Main brand names of cytisine (aka cytisinicline)
By professor Jean-François Etter
Cytisine is authorized for smoking cessation in 34 countries, and is included in the WHO’s list of essential medicines. It is manufactured and distributed by relatively small pharmaceutical companies rather than by “big pharma”:
- It is sold under the brand name Tabex since the 1960s (manufacturer: Sopharma in Bulgaria),
- and more recently Desmoxan (manufacturer: Aflofarm in Poland), and the same product by Aflofarm is sold under different brand names in different countries:
– Defumoxan in Romania,
– Liberisan in Hungary,
– Tadocitan in Spain,
– Asmoken in Austria and Germany,
– Decigatan in Belgium and the Netherlands,
– Dextazin in Portugal, and
– generic Cytisine in the UK. - Other brands include Cravv in Canada by Zpharm,
- and Tactizen in the UK.
- In France, the product Liberostin obtained the AMM approval, but the product is not yet on the market.
- The Polish firm Adamed Pharma produces cytisine tablets under the brand names Recigar (sold in also in Russia and Ukraine), and Cytisinicline Adamed, Glavrinxa and Belnifrem in the UK, distributed by Viatris.
- In Thailand, the Government Pharmaceutical Organization produces tablets under the brand name Cytisine GPO.
- In Australia, Quit4Good sells cytisine tablets that dissolve under the tongue, Nicoiq sells oral strips, and QSN sells cytisine tablets under the name NaturQuit.
- In the USA, the company Achieve Life Sciences conducted several randomized trials with the objective of obtaining FDA approval for its cytisinicline product.
- In some other countries, cytisine is not available as a commercial product, but is available as a compounded magistral preparation dispensed by pharmacists on medical prescription.
- There are probably other brands and manufacturers, so please tell us if you know of any, using the “Comments” field below.