A revolutionary drug that can ‘double’ a person’s chances of quitting smoking is set to be rolled out by the NHS later this month.
Health chiefs are calling on clinics to prescribe cytisine pills to the most hardcore smokers from April.
It comes after a major study by Oxford University found cytisine to be one of the ‘most effective options’ available to help smokers quit long-term.
The medicine has been around for years, but was previously unavailable on the NHS until now, with supplies starting later this month.
The Department of Health is providing a £70 million funding boost to local authorities to support smoking services for the next financial year and has urged them to start prescribing the pills.
Health chiefs are calling on clinics to prescribe cytisine pills to the most hardcore smokers from April
Tory MP Bob Blackman, chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Smoking and Health, said: ‘This new medication will increase smokers’ chances of successfully,’ it was reported in The Sun.
He said the additional funding will ensure that 360,000 smokers ‘get the help they need to quit’ this year.
Medical watchdog, the National Institute of Health and Care Excellence, is midway through a review of the drug which will be published before the end of the year.
Tory MP Bob Blackman, chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Smoking and Health, said: ‘This new medication will increase smokers’ chances of successfully,’ it was reported in The Sun .
Cytisine is a naturally-occurring organic compound found in several different plant species.
People looking to quit their bad habit take multiple cytisine pills, branded as different products in several countries, per day, for up to two months.
And studies have shown it could be more than twice as successful as getting people to put out their cigarettes than traditional quitting methods.
The Oxford University study found that only six in ever 100 people who tried to quit smoking would manage to do so without any aids, but around 14 smokers per 100 could quit long-term with the help of vapes, cytisine and varenicline.
The compound was first synthesized in Bulgaria in 1964 as the smoking cessation aid Tabex. In the years following, it spread to nearby countries in Europe and Asia where it is still sold today.
Data from NHS England shows that in in 2022 to 2023 there were an estimated 408,700 hospital admissions due to smoking, a rise from 389,800 in 2021-22 (an increase of 4.8%).
Around one in six (16%) of all hospital admissions for respiratory diseases in 2022-23 were estimated to be related to smoking, while it also caused 8% of all admissions for cancers and 7% of admissions for cardiovascular diseases.
A recent study, funded by Cancer Research UK, suggested a decade-long decline in smoking prevalence in England has stalled since the start of the pandemic.
The survey took responses from 101,960 adults and found the rate of decline has slowed to 0.3%.