Boost for Pfizer’s Champix from NHS quit smoking report
pharmafile | August 22, 2008 | News story | Sales and Marketing | Champix, smoking
Pfizer's smoking cessation drug Champix is the most effective pharmaceutical aid to quitting, according to new figures.
A report on NHS Stop Smoking Services showed Pfizer's treatment successfully helped 63% of those taking it to quit, compared to the 53% of those receiving GlaxoSmithKline's Zyban who stopped.
The nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) products, such as nicotine patches, gum or nasal spray, that still dominate the market fared less well, helping 49% of people using them to quit.
Unlike NRT Champix is non-nicotine based and works by partially stimulating and binding to the receptors that channel the habit-forming properties of nicotine.
It was launched in the UK in December 2006 and then recommended by NICE just one month before the smoking ban came on 1 July 2007.
To coincide with the ban the NHS spent £10 million more than the previous year to help people quit, investing almost £61 million in 2007/8, excluding the cost of cessation products.
The figures were compiled by the NHS Information Service, which said over 350,000 people quit in 2007/08 and 87% of them used one of the cessation products to help them stop.
NHS Stop Smoking Services are provided by trained personnel, such as specialist smoking cessation advisors and trained nurses and pharmacists, and support people trying to quit through initiatives like group therapy or one-to-one support.
In 2007/8 the Services saw a 13% increase in the number of people setting a quit date and the number who had stuck to it after four-weeks was up 10% on the previous year.
The NHS Information Centre chief executive Tim Straughan said: "Our figures show the NHS is spending millions more pounds on NHS Stop Smoking Services, while thousands more smokers are successfully kicking the habit."
Geographical variation
The NHS Information Centre found wide geographical variations in the number of people successful able to stop smoking for a month or more.
North East SHA had the highest rate of successful quitters, which at 1,171 per 100,000 people was almost double that seen in the SHA with the lowest rate – South East Coast SHA.
When broken down to PCT level Hartlepool PCT reported the highest rate of successful quitters, which at 2,051 per 100,000 was more than double the average for England. The lowest successful quit rate was seen in Brent PCT, where it was just 85 per 100,000.
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