Pfizer India plans to launch 600 smoking cessation clinics across the country in the next two years in partnership with private sector hospitals and clinics. Pfizer India director (pharmaceutical marketing) Anjan Sen said: “We have already tied up with 150 clinics in 17 cities, including Max Healthcare, and are in talks with more hospitals for partnerships. We are also in talks with the government to use this as a treatment option in the 600 clinics that they plan to set up.”

The government had last year announced to launch same number of clinics. The government clinics will use nicotine replacement therapies

(NRT) like chewing gum and patches, along with counselling, to help people quit smoking, a method that doctors say has far less success rate than medication which blocks the receptors in the brain absorbing nicotine.

According to Mr Sen, the government will shortly conduct a clinical trial of the Pfizer drug, Champix, to check its efficacy and if satisfied it will become a part of the government’s anti–smoking programme.

Anti-smoking aids are scarce in India. Nicotine chewing gums and patches that are sold over–the–counter (OTC) in developed countries are rarely available in the country. While select pharmacies have started stocking nicotine chewing gums, patches that deliver the nicotine directly to the brain without the add–on chemicals which are present in cigarettes are available in the grey market.

Sandeep Budhiraja of Max Healthcare said: “Nicotine patches are not available in pharmacies because there are some procurement issues. So, we cannot prescribe this to smokers. Nicotine chewing gum, which are available now in pharmacies, has problems with dosage.” A smoker looking to chew gum to kick his smoking habit has to chew 12 pieces of gum a day. Mr Budhiraja feels that drugs, however, give better results and fewer cases of relapses.

Reports estimate that there are at least 120–million tobacco users in India and by 2010 one million people will die each year from tobacco related illnesses. According to World Health Organisation (WHO) reports, 80% of the eight million people who will die every year from smoking related diseases will be from developing countries by 2030.

The ‘New England Journal of Medicine’ in 2008 said smoking could soon account for 20% of all male deaths and 5% of female deaths between the age of 30 and 69. It also said men who smoke cigarettes in India shorten their lives by 10 years.

“Drugs block the receptors in the brain which absorb nicotine. So even if a person was to smoke while on the drug, he won’t feel the benefit. With a patch, the dosage for each person becomes difficult to estimate,” said YA Matcheswalla, a psychiatrist who counsels people looking to quit smoking. Pfizer is also in talks with Masina Hospital for a possible partnership, he said.


Source: The Economic Times