The only medication available now to quit smoking, already financed by Health

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The Ministry of Health has approved the

of

, the

for

that has successfully replaced Champix (varenicline) and Zyntabac (bupropion), withdrawn due to the presence of nitrosamines, following alerts from Aemps, such as those issued in July and September 2021.

Todacitan

is marketed by the pharmaceutical company Aflofarm, it was launched in Spain in November 2021 and since then more than 10,000 patients have already been treated in our country.

Following the financing agreement, active since this Wednesday, it becomes the

for

.

The cost of the

starting

for a single 25-day treatment, but now

, and

to them according to their individual health card (TSI), as explained to This means

, secretary of the Spanish Society of Smoking Experts (Sedet) and owner of a pharmacy in Ferrol (A Coruña).

Rey clarifies that

: "And the same requirements must be met as for the other drugs that are financed, Champix and Zyntabac, of which no more batches are being manufactured now, due to nitrosamine contamination in both. They are supposed to return, but we don't know when and, for the moment, they are suspended from commercialization. The laboratories themselves were the ones who withdrew them."

Profile of the patient who is a candidate for smoking cessation medication

The steps to be followed by the patient who wants to quit smoking are:

Andrés Zamorano Tapia

, president of the National Committee for the Prevention of Smoking (CNPT), coordinator of the smoking group of the Spanish Society of General and Family Physicians (SEMG) and family doctor at the health center of Villaluenga de la Sagra (Toledo) , is very satisfied with the news:

If 70% already say they want to quit, when they find out that there is a financed drug, they go to their doctor and they ask him."

Zamorano indicates that in some regions, such as Castilla-La Mancha, financing has not yet been activated: "As it is linked to protocols, it may still take a few days, but financing is authorized from this Wednesday."

For her part, Rey indicates that in Galicia, where she has a pharmacy, doctors could already prescribe it this morning: "The problem is that this morning we still did not have the drug in the pharmacies. Why?

; that is, you must change the cartonage. So we believe that, at the latest, at the beginning of next week we will already have it".

Of course, Zamorano Tapia insists that

, which are what we do with patients, should also be financed. This means that many more help points must be opened to quit smoking. Now the patients can go to their doctor, nurse, pharmacist, psychologist... to any nearby health professional to tell them that they want to quit smoking".

The benefits of 'Todacitan', the new drug to quit smoking

Ángela Crespo

, General Director of Aflofarm Spain, points out that "it is especially important to ensure the health of patients and we consider that smoking is one of the great challenges we have in our society. We have been innovating in this regard for years," he explains.

One of the main advantages of Todacitan is

required by other pharmacological treatments with the same indication.

In addition, the product does not contain nicotine, unlike other treatments used to quit smoking.

Zamorano recalls that

: "Champix seems to have been based on the cytisine molecule to extract varenicline. Todacitan works practically the same as Champix and even patients say that it has fewer side effects and is quite effective.

Along the same lines,

In addition to having demonstrated its efficacy in various clinical studies, there are

, such as those from the

study , the results of which have recently been published in

.

In this regard,

, pulmonologist and coordinator of the Tobacco Group of the Spanish Society of Pneumology and Thoracic Surgery in Spain (Separ), explains that "it is a multicenter study, carried out both in primary care and hospital consultations, in which 105 patients were included.77.1% of the patients were satisfied or very satisfied with the treatment.Adherence to treatment was very high, being good or very good in 82.5% of the patients.In addition, 76 % of patients remained abstinent at the end of treatment".

The only thing, Zamorano comments with a sense of humor on the

: "You have to take a

, because at first you have to take six tablets, then five, four... it decreases.

, he details.

Rey agrees with him when explaining that

, "which

.

However, he adds that "with cytisine you have to take six tablets the first three days; five tablets the next nine days, two and a half hours apart... It's a bit more annoying for patients, so I I make them like a

; but

.

Pending subject: a national plan against smoking

Apart from the question strictly related to drugs, Zamorano underlines another issue that he is looking forward to with anxiety: the

Use (PIT)

: "This will advance the entire movement. There are several ministries involved, but we already proposed, in the allegations to the PIT, that there be a single governance. It is a great Plan, but it needs to be led by the Presidency of the Government".

On many occasions they have urged the Government of Spain to go ahead with this Plan, even beyond our borders.

Without going any further, last July Florin Dumitru Mihaltan, a Romanian pulmonologist, took office as president of the

Network

Smoking Prevention

giving Spain a slap on the wrist from Brussels: He sent a letter to the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, asking him to resume the

.

This was the

to show his leadership in the fight against tobacco, after the one sent last Friday by the president of the World Federation of Public Health Associations (WFPHA), Luis Eugenio de Souza, with the same

, such as the

, which had the support and acceptance by a large part of society.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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