The treatment in tablets to stop smoking in 25 days will return to the shelves of Spanish pharmacies next Monday, after a month of shortages, according to the Spanish Medicines Agency and the pharmaceutical company Aflofarm, which produces the drug at its plant in Poland. . The company has explained to La Vanguardia that on Monday 29,000 units of Todacitan will enter the pharmacies, boxes of 100 tablets each of which is equivalent to a treatment for addiction.
“It is practically solved,” says the laboratory. The cut in the supply of the medicine, which began on February 21, was caused by a problem with the serialization of the product, a traceability support measure that aims to guarantee the safety and protection of the final consumer and the fight against fraud and counterfeit medicines. Once the labeling of the numerical codes of each unit has been resolved, the batch will soon be ready for distribution.
According to the laboratory, Todacitan will reach all pharmacies that have requested it. It is unknown, however, how long it will last on the shelves. Because the high number of smokers who intend to quit (41.9% have tried according to the latest Survey on alcohol and other drugs in Spain from the Ministry of Health) and the fact that Todacitan is the only drug for cessation of habit. financed by social security (since the beginning of last February) have triggered the demand for the product.
The Todacitán went from costing almost 200 euros to 116, of which you only have to contribute the co-payment percentage that the law establishes according to income and socioeconomic situation. The first day it was sold out, with which the laboratory introduced a batch of more than 19,000 units that also flew, which led to the situation of temporary shortages since February 20. Aflofarm sources explained to this newspaper that it has raw material and the capacity to meet the needs
As in Spain, Todacitan is prescribed in Germany, Slovakia and Hungary, although it is only reimbursed in our country, where it began to be marketed in November 2021. In countries such as Portugal, Poland, Romania or the Czech Republic, the product does not require medical authorization to be acquired and consumed.
The short duration of treatment compared to other pharmacological therapies with the same indication is one of the main advantages. The drug uses cytisine as its active ingredient, a plant alkaloid that replicates the action of nicotine in the brain and reduces the effects of withdrawal syndrome.
The Smoking Group of the Spanish Society of Pneumology and Thoracic Surgery (Separ) highlights the results of a study carried out in Spanish outpatient clinics and hospitals with 105 patients. 77.1% were satisfied or very satisfied with the treatment, which registered an adherence of 82.5%. 76% of the patients remained without smoking after 25 days of therapy. However, specialists do not consider a smoker unaccustomed until after a year, a period in which the success rate is low.
