Province to cover quit-smoking drug despite new concerns

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This article was published 30/11/2011 (5444 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A smoking-cessation drug approved this week by Manitoba for coverage under pharmacare may be linked to increased heart problems, according to a study published this summer in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.

This after previous studies involving the same drug pointed to increased risks of depression and suicide.

On Monday, Healthy Living Minister Jim Rondeau announced the addition of the drug Champix to the Manitoba formulary. The prescription drug is also marketed in the U.S. as Chantix; its generic name is varenicline.

“Champix is proven to be an effective treatment option for adult smokers who want to quit,” Rondeau said in a news release. He added that making it available for pharmacare coverage now “will mean that people can get it in time to help them with their New Year’s resolution to quit smoking.”

The news release was silent on the drug’s potentially harmful side-effects.

But it shouldn’t have been, said Dr. Sonal Singh, an assistant professor of medicine at John Hopkins University and the CMA Journal article’s lead author.

“I think patients should be informed of these risks,” Singh said in an interview Tuesday from his office in Baltimore.

It’s his view that Champix should only be prescribed if other smoking-cessation efforts fail to work. “In France, they don’t want to pay for it because they feel that the risks outweigh the benefits,” Singh said, referring to French government officials.

Unlike some smoking-cessation products, Champix, a pill manufactured by drug giant Pfizer, does not contain nicotine. Instead it targets nicotine receptors in the brain to reduce tobacco cravings. It’s been available in Canada since early 2007.

However, a year after Health Canada approved it, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration alerted the public to reports of depression and suicide that may be linked to the drug. Health Canada later required Pfizer to update its product label to warn of possible serious psychological side-effects.

Singh’s study, published by the CMA on July 4, pointed to new cardiovascular concerns with taking the drug. His study concluded its use among smokers “raises safety concerns about the potential for an increased risk of serious adverse cardiovascular events.”

Ottawa is currently reviewing this new study and other similar research, a Health Canada spokesman said Tuesday. But in the U.S., the FDA has already placed a warning on the product’s label.

Reached late Tuesday, Rondeau said Champix should be viewed merely as one of several tools to help smokers kick the habit. Its addition to the drug formulary was recommended by a medical panel, he said.

“I’m hoping that this is not the first option (for quitting smoking). I’m hoping that this is an option that is available based on medical advice and a discussion between a patient and their doctor,” Rondeau said.

Andrea Gilpin, a spokeswoman for Pfizer Canada, said in an email Champix has been approved for use in 100 countries. “There is no reliable scientific evidence demonstrating that Champix causes these neuropsychiatric events,” she wrote.

She also pointed out smoking increases a person’s risk of developing heart disease and stroke, and that this year “more than 37,000 Canadians will die due to smoking.”

larry.kusch@freepress.mb.ca