NEW YORK
Pfizer, doctors: Cancer pill gives hope, strategy
NEW YORK — Pfizer Inc.’s just-approved Xalkori, the first new medicine in several years for deadly lung cancer, shows the value of a new research standard: precisely targeting rare diseases linked to gene variants.
That’s the view of cancer specialists, Pfizer executives and patients treated with Xalkori. They discussed it shortly after its U.S. approval, along with a companion diagnostic test from Abbott Molecular Oncology, for use in a small subset of lung-cancer patients.
Xalkori is approved for the roughly 4 percent of patients with non-small-cell lung cancer who have what’s called the ALK fusion gene. That’s only about 6,000 Americans a year, but most patients tested had tumors shrink or disappear for months, without the nasty side effects of chemotherapy.
NEW YORK
Man suing Facebook has to share emails
BUFFALO — The New York man suing for part ownership of Facebook must give lawyers for the social-networking company access to all his emails dating to 2003.
A federal judge on Tuesday denied Paul Ceglia’s request to delay Facebook’s access to his emails so he could voice his objections in court. Mr. Ceglia’s lawyer had made the request in a filing late Monday, hoping to protect Mr. Ceglia’s privacy.
In the meantime, Mr. Ceglia says he’s given Facebook everything else he’s been ordered to produce, including his computers and files.
Mr. Ceglia, of Wellsville, claims he made a deal with Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg in 2003 that entitles him to half ownership of the company. Mr. Zuckerberg says his dealings with Mr. Ceglia had nothing to do with Palo Alto, Calif.-based Facebook.
TENNESSEE
Editor leaving paper, joining corporate staff
NASHVILLE — The Tennessean has announced that editor Mark Silverman is leaving the newspaper to join the Gannett Co. corporate staff.
Mr. Silverman, who has been Tennessean editor for about five years, is going to corporate headquarters in McLean, Va. He will be part of a Community Publishing Division team that works to strengthen the chain’s 81 local U.S. newspapers, the Tennessean said Tuesday.
Mr. Silverman was named Editor of the Year in 2010 by the National Press Foundation, and the Tennessean’s coverage of the Nashville flood was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize for breaking news this year.
Mr. Silverman previously was editor of Gannett newspapers in Detroit; Louisville, Ky.; and Rockford, Ill., and at Gannett News Service.
Gannett’s holdings include USA Today, newspapers in Britain and 23 TV stations.
NEW YORK
Bank of America sued over mortgage sales
NEW YORK — The lawsuits against Bank of America are piling up.
The latest comes from U.S. Bancorp, which wants Bank of America Corp. to repurchase poorly written mortgages sold by Countrywide Financial in 2005.
Bank of America bought Countrywide Financial Corp. in 2008. Bank of America is based in Charlotte, N.C.
The lawsuit, which was filed in New York on Monday, claims Countrywide sold U.S. Bancorp a pool of more than 4,000 loans originally valued at $1.75 billion. U.S. Bancorp claims Countrywide ignored its own mortgage underwriting guidelines when issuing those loans.
Bank of America’s stock fell 26 cents, or 3 percent, to $8.13 at 1:30 p.m.
From wire dispatches and staff reports
Please read our comment policy before commenting.