Tabex - Quit Smoking With Tabex

Tabex is an anti-smoking drug approved in a number of European countries. According to Witold Zatonski, a Polish epidemiologist and co-author of the Tabex study, 8 percent of Tabex participants were able to quit smoking after 25 days, compared to 2.4% of placebo users. The results of the study are important because they show that the use of Tabex is safe and effective for smokers.

 The study included a 12-week follow-up phone call with 342 smokers who had quit smoking. Of these, 315 reported that they had used Tabex. Another 120 reported that they had been smoke-free for 12 months. The other 60 were confirmed as abstinent by a CO at the follow-up.

 Tabex is a nicotine replacement therapy sold by Bulgarian company Sopharma AD. The substance, cytisine, targets the receptors in the brain that trigger the craving for nicotine. The Soviet Union discovered cytisine in Bulgaria while expanding drug research in that country. It was initially referred to by Russian soldiers as fake tobacco. In 1964, Sopharma began selling Tabex-branded cytisine pills in countries of Central and Eastern Europe.

 Despite the controversies surrounding the drug, Tabex is a proven treatment for smoking cessation. It has been available for over 40 years in Central and Eastern Europe and has been used by millions of smokers. Its sales in Poland in 2004 exceeded one million courses. The drug has been tested in clinical trials and phase I and II studies, but these haven't been rigorous enough to give Tabex a licence.