Is There Such A Thing As A Stop Smoking Pill?

I want to stop smoking but I can’t seem to do it on will power alone. I’ve tried everything that I could. I’ve heard that there’s a new breakthrough in helping smokers quit the habit. What is a stop smoking pill and how does it help smokers? Are the effects of the stop smoking pill long term? 

In 1997, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved a stop smoking pill called buproprion, most commonly known as Zyban. The drug has not been a top seller, however, because it seemed to only help some and not all smokers. Since then, major pharmaceutical companies have been on a race to develop new stop smoking pills for smoking cessation. Some of the stop smoking pills are just a step away from FDA approval and will hopefully do for smoking cessation what Viagra has done for erectile dysfunction.

The Clinical Research Unit at the Leicester Royal Infirmary (LRI) has since been running a study on smoking cessation by testing a stop smoking pill called Champix. This stop smoking pill works by stimulating the nicotine receptors in the brain reducing the craving for cigarettes. Not only that, this stop smoking pill also makes further cigarettes less satisfying. The trial has since helped many smokers who have been smoking for the majority of their lives.

A success story brought about by the stop smoking pill Champix is in the form of Don Crighton, a patient at LRI who had been smoking for 47 years before taking the stop smoking pill. He has been smoke free for 40 weeks since he started participating in the trial. In an official statement, he said: "As soon as I started taking the tablets it removed my cravings from day one, and from then on I got no sensation from smoking further cigarettes - as though I was smoking a dummy cigarette. I'd tried to quit in the past but gave up because I was climbing the walls with the craving - it didn't happen on this occasion". Mr. Crighton celebrated this new lease on life by going on holiday all over America, a luxury he always avoided for fear of not being able to smoke aboard the plane.

Of course, the financial rewards of developing the perfect stop smoking pill would be sizeable. With this goal in mind, pharmaceutical companies have been painstakingly researching and developing the stop smoking pill. Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer are currently testing a drug called Varenicline, which, like Champix, binds the nicotine receptors in the brain and curbs craving. The drug is almost ready for FDA approval. The French pharmaceutical company Sanofi-Synthelabo also intends to seek FDA approval this year with its stop smoking pill, Acomplia, a drug that works on the brain’s reward system. NicVax from Nabi Pharmaceuticals is intended to be an anti-smoking vaccine. It works by binding and disabling nicotine molecules in the body. A similar stop smoking pill called Ta-Nic is also under development by the Xenova Group in England.

"It's an unmet medical need," said Dr. Karen Reeves, director of clinical development for Pfizer. "The morbidity and mortality rate is so high, and doctors and smokers really have not had enough in their armamentarium to help smokers stop smoking." With all the research and development being made, it is everyone’s hope that one or more will emerge as the ultimate stop smoking pill.