Pfizer announced on Saturday to launch anti-smoking drug in Pakistan by its subsidiary Parke Davis and Company limited, says a press release. Chantix (varenicline) has been developed by Pfizer globally to help smokers quit smoking and overcome addiction to nicotine by following a prescribed therapeutic course.
The drug is believed to mark a significant therapeutic advance over existing anti-smoking therapies. Professor Masood Hameed Khan, Dr Mukhtiar Zaman, Professor Javed A. Khan, Professor Kamran Khalid Cheema, Dr Nauman Niaz and Dr Shahbaz A. Kureshi, were presented at the occasion.
On the rising rate of smoking in the country, Professor Mukhtiar Zaman said,"The tobacco industry is expanding at a rate of 5 percent per year, which is greater than Pakistan's annual population growth rate of 2.6 percent". Professor Javed A. Khan enumerated serious health-hazards attached to smoking and said, "Smoking causes 100,000 deaths in Pakistan every year, which is approximately 275 people per day".
Elaborating on the addictive nature of smoking, Dr Shahbaz Kureshi said, "Smoking is basically an addiction to nicotine; nicotine is a chemical that reaches the brain within 10 seconds and releases a substance which produces feelings of satisfaction and pleasure in a smoker".
He further said that because of nicotine addiction smokers often fail multiple attempts at quitting and highlighted the need for smokers to seek medical treatment for nicotine-addiction, which he termed a "relapsing clinical condition".
Earlier in a briefing, Adil Zaman, Director Marketing, Pfizer maintained that Chantix would help smokers in their quitting attempts. Citing results of a clinical trial, he said, "Clinical trial shows that when a smoker takes Chantix it partially activates the nicotinic receptors in the brain and hence reduces the severity of the smoker's craving and the withdrawal symptoms from nicotine.
"And even if a person smokes a cigarette while receiving this treatment, Chantix has the potential to lessen the sense of satisfaction derived from smoking". Pfizer is the world's largest research-based pharmaceutical company taking new approaches to better health, Pfizer discovers and develops innovative medicines to treat and help prevent disease for both people and animals.-PR