Drug edges nicotine patch for smoking cessation

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - The anti-smoking drug Chantix appears more effective than the nicotine patch in helping people stop smoking, European and U.S. researchers report.

In a study of 746 smokers, the investigators found that 56 percent of those who took for Chantix for 12 weeks were cigarette-free during the last month of treatment. That compared with 43 percent of those who used a nicotine patch.

The study, funded by Chantix maker Pfizer Inc., is published in the medical journal Thorax.

Chantix, also known as varenicline, acts on a brain receptor affected by nicotine; the drug blocks some of nicotine's effects, while also providing a nicotine-like "buzz" to curb withdrawal symptoms.

For the current study, researchers led by Dr. Henri-Jean Aubin, of Hopital Emile Roux in France, randomly assigned smokers to either take Chantix for 12 weeks or use a nicotine patch for 10 weeks.

They found that participants' self-reported abstinence rate during the last four weeks of treatment was higher with the drug than with the patch. After one year, 26 percent of the Chantix group was still abstinent, versus 20 percent of patch users.

Dr. Paul Aveyard, who wrote an editorial published with the study, told Reuters Health that while the anti-smoking drug appears more effective than the nicotine patch and -- as shown in earlier research -- the antidepressant bupropion (Zyban), "it does not mean the competitors are now useless."

"Stopping smoking is something people need to do many times before they are free of their addiction," explained Aveyard, of the University of Birmingham in the UK. "One person may find that one medication does not help them, while another does, and others, the reverse."

"Besides this," he concluded, "there are new ways of using nicotine replacement which means it is likely to be as effective as varenicline."

And Chantix is not without its potential drawbacks. In the current study, more Chantix users than patch users reported side effects, the most common being nausea -- experienced by 37 percent of those on the drug.

And earlier this year, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said after an analysis of reports of suicidal thoughts and behavior potentially linked to varenicline, it was calling for Pfizer to boost the prominence of current label warnings on the drug.

"It appears increasingly likely that there may be an association between Chantix and serious neuropsychiatric symptoms," the FDA's Public Health Advisory said in February.

Chantix, approved in 2006, already carries a warning that some patients have experienced psychiatric symptoms, including depression and suicidal thoughts, while on the drug.