If you even think that you might like to quit smoking sometime in the future...

[philoshop]

...a drug maker now has a solution. Take this little pill that we have. Hmmm, interesting solution.
http://www. nytimes.com/2015/02/18/health/pills-found-to-help-chances-of-quitting-smoking-in-the-future.html?src=recg

 

[twgbonehead]

Link works better without the "src=recg":
ETA: Sorry I can't get the link to work right......

“It’s a paradigm shift because instead of only giving the medication to patients who have set a quit date, you are potentially giving it to every smoker,” said Dr. Jon O. Ebbert, one of the authors, who is a professor of medicine at the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine in Minnesota. “It opens the door to a much larger population of smokers that we can treat.”

Or at least a much larger population you can sell Chantix to!

 

[philoshop]

My fault for being lazy in breaking the link with the space bar. Mea culpa.

This is not a new trend in the drug peddling trade, the treatment of thought as a drug-worthy disease, but it's frightening when the drug being promoted is arguably worse than the 'disease' it's meant to cure.

 

[caramel]

I have some pills that will enhance your chances to becoming rich in the future.

 

[UnclePsyko]

I have some pills that will enhance your chances to becoming rich in the future.

Enhance who's chances to becoming rich... you or me?!?

 

[DrMA]

Really? No mention of the 600+ suicides?

Don't worry, vapers tabulated the data from https://open.fda.gov/
Have fun exploring
FDA Charts

 

[philoshop]

Really? No mention of the 600+ suicides?

Don't worry, vapers tabulated the data from https://open.fda.gov/
Have fun exploring
FDA Charts

Those might actually be classified as successes in some twisted way. As in, "Hey, they quit smoking didn't they?"

 

[Zanderist]

I wonder if they will make ads with more up-to-date dialogue

"I was trying everything including ecigs and nothing was working..."

Where I'm going with this? I feel that when ad comes out like that it might just faslely justify the case that ecigs don't work at all.

 

[caramel]

Really? No mention of the 600+ suicides?

Don't worry, vapers tabulated the data from https://open.fda.gov/
Have fun exploring
FDA Charts

if it's about getting COPD I'd rather smoke.

 

[renacer]

Quit smoking pills are a sham. I took bupropion (not for smoking but for depression, but it's prescribed for both) and it didn't reduce my urge to smoke one bit. Meanwhile Chantix sounds like all the side effects of an SSRI without actually being one.

 

[philoshop]

Efficacy doesn't even enter the picture. Sales volume is all that matters.

 

[Kent C]

Efficacy doesn't even enter the picture. Sales volume is all that matters.

They're supposed to be connected you know

 

[twgbonehead]

Efficacy doesn't even enter the picture. Sales volume is all that matters.

They're supposed to be connected you know

Yes, one is the enemy of the other.

 

[AttyPops]

My first thought upon reading the article the other day was...."old news....Chantix supposedly works". As if all the commercials on TV didn't proclaim that already. Meh. Media Marketing Magic at work.

P.S.
To those that mentioned suicide concerns: Is suicide counted as a successful way to quit smoking long term? In the statistics, I mean.

 

[Kent C]

Yes, one is the enemy of the other.

Not true in a market free of regulation. If something works well, it's sales go up. It is why the 510 and eGos won out over other sizes. Same goes for Apple, Samsung, and all other areas in a free market. Price is also a factor (hence VHS won over Beta).

 

[Kent C]

P.S.
To those that mentioned suicide concerns: Is suicide counted as a successful way to quit smoking long term? In the statistics, I mean.

Most likely, it is considered just another "smoking related death".

 

[caramel]

Is suicide counted as a successful way to quit smoking long term? In the statistics, I mean.

Depends on whom gets to make the statistics.

 

[philoshop]

Not true in a market free of regulation. If something works well, it's sales go up. It is why the 510 and eGos won out over other sizes. Same goes for Apple, Samsung, and all other areas in a free market. Price is also a factor (hence VHS won over Beta).

Agreed.
But government regulation has (somewhat recently) become a marketing tool for those with the cash to play the game. If a competitor in an industry is unable or unwilling to be competitive, well-placed funds can be used to change the very definition of 'competitive'.

 

[Kent C]

Agreed.
But government regulation has (somewhat recently) become a marketing tool for those with the cash to play the game. If a competitor in an industry is unable or unwilling to be competitive, well-placed funds can be used to change the very definition of 'competitive'.

There's no 'but'.... only that when you talk of regulation, you're no longer talking in free market terms - whether it is efficacy, sales, or competition. In a free market efficacy and sales are intimately and positively connected. In any other context, they lose meaning and connection and any discussion becomes, basically, gibberish - which is usually what is intended.

 

[caramel]