Big Pharma Comes Under Fire: Misleading NRT Claims Revealed
EcigaretteReviewed reveals the reality behind Chantix and NRT's "success rates"
TUSTIN, Calif., Oct. 17, 2013 /PRNewswire-iReach/ -- EcigaretteReviewed has pitted Chantix and NRT against e-cigarettes and in the process has revealed the ugly truth about big pharma's inflated success rates. Quitting smoking is big business. Around 18 percent of American adults smoke, and according to the CDC, 69 percent want to quit. Pharmaceutical companies such as Pfizer and GlaxoSmithKline push products such as Chantix and nicotine-containing patches and gums (nicotine replacement therapy, or NRT) to this huge potential market, but something underhanded is lurking unnoticed beneath the surface.
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Companies like Pfizer and GlaxoSmithKline know that positive "results" from research sells products. Upon reading that Chantix and NRT boast 44 percent success rates, smokers will understandably think that they are the best option for trying to quit.
EcigaretteReviewed addresses these success rates, explaining exactly why they're a vast over-exaggeration. Industry-funded studies are outwardly misleading and woefully designed. The participants were given counselling (which most smokers can't afford – only around 6 percent use it when quitting), difficult-to-treat groups were excluded (such as people who also drink – over 85 percent of smokers), and in some cases (like the Chantix study) the primary outcome measure was abstinence during weeks when the medicine would still be active (Chantix blocks the effects of nicotine, so smoking during this period is ineffective anyway).
The same problems plague the NRT and Chantix studies, with the shockingly high rates of abstinence amongst the placebo groups providing evidence of it. The Cochrane Collaboration conducted a systematic review of the evidence on NRT, and concluded that the actual success rates lie somewhere between 5 and 8 percent – almost seven times lower than those claimed. For Chantix, this level of evidence isn't available yet, but studies have shown the drug to be as effective as NRT (not very) and there's also the very real risk of side effects such as suicidal thoughts and actions.
The sad truth is that industry-funded trials on smoking cessation are over twice as likely to produce significantly positive results as independent ones. In contrast, even e-cigarette studies which focus on smokers who don't actually want to quit produce abstinence rates of 22.5 percent at six months. The total sample of this study smoked 88 percent fewer cigarettes per day by using e-cigs.
The articles conclude that although more research is needed into the long-term quit rates with e-cigs, the initial evidence available strongly supports the notion that they're more effective than existing methods. And that's even before the cost, relative risks and user satisfaction are considered. E-cigs win hands-down, and pharmaceutical companies are going to pains to hide that fact.
EcigaretteReviewed is a source of electronic cigarette reviews, news, and information.
For more information about e-cigarettes, visit CASAA.org.
Media Contact: Lindsay Fox, EcigaretteReviewed, (949) 232-0470, [email protected]
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SOURCE EcigaretteReviewed
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