Ways To Quit Smoking

It's about cultivating a novel ways to quit smoking.

Joseph Pandolfino wants to help smokers quit — by letting them smoke as much as they want.

Pandolfino’s company, 22nd Century Group in Clarence, is developing a genetically modified type of tobacco that has 95 percent less nicotine than so-called “light” cigarettes.

The idea is that, by drastically reducing nicotine levels in the cigarettes, smokers who want to quit will be able to continue smoking as much as they want during a six-week, prescription- only treatment program, while reducing their exposure to addictive nicotine.

“These look and taste just like conventional cigarettes,” said Pandolfino, 22nd Century’s founder and chief executive officer. “The only difference is they have 95 percent less nicotine.”

22nd Century executives said they think their products, which are still under development and need various government approvals before hitting the market, could offer smokers a new way to try to kick their unhealthy habit.

“It’s a completely different approach to smoking cessation,” said Henry Sicignano III, 22nd Century’s president. “We give people the cigarettes, which doesn’t alter the behavioral aspects of smoking.”

The company’s very low nicotine cigarette, called the X-22, is in the midst of clinical trials required by the U. S. Food and Drug Administration, which has to approve the smoking cessation aid before it could be sold commercially. To win approval, the trials must show that the X-22 cigarettes can be an effective aid in getting smokers to quit.

So far, company executives said the results have been encouraging. A Phase II clinical trial conducted at the University of Minnesota using 22nd Century’s tobacco found that 43 percent of the participants managed to go four weeks without smoking, better than others who used nicotine lozenges or cigarettes with higher, but still reduced, nicotine levels. Those results still held six weeks after the trial ended, which is significant because most smokers who try to quit end up returning to their old habit.

About two of every five U. S. smokers try to quit each year, but only about 2 percent to 5 percent actually succeed in quitting in the long run. It typically takes eight to 11 tries before a smoker actually is finally able to give up cigarettes for good.

Pandolfino said the X-22 tries to strike a middle ground between quitting cold turkey and using products, such as pills, patches and lozenges, that give smokers reduced, but intermediate- level, exposure to nicotine.

Several studies have shown that

so-called “light” cigarettes, with lower tar and nicotine levels, accomplished little, because smokers compensated for the lower tar and nicotine levels by smoking more cigarettes and by taking longer and deeper puffs.

“It’s less of a shock than quitting cold turkey,” he said. “When you have intermediate nicotine levels, what happens is you compensate for it and you smoke more cigarettes.”

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