NRT? No Thanks!
Latest research shows that traditional NRT products are failing to enthuse smokers attempting to quit.
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by Dave Cross
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In The Cult of Pharmacology by Richard DeGrandpre, he mentions how “there was a huge surge of optimism” when nicotine patches were developed in the early 90s. But since their introduction they’ve only managed to help 17.7% of smokers to leave the weed behind.
The Danish team looked at the attitudes towards NRT from long-term, heavy users of nicotine. The participants were all long-term users of NRT, over 12 months, and were asked for their reasons for and level of happiness with continuing to use it.
88% of the subjects stated that they objected to the costs of NRT, were tired of feeling addicted to them and held strong concerns over the long-term health implications of NRT product use. 77.3% were moderate to high-level users of nicotine.
The team concluded that a significant majority of users would like to quit NRT products and suggest that the solution may be to improve the quality of counselling they receive.
The success of electronic cigarettes was not factored into the study – but is playing a large part in strategic planning at GlaxoSmithKline. Rapid growth in ecig adoption has left a large hole in sales of the British firm’s patches and gum.
Speaking to Reuters, Chief Executive Andrew Witty said: “he and his team had spent ‘a few days’ exploring whether they should compete directly by becoming an e-cigarette maker, but had swiftly decided against it.”
“Of course, it's definitely taken a bit of our market, no question at all -- but there's a lot of competition in that space anyway.”
GlaxoSmithKline are the company responsible for the Nicorette and NicoDerm CQ brands, and the increasingly questioned Zyban. One of its strategies for combatting declining sales is the forming of a joint venture with Novartis, the manufacturer of Nicotinell.
“E-cigarettes are just too controversial for GSK to want to get involved in at this stage. There's not enough data to provide robust evidence of the products' risks and benefits,” Witty added.
In 2014, research found that smokers switching to e-cigarettes are far more likely to succeed in quitting or cutting down than users of traditional NRT products.
Dave Cross
Journalist at POTVDave is a freelance writer; with articles on music, motorbikes, football, pop-science, vaping and tobacco harm reduction in Sounds, Melody Maker, UBG, AWoL, Bike, When Saturday Comes, Vape News Magazine, and syndicated across the Johnston Press group. He was published in an anthology of “Greatest Football Writing”, but still believes this was a mistake. Dave contributes sketches to comedy shows and used to co-host a radio sketch show. He’s worked with numerous start-ups to develop content for their websites.
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