A smoking cessation drug, Cytisine, has been included in Thailand's list of essential medicines. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) aims to make the drug accessible to all who need help quitting smoking, to cut the risk of lung cancer.
Dr Withit Saritdeechaikul, secretary-general of the FDA, said lung cancer is one of the five most common types of cancer in Thailand.
Marking World Cancer Day, he said on Sunday the risk of developing lung cancer is heightened 20 to 30 times by cigarette smoking.
Prevention is the best course of action when it comes to dealing with cancer and its consequences, he said, considering the high costs of treatment and care of cancer patients.
"Because the prices of most smoking cessation medicines are high, access to these drugs in Thailand isn’t easy. That probably deters many from trying to quit," he said.
The FDA’s sub-committee responsible for recommending changes to the country’s lists of essential medicines found Cytisine to be highly effective, safe and inexpensive.
Being classified as essential medicine and removed from the list of controlled substances, Cytisine now can be purchased over the counter and provided to patients under the government’s universal health care scheme for free, he said.
Dr Withit said those who aren’t covered under the health scheme can find a low-cost version of the drug, which is produced by the Government Pharmaceutical Organisation (GPO), at any pharmacy.
In another development, Public Health Minister Cholnan Srikaew marked World Cancer Day by revealing improvements in cancer treatment, care and prevention systems at state-run healthcare facilities.
As a chairman of the National Health Security Board, which directs the universal healthcare scheme, he said many more healthcare rights have been included in the scheme’s core benefit package.
Among notable new treatments and services over the past year were plaque brachytherapy, the treatment of intraocular tumours by transscleral irradiation of the tumour base with a radioactive implant; robotic surgery for patients with various types of cancer; proton therapy; and an annual breast cancer screening test using a mammogram and ultrasound.
The National Health Security Office (NHSO), which runs the healthcare scheme, recently joined hands with the National Cancer Institute to introduce an online version of a questionnaire used for assessing cancer risk and the need for individuals to undergo the BRCA1/BRCA2 gene screening test, Minister Cholnan said.
With this preliminary cancer risk screening questionnaire available online, more people may realise they are at high risk of developing cancer and decide to undergo the cancer gene screening test to confirm the risk, he said.