Comparing Use of Health Technology Assessment in Pharmaceutical Policy among Earlier and More Recent Adopters in the European Union.

Objectives: To examine and compare the use of health technology assessment (HTA) for the reimbursement of new medicines in selected European Union member states with decades of experience in the use of HTA and in countries that have used it regularly since 2000.

Methods: The selected countries were categorized into "earlier" adopters (group A: England, Germany, France, and Sweden) and more "recent" adopters (group B: Poland, Bulgaria, Hungary, and Romania). A systematic review of published literature was performed.

Solid-phase synthesis of a biotin derivative and its application to the development of anti-biotin antibodies.

A biotin derivative, namely biotin-aminocaproic acid-lysine (BAL), was synthesized with solid-phase chemistry, conjugated to a carrier-protein, and used for rabbit immunization. The aminocaproic acid-lysine "long-arm" was used in order to project the biotin-hapten above the carrier-protein surface. Lysine was selected due to its N(epsilon)-amino group, through which BAL was conjugated to the carrier-protein.

Synthesis and angiogenetic activity in the chick chorioallantoic membrane model of thymosin beta-15.

Thymosin beta-15 (Tbeta15), a 44 amino acid peptide (MW = 5173) localized in human prostate and breast cancer tissues was successfully synthesized in multigram quantities using Fmoc solid-phase peptide synthesis. The synthesized product was shown to have the right structure by ESI and MALDI mass spectral techniques and amino acid analysis. Relatively high yield was achieved, which might be due to enhanced acid stability of the p-cyanotrityl resin used.