Rx smoking cessation pill
This article was originally published in The Tan Sheet
Executive Summary
FDA has approved Pfizer's smoking cessation drug Chantix (varenicline) for prescription use, the agency announces May 11. The drug, which Pfizer originally had intended to market as Champix, is the first nicotine agonist approved by FDA, and the first new Rx medication approved for smoking cessation in more than a decade, according to the firm. Varenicline works by binding to nicotine receptors in the brain, thereby "providing some nicotine effects to ease withdrawal symptoms and...blocking the effects of nicotine from cigarettes if [people] resume smoking," FDA states. Pfizer expects Chantix to launch in the second half of 2006. The firm has stated in the past that it will draw from its Nicorette experience when developing DTC ads for Chantix (1"The Tan Sheet" Feb. 9, 2004, p. 5)...