Varenicline tartrate is the first non-nicotine medicine specifically designed to help people stop smoking.

New non-nicotine anti-smoking treatment varenicline launched.

Today (Tuesday 5th December 2006) sees the launch of a prescription only anti-smoking drug, Varenicline tartrate, under the brand name Champix. It is the first non-nicotine medicine specifically designed to help people stop smoking.

It works in a different way to other anti-smoking drugs. It acts on the cravings and withdrawal symptoms that smokers feel when the try to quit. It may also reduce the satisfaction of smoking if the person trying to quit takes a cigarette.

Given that smoking is increasingly banned from public places (and this will be extended to all public places in England and Wales from July 2007), there has never been a better time for smokers to give up the habit.

The Dangers of smoking
I am sure we have all heard this before, but the scale of the health problems caused by smoking are so great it always bears repeating.

Approximately 12 million adults in the UK smoke – 26% of men and 23% of women.1 Every year, around 114,000 smokers in the UK die as a result of their addiction to nicotine in cigarettes - the equivalent of one person every four minutes.

Fifty per cent of smokers will die of smoking-related diseases. Smoking is the leading preventable cause of death worldwide.

This table summarises the benefits of quitting smoking:
Time after stopping Health benefits
20 minutesBlood pressure and pulse rate return to normal
24 hoursCarbon monoxide levels in the blood drop
48 hoursNicotine eliminated from the system; taste and smell improved
2-12 weeksCirculation improves
3-9 monthsShortness of breath and coughing decrease; lung function is increased by up to 10%
1 yearRisk of heart attack reduced by 50%
10 yearsRisk of lung cancer reduced by 50%
15 yearsRisk of heart attack falls to the same level as a non-smoker


And you will save money! At today's prices, 20 cigarettes a day will cost you about £1,800 a year.

Effectiveness of Varenicline tartrate
In clinical trials, varenicline tartrate enabled 44% of smokers to stop smoking after 12 weeks of treatment - giving smokers treated with it four times greater odds of stopping smoking than those on placebo (a placebo is a "dummy" pill given to some of the people in the trial to benchmark the performance of the tested drug). In addition, over the same period, it was shown to double the odds of stopping smoking compared with people taking ZYBAN (bupropion), the only other prescription-only treatment available for smoking cessation.

So what's the catch?
Like many drugs, there can be drawbacks. In this case, side effects of the treatment can include nausea, insomnia and abnormal dreams. The most common sideeffect reported was nausea,8 which was generally mild and transient. Less than 3% of smokers discontinued treatment because of this, and it seems a small price to pay given the health benefits of quitting smoking.

How do I get it?
Your first port of call should be your local NHS Stop Smoking Service. You can find out more information here The NHS Stop Smoking Service

There you will be given advice and support on quitting smoking and more information about the various treatments available and what is best for your own circumstances.

More information Watch Dr Chris Steele discuss Champix in this video.


This content was created on Mon 4 December 2006

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