2-4 times more likely to quit smoking! Innovative therapies may hit the market, Who will be king in the $100 billion market?

As the saying goes: smoking is harmful to health. For nicotine addicts, quitting can be a painful experience.

According to incomplete statistics, there are more than 300 million smokers in China and more than 1 billion smokers worldwide. According to these figures, the global market for smoking cessation AIDS is a sea of stars.

Is this really the case? The author takes advantage of the recent positive clinical progress of cytisinicline ORCA-3 (Cytisinicline) to discuss the current smoking cessation drugs in the market and the market prospects of smoking cessation drugs.

Two to four times more likely to quit,
Phase 3 results of plantagine were positive

AchieveLifeSciences recently announced the latest phase 3 clinical data of plantagine According to official clinical data, plantagine partially stimulates nicotine receptors, allowing smokers to still gain a degree of protection against nicotine withdrawal. It also blocks receptors so that smokers don't get as much of a high from nicotine.

Clinical data showed that after 12 weeks of treatment, patients were 4.4 times more likely to quit smoking in the last four weeks than placebo, with a smoking cessation rate of 30.3% after 9 to 12 weeks of treatment compared with 9.4% after placebo. After 6 weeks of treatment, patients were 2.85 times more likely to quit smoking in the last four weeks than placebo, and the quitting rate was 14.8% after 3-6 weeks of treatment, compared with 6% after placebo.

In addition, the secondary endpoint of the Phase 3 trial measured the likelihood of quitting smoking after patients stopped using plantagine. From the results, the rate of sustained smoking cessation with plantagine from 9 to 24 weeks of treatment initiation was 20.5% versus 4.2% with placebo.

From the primary and secondary endpoints above, the use of plantagine significantly improved the odds of quitting smoking, and the rate of sustained quitting after cessation was higher than in the placebo group. It shows that the smoking cessation effect of plantagine is better.

In addition, no serious adverse reactions were found with plantagine.

Plantagenine, if approved by the FDA, would give smokers a new drug option.

Relieve smoking addiction,
There are three drugs for quitting smoking.

Long-term smoking can lead to tobacco dependence, which is nicotine addiction, also known as smoking addiction. Some people can't stop smoking through willpower and lifestyle habits, so they can stop smoking through drugs.

At present, the action mechanism of smoking cessation drugs mainly includes the following three aspects:

One is the use of nicotine replacement therapy drugs, a stand-in for nicotine. It is better than nicotine in tobacco into the body first, "dominate" type to gradually squeeze the body dependence on tobacco nicotine, but also reduce the various discomfort symptoms during smoking cessation. Representative drugs include nicotine patches and nicotine chewable gums. These drugs are over-the-counter, so they are easy to buy.

The second is to "reduce desire", using non-nicotine drugs such as bupropion. Such drugs reduce nicotine cravings in smokers. The advantage of wellbutrin is that it is suitable for smokers with depressive symptoms because it is originally an antidepressant, but it is prescribed by a doctor.

The third is "encircle and intercept", the use of nicotine receptors in neurons have a high affinity and selectivity of nicotine blocking agents, reduce the desire to smoke. The representative drug is Vanalicline. Vanalicline is a partial agonist of the selective acetylcholine receptor of nicotine, which can reduce smokers' smoking addiction and withdrawal symptoms, and its antagonistic properties can reduce the satisfaction of smoking, reduce the possibility of relapse, and contribute to the success of smoking cessation.

In addition to the above three types of drugs, the author inquired the current clinical research status of new drugs for smoking cessation on clinicaltrials.gov.

At present, there are only 30 trials in phase 1/2/3 clinical phase, including a large number of related studies such as bupropion and vanaliclan. There are very few new drugs for smoking cessation in clinical phase.

Although the population of smokers is large, the market for smoking cessation drugs is slightly smaller. Why is the market for smoking cessation drugs depressed?

The first reason is that there are too many smokers, but too few smokers voluntarily quit. According to the data from the China Center for Disease Control and Prevention, there were only 20,000 to 30,000 visits to hospitals for smoking cessation in China in 2020. It seems that there are more than 300 million people in the market for smoking cessation drugs, but in reality there may only be tens of thousands of people.

The second reason is that the success rate of smoking cessation relying on drugs is low, and it is easy to relapse after a period of time. After repeated failure to quit smoking, people who quit smoking have doubts about the effectiveness of drugs.

A third reason is high price. Champix, for example, costs around $2,000 for a 12-week course of treatment and is at risk of failure to quit. As a result, it is natural that many smokers are reluctant to give up smoking.

summary

From the perspective of our smoking groups, the market of smoking cessation drugs seems to be a sea of stars. However, the current sales situation of smoking cessation drugs is not ideal, perhaps this is the reason why many enterprises are not so motivated.

How to create a truly safe and effective smoking cessation drug to help more smokers get rid of nicotine addiction, or the enterprise needs to ponder the problem.