It is hard to say whether a person is better off stopping smoking and lessening their chances of a heart attack or killing themselves. Some of the anti-smoking drugs from Pfizer (PFE) and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) can have terrible side effects. The drugs are Chantix, made by Pfizer, and Zyban, made by GlaxoSmithKline. Inexplicably, the FDA will allow the treatments to stay on the market.
The New York Times reports that “Federal drug regulators warned Wednesday that patients taking two popular drugs to stop smoking should be watched closely for signs of serious mental illness, as reports mount of suicides among the drugs’ users.”
It is hard to see how the agency is doing anyone a favor, especially because there are many ways to stop smoking that are less dangerous than taking drugs with such horrendous risks. Locking someone in a closet until the urge to light up passes comes to mind.
Perhaps if drug companies did not make so much money from medications like these, the issue would simply be one of the government banning them completely, which is what should be happening. Chantix sales were $177 million in the first quarter. That is probably enough to cover the compensation of the big pharma company’s senior management.
The exposure of the risks of suicide in patients who use these anti-smoking drugs, brings up the old question of whether large drug companies are too closely allied with the FDA. The ongoing concern is that these alliances seem never to be investigated by Congress.
Douglas A. McIntyre
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