Smoking Cessation Clinics to be launched in India by 2010

Smoking cessation clinics will be launched in India by 2010 by Pfizer India in partnerships with private sector hospitals and clinics. The company aims at a number of 600 clinics across 17 cities in India by 2010.

Anjan Sen, Pfizer India director (pharmaceutical marketing) stated, “We have already tied up with 150 clinics in 17 cities, including Max Healthcare, and are in talks with more hospitals for partnerships. We are also in talks with the government to use this as a treatment option in the 600 clinics that they plan to set up.”

Last year the Indian government had decided to open the same number of clinics. The Smoking Cessation Clinics setup by the government will use Nicotine replacement therapies (NRT), which comprises of chewing gums and nicotine patches and also appropriate counseling for smokers to quit smoking, although this method is far less effective than the medication that is used to block receptors in the brain that absorbs the nicotine.

Mr. Sen also said that clinical test will be held by the administration in order to test the effectiveness of the drug. If the drug is found to meet the expected standards it will also become a part of government’s anti smoking program.

In comparison to all the developed countries where nicotine patches and chewing gums are available with almost every chemist, it is very rare in Indian market. These patches and gums deliver nicotine directly to the brain without added chemicals as in cigarettes.

Mr. Sandeep Budhiraja of Max Healthcare said: “Nicotine patches are not available in pharmacies because there are some procurement issues. So, we cannot prescribe this to smokers. Nicotine chewing gum, which is available, now in pharmacies, has problems with dosage.”

As per recent surveys and reports there are approximately 120 million smokers in India and by 2010 about the death rate due to smoking could be as high as one million.

Some other astonishing figures were released by the World Health Organization (WHO) according to which 80% of the 8 million people in 2030 who will die because of illness caused from smoking will be from today’s developing nations.

The report added that men who smoke in India cut their lives by a span of 10 years.

“Drugs block the receptors in the brain which absorb nicotine. So even if a person was to smoke while on the drug, he won’t feel the benefit. With a patch, the dosage for each person becomes difficult to estimate,” said YA Matcheswalla, a psychiatrist who counsels people looking to quit smoking.

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