Cigarette smoking promotes lung cancer and many other cancers, heart disease, poor circulation, and emphysema. These are the same diseases, which GenoMed has found to be due to overactivity of angiotensin I-converting enzyme (ACE).
A logical protection against the effects of cigarette smoking, the company believes, is to block ACE activity with an ACE inhibitor.
GenoMed has offered to enter smokers without high blood pressure or emphysema who want to see if GenoMed’s treatment will protect them, or patients who already have lung cancer, into a free clinical trial. Patients with emphysema or high blood pressure will be charged $67 a month for GenoMed’s disease management service.
“There are 60 million Americans who smoke. Not everybody can quit, because it’s so pleasurable and addictive. For those who can’t, we would like to do whatever we can to lower their risk of cigarette-induced disease,” said Dr Moskowitz, GenoMed’s CEO and chief medical officer.