June 25, 2015

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Radius Health Looks Fully Valued

Radius Health (RDUS: Nasdaq) By Maxim Group ($60.00, June 22, 2015) Radius Health’s stock has exceeded our prior price target of $50 quicker than we anticipated when we launched coverage in April. Additionally, stock rose…



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With More People Quitting Smoking, Do We Need E-Cigarettes?

E-cigarettes are marketed as a safer way to inhale nicotine, but the evidence remains unclear on benefits and harms.

E-cigarettes are marketed as a safer way to inhale nicotine, but the evidence remains unclear on benefits and harms. Nam Y. Huh/AP hide caption

itoggle caption Nam Y. Huh/AP

Once a smoker always a smoker, right? Not quite.

As the number of smokers drops, the remaining smokers actually smoke less and are more likely to quit, according to a study published Wednesday in the journal Tobacco Control.

It supports the idea that smoking in the United States is heading down a “softening” curve. That means more people are trying to quit, and the number of people quitting compared to smokers is increasing as the number of total smokers declines.

Over in Europe, the researchers found, things are slightly different. The percentage of smokers who have quit remained constant even as fewer people smoked, while the number of cigarettes smoked per day dropped, as it has in U.S.

The study is based on population data collected by the Census Bureau in the U.S. over 18 years, while six years’ worth of public opinion surveys conducted by the European Commission were used for EU counterpart.

The researchers say their results bring into question the practice of harm reduction, a public health approach for tobacco control in use since the 1970s. Harm reduction was proposed as a way to minimize the exposure of smokers unable or unwilling to quit. More recently, e-cigarettes have been promoted as a replacement for the traditional cigarette.

“The fundamental thing is that harm reduction is wrong,” says Dr. Stanton Glantz, senior author of the study and director of the Center of Tobacco Control Research and Education at the University of California, San Francisco. “It’s not an irrational idea, but it’s just not happening.”

While Joanna Cohen, director of the Institute for Global Tobacco Control at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, agrees that there’s a ‘softening’ trend, she thinks that e-cigarettes and harm reduction policies are not a black-and-white issue.

“In tobacco control, those words carry a log of baggage right now,” Cohen says. “Different experts have different opinions.” There’s no formal policy at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or other agencies that specifically has a harm reduction approach, she notees.

“Some people think that [e-cigarettes] are going to be the solution to the problem,” she continues, “Other people are more concerned that either they won’t make a difference or cause harm.”

Potential problems include e-cigarettes preventing people from quitting smoking altogether and tempting new users, since they are marketed as not as harmful as the traditional cigarette. Evidence isn’t clear either way at this point.

One reason for the shifting debate is that our attitudes and understanding have changed about nicotine, Glantz says.

People used to believe that nicotine kept people addicted to cigarettes but that it wasn’t dangerous itself. The smoke was thought to be the source of harmful toxins. So the idea was to introduce new ways to deliver nicotine such as e-cigarettes that could give people the nicotine they desired but didn’t involve burning tobacco.

Now we know better. The 2014 U.S. Surgeon General’s report concluded that nicotine is addictive, that a high-enough dosage can be very toxic in a short amount of time, and that exposure to nicotine during pregnancy and childhood can have serious adverse consequences. E-cigarettes deliver nicotine and other chemicals to users, but in vapor instead of smoke.

The study results suggest that current tobacco control policies already in place are working. Glantz says. He and first author Margarete Kulik, a postdoctoral fellow at UCSF, attribute the general decline in smokers to this success, which includes the debut of clean indoor air laws that ban smoking inside workplaces, restaurants and other facilities. National media campaigns that aimed to de-normalize smoking and raised cigarette taxes also helped.

“It certainly suggests that we need to keep doing what we’re doing,” says Dr, Vaughan Rees, director of the Center for Global Tobacco Control at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, who was not involved in this study.

Since current policies work and data suggests that remaining smokers are more likely to quit and smoke less, then there really is no need to promote new recreational nicotine products like e-cigarettes under the name of harm reduction, Glantz says.

Cohen also points out that there are challenges when you look at population-level data and think about what that means for policy.

A governmental institution such as the CDC might make use of the same data in a different way than the average physician will. If you have a hard-core smoker sitting in front of you, you as a health care provider want to help that person as best as you can. Maybe an e-cigarette is the best choice for that particular patient.

“In the end, everyone’s heart is in the same place. Everybody wants to reduce death and disease from tobacco products,” Cohen says.

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Congress Signs Off On Trade Bills, Handing Obama A Huge Win

The U.S. House voted 236-138 today to tie a bow on President Obama’s package of trade-related legislation — giving him final approval on everything he wanted.

The Senate already had signed off on all of it, granting: 1) enhanced trade negotiation powers to the president, 2) aid for displaced workers and 3) trade incentives for sub-Saharan Africa.

Today’s vote marked a stunning victory for Obama by clearing his path to completing the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership, a trade deal involving the United States, Japan and 10 other Pacific Rim nations.

Earlier this month, some rebellious Democrats had tried to derail White House plans for this possible massive expansion of trade. But those Democrats got outmaneuvered by the White House and GOP leaders who wanted to advance trade.

Here’s what you need to know:

What exactly happened today?

  • The House reauthorized the Trade Adjustment Assistance program — that’s a program to help workers who have lost jobs to foreign competition.
  • Obama insisted on getting this help for workers, saying it had to be part of any larger trade agenda.
  • Many Republicans oppose this program, saying it amounts to government waste, but they went along with it as part of a compromise.
  • And the House took another step as part of this grand compromise — it renewed the African Growth and Opportunity Act to help spur trade with Africa. That was another Obama request.
  • The GOP leadership allowed passage of these Obama-backed bills because they agreed with the president’s larger goal: to complete this sprawling Pacific trade deal.
  • The Senate already has passed these bills, so the legislation is done now.

So the Africa bill and worker assistance were both part of a compromise. What’s the rest of the deal?

  • The White House wanted Congress to renew Trade Promotion Authority. Presidents have had this authority for decades, but it had expired and Obama wanted it back.
  • This power authorizes a president to sit down with foreign counterparts and hammer out trade deals.
  • When they reach an agreement, the president can bring the deal to Congress and put it on a so-called fast track — that is, Congress can only vote yes or no, with no filibusters or amendments.
  • Presidents always want — and get — this power because realistically, no other country will negotiate unless they know that once they have shaken hands with the president, the deal is final.
  • On Wednesday, the Senate signed off on that. The House already had done so.

That means President Obama is now empowered to finish up with the Trans-Pacific deal, right?

  • U.S. negotiators can now complete the trade talks with the other 11 countries.
  • Probably before the year is over, the White House will ask Congress for a simple majority vote to complete the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
  • And if it passes, that will be a huge addition to his economic legacy.
  • He has been saying for years that the United States needs to pivot to Asia.
  • By tying the U.S. economy more closely to Japan, Australia, Singapore and so on, he says Americans will be able to boost exports and counterbalance the growing strength of China.

But unions hate these developments. Why such strong opposition?

  • Labor groups say trade deals help big businesses but hurt workers by increasing competition.
  • They did everything to block Trade Promotion Authority. Now they vow to continue to fight the Trans-Pacific deal when it comes to Congress.
  • But the White House now seems in a much better position to win this ultimate goal.

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Health happenings

Charity Events The Westmoreland Hospital Auxiliary will hold a jewelry and sundries sale from 10 am to 2 pm Wednesday in the Atrium at Excela Square at Norwin, 8775 Norwin Ave., North Huntingdon. Merchandise includes…