• Investment World
• eWorld
• Brand Line
• Mentor
• Life
• Brand Quest
• The New Manager
• BL Club
• Smartbuy
• Books

Stocks

• Quotes
• SE Diary
• Scoreboard
• Open-End Mutual Fund

Cross Currency

• Rates
  
  

Shipping

• Ports
  
  

Archives

• Yesterday
• Datewise
• Resources
• In Focus
• In Depth
• Events 2007

Group Sites

• The Hindu
• The Hindu ePaper
• Business Line
• Business Line ePaper
• Sportstar
• Frontline
• The Hindu eBooks
• The Hindu Images

P.T. Jyothi Datta

Mumbai, March 10 Smokers trying to snuff out their habit will increasingly find more support, with 1,200 more tobacco-cessation centres set to come up in the country.

The Centre has a plan for about 600 smoking-cessation clinics in districts and medical colleges, the Union Health Minister, Dr Anbumani Ramadoss, recently said, without indicating a time frame.

Government-run clinics counsel smokers to kick the butt. But cessation products are not part of these programmes, as the price is prohibitive, a Union Health Ministry official told Business Line. Nevertheless, the Centre is talking to Pfizer for a couple of pilot studies, the official added.

Meanwhile, multinational drugmaker Pfizer, which launched its tobacco-cessation product Champix in India last year, will set up 600 cessation clinics by 2010. Pfizer will partner with Max Healthcare to run the cessation clinics in and around New Delhi.

Pfizer is also talking to other hospitals and private practitioners across the country to partner with them for more centres.

At Max’s cessation centres, the programme includes five physician visits and 11 visits from specialists including psychologists and psychiatrists for counselling, monitoring and treatment using Champix, said Dr Sandeep Budhiraja of Max Healthcare. The programme costs about Rs 13,000.

Champix for three months costs the smoker Rs 9,000, Pfizer officials said.

Lauding the public health initiative, Dr Srinath Reddy of Public Health Foundation of India observed that the cost of cessation products was a concern. It must be made easier for the consumer, he added.

Counselling delivers results, said Dr P.C. Gupta, Director of Healis Sekhsaria Institute for Public Health. But the price of cessation products was worrisome, he added.

With 120 million tobacco users in India, the cessation clinics have their task clearly charted out.

More Stories on : Cigarettes | Society & Development | Health | Tobacco | Pharmaceuticals

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Copyright © 2009, The Hindu Business Line. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu Business Line