Healthy Skepticism Library item: 7959

Warning: This library includes all items relevant to health product marketing that we are aware of regardless of quality. Often we do not agree with all or part of the contents.

Publication type: news

Weeks C.
Anti-smoking pill causes stir
CanWest News Service 2007 Jan 26

Full text:

OTTAWA — Health Canada has approved a new pill developed by Pfizer to help people quit smoking and the company is using an Ottawa doctor to tout its benefits, sparking some debate over the relationship between drug companies and the physicians who promote their products.

The pill, called Champix, was developed by Pfizer and is supposed to target receptors in the brain to help reduce cigarette cravings and withdrawal symptoms.

It was approved for sale in the country by Health Canada this week.

In a news release distributed Thursday by Pfizer, Dr. Andrew Pipe, medical director of the University of Ottawa Heart Institute Prevention and Rehabilitation Centre, said the new medication is a “novel treatment” that has the potential to help many Canadians break the cycle.

“The Health Canada approval of Champix is good news for the almost five million Canadians who smoke,” Pipe said in the Pfizer press release.

Pipe conducted clinical trials on the drug for Pfizer, which is not mentioned in the company press release.

It’s an omission that should have been disclosed so consumers are aware of his involvement with the company, said Alan Cassels, a drug-policy researcher at the University of Victoria.

“People want objective information,” Cassels said. “But what you’re getting when you get the company spokesperson, the physician that was researching it, you’re getting the benefits.”

Pfizer held a meeting with Pipe and other clinical trial investigators from across Canada in Mont Tremblant, Que. last weekend.

The purpose of the meeting was to provide an update on the Canadian medical trials for Champix, said Pfizer spokesman Christian Marcoux.

In an interview Thursday, Pipe said he isn’t influenced by anyone he conducts a study for — whether it be a non-profit organization or a drug company such as Pfizer.

“As a medical scientist, I’m interested in helping people,” he said. “I’m interested in making patients understand what is most likely to help them stop smoking.”

Pipe said Pfizer covers the cost of clinical trials, but he does not receive a salary from them.

But some in the medical community are concerned about the relationship between doctors and drug companies.

“I think that there’s no question that when people are providing lunch and gifts and this, that and the other thing, they’re influencing your thinking about the things they want to influence and they’re very effective in doing that,” said Dr. David Korn, senior vice-president for biomedical and health sciences research at the Washington-based Association of American Medical Colleges. “I think the interactions have value, but I think they have to change.”

Korn is part of an expert task force in the U.S. examining new rules and conflict-of-interest restrictions in the hopes of tightening restrictions around relationships between drug companies and the physicians they fund.