Scientists have developed a new and more effective drug to help smokers quit the habit, which is known to reduce the life span of those addicted by about 10 years and is the single most important factor for heart attacks the world over.
The drug, Chantix, was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration on Thursday. It has been produced by the drug giant Pfizer and has 'varenicline tartrate' as an active ingredient.
The drug received a priority FDA review because of its significant potential benefit to public health, according to an FDA release.
The drug acts in the brain and has two-way action -- providing some nicotine effect to ease the withdrawal symptoms and blocking the effects of nicotine.
"Chantix is unique beause it is specifically designed to partially activate the nicotine receptor and reduce the severity of the smoker's craving and the withdrawal symptoms from nicotine," the company said.
"Moreover if a person smokes a cigarette while receiving treatment, Chantix has the potential to diminish the sense of satisfaction asscociated with smoking which may help to prevent the cycle of nicotine addiction," it said.
Commenting on the development, Dr Anoop Misra, senior consultant, Internal Medicine at Fortis Hospital, said, "If the drug comes to India and is available at an affordable cost, it would help a large segment of population to give up smoking."
Currently, there is no effective treatment to help people quit, with nicotine gum being the most used remedy. The available treatment options have only about 9-20 per cent success rate, Misra said.
In India, almost 40 per cent of population uses tobacco either in smoking form or in chewing form, Misra said.
According to FDA, the new drug was assessed in six clinical trials which included 3659 chronic cigarette smokers.
In two studies, Chantix-treated patients were also more successful in giving up smoking than those treated with another drug called Zyban (bupropion), it said.
The drug is to be given for 12 weeks and patients, who successfully quit smoking during Chantix treatment may continue with an additional 12 weeks to further increase the likelihood of long-term smoking cessation, it said.
After a year, approximately one in five patients who received the 12-week course remained smoke-free, the company claimed.
The most common adverse effects of the drug were nausea, headache, vomiting, flatulence, insominia and abnormal dreams.
Misra said that smoking causes about 4.9 million deaths world wide and 8.8 per cent of all global deaths are attributed to the habit.
Nicotine produces neurochemcial imbalance in the brain. It increases release of a neurochemical called dopamine, which causes addiction.
Chantix is an important drug as it targets nicotine receptor in brain cells, thus blocking nicotine from acting, according to Misra.
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