Smoking abstinence improved with new therapies
44 per cent of smokers quit with varenicline treatment, study suggests |
Nicotine vaccines and a drug that blocks nicotine's action improve smoking abstinence rates for up to a year, the results of recent studies have shown.
Two double-blind placebo-controlled studies of varenicline (Champix;
Pfizer), a selective nicotinic acetylcholine receptor partial agonist,
were presented at last month’s American Heart Association meeting
in Dallas, Texas. In the studies, involving a total of 1,927 patients,
44 per cent of varenicline-treated patients (in each study) had stopped
smoking by the end of the 12-week treatment period, compared with 30
per cent of patients in each study treated with bupropion (both P<0.0001)
and 18 per cent of those taking placebo (both P<0.0001). After one
year, 22.1 and 23.0 per cent of the patients in each of the studies who
received varenicline were still not smoking, compared with 16.4 and 15.0
per cent of those taking bupropion (P<0.01) and 8.4 and 10.3 per cent
of those taking placebo (P<0.0001).
Vaccines to treat nicotine addiction are also being developed, by Cytos
Biotechnology and Nabi Biopharmaceuticals. In a study of 239 patients,
42 per cent of those given Cytos Biotechnology’s vaccine CYT002-NicQb
were still not smoking after a year, compared with 21 per cent of those
given placebo (P=0.012). Nabi Biopharmaceuticals’s vaccine NicVax
has been shown to be safe and well tolerated, although trials of its
effectiveness have not yet been conducted. |
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Pharmaceutical Journal
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