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Songsong CaO

Smoking cessation drugs for long-term cardiovascular benefits just like Wegovy?

Am I totally crazy to think this way?


Wegovy cut the risk of major cardiovascular adverse events by 20% after 5 years and it's annual cost based on list price is $16K.


Now consider this: smoking cessation reduces risk of heart attach by 50% after one year of smoking cessation. This hasn't considered other health benefits like cancer risk reduction, benefits for respiratory disease, etc. So an argument could be made that from the value point of view, smoking cessation drugs should command a much higher price than Wegovy. Granted currently there are no branded smoking cessation drugs - Chantix and Zyban are both genericized now. But for future drugs, if they can demonstrate much higher long-term abstinence rates than Chantix and Zyban, perhaps long-term outcomes trials would make sense to convince payers?




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