Mesothelioma

Solicitor Ian McFall said "negligent" companies should pay more.

"The relationship between asbestos exposure and fatal lung disease has been known for many decades," he said.

The campaigners say that about 2,000 people will die from And, they say, an estimated 90,000 men and women will die from asbestos-related disease between now and 2020, the vast majority from workplace exposure.

'Known risk' About 75% of the people who develop Mr McFall, from Thompson's Solicitors, told BBC News that those developing lung cancer now were exposed to asbestos in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s.

And he says the risks associated with the substance were known as early as the 1930s.

"We blame the companies who were responsible for exposing people to asbestos at a time when those companies knew, or ought to have known, that asbestos could and does cause fatal lung disease," he said.

"If the employer still exists and has the assets to meet the claim then we expect those negligent to pay the compensation.

Very often the companies don't exist any more, but their insurers will have the means to meet the claims." E-mail this to a friend Printab...

Under a Clinical Trials Agreement signed with CuraGen, the NCI is sponsoring several clinical trials investigating belinostat for the treatment of various cancers, both as a single-agent and in combination chemotherapy regimens.

In order to better understand belinostat's anti-tumor activity and to provide supporting information for clinical trials, TopoTarget signed a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with the NCI to conduct preclinical and nonclinical studies with belinostat.

CuraGen Corporation (Nasdaq: CRGN) is a biopharmaceutical company developing diverse approaches, including novel protein, antibody, antibody- drug conjugate and small molecule therapeutics to address the unmet medical needs of patients with cancer and inflammatory diseases.

CuraGen Corporation is headquartered in Branford, Connecticut.

For additional information please visit http://www.curagen.com/.

TopoTarget (CSE: TOPO) is a biopharmaceutical company, headquartered in Denmark and with subsidiaries in the UK and Germany, dedicated to finding "Answers for Cancer" and developing improved cancer therapies.

TopoTarget has a broad portfolio of small molecule preclinical drug candidates and seven drugs are in clinical development, including both novel anti-canc...