Hi, Folks,
Back from vacation. This news appears to be popping SCLN over $5. Since my July calls expired worthless . . . lather, rinse, repeat.
>>SAN MATEO, Calif., July 24 /PRNewswire/ -- SciClone Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: SCLN - news) today announced that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has issued a Notice of Allowance for use of the Company's lead drug, ZADAXIN® plus lamivudine and famciclovir for the treatment of hepatitis B. ZADAXIN is an immune system enhancer (ISE) with an amino acid sequence identical to the naturally occurring peptide that enhances the ability of the body's immune system to fight and destroy cancerous and virally infected cells.
``As various monotherapy anti-viral treatments progress towards the use of combination therapies to improve sustained response rates, SciClone, attentive to these developments, continues to protect the use of ZADAXIN,'' said Donald R. Sellers, SciClone's President and CEO. ``This patent strengthens our intellectual property position and our belief that ZADAXIN can play a key role in the growing use of combination therapies for treating hepatitis B.''
The World Health Organization estimates that approximately 350 million people worldwide are long-term carriers of the hepatitis B virus (HBV), including 1,200,000 Americans. The American Liver Foundation estimates that there are 140,000 new HBV infections in the U.S. each year and that one of every 20 people in the U.S. will be infected with HBV in their lifetime. Up to 40% of people with acute HBV infection show no symptoms. Many people chronically infected with HBV will progress to liver cirrhosis and liver failure, from which they will eventually die. People with chronic HBV infection have a 100 times greater chance of developing hepatocellular carcinoma than those not infected. Hepatocellular carcinoma is the most prevalent malignant disease in the world.<<
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Cheers, Tuck |
