The latest smoking cessation product to be trialled is Tabex (cytisine) and it has shown some promise according to recent research carried out at UCL and the UK Centre for Tobacco Control using 740 participants who were treated with the drug or a placebo for 25 days. One year later, 8.4% of those who took the drug had quit successfully whereas only 2% of those taking the placebo has been successful in their attempt.
Considering the size of this trial, the drug will now need to be tested on a larger scale. The MHRA (Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency) has not received a license application from the manufacturers just yet but considering the results of this trial and the fact that the drug is known to be inexpensive, Tabex would be a welcome addition to the available smoking cessation products available on the market. It is already legal in Poland and Russia however there has not been any placebo-controlled large scale trials carried out on the smoking cessation drug before that have been run in accordance with today’s regulatory regime.
Tabex is not as successful as Champix but it is considerably cheaper, which may be attractive to some patients. On the whole, we prefer recommending medication based on safety and efficacy rather than cost so we will have to look at the large scale trial results before we form a conclusion.
Considering the drug is available elsewhere and no major side effects have been reported in the 40 years since the drug has been in use, it looks likely that an official application will be made to the MHRA as soon as a more substantial trial is carried out.