Every week newsrooms across the country are sent press releases about the newest drugs.

Most of them will end up in the bin, or on the old fashioned spikes some editors like to maintain.

But a select few will inspire countless articles about the possibilities modern science offers.

These will be called wonder drugs - chemicals that can cure an illness or significantly reduce the patients symptoms.

There is almost a hall of fame for these pharmaceuticals. Penicillin, Prozac, and Viagra are just three.

But there is an interesting phenomena when it comes to new drugs.

Like fame itself there is cycle of wonder, adulation, concern, suspicion and then rejection.

For a while the media will marvel at their potential - actual or imagined.

Feat of biology

Articles and stories will fill the press on how Chemical X performs its feat of biology.

It will be examined and analysed, likened to a miracle, and its discoverers hailed by the world.

Thankful patients will line up to lay praises on Chemical X.

In America pharmacies will run out of stocks, while queues will erupt into fist fights as the last box in the shop is ripped open.

Share prices will climb. Fortunes and reputations will be made overnight.

The town where it was first discovered, where its manufactured, or even packaged will become known as Chemical X Town.

There'll be talk of a Nobel Prize. It may even be given.

However, after a while press coverage will decline and a new drug will come along.

If it seems interesting enough, it will be called the NEW chemical X, and the process will begin again.

Meanwhile Chemical X itself will now start to fall under suspicion.

Reports of adverse incidents, even deaths will begin to creep into feature pieces.

A band of concerned patients or relatives will form a group and call for further investigations. Some journalists will take up their cause.

Some of these campaigns will result in further investigations - but in the main the authorities will declare the pill safe and it will continue to be used.

Growing concern

I mention all this because of growing concern - primarily amongst journalists - about the anti smoking drug Zyban.

Once the darling of the hacks, its now fallen into disrepute, and has prompted a stack of stories questioning its safety.

The latest report concerns the death of a young air stewardess who was prescribed the drug.

A post mortem examination into her death found traces of the drug - along with malaria tablets.

For her family and friends her death is an appalling tragedy however it occurred.

Naturally they want answers. But despite the press taking up the story, Zyban is probably not the culprit.

Looking at the figures, in the UK alone, some 360,000 people have been prescribed it.

There have been more than 5,000 adverse incident reports and 37 deaths.

Of the adverse incidents most relate to headaches, and dizziness, although there were some seizures. Of the deaths, eight of the people had already stopped taking the medicine.

Sadly, some people will always have a bad reaction to any drug.

In rare circumstances any drug could result in a death.

But on these figures the risks are very, very small. And its not even clear - using these figures - that Zyban was the cause of the deaths or bad reactions.

So when you see the press in full cry over some drug the question to ask is this: Is this medicine a genuine threat, or has it simply lost its star billing?