Since yesterday, smokers who are thinking about quitting the tobacco habit have a new drug financed by the national health system. This is Recigarum and it is the second treatment whose financing receives the green light so far this year, after the approval in February of Todacitan.
The retail price is 111 euros (without financing), to which the relevant reduction per prescription must now be applied, at least 50%. Its arrival has also led to a drop in the price of Todacitan, by 5%, to 111 euros. This reduction, at the proposal of the Polish pharmaceutical company Aflofarm, occurred in the same week that the general directorate of the Common Portfolio of Services of the National Health and Pharmacy System approved the financing of Recigarum (October 10), as stated in the website of the Ministry of Health.
As in the first, Recigarum, produced by the pharmaceutical company Adamed, also Polish, is based on cytisinicline, an alkaloid obtained from the extract of the seeds of trees of the genus Cytisus laburnum. It was discovered in 1818 and synthesized for the first time in 1864. Russian and German soldiers consumed it in World War II as a cheap substitute for tobacco, according to a study by Stanford University. Its effectiveness lies in the fact that it simulates the effects of nicotine in the brain. As a partial agonist of nicotinic receptors, cystine stimulates them (reduces withdrawal symptoms) and blocks them (reduces the urge to smoke).
One container of cytisinicline (100 tablets) is sufficient for a complete treatment cycle. The duration of treatment is 25 days (like Todacitan). It starts with six pills daily (one every two hours) for the first three days; five daily (every 2.5 hours) from the 4th to the 12th day; four (every three hours) from the 13th to the 16th day; three (every five hours) from the 17th to the 20th day; and one or two tablets daily between days 21 and 25.
This decreasing dosage favors the patient's adherence to treatment. Smoking should be stopped no later than the fifth day of therapy because adverse reactions may worsen. In case of failure, it must be stopped and may be resumed after two or three months. Although Social Security will only finance one annual treatment.
Does it have adverse effects? The Spanish Medicines Agency explains that they mostly occur at the beginning of the treatment and disappear throughout its duration. And they clarify that these symptoms may be a consequence of quitting smoking and not of treatment with cytisinicline. The most common (they may affect more than one in ten patients) are: changes in appetite, weight gain, dizziness, irritability, mood changes, anxiety, hypertension, dry mouth, diarrhea, skin rash, exhaustion or disorders of the dream. And common symptoms (between one and ten in every 100 patients): difficulty concentrating, slow heart rate and discomfort.
