More effective than nicotine replacement therapy; however is not licensed or marketed in most countries
Cytisine, a plant-based compound, increases the
chances of successful smoking cessation by over two-fold compared with placebo
and may be more effective than nicotine replacement therapy, a study has found.
Cytisine, a low-cost, generic stop-smoking aid has
been used in eastern Europe since the 1960s and has shown no serious safety
concerns, the researchers said.
However, the compound is not licensed or marketed in
most countries outside of central and eastern Europe, making it unavailable in
most of the world, including many low- and middle-income (LAMI) countries where
it could make a big difference to global health.
The study, published in the journal Addiction, pooled
the results of eight trials comparing cytisine with placebo, with nearly 6,000
patients.
The combined results showed that cytisine increases
the chances of successful smoking cessation by more than two-fold compared with
placebo, the researchers said.
They also noted that cytisine may be more effective
than nicotine replacement therapy, a medically approved way to treat people
with tobacco use disorder by taking nicotine through means other than tobacco.
“Our study adds to the evidence that cytisine is an
effective and inexpensive stop-smoking aid. It could be very useful in
reducing smoking in LAMI countries where cost-effective smoking cessation drugs
are urgently needed," said Omar De Santi from Centro Nacional de
Intoxicaciones (CNI), Buenos Aires, Argentina.
"World-wide, smoking is considered the main cause
of preventable death. Cytisine has the potential to be one of the big answers
to that problem," said De Santi, lead author of the study.
The research also looked at two randomised controlled
trials comparing cytisine with nicotine replacement therapy, with modest
results in favor of cytisine, and three trials comparing cytisine with
varenicline, without a clear benefit for cytisine.
Cytisine was first synthesised in Bulgaria in 1964 as
Tabex and later spread to other countries in eastern Europe and Asia, where it
is still marketed, according to the researchers.
In 2017, the Polish pharmaceutical company Aflofarm
began selling it as Desmoxan, a prescription-only medicine, and Canada approved
it as an over-the-counter natural health product, Cravv, they said.
Because cytisine is a low-cost drug, it could form
part of a plan to increase accessibility to drug therapy for smokers, which
tends to be limited in LAMI countries, the researchers added.
No comments:
Post a Comment