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Excerpts from Zyban now the top selling stop smoking treatment in Canada

Canada NewsWire [01/13/99]

Zyban(R) (bupropion hydrochloride), the first nicotine-free prescription pill to help people quit smoking, is now the No.1 selling smoking cessation product in Canada. Since Glaxo Wellcome launched the pill in August 1998, well over 100,000 prescriptions have been filled(x).

The start of a new year, coupled with the annual National Non-Smoking Week, make January the most popular month for Canadian smokers to vow to quit. With Zyban as an option, their chances of succeeding are greater than ever.

"Giving up smoking is a very difficult process as nicotine is a highly addictive substance. When smokers are deprived of nicotine they develop uncomfortable physical symptoms including anxiety, depression and irritability," said Dr. Lynn Wilson of the Family Health Care Research Unit and the Addiction Research Foundation in Toronto. "Zyban offers smokers who want to quit new hope as it works in a very different way from other smoking cessation treatments."

Many treatment methods to quit smoking involve replacing one form of nicotine delivery -- cigarettes -- with another such as a nicotine patch or gum. However, Zyban is nicotine-free and works by targeting the site of nicotine addiction in the brain. Zyban alters dopamine and noradrenaline, two naturally occurring neurotransmitters believed to play a key role in nicotine addiction and thus minimizes the cravings and withdrawal symptoms that result from quitting smoking. Major clinical studies have shown Zyban to be significantly more effective than the nicotine patch(xx).

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