What is happening with the dark business of smoking cessation drugs?

2023-11-23 13:32:45

If a few days ago we analyzed the The rest (cytisinicline), the second smoking cessation drug that finances public health in Spain, today we are NOT going to do it with the first one that was financed: Todacitan (cytisine). Why aren’t we going to do it? Because they are practically the same!

The main difference, compared to Todacitan, is that Recigarum It comes in the form of a standardized blister to follow the dosage. Little more. In fact, as its promoters recognize:

the active principle of Recigarum is the same as that of Todacitan

Noah Reyfrom the National Committee for the Prevention of Smoking (CNPT).

And then, where is the fun of this text? The funny thing is that these are the two smoking cessation medications available. financed (with conditions) by public healthafter the debacle of the previous two that promised the wonders that the promoters of these twins now promise.

Someone will explain to us why if these two drugs are not the same, only one of them will not be financed.

But, then, what were the previous two and what fate did they have? Well, the pharmacist Pfizer had to suspend the sale of its drug in July 2021 Champix (varenicline) upon discovering that it contained levels of the toxic nitrosamines higher than acceptable. These chemical compounds can cause cancer (like tobacco goes).

It is a treatment that was also controversial due to its serious side effects. We have published it on this blog since 2008, when we started.

So we already explained that the campaign advertising that was being done about Champix was of dubious legality.

Pfizer promoted Champix for smokers who want help quitting when it was questioned by the Spanish Agency for Medicines and Health Products (AEMPS).

This, in one of its notes, reported, shortly after the treatment went on the market, of the relationship between the consumption of this drug and the appearance of

depressive symptoms, including suicidal ideation/behaviorin patients receiving treatment with varenicline.

A few years later, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) did another study and concluded

that the benefits of smoking cessation medication continue to outweigh the observed slight increase in cardiovascular adverse reactions«.

And so, the warnings about its dangers continued. The nitrosamine thing was the last straw. And what was the other smoking cessation drug used? Well Zyntabac (bupropion). In reality this drug is a antidepressantwhich was authorized by the FDA, the US drug agency, in December 1985, but which was withdrawn from the market due to the detection of seizure symptoms related to the medication.

Years later it was reintroduced to the market to stop smoking. It is a treatment that has been on the list for years. They shouldn’t be in pharmaciesaccording to the best medicine bulletin in the world, the French magazine Prescribe. It offers adverse reactions such as psychosis, paranoia or anxietyamong other mental problems.

Zyntabac disappeared from pharmacies due to distribution problemsalthough it was later seen that the same thing happened as with Champix, which contained the same potentially carcinogenic substance.

By the way, the person I mentioned above, Rey, does not leave us alone with his other statements in the press:

The Champix seems to was based on the cytisine molecule to extract varenicline. Todacitan works practically the same as Champix and even patients claim that it has fewer side effects and is quite effective. Along the same lines, Rey affirms that Champix is ​​”like a distant cousin of Todacitan«.

Well, like, like, like, like? Let’s hope that the side effects are truly fewer and milder because both treatments are practically the same…

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