Pfizer’s anti-smoking drug wins priority review

Pfizer has been granted a six-month priority review for the New Drug Application for its smoking cessation medicine, varenicline tartrate, which the company intends to market under the brand name Champix.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) assigns priority review status to medicines that may provide a significant therapeutic advance over existing therapies. Once the FDA formally determines the application is sufficiently complete for review, the filing will move forward under priority review.

According to the World Health Organisation, every eight seconds a person dies of a smoking-related disease. At present, less than seven per cent of smokers who try to quit on their own achieve more than one year of abstinence and most relapse within a few days of attempting to quit.

“If current smoking patterns continue, the annual number of people dying of smoking-related diseases globally will double from five to ten million deaths by 2020,” said Hank McKinnell, chairman and chief executive officer of Pfizer.

“Pfizer’s research and development effort for Champix represents the best of what medical innovation can bring to patients and families struggling to overcome tobacco addiction.”

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