Pill could help smokers quit
Posted Sep 29, 2011 09:46:27 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
A study finds that a pill developed in Bulgaria during the Soviet era shows promise for helping millions of smokers quit cheaply and safely.
New research suggests the drug can triple smokers’ chances of being off cigarettes after one year compared with those taking a dummy pill.
The drug, Cytisine, is now used just in eastern Europe, where smokers usually take the pill for three or four weeks.
Generic versions cost as little as $17 a month, compared with about $100 for an eight-week supply of nicotine patches or about $300 for a 12-week supply of Pfizer’s Chantix pill.
Cytisine, sold as Tabex by Bulgari-based Sopharma AD, is derived from laburnum seeds, which contain a natural nicotine substitute.
The study is in the New England Journal of Medicine.
