“Our estimates clearly indicate that decreases in the real prices
of nicotine replacement therapy products would significantly increase per-capita
sales of these products,” say John A. Tauras, Ph.D., and Frank
J. Chaloupka, Ph.D., of the University of Illinois at Chicago.
The researchers estimate that a 10 percent decrease in the price of nicotine
replacement therapy would increase the average demand for popular brands
of nicotine patches and gums by almost 25 percent.
The study was published in the journal Nicotine & Tobacco Research and supported by GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare, which manufactures
nicotine replacement products like Nicoderm CQ® and Nicorette®,
the two products examined in the study.
Increasing the price of cigarettes could also increase
the demand for nicotine replacement products, which may “imply that nicotine replacement
therapy and cigarettes are substitutes in consumption,” they say.
The researchers say that federal and state governments can encourage more
quitting by reducing the cost of nicotine replacement therapies through
a range of policy options, including mandating private health insurance
coverage of nicotine replacement therapy and subsidizing the therapy for
uninsured or underinsured individuals.
Tauras and Chaloupka examined price data for two nicotine replacement
products and for cigarettes in 50 U.S. metropolitan markets over a three-year
span to calculate how nicotine replacement demand might fluctuate under
different pricing conditions. Currently, the products sell on online drug
store sites for around $27-$30 for a seven-day Nicoderm CQ patch kit and
around $28-$33 for a 48-pack of Nicorette 2 mg gum, the smallest units
measured by the researchers in this study.
The researchers also found that the products were more
in demand during the New Year’s resolution period than during the American Cancer
Society’s Great American Smokeout, held each November.
There is a large body of research that suggests that nicotine
replacement products improve the odds of quitting smoking, say Tauras
and Chaloupka,
who note that lower prices would “likely lead to decreased cigarette
smoking and reduction in the future public health burden caused by tobacco
use.”
In 1995, 68 percent of U.S. smokers wanted to quit smoking
completely, and almost 46 percent of everyday smokers didn’t smoke
for at least one day in their attempts to quit. Despite the desire to
quit, only about
2.5 percent of U.S. smokers stop smoking permanently each year.
“The tenacity of smokers to continue smoking in the face of such
abysmal health consequences speaks to the significant addictive nature
of cigarettes,” Tauras and Chaloupka say.
