On Thursday, Pfizer (PFE 1.10%) announced the results of a study of the safety and effectiveness of its Chantix smoking-cessation drug on relapsed smokers. The prognosis was good.
Over the course of 12 weeks of treatment, smokers who had used Chantix before and failed to quit, or had quit but subsequently relapsed, were found to benefit from Chantix at "efficacy rates ... consistent with findings seen in other Chantix clinical trials in smokes who had not been previously treated with Chantix."
Translation: It works just as well the second time around.
Safety and tolerability of the drug were similarly found to be "consistent with previous studies," with the most commonly reported side effects being nausea, abnormal dreams, and headaches.
Summarizing the findings, Pfizer senior vice president and medicines development group head Dr. Steven J. Romano was quoted as saying: "These new data show that, for some adult smokers who had previously taken CHANTIX but either did not quit smoking or relapsed after quitting, another quit attempt with CHANTIX may be fruitful."
