Pfizer receives EU approval for smoking pill

The European Commission has approved Champix, the Pfizer smoking cessation pill, previously touted by the company as a “significant new discovery” for people trying to quit smoking.

Pfizer says Champix is a “unique” therapy because it reduces the urge to smoke while relieving some of the symptoms associated with smoking withdrawal. Additionally, the drug “has the potential” to diminish smoking satisfaction, should anyone succumb to smoking during the course of treatment.

The drug’s introduction is prescient with the approval of smoking bans in several European countries, including Scotland, England, Ireland, Italy, Norway, Belgium, Lithuania and Malta, with similar schemes under debate in France and Germany, the company states.

Dr Michael Berelowitz of Pfizer worldwide medical, remarked: “Champix provides a unique and new treatment that was specifically designed to help people stop smoking.”

“Most smokers do not continue to smoke out of choice, but because they are addicted to nicotine in tobacco,” he added.

Champix will be sold in conjunction with a patient support plan to help smokers identify their particular weaknesses and how to counter them. Dr Berelowitz remarked that smoking cessation aids in conjunction with behaviour therapy is often more effective and as cost effective than trying to quit unaided.

Previous clinical trials demonstrated that the odds of someone quitting smoking after 12 weeks were almost four times greater for someone taking Chantix instead of a placebo. Another clinical trial showed that Chantix users are twice as likely to quit as those using Zyban, the antismoking therapy marketed by GlaxoSmithKline.