Seattle based Achieve Life Sciences, recently announced that people on Citisinicline treatment are eight times more likely to quit smoking after undergoing treatment with the tobacco cessation drug.

In a statement released recently, in which the company made the results from the Phase 3 ORCA-2 trial of cytisinicline public, the participants were biochemically verified continuous abstinence measured during the last four weeks of treatment and found that those who received cytisinicline treatments for 6- and 12-week showed significantly better quit rates than placebo with odds ratios of 8.0 and 6.3, respectively.

Participants who received 12 weeks of cytisinicline treatment were 6.3 times more likely to quit smoking during the last four weeks of treatment compared to those who received placebo and the abstinence rate during weeks 9-12 was 32.6% for cytisinicline compared to 7.0% for placebo, the statement added.

Similarly, participants who received six weeks of cytisinicline treatment were 8 times more likely of quitting smoking during the last four weeks of treatment compared to those who received a placebo and the abstinence rate during weeks 3-6 was 25.3% for cytisinicline compared to 4.4% for placebo, the statement further added.

“Cytisinicline demonstrated impressive efficacy for smoking cessation compared to placebo in this trial, the first large randomised clinical trial conducted in a U.S. population,” said Dr Nancy Rigotti, Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, and Principal Investigator of the trial.

“The trial is also notable as the first one to test the long-term efficacy of a new cytisinicline dosing schedule that has not previously been tested in a large population,” she added.

Additionally, the trial found that those treated with the drug are more likely to abstain from smoking for 24 weeks following treatment with the drug compared to those who were given a placebo.

The continuous abstinence rate from weeks 9 to 24 was 21.1% for the 12-week cytisinicline arm compared to 4.8% for the placebo, with an odds ratio of 5.3. The continuous abstinence rate from weeks 3 to 24 was 8.9% for the 6-week cytisinicline arm compared to 2.6% for placebo, with an odds ratio of 3.7 (p=0.0016), Achieve Life Sciences said.

“These strongly positive results are extremely encouraging, and we are thrilled for the successful quitters, who after decades of smoking and multiple attempts, were finally able to kick the habit thanks to cytisinicline and the ORCA-2 trial,” CEO of Achieve Life Sciences, John Bencich said.

“These data confirm that cytisinicline, if approved by the FDA, has the potential to become the first new agent approved in nearly two decades and an important treatment option for smoking cessation, which is much needed given the limitations, particularly the significant side effects associated with existing agents,” he added.

According to WHO estimates tobacco kills about eight million people worldwide, including 1.2 million people dying from exposure to second-hand smoke.

Various studies indicate that less than four per cent of the attempts to quit tobacco are likely to succeed without cessation support.