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Healthy smoke signals for pharma cos

Sudha Menon

PUNE, Sept. 17

SMOKE is out and health is in. As India's population wakes up to the dangers of smoking, a slew of pharmaceutical majors are hoping to rake in moolah out of the `health is wealth' mantra and are launching products guaranteed to make habitual smokers ``ki ck'' nicotine addiction.

Take a look at the action on the anti-nicotine front. MNC pharma major Glaxo was the first to get off the mark when it launched its Zyban tablets (drug bupropion hydrochloride) in the market last month as an alternative to the conventionally used Nicotin e Replacement Therapy (NRT). Zyban was, incidentally, the first oral, non-nicotine aid to smoking cessation that was licensed in the UK and introduced there in June 2000.

Sun Pharma is in the market with its Smoquit brand and Cipla with Nicotex.

``Smoking is a huge problem in India which has not been addressed until now. The new forumulation has been found extremely effective elsewhere,'' says the Joint Managing Director of Cipla, Mr Amar Lulla.

Both Glaxo and Cipla will use bupropion hydrochloride which is now extensively used in smoking cessation programmes all over the world.

While fear of weight gain prevents many smokers, especially women, from quitting the habit, bupropion studies have shown that patients gain significantly less weight during therapy with it.

Interestingly, this is the first time ever that the pharmaceutical industry is targeting nicotine addiction in a concerted manner with a product that completely eliminates nicotine from the therapy.

The only other attempt to launch a product to stem the smoking habit came a couple of years ago from pharma company Ciba which had launched transdermal nicotine patches as a substitute for smoking.

Smoking cessation support is one of the most cost-effective of all medical interventions and is part of priority programmes undertaken by various Governments, including the UK, which now has a 100 million initiative for it.

In India, the Government's initiative has been limited to announcing a ban on smoking in public places which is very rarely, if at all, enforced.

It still remains to be seen if the Indian smoker will walk up to his doctor to get a prescription for a course of anti-smoking tablets.

Much of the success of the new formulation, says Mr Lulla, could depend on its affordability in what is a very price-sensitive market. While Zyban retails for approximately Rs 40 per tablet, Nicotex will cost the patient Rs 20. The transdermal nicotine p atches cost approximately between Rs 100 and Rs 150.