamber D’Souza, PhD, professor in the Department of Epidemiology at the Bloomberg School.
“HPV vaccination is going to work to prevent oropharyngeal cancers, but it will take time to see that impact, because these cancers mostly occur in middle age,” D’Souza says.
Oropharyngeal cancer is the most common HPV-related cancer, and according to the Oral Cancer Foundation there are more than 50,000 new cases of it in the U.S. each year. Alcohol and tobacco use also are risk factors, but are seen as increasingly less important than HPV.
Vaccination is a powerful medical weapon against this family of viruses, but has one major shortcoming: It can prevent, but not treat. In other words, it does not work against established HPV infections or against cells that have been transformed by HPV and are on their way to forming tumors. Thus it is recommended chiefly for the young who are not yet exposed to sexually transmitted HPV. (Most people who were already adults when HPV vaccination became available have never been vaccinated, and thus remain at risk for these cancers.) (MORE)
https://consumer.healthday.com/oxycontin...80392.html
EXCERPTS: Purdue Pharma was dissolved on Wednesday and the Sackler family will pay $4.5 billion under a bankruptcy settlement that will end thousands of lawsuits brought against the company over the U.S. opioid crisis. Purdue was the maker of OxyContin, which was first brought to market in 1996. To date, more than 500,000 Americans have died of opioid overdoses.
However, the deal includes a controversial condition that largely absolves the Sacklers of liability, and they will remain among the richest families in the United States, The New York Times reported. As Judge Robert Drain [...] was frustrated that so much of the Sackler money was parked in offshore accounts. He said he had expected and wished for a higher settlement.
The lack of remorse from Sackler family members has been glaring: Last month, Richard Sackler, former president and co-chairman of the company's board, testified that the family, the company, and its products bore no responsibility for the opioid epidemic. Other Sacklers struck a more conciliatory note, but none apologized or took personal responsibility... (MORE - details)
HPV vaccination will reduce throat and mouth cancers, but overall impact will take 25-plus years to see
https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/927322
INTRO: Vaccinations against human papillomavirus (HPV), a major cause of throat and back of mouth cancers, are expected to yield significant reductions in the rates of these cancers in the U.S., but will not do so until after 2045, according to a new modeling study from researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
HPV is the most common sexually transmitted infectious virus worldwide. HPV infections are often silent, and while most infections clear, some are chronic and can trigger cancers including mouth and throat (oropharyngeal), and cervical cancer because they disrupt DNA and inhibit tumor-suppressor proteins in the cells they infect. Although there is no cure for existing HPV infections, new infections are preventable with vaccines, the first of which entered use in the U.S. in 2006.
In the new study, the Bloomberg School researchers analyzed national databases on oropharyngeal cancer cases and HPV vaccinations, and projected the impact of HPV vaccination on the rates of these cancers in different age groups. They estimated that the oropharyngeal cancer rate would nearly halve between 2018 and 2045 among people ages 36–45. However, they also projected that the rate in the overall population would stay about the same from 2018-2045, due to still-rising rates of these cancers in older people, where most of these cancers occur.
The study appears online September 2 in JAMA Oncology.
“We estimate that most of the oropharyngeal cancers from 2018 to 2045 will occur among people who are 55 years and older and have not been vaccinated,” says study lead author Yuehan Zhang, a PhD candidate in the research group of Gypsyamber D’Souza, PhD, professor in the Department of Epidemiology at the Bloomberg School.
“HPV vaccination is going to work to prevent oropharyngeal cancers, but it will take time to see that impact, because these cancers mostly occur in middle age,” D’Souza says.
Oropharyngeal cancer is the most common HPV-related cancer, and according to the Oral Cancer Foundation there are more than 50,000 new cases of it in the U.S. each year. Alcohol and tobacco use also are risk factors, but are seen as increasingly less important than HPV.
Vaccination is a powerful medical weapon against this family of viruses, but has one major shortcoming: It can prevent, but not treat. In other words, it does not work against established HPV infections or against cells that have been transformed by HPV and are on their way to forming tumors. Thus it is recommended chiefly for the young who are not yet exposed to sexually transmitted HPV. (Most people who were already adults when HPV vaccination became available have never been vaccinated, and thus remain at risk for these cancers.) (MORE)