More than a third of the Spanish population smokes daily and quitting this habit is for most of them a goal to be met. To do this, Health has already financed several drugs that promise to help smokers to stop smoking. However, Todacitan, the only drug that is currently subsidized, it can not be found already in the pharmacy due to shortages.
It is also a level 4 alert, the highest, as established by the Spanish Agency for Medicines and Health Products (Aemps). This means that at least until March 20 it will not be available.
The drug could be purchased in our country since 2021, but it had to be paid in full. Its cost was almost 200 euros and since February of this year, Health has begun to finance a part, so their sales have skyrocketed.
There are no therapeutic alternatives
And it is that this medicine came to fill the therapeutic gap left by the retirada de Champixsince it was subsidized by the National Health System since the beginning of 2020, but withdrew in July 2021.
The impact of this shortage is the greatest contemplated, since “there are no therapeutic alternatives”, so “actions are necessary that go beyond the substitution of the drug by the pharmaceutical professional or the change of prescription by the medical professional”, They explain from the Aemps.
25 day treatment
According to the package insert, Todacitan helps to quit smoking and alleviates the anxiety that occurs when saying goodbye to this habit. Its use allows a gradual reduction of dependence from nicotine by relieving withdrawal symptoms and treatment lasts 25 days.
Its active principle is citisinaa vegetable alkaloid found, for example, in the seeds of the trees of the genus ‘Laburnum’ and whose chemical structure is similar to that of nicotine, they explain in their technical data sheet.
Thanks to this, the action of cytisine is similar to that of nicotine, but in general it is weaker. However, cytisine competes with this addictive substance for the same receptors and gradually displaces it by having a stronger bond.